two month update

Today is our two month anniversary of coming home with Yohannes, and Brad and I took him to Gojo for lunch today to celebrate!  It’s the first time he’s eaten Ethiopian food since we’ve been home, and he LOVED it!  It was sweet to watch his little hands tear pieces of injera and scoop up his food.  That’s the way he’s eaten for most of his life, and he certainly hadn’t forgotten how to do it!

Here are a few funny things I remember from our first week or two at home:

• He tried to dribble the (American) football, which of course doesn’t work too well – maybe the first time he’d ever seen one of those.
• He wanted to eat his orange whole without me tearing the slices apart – we’ve moved on from that now, but he still loves oranges.
• He only wanted to play on the patio stones in the backyard and not on the grass – probably because there’s no grass to play in at Hannah’s Hope, and the stones reminded him of the courtyard there (he of course loves to play in the grass now).
• I realized one night soon after we got home that I was confusing him when I told him it was time to put on his “pajamas.”  He thought I was saying “chamas” (shoes)!  He kept trying to put on his shoes, and I finally figured it out.
• He always wanted to wash his hands after brushing his teeth – maybe that was part of the routine at Hannah’s Hope??
• I thought he would love our Ethiopian friends and enjoy them speaking to him in Tigrinya and Amharic, but he totally rejected them.  I think maybe he felt threatened by them and just wanted to identify with us??  I was surprised by his reaction, but it kind of makes sense, too.
• I bought a rotisserie chicken one day and warmed it in the oven right before dinner.  When I pulled it out of the oven and put it on the table, he looked at me like I was crazy and said, “WOOSHA!” (which means dog . . . ).  We assured him that it wasn’t a dog, and he finally ate it!

Yohannes has adjusted very well to being part of our family, and we’re incredibly thankful that things have gone some smoothly this far.  Here are some updates on how he’s doing now:

• He’s communicating well, and the language barrier hasn’t been nearly as big a deal as I thought it would be.  We did a lot of charades in the beginning (which was funny at times), but I’ve really seen LOTS of progress verbally in the past week or so.  He strings words together and is even making short sentences now.
• He still sleeps well.  We had planned on co-sleeping if we felt it was needed, but he’s been sleeping in his own room by himself ever since we got home.  I wasn’t sure if we were doing the right thing or not, so I spoke with our social worker about it.  She encouraged us to not mess with a good thing, so we’re sticking with it.  He occasionally wakes up during the night, but most nights he sleeps about 11 hours uninterrupted – which is SO nice!  He recently became afraid of the dark but has done great since we put a night light in his room.
• We’re all caught up on bloodwork and vaccinations.  That wasn’t any fun, but we made it through.  It’s so hard to hold your new little one down while he gets poked and is screaming “Mommy!  No!  Hurts!  All done!  No more!”  I felt like a traitor!  Everything looked good except his ANC was low, so he seems to be neutropenic.  Our pediatrician isn’t too concerned yet, so we’ll just do more bloodwork (ugh!) when we go back in a couple of weeks.
• Yohannes loved getting a bath until about two weeks ago when he started crying every time we told him it was bath time.  For some reason he was really scared of the water, so we started running the water before he got in the tub and just tried to reassure him that it was okay.  We don’t know where that came from, but that’s the case much of the time in adoption.
• He’s really a sweet, sweet boy.  He says “thank you” anytime I give him something, says “bless you” when someone sneezes, says “you’re welcome” when someone thanks him, etc.  He has a gentle, sweet spirit and really is a joy.  He gives great hugs and wraps his arms and legs around you.

While life is a little more complicated and busy now than it was a few months ago, we can’t imagine life without Yohannes.  We’re all growing and learning together, and we’re more thankful than ever that God spoke to our hearts about the orphan crisis and we took the first step to be involved . . . which led to another . . . and another . . . you get the point.

I won’t try to sell you on adoption, but please know that if God is speaking to your heart about orphans, He wants to use you in some way.  And He will show you how to direct the passion and burden He’s given you.  And He will provide for your needs every step of the way.  I know because I’ve experienced it and am experiencing it daily.  This Sunday is “Orphan Sunday” and I’m praying that hearts are stirred into action – that OUR hearts continue to be stirred into action.

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?  Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?  Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.  Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.  If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.  The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.  You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. – Isaiah 58:6-11