This past Saturday was a very magical day. When we were in the adoption process I had this vision or dream of what our family of 6 would look like. The past 4 months we have all been transitioning into being a family though and that image that I had held in my dreams seemed like a far off reality. I think I was honestly even losing hope. But, thankfully the past week has brought some major changes.
Sweet M* has made another huge jump in behavior and attachment. We are able to discipline and say no without having a HUGE tantrum or screaming fit. Which means I am not as stressed out about every outing bc I know that M* can handle it. This is a HUGE relief for me. I think the change happened when Hubby and I started understanding M*'s story and how it effects his daily thought process and behavior. It sounds silly (we should know this) but it is hard to remember his past when you are completely drained both physically and emotionally.
After realizing our error we started finding fun ways to engage him and we also started using a lot of distraction to ward off the fits. I think really M* could feel our closeness and I believe he is beginning to understand that when we say no it doesn't mean we don't love him or he is not a good kid... it just means we can't do that. I also think he is starting to get a hang of what being a part of our family means. He is starting to feel like he knows his place.
We went to Disneyland this past weekend and we had a blast. We were tantrum free the entire day. Sweet M* was great with the animals in the petting zoo and he even starred in the parade. As I watched him dancing the conga line with Pluto I just laughed. Here it was... that image where we are all laughing and having a blast just being together. If someone had told me 4 1/2 months ago that we would be where we are today with our son I would have thought they were crazy! Things are definitely looking up!
