Six Month Update

It is hard to believe that it has already been six months since Nathan joined our family! What an amazing, challenging, wonderful, difficult, blessed six months they have been.

On December 5th, we were thrilled to become Nathan's forever family as his adoption was finalized! Even though he has been ours since the moment they placed him in our arms, it is wonderful to know he is now legally our son as well. We can't imagine life without him!


This little boy continues to amaze me. When I think of all the changes he has endured these last six months, the doctors visits, two different kinds of hearing aids, learning a new language, adapting to a new culture...I am astounded how resilient he is. So many of our prayers have been answered as we have seen time and time again how he has taken each new change in stride. The last month or two has been so great - seeing Nathan really start to feel safe here, watching his personality emerge, realizing that he is relaxing and feeling so much more settled has brought so much peace to our family.

Nathan is so funny! He wants to do everything that big brother does, and lately that includes sitting on the potty. Little dude isn't even 2 years old yet and he keeps taking off his pants and his diaper and sitting on the potty! I am not sure I'm ready for this. He hasn't really got the hang of it at all, but he shakes his head "no" so seriously when I ask if he wants a diaper back on that all I can do is laugh and let him keep sitting on the potty!

As well as having his pants off, his new favorite thing is having his hat and shoes on. Like, all the time. Today he took a nap with his hat on, and no pants. Hey, whatever works!


My family lives in Canada, and until Nathan's adoption was finalized and we have his passport we have not been able to leave the States. It will still be a little while until we have his passport, so this weekend Matthew and I took a quick trip to Canada to visit my family. My sister Sarah has been studying in England for a semester and just recently came home, and Matthew was so excited to see her again. He kept saying, "I missed you, Sarah! I love you!"


One of my favorite changes that has occurred over the last six months is seeing these two little boys become brothers.

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I had moments when I wasn't sure it would ever happen. Matthew's dislike for Nathan was so strong, and I was really caught off guard by how aggressive he was with Nathan. Matthew, who let every kid take his toys at church, who had never pushed anyone or hit anyone, suddenly became this angry, grouchy little boy who pushed and hit Nathan all the time for no reason at all. Well, no reason except that he came and invaded Matthew's life, made Matthew have to share toys and his parents...you know, those reasons :) I can understand his anger, I just wasn't expecting it to be so strong or to last for so long.

But...

We have turned a corner. Matthew fell asleep in the car on the way to my parent's house and when he woke up, he looked over to where Nathan's carseat usually is and asked "Where's Nathan?". He seemed to really miss Nathan and was happy to see him when we got home! They have started to play together really well (of course they still have their moments, and I'm not expecting them to get along perfectly all the time - they are brothers!) and I keep catching these little moments when they are sitting together happily (no screaming!!!!).



The boys are both sick AGAIN but being stuck at home isn't nearly so difficult now that the boys are both pretty happy and able to play together. I find myself just sighing with contentment all the time these days, thankful for moments of peace, thankful for little boy smooches and hugs, thankful that we survived the last six months! It was worth going through the hard times to get to the other side, because the other side is oh so good :)