Oh my.
One year home tomorrow. And so much has happened, friends.
I apologize I didn't post an update for his first ever Family Day! We kept it on the downlow for the most part and honestly just took him out to one of our favorite Chinese restaurants for some yummy noodles.
William's doing honestly well over-all!! He still loves his nursery rhymes, and still loves to sing and dance in general. It's been hard to get him to watch anything that does *not* have music/dancing in it continuously, but just the other day he finally sat through an entire episode of Mr. Rogers, so I count that as a major win!! I'm now hopeful that this nursery rhyme and music video phase will fade to some degree (or so I hope!).
He weighs a whopping 38 1/2" tall and is about 36lbs, putting him at the 75 percentile for height/weight on the growth chart!! He was only in the 10th when he was still in China.
He's been counting to 20, says his ABCs much more clearly, says 5-6 word sentences a lot more clearly (still hoping to see more improvement in his connected-speech; imitation speech is superb though). He draws very simple people (or "Humpy-dumpties" as he calls them). He loves playing with his train set, pretending to read books, and constantly singing and dancing. He's still as hilarious as ever, loving to laugh and make others laugh. The other day I was explaining again to him that Daddy's real name is "William" too, and that's where he got his name. He held both hands out and was like "Well, look at all the Williams!!" Ha!!
He did remarkably well for his first surgery. Surprisingly, we had no regression which I expected. Whew!!
He loves to try to boss big bro and big sis around (they don't really let him though and I often remind William that Mommy and Daddy are boss and are the ones that tell them what to do). He's good about trying to be their "teacher" during the day since we homeschool. He'll demand the kids to finish their "Cool-work!!" Or "Do your Maff (math) NOW!"
Mommy and Daddy have their own room again which has been priceless. We put William to bed, spend time with the bigs for an hour or so, then when they go to bed we retreat to our bedroom. I cannot begin to tell you how honestly thankful I am for this after almost a year of sharing a bedroom (we've had William in his own bed for more than 9 months, but shared a bedroom partially because Billy was remodeling the master). We're getting better sleep, and it's been priceless having our own space again.
We also took our first vacation as a family of 5 late September! We just spent 4 nights in Niagara Falls, Canada side. We visited MarineLand (so fun!!), went on a boat by the falls, Journey Behind the Falls, and other site-seeing. William did so well and had lots of fun and still talks about the "family twip," "water falls," and "booga (beluga) whales." When we crossed the border, William immediately hung his head out the window and told the security officer, "I'm brother!!" (well if that wasn't suspicious! Ha!).
He's also had his first Halloween (dressed up as the cutest lil doctor you've ever seen) and Thanksgiving with all his family. We're also looking forward to Christmas this year which feels like a first for him still (last year we were in-between moves, so we were at my parents' house and he was so newly home and wasn't able to really take Christmas all in).
This year has been so much easier in ways than I ultimately expected, and much harder in ways I least expected it. Does that make sense?? During our adoption process, I had no idea we'd have to move back to our homestate (10 hours away) just a week after getting back from China, I also had no idea of a few other life-altering events that would take place around the same time. We had already been emotionally and financially exhausted by the point we got to China. Adoptive parents will tell you China is HARD, and they cannot wait to get home. But I honestly felt China was
easy compared to coming home. I dreaded coming home (I loved China and hated leaving William's birthplace,
but also knew the hard ahead of us). All of that to say that any hard we experienced was *nothing* compared to the hard William was going through at the time. He was undoubtedly so very brave, braver than he (or any child) should ever have to be.
This year has been a whirlwind for all of us. Home improvements and maintenance on a house with 5 acres. Lots of swimming. Lots of bonfires and s'mores. Lots of playing. Lots of tears. Lots of fun. Lots of hugs. Lots of family. Lots of singing and dancing. Lots of jump time on the trampoline. Lots of firsts. Lots of games. Lots of heartache. Lots of mending. Lots of molding. Lots of grace. And last but certainly not least.. lots of love.
We've laughed until we cried and cried until we laughed. We danced forward and several steps back only to do it time and time again. We set sail East and winded up back West. We marched to the beat of our own drum. We flew to heights seemingly too high to fly. We prayed in ways we never had to pray before. We loved in ways we never loved before. We needed grace more than we ever needed before. And we would do it over and over again for a lil boy that stole our hearts the day he was placed in our arms in a small hotel business room in Fuzhou, China.
Adoption is far from easy, but it is always, always worth it.
What a year, William. You've stolen our hearts. You've made us smile. You've made us belly laugh. You've made us more complete. You've made us love more tenderly. Love more softly. Love more patiently. And love more gracefully. You are our little sunshine. Our little goof. Our little stinker. Thank you for all you've taught us; which is so much more than we'll ever be able to teach you. Thank you for bringing us more joy than we could've ever brought you. We love you more than you'll ever know. Just a couple months home as you were playing, you joyously said "Wiyum home. Home, Wiyum home." Happy 1 year home our lil "Wiyum." Here's to you being home a year with us, and us a year home with you. And here's to being home forever.
