One year since homecoming- Sunday

On 01Jun2007, Bug and stepped off the plane in Houston and cleared immigration and become an American family, 6 hours later, we landed at home and joined the rest of our extended family.

These are some pictures from that day-







coming up the escalator in the airport- My dad, sister and her family met us at the bottom, my friends were waiting at the top.










Bug meeting every one. He is wearing a shirt that says "worth the wait" because he was and is so worth the wait.










In Houston, getting our luggage- the first true smile we saw from him. He liked the luggage cart, heck, he still likes carts.










A TU in Guatemala before boarding the plane home. This is about 6 am.










Worn out on Friday, 31May20047. Mireya and Susi left the hotel and Bug had a complete melt down- he screamed and pulled at the door for a good 30-45 minutes before just crashing out in exhaustion. He slept all night and got up bright and early to start the journey home.

This year has been even more of an adventure than the 15 months of the adoption process. I think being a family is always an adventure. But this year, there have been so many times that I have grown. I still struggle being a single parent, Bug still struggles with adjustments, but we are getting to a point where I can see what is just our personalities versus what is an adoption issue.

There was an awesome post this week I read from a father whose child was adopted, it contrasted how another parent might see a behavior versus how he views his child's behavior. everything is filtered through "is this an issue from the adoption"?. That is where I am- there are things i recognize as being toddler behavior, but there are additional layers on those behaviors that could be related to the adoption. I struggle with knowing which is which and then determining if we need help in dealing with those issues.

There is a group of friends I have whose children have come home, or will come home as toddlers and from the emails lately, I think we are all dealing with the same issues- toddler behaviors with adoption issues on top of it. It is so hard, but at the same time, again this group is showing me that I am not alone and what I am dealing with is something that others are dealing with. I take the emails and look for the same things in Bug's behaviors so that I can get us the intervention that we need for Bug to be all he can be. This is the reason that at this time Bug will be an only child, i need to focus on these issues and help Bug get through them before I can add to the issues by bringing another child into the family.

Bug is thriving, though. He is a happy little boy, who loves his cars, loves his animals (he got a rat and guinea pig today (stuffed toy animals only), he loves his Momma and he loves his family. He continues to amaze em with his intelligence and his capacity to learn and accept changes. He has gone through so much in the last year, he is amazing.

There are some other thoughts running through my mind, but they are so jumbled that they will not make sense, so I am signing off for the evening.

Love and hugs to you,
Deb