Okay, I'm jumping the gun just a little bit, but last year on September 20th, Bob brought Joanna home. What a difference a year has made! Bob came home discouraged and disappointed, and it wasn't long before I shared many of those same feelings. We had known that an older child adoption would not be a cakewalk, but the reality was more painful than we expected. We wanted her to be happy in her new home, but instead she was angry and resentful. When I really think about this, of course, she was angry and resentful! We had just taken her away from the only life she had ever known and thrown her into an English-speaking existance without even the comfort of familiar food.
Now - fast forward to today. We live with a little girl who loves animals and Hannah Montana and her family. She enjoys playing with and styling her sisters' hair, is asking tons of questions about Jesus (and seems more and more interested), and likes most things that her mom cooks for dinner (with the exception of refried and baked beans). She is very bright and catches on to new ideas very quickly. She loves being given a job and is usually very capable of doing it well.
Things aren't perfect, and we still struggle from time to time with odd things, which often seem to be language-barrier misunderstandings, but the progress has been so good! Someone once told me that an older child integration into the family takes about two years. We were only a couple of months into our experience at the time, and I didn't want to hear or believe this, but I now believe there was a lot of truth to these words. The good thing is that I am not facing this upcoming year with dread but rather with hope and anticipation. Joanna is one of our blessings!
7 comments:
Linda - that picture is gorgeous!! It was very fun to finally meet Joanna at McDonald's! She is a sweetheart! Can't believe she's already been home a year - time FLIES!
Blessings on your next year together.
I agree - a beautiful picture :-)))).
I'm so happy to have met all your girls (and you!!) as well, you are a wonderful family, and while the early stages were hard for all of you, Joanna DOES seem happpy and content now. It's your perseverance, faith and unconditional love who has brought all of you to this point, and that is just a blessing to see!
Love to you all.
Barb
Linda, it is SO okay for you to use this picture :-))
It wasn't very good color wise, so in b/w it's much better - easy to do with such a stunning object :-)
I'll work on the goats.... haha!
Love, Barb
Thank you for posting so honestly. We found Mia's adoption at 2 1/2 was exponentially more difficult than Olivia's adoption at 10 months. I can only imagine how difficult a truly "older child" adoption is. We also experienced the first year home as really difficult.
She is a beautiful girl. Happy one year of being a family!
Sherri
We have been so busy with our own landmarks that I have not been checking on any of my blog friends. I loved this post. You could have pretty much written my post for me. I just don't really go into any detail since my gal is now 13 and knows how to access my blog. I hope we both see as much progress next year as we did this past year. Joanna looks beautiful - she is blossoming!
It DOES take awhile for everyone to adjust. I am so glad that Joanna is doing so well now. What a beautiful picture of your precious blessing from God!
Sarah
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