When I first met my son, I was so nervous I didn’t sleep the night prior. When his first adoptive mom opened the minivan door and he climbed out my first thought was ” He’s so little!”.

His first adoptive mom, my son, and I spent the afternoon at the park. I could tell he was nervous and excited. He was a bit wild at the park, but that night I felt the meeting had gone well overall.

The next morning was our first full day together. We went swimming in the hotel pool and ate lunch at steak & shake. The second day I noticed he needed a lot of redirection.

The third morning his first adoptive mom dropped him off at my hotel for the last time. I was a bit worried because he didn’t seem upset by leaving. On our drive to airport he was well behaved. Once in the airport he started acting up. He didn’t want to listen and wanted to go into all the stores in the terminals on the way to ours. We barely made the flight. At our connection it wasn’t much better, and since our layover was super short, we missed our flight and wound up having to stay the night. The next morning was much better, maybe because it was 5 AM but he was quiet and just followed me to our gate after security.

The first few weeks where interesting. On the drive home from the airport he decided to open his door on the highway going 80 mph. I learned to child lock the doors. He was generally well behaved the first two weeks. Shortly after my son arrived in our home, my husband had to deploy, which I thought would be harder on my son than it was. I think he hadn’t had much time to bond with my husband yet so it didn’t effect him as strongly as it would have otherwise.

The summer while my husband was gone was interesting. As my son and I bonded his behavior improved. We went to go see my dad and later my in-laws and they got along famously. My son learned to wipe himself and how to dress himself properly. We worked a lot on manners and managing impulses.

When my husband returned it was rough. My son went 5 months back in time with his behavior. Things we had gotten past like tantrums reoccurred for a while. As my son got used to my husband being home this settled down. It’s five months later now and while my son seems to prefer me over my husband we’ve at least moved past the behavior issues.

We’ve had our son in our home for 10 months now, and we’ve settled into a nice routine. I actually get compliments about how well behaved he is in public! He’s still working on learning to get along with kids his own age, but he’s gotten so much better.

The 6 year old I met 10 months ago is a completely different child than the 7 year old you would meet today. He’s happier, better behaved, better social skills, more confidence, and more affectionate. His reading and math have gotten so much better. His vocabulary has expanded immensely. We still have our rough days once in a rare while but what kid doesn’t?