Is it the Same?

It's been 5.5 years since Hudson became part of our forever family! I just found this note on my computer that I had typed up shortly after he came home. He entered our family has a talkative, 5 year old wearing 12-18 months clothes. Today he's a talkative 10 year old wearing 12-14 boys clothes! He's such a blessing and I didn't want to lose this writing so I'm posting it here...

I had a friend ask me just before the adoption how it felt to adopt.  She clarified that she meant, "Did it feel the same as when I was pregnant with my biological children or did it feel different?"  At the time, I didn't have a good answer, but I have been thinking about it more recently.  Here is my answer.  Yes, it feels the same AND no, it feels different. 

The wait for this child felt so much longer than when I was pregnant.  Some of that feeling was because of the massive amounts of paperwork and all of the unknowns of when this child will actually be coming into your home.  This was a pregnancy on paper.  I never got to feel him move inside my stomach like I did my other children, but I had a picture of a 4.5 year old boy sitting on my dresser knowing that he was waiting for a mom and a dad just like we were waiting for him.

It was the day before we were to go pick Hudson up.  We were filled with excitement and yet it did not seem real yet.  It reminded me of going to the hospital to deliver my other babies.  We were excited, but it did not seem real until we were holding them in our arms.

A lot of the same unknowns exist in adoption and biological births...What will their personality be like? What will they like to eat? What will make them smile/laugh? These things you gradually learn about your baby as they grow up in your arms.  Adopting a five year old, some of those things are already formed/forming and we just get to discover them.

Some things  we were prepared for, other we were not.  I think the biggest surprise for me is that I thought we were adopting a 5 year old.  I know a lot about 5 year olds.  I have had 4 of them, and one of those is still 5, but Hudson has not had the privilege of growing up in a family.  He has been in an institution his whole life, so many of those developmental/experiences that a child in a family would have, he has not had. At times, I feel like I have adopted triplets all in one little guy :)  He is mentally a five year old.  He likes to do 5 year old things and he talks and thinks like one.  He also seems like a toddler because he does not know what is safe and what is not.  He gets into everything...just like a toddler would.  At the beginning, I also felt like I had a newborn.  How does he like to sleep? He was still getting up several times at night to either go to the bathroom or ask for water.  I woke up tired, just like those first several weeks after coming home from the hospital.

The main thing that is the same? The love we have for this little guy.  From the minute he walked out and they handed him over to us, my heart melted.  He was my son, and I loved him just as he was.  He has brought such joy into our lives and added so much into our family!

August 2020

Well as we have been preparing for yet another move, the girls decided to enter an art competition in Knoxville. They didn't win anything, but I love their submissions! Regan drew the dog above and Katherine drew Scout below.

Kayla and Regan finally got to spend a little time together! Between Covid and and about to start school back up, it's been difficult. Glad that we were able to take them out to eat.

We love this food in America! More and more veggies please!!

We arrived at Granddad's for a week. Lauren had an envelope from overseas. 

I am so thankful that her teacher mailed her her dance certificate! She worked very hard and passed the test to be level 7 in ballet.

Regan is such a good big sister. She is helping her brother understand a certain concept in math. She had the class before, and he's still working on finishing it up.

Dad's neighbors offered to let the kids swim in their pool. Benjamin's last day before surgery.

Katherine and Hudson in the deep end

Awe, they are so cute :)

My favorite part....The kids decided to have me video slow motion jumps into the pool. Hilarious!

Got to hag out with baby Nellie for a bit. She's a solid almost 1 year old! I would have quite the arm muscles carrying her around every day! :)

Here we are...he's about to have all 4 wisdom teeth removed! He did well, only took 20 minutes to remove all four teeth! He didn't have much pain on the first day, but had lots of pain for about 12 days afterwards. He's doing great now.

Hudson discovered another nest of baby birds. I think they are hungry!

Zander turned 3...he like Lauren and Katherine. :)

I got a new haircut

The kids went for a walk with Granddad in the neighborhood.

Hudson reading to Zander...YEAH HUDSON!!

Katherine decided to freeze her spoon in KoolAid...that's quite the popsicle!

Cypress Gardens

We went to Cypress Gardens with Grandmommy and Joyce. It was a great place to go. Not only was is fun (my kids love flowers and nature) but there were no people there. We had the place to ourselves, with the exception of a few workers.

We found our first alligator! ;)

Jonathan and Kelly :)

Joyce and Benjamin

Regan and Lauren

Katherine and Hudson

Grandmommy and Regan

This flower was called the shrimp flower....interesting

pretty

We were walking around the butterfly house and found these cool caterpillars.

Our favorite alligator find was actually not one in the wild. Katherine was having a starting contest with it.

Hudson reading about the little lizard friend

Lauren and Grandmommy (she's now taller than Grandmommy)

We found 4 baby alligators....even if you can't see them well in the picture. All the alligators were trying to stay cool in the swamp.

We only lost one kid to the alligators...so sorry Regan :) haha!

We're going on a gator hunt...

rowing through the swamp

walking around on the trails afterwards

found a field of pretty flowers

Lauren taking a picture of our selfie ;)

cool picture

The entrance of Cypress Gardens

Ummm...the 2020 quarter? haha!

Enjoying an ice cream cookie sandwich

On the way home got a crazy flat tower.

Benjamin learned how to change a tire and put on the spare.

hard at work

finally got the van to a service station....it started raining so all the kids were hangin out in Grandmommy's van (Thankfully we had the flat before we got too far away)

I think we wore them out! Haha!