Anniversary

Today is the anniversary of our "Gotcha Day." A year has gone by. To say that it flew by and it was all easy-peasy would be a giant over-statement. I feel like it's been a hard-fought year. Not to say that there's been a lot of "fighting" at all, but there's been a lot of adjusting. We have come a long way, and there's more work to be done. Evan has done remarkably well. His ability to adjust is really good. I'm not saying that Evan is adjusting well in terms of being well behaved, doing what he's supposed to do all the time, etc. It's more like he goes on the way he is, with good days and bad days, pretty much regardless of what we throw at him. Case in point, we recently moved. Major change. He took it very well. He got to help pick out the paint color for his room. And it helped that the layout of the house is great for playing hide-and-seek. He's taken on each change in stride, for the most part. I'm not sure I could say the same for Hubby and I. We are still boohooing that the new house doesn't feel like home yet.

We also recently started him on speech therapy. Thank goodness he's finally getting some help. When we first had him tested back in September, they had wanted to give him more time in the US in case his difficulty stemmed from a second-language issue. We had him tested again over a month ago. His receptive language tested at 2 yr 11 mo, while his expressive language tested at 2 yr 1 mo. So here we have a kid that looks like a 5-year- old but talking more like a 2-year-old. He has picked up quite a bit of English. His Chinese is mostly receptive these days, which breaks my heart a bit, but we'll work on it later. He is able to produce most sounds, but in isolation. In multi-syllable words or sentences with more than 2 or 3 words, the consonants just seem to disappear. Hubby and I are sometimes able to guess his meaning, especially in context. But sometimes both of us are scratching our heads, grasping at straws, making wild guesses. And Evan's there wondering why we can't understand him. And if we're having trouble understanding him, people outside the family have even more trouble. So I'm very glad he's starting to get some help. I think his speech therapy will be a long haul, but we're prepared for it. Soon we'll be putting his ability to adjust to the test again. We're changing schools. Hope all goes well!

Last year at this time, I was feeling nervous, apprehensive, anxious, just a little sad, and more than a little lost. It's been a learning experience, and I expect the learning and adjusting will continue. I am so grateful that everyone has taken to him well. Some of it is a credit to his personality, but mostly it is your loving support and generosity showing us how loved Hubby and I are. We are so fortunate to have such loving family and friends. We are truly touched and very very thankful!