Andrew- home 3 months

In some ways it is hard to believe they have been home with us for 3 months and sometimes it seems like a long time.... He is slowly making positive changes but it has been a hard time for him and us during his transition... he is an extremely strong willed child... and I remind myself that is the reason he is still alive today... I do not believe if he was as strong willed that he would be alive now. My heart often aches for my son and what he endured... how does a child go from the engaging , chubby baby that was his first referral picture to the spastic and very frustrated little guy that we brought home..... I am so happy that he is here with us....and it has been amazing to watch him begin the process to heal... from the abuse and neglect he suffered. He now sleeps soundly, he enjoys certain toys and people over others ( which is a good thing), he has regressed in some areas but we expected him to. He prefers to eat his bottles lying down, and he often will refuse to eat . This is probably the hardest one for me because I want him to keep getting the nutrition that he did not get the first 5 yrs of his life... he is holding his weight but the days he only takes 2 plus bottles frustrate me. I do pack the bottles with lots of protein and nutrients and at times I wonder if he knows that it frustrates me and chooses not to eat... you know how kids figure those things out. I have spoken with our pediatrician and they are fine and think he is doing well at least for now.

We are still planning on taking him to our pediatric neurologist in May for a complete check up. In April he will have his oral surgery- teeth cleaned at the hospital under general anesthesia.For now that is all we are doing medically. He needs way more time to adjust to life outside of the orphanage. We feel very strongly about this and have always tried to give our children more time to adjust to eating healthy food and getting loved before we do lots of tests and medical interventions unless they have needed it to save their life. A few of our children have been in that category and needed lots of intervention just to live but he is getting healthier and moving towards the positive.

He enjoys being outside . His favorite activity is swinging... he will make sounds with vowels and consonants and he does repeat some sounds that we make. He prefers to be around the group of us and not by himself.. and we see very little auto aggressive behavior now... things like hitting and slapping. I can't remember even the last time I saw him do that. He smiles and laughs lots which makes it all worth it... even the bad days now are not so rough and we see glimmers of connecting with him... I do not see us getting him off the bottles anytime soon... but one thing I know ... all of my kids surprise me and so it would be difficult to make a prediction of that.

Another thing he loves to do is burrow under things or in them... as you can see if he can he will crawl into a shelf or even under a rug. He often prefers to sleep still under his mattress ( even if it is on hard poles ). Sometimes he pulls his arms out of his shirts but we see less of that.

He still has such a long way to go but we have a lifetime together....