Held tightly in the arms of his brother and his sister... Was once an orphan but no longer

The other evening I went into this room and found this... Mya and Luke had been "playing" with Andrew :) I tell you if this does not make you smile... Now most of you know that Andrew is not an easy child. He had a very neglected and abusive time in his orphanage. Basically he was left alone all the time in a crib...fed very little in a bottle and so he learned how to self stimulate so that he did not go out of his mind I am sure... and his eating habits leave lots to be desired. He is also a very strong willed child ( a quality which I have no doubt is why he is alive today) but it makes parenting more difficult. When he is upset he is loud and fortunately we see very little auto aggressive behavior like we did when he first came home. He is not the most cuddly guy ( he is when he chooses - which is not often) but he does like hugs and snuggles on his terms and he defines it all. He slobbers and drools at times and will make himself throw up just to be able to slurp because he loves doing that behavior- ever since we encouraged him to eat by himself by placing some of his food in his hand and he slurps.. So it is a good "not so good" habit that he picked up. We started him on spoons of baby food a month ago and he is now eating more baby food from a spoon ( with us feeding him) than he is taking bottles for his nourishment. Since we started the baby food this habit of his has diminshed greatly thankfully :)

So with all that said he is not the child most families would have chosen... unless you really were prepared for a severely, special needs child. He has been home with us almost 11 months and we have seen such great changes in him and we are not sure when or if or how far we can bring him back from his abyss of abuse and neglect but we have been pleasantly surprised at what he has overcome so far and we keep on praying and hoping for more for our son.

So to return to my pictures of Luke and Mya holding Andrew..It is encouraging to me to watch the siblings of Andrew who want with a deep desire for him to "make it" out of his personal hell that he endured in his orphanage. Paul and I adopted him but his brothers and sisters get more of the credit for loving him, making him, pushing him and stretching his abilities. We all love him dearly but they do it thru innocent ways of letting him know - " You are ours and you are loved"

There are so many children who can benefit from a family... so many children who need to feel they belong to someone and they are loved... Please consider adoption.