More than Enough

One of the first things we noticed about Joshua was his appetite. He was and is a good eater. Our foods are not really his favorites all of the time, yet he always eats - A LOT. We are amazed at how much he can eat. While in China, this overeating combined with car sickness, led to some unpleasant experiences. Thankfully, we haven't seen any hoarding, but he always clears his plate and asks for more. Frequently, he will go to the fridge or pantry asking for something to eat. I have heard this is very common among children that come from an orphanage. We have been expecting that eventually, he will come to trust that we will always have more than enough food for him and he will learn to eat to fit his appetite.

We are very thankful that Joshua is very engaging with each member of our family. He has an easy smile and is generous with his hugs. He seems to crave physical closeness and affection. He probably comes to me for hugs and kisses 50 times each day or more. I wouldn't describe him as "clingy" because he has no problem being out of my sight and being with other people. He just seems to need lots of expressions of love and affection. He likes to sit in my lap and snuggle up close. With our record breaking heat this week, it has been a sweaty experience. On Sunday morning, he was wanting to snuggle through both hours of church. Anna also wanted to snuggle close to me. As I sat there sweating with both of my little China blessings wrapped around parts of my body, it occurred to me that perhaps Joshua's need for affection is a bit like his appetite. It will take some time for him to trust that there will always be more than enough love and affection for him and it will never go away. I'm so thankful that he so readily gives and receives love and has already learned to say "love you" when he gives me a hug. I sat in church praying that he will learn that God loves him unconditionally and always and that he will have the same intense affection for his savior that he is directing toward me. I find myself worrying that I will let him down and disappoint him. Hopefully, he will learn to trust in the One who is always trustworthy before he realizes how imperfect his mommy really is.

Last night, we took Joshua to meet a family from Taiwan. They have lived here since their children were toddlers. Their 13 year old daughter does some interpreting. They were very sweet and Joshua seemed to enjoy talking with them. We explained about my sister and her family coming to visit and about a dentist appointment he will have today. We asked him about food and he tried to explain how he likes rice. Not sure I'll ever have it quite right, but this family explained to me how they eat rice and suggested I add some sugar. Joshua seemed to like it better this morning -- not that he had a problem eating rice before... He spent some time talking about the orphanage. Apparently there were some bullies there, but he didn't seem too upset about it. He said there were about 20 children that would sit around a television for several hours every evening. We're trying to change that habit and explained to him that we like to "do" things instead of "watch" things. He didn't really seem to like that answer. He kept asking about watching some shows from China. He really likes his Go Go English DVDs that we bought in China, so hopefully we can keep that momentum going and keep making it a treat to work on English with those DVDs. He also told them how smart he is and that his "baba" (apparently they called the orphanage staff mama and baba) started teaching him math when he was very young. He is quite good at math for his age. I teased him that I would give him very hard math when we start school after the summer and he quickly replied that it didn't need to be too hard. Hopefully that will be a fun subject for us since it doesn't require much use of English right away. We've been doing single pages each day with all three boys.

The phrase "more than enough" has run through my head so many times, that I kept thinking of the song.