Home Two Months!

Wow! Where did that last month go? It was another full and exciting month for the Aldrich family with little time for Mom to be on the computer.

We are mid way through our second week of school. We decided to start up last week before all of our outside activities were in full swing. I'm so glad we did. This year we have a high school junior, an 8th grader working on high school, a 5th grader AND a 2nd grader, 1st grader and Kindergarten student! This craft challenged mom has managed to start nearly every day with a fun craft. With the help of my older kids, we have also had music time. Joshua loves that -- most days. All six kids are playing soccer. Thankfully, they practice and play games at the same field and at the same time. We'll be trying to keep up with a German II class (Rachel), Spanish III (Rachel and Sarah) and hopefully a beginning Chinese class (everyone else). Rachel and Sarah are very excited for another year of speech and apologetics meetings and Rachel is adding debate (hopefully she won't be using those skills on me...) Rachel and James have parts in the play, The Hobbit. In between all of that we have people learning piano (x4), guitar, drums, Biology, Geometry, Algebra, Fractions, Division, Multiplication, Addition, Subtraction and which way the point the numbers, US History, US Government, Writing, Classical Literature, Reading, Phonics and how to speak English! No wonder I have trouble checking email or writing a blog post! Rachel has started her own blog...I might need to rely on her to update here too.

Sarah told me today how amazing it is to her that Joshua has only been here two months. She said it is already hard to remember life without him. I think we all feel that way. Joshua is working hard at learning English. Aside from every day immersion, we use a DVD program we picked up in China and have found that books that teach phonics are also good for learning vocabulary. His ability to understand us is very good and with the English he knows and some charades and pictionary, he is pretty good at sharing his thoughts, needs and questions with us. I can tell he will have a LOT to say when he has a full command of the language.

We all feel blessed to have this boy in our family. We are blessed that he wants to communicate, wants to learn and wants to test and trust us. 95 percent of the time, he is a fun, sweet, happy, smiling, obedient and cooperative boy. The other 5 percent of the time, he is testing us. It takes a good deal of energy and a need for us to be alert as parents, so that we are prepared to win the battles when battle lines are drawn. I usually try to avoid getting into battles, but sometimes it just isn't possible. Today was one of those days. For 30 minutes it was disruptive and it was exhausting, but it was so good and healing too. When it was all over, he was again a sweet and affectionate boy and he had learned an important lesson again about what is expected in our family and who is in charge. Tonight I told my husband I had been reflecting on this testing. Although it is exhausting, I think it is so very necessary for the process of learning to trust us. Our other children did this over a period of years from the time they were infants and learned to trust us when they were very small. If I were going to trust my entire life to something, I would need to test it too. If he were simply to comply with everything we asked and never challenge or test us, I wonder if he really could develop actual trust in us or if it would simply be him hoping we were what we said we were. Through this testing process, he is developing geniune relationships with each member of the family. When he quarrels with his siblings over a toy or who is cleaning which part of the room, he is learning how to relate with them too as the conflict is resolved. It has been fun to watch him ask his older siblings for help and to call Mark or James or Anna over to see something he has built with Legos. Last night, I heard a couple of adopting moms chatting at soccer, one was talking about how her son was just so happy to have a mom. I think I would say that of Joshua too. He seems genuinely happy to have a family, especially a mom. He still gives me tons of hugs and kisses and many "I love you"s throughout the day.

Joshua is a smart little boy and has been good at embracing the adventures that have become his life. He has probably seen and experienced more new things in the past two months than in the previous six and a half years of his life. He has been on an airplane, gotten used to a car booster seat, been to farms, the zoo, museums, the ocean (first time ever), climbed huge sand dunes, learned a new language, learned to use a camera, been to the mountains, been fishing in a row boat, eaten all sorts of new foods, ridden a bike, ridden a four wheeler, flown a kite, been to church, made new friends, gained grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, thrown a frisbee, baseball and basketball, started learning soccer, taken swimming lessons, won ribbons in the county fair, learned a bit about spending money, learned to vacuum and empty the dishwasher, been to the doctor, been to the dentist (four times so far....) Most recently, he went to an arthrogryposis clinic with Anna where they saw multiple doctors. He was asked to perform a variety of tasks, had his joint functions measured and was fitted for night splints. Through it all, he has been such a good sport. He seems to completely understand why we are taking him to hand specialists and is eagerly hoping they can improve his hand/arm function. He has been very good at wearing his splints each night. We think some of his motivation is a great love for sports. We hadn't anticipated this. He is especially excited by American Football of all things! He is also very interested in baseball.... He will no doubt keep life interesting here.

When I pause for a moment, I am still so in awe of what God has done. Working in our hearts to open our lives to this little boy and then working together all of the details to bring it to pass required such an amazing string of miracles. I recently finished reading a novel with an adoption theme that follows the life of a birth mom and adopting mom from their childhoods up until the adoption. It caused me to spend a lot of time thinking about Anna and Joshua's birth parents and Anna's foster family. I can't understand how it is that their lives were brought to the excrutiating decision to rip out their hearts, give up their child and entrust them to strangers in the hope they would have a better life, while my life has been so blessed. It is a sobering thought to reflect upon the great treasure that has been entrusted to us. I know that Anna's foster family was broken hearted to say goodbye to her. Joshua's birth family kept this child with an obvious disability for over three years before coming to the decision they couldn't raise him. I pray that I will never take this calling for granted. On the most difficult days of trying to meet everyone's needs, I am still doing it from the comfort of the most blessed nation on the planet, with the support of family and friends and with the oversight of a Mighty and Compassionate God who has already worked many miracles on behalf of these children.