One month home!

It's hard to believe that Saturday was our one month home mark!  I'm so grateful that Evan is here, and even more grateful for the progress we've all made over the last month.  It has been a hard month adjusting, but we are finding our rhythm and getting in to a new normal.  Evan has actually done the best out of us all as far as adjusting.  He came from foster care, where he was obviously loved and cared for, so he's made the transition fairly well.  I don't know if he's necessarily attached and bonded to us yet, but he does cling to us when new people are around or when we're out in public.  He doesn't go up to strangers (which is a great thing as sometimes kids adopted from orphanages will go up to anyone), and is coming to realize that we're meeting his needs.

One of the behaviors that we initially saw was that he was eating everything in sight, and constantly wanting to eat (he would want a snack every hour or two).  We noticed about 2.5 weeks ago that he slowed down majorly on how much he was eating and how often he wanted to eat.  He rarely eats snacks these days between meals, and is getting to be a bit of a picky eater (versus cleaning his plate like he did initially).  That is a common behavior seen in adopted children as they go into survival mode and are fearful that you aren't going to meet their basic needs (i.e. feeding them).  I think he's learned that there's always an abundance of food around here :)

We've also taken him to church and a few other places as well.  We aren't putting him in childcare at church yet, and probably won't for another couple of months.  He and David will sit through the music and then leave during the preaching part.  We also took him to the Holiday Festival of Lights last week.  He always gets quiet and just sits back and takes it all in when he's in a new situation.  He did the same while we were driving around.  We did go see Santa and he was a little perplexed by that (we still got a great family photo with Santa though), and he ran up to the light sculptures in the Enchanted Forest and touched them.  We also rode the train ride (he LOVES trains)--unfortunately he started to fall asleep during the ride, so when it ended he was jolted awake and cried all the way back to the car and most of the way home.  Other than that, we all had a great time!

Kathryn is starting to adjust better these days as well.  We're starting to see the normal big sister/little brother sort of stuff pop up--she doesn't want him to touch this or that and screams when he tries to, or he'll be playing with a toy and all of a sudden she wants it (even though she hasn't played with it in over a year).  I'm doing a lot better to, thanks to many prayers from David and our agency's post adoption support team.  I mentioned in the prior post about struggling with post adoption depression, and i've definitely had my moments.  It has gotten a lot better over the last week, and i'm hoping to get past it in the next few weeks and strengthen my bond with Evan.

So, that's pretty much where we're at now.  We are enjoying the holiday season as best we can--we're not doing as much this year as we usually do (even though we did have a busy weekend this past weekend with parties and parades and what not).  We have managed to decorate and get a Christmas tree up.  I have a little more shopping to do, which I try to do in the evenings when David is home so I can go kid-free and enjoy some time to myself.  Anyway, I hope everyone is enjoying their holidays!!