Gotcha Day...one year later

Okay...as usual I'm a little late. "Gotcha Day," the day we met and brought Jadon into our family is actually May 4. The day itself was pretty laid back as far as celebrating goes. I had to work, giving voice lessons all day and Alan was in the Twin Cities. We celebrated as a family this past weekend by going to Mall of America in Bloomington, MN and letting the kids ride the amusement park rides there. Jadon got off his first ride (the ferris wheel) and declared this the "best present ever!" After several hours we left to have dinner at Lucky China on Robert Street in West St. Paul by recommendation of our friend Barb Pentecost. The food was by far the best Chinese food with have had in the states. None of us left feeling as though we'd ever had a better egg roll too. Alan's parents and his sister, Paula and her fiancé, Greg joined us in this celebration as well. A good time was had by all.

As we look back over the last year it is so amazing to review everything we have come through. Now that we are a year away from it we can recognize that the difficulties we encountered in Guangzhou those ten days there with Jadon were probably due mostly to fear (by all of us)--though we couldn't see it at the time. We really weren't prepared for the effect it would have on the existing relationships. We knew there would be challenges but we weren't prepared for the types of challenges that we would face. We expected some delayed development and were prepared to re-work through some developmental stages with Jadon. What we weren't prepared for was the dramatic fashion these played out or the frequency of what we now consider regression. This is by far the most challenging thing any of us have ever done.

But it is also one of the most rewarding things as well. We are seeing Jadon mastering the language (though he's not there yet he has come so far). While he did not know the alphabet a year ago he now can read quite a number of children's books with very little difficulty. His desire for this seems to grow at a more and more rapid rate all the time. School has been an adventure for Jadon, us, and the school personnel. Overall, he has benefited tremendously from all the care, concern, and hard work they have put in. His ELL teacher is truly a gift to him and to us. She has been more than tremendous.

The relationships with the family continue to grow. He regularly shows his affection to each of us, sometimes in unique ways. He and Andrew have lots of adventures and some real brother moments. There are occasionally some rapids to navigate, but that is normal with brothers. He has grown in his connection to his sister, but we see the biggest change in his connection to me. We continue to work on trust so he feels safe sharing his feelings--there is a way to go there since he has blocked them for so long, but he is making progress.

We returned home one year ago today. My what a difference a year makes. We have been blessed by Jadon's presence in our lives (it came with many challenges, and still does). God is working in all of us and we are so thankful.