Yep - I have been reprimanded again that there just have NOT been enough posts about the star of this blog. Dearest Aaron! Well for all of you Aaron fans, let me tell you the little guy is blossoming and our love for him deepens as the days pass. He is beyond precious. All four of us are now sufficiently wrapped so tightly around his little finger that there is no question who rules this household.
He is learning to count in English, knows some of his letters (M for Mama, P for Papa, E for Elijah etc.) and is working on his color words. It is going to take time for him to master all of these basic concepts. Coming out of institutional living for the past 6 years definitely set him back and it is going to take him a while to catch up with his peers. We were told that he was 'severely mentally delayed' by the director. We doubt the 'severe' part of that diagnosis, but because of the language barrier we really can't judge where Aaron will come out in the long run. It doesn't really matter to us where he lands although we think he will eventually prove the director quite wrong in her diagnosis.
On some levels Aaron is mature beyond his age. He has an incredible attention span, is extremely creative in his play, is calm, quiet and well-behaved in public (partly because he is so overwhelmed in public) and is very quick at figuring out what is happening around him.
He also has an uncanny sense of direction. This was evident the very first day we had him in the capital of his country. He knew where we were in relationship to our apartment every single time we went walking. It came as a quite a surprise to us considering that he had never walked streets before. When we went into the underground parts of that city and he always knew which way to turn to lead us out we were even more amazed. Since being home, he has memorized the country roads around our house and gets so excited when he figures out where we are going. He happily directs our paths with loud shouts and a lot of foot pointing. We now have a very loud backseat driver.
Though he is mature on some levels, in many ways we have a toddler in the house. He takes delight in the simplest of things, explores every single drawer, cabinet and closet he can open and has to be watched in case he gets into something that isn't for little boys. He sleeps with Pooh bear next to his pillow, loves looking at baby books and is happy watching Blues Clues and Thomas the Tank Engine. His conversations still tend to center around trucks and cars and other things that go. Our little toddler loves to be tickled and teased and he is beyond happy when the boys wrestle with him or hold him on their laps.
We are enjoying him. Our six year old toddler. We have no idea how we managed life before he came.
Great to hear more about Aaron! ;-) I will have to tell you that horrible things were said about our daughter and her mental abilities. . . . she's 10, and doing GREAT with 4th grade level work from Bob Jones (and if you know any thing about their curriculum, it's NOT a dumbed down curricula, in my opinion). She was adopted at 5.5, and we had so many behavioral issues to work on that school took a back-seat for awhile. So I always feel like she's "showing them" even though the officials who examined her and deemed her seriously retarded etc. will never know. Our daughter is also doing excellently with her piano and her teacher has told us she foresees great things in store for her musically. ;-) Our Dd has some memory issues that seem related to FAE, but other than that . . . she's a smart little gal who is doing great! I won't be surprised if you find Aaron to be exactly the same way!
ReplyDeleteAww Julia, ya made me cry! :) I just love your posts... all of them.
ReplyDeleteI had a thought, when you said he does things like a toddler. Like looking at baby books and watching blues clues. Maybe he is just interested in that because he never had a chance to do those things. Of course, I love blues clues too, and I slept with a stuffed cat, even after I married :)
ReplyDeleteHe is awesome and making up for lost time...running along parallel tracks to take in and make up for holes - stuff missing, all the while trying to engage ahead of that too...Wherever he lands he will always be an incredible son that the Lord designed for your family!! I totally love that!! Who knows where he will end up...but I am totally confident that it is far beyond anything that they though or even maybe what we have imagined...God is crafting a masterpiece!! Love ya!
ReplyDeleteHe is so adorable!
ReplyDeleteKristin (RR)
I remember an article a few years ago by someone who had adopted two 13-year-olds from Romania into a large family. He described one of the 13-year-olds going through a "toddler" stage, with stuffed animals and kiddie toys (the father had to stop the boy from going out on the sidewalk pulling a toy duck on a string), and generally making up for everything he hadn't had in 13 years of orphanage life. For a six-year-old it makes even more sense. Your little toddler looks like he's going to do just fine.
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