Tuesday, December 8, 2009
La la la la Luc
When Luc says his name it comes out sounding like "Kgnck." The same thing happens to "look." I figured maybe it was the "L" sound he was struggling with, so I tried to show him how to say it. His name has now turned into "La la la la Luc." P.S. The "Mom" he is referring to in this clip is Reed.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Dermatologist and School in Haiti
Many weeks ago, I scheduled an appointment with a dermatologist whose office is within walking distance of our apartment and carefully planned the event with Reed. That appointment was today.
The contingency my plan did not take into consideration was the possibility of Reed coming down with parasites and needing to submit samples of bodily everything on the same day as my appointment. It’s always the manure pile ya didn’t see, right?
I had to awaken Luc from his extra long nap (why today?!) and we all went to the medical office together. On the spur of the moment, it was decided that Luc would stay with me.
How. Did. That. Happen?? I planned so carefully! For weeks! WEEKS!!
Examination Room #2 was about 650 degrees F. The doctor walked in on Luc and me playing with his spinny stool (Luc was spinning me around) and didn’t seem super pleased, though he was really nice and pretended not to notice while we scrambled to the patient table.
About 5 minutes into the appointment, Luc announced “All done.” Some fussiness and cheese sticks ensued which were both politely overlooked. It seemed like we were in the clear.
And then the stink.
I checked Luc’s diaper: 1. before we left the house 2. when we arrived at the medical office and 3. upon entering Examination Room #2. However, it was not until we were well into the appointment that Luc decided to doo his magic.
The doctor scrunched his face a little (pretending not to notice ... did I mention he was British? God bless those discreet Brits.) and then held his finger just below his nose in the pontification pose, though I knew he was trying to shield his very soul; Luc has a gift for the pungent poo. Finally, he excused himself to “research medications.” When he came back, he left the door open but Luc immediately tried to escape and we had to close it again. Did I mention it was 650 degrees F?
What does one do in that situation? The doctor’s time is precious and while he was gone “researching” I thought he might come back any minute. He likely would have been displeased to return to Luc spread eagle on the examining table with a plastic bag containing a stinky orange diaper (yep, we’re still on the TB meds ) and a million stinky orange wipes crammed into said stinky diaper. So there we sat. Stinky.
At any rate, we lived and it ended.
When we got home, I showed Luc some video from our trip to pick him up and he was mesmerized. I’ve never seen him so enthralled. He was paralyzed with fascination. It was almost a full hour of unedited boring nothing, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the screen. At one point, he actually leaned forward to rest his elbows on the table while he watched attentively ... nay hypnotized.
A few times he reached for his sippy cup, took a swallow and set it back down on the table without taking his eyes off the movie. He even chuckled at some scenes where Reed was monkeying around with the video Luc. I felt like I had a 40 year old on my lap.
Roles seriously reversed, I regularly asked “All done?” hoping that we could move on to something interesting. Nope. It took Daddy (sometimes referred to as “Mom!”) coming home to break the spell.
Did he remember the orphanage? Did he remember our trip and leaving? He must have. It wasn’t that long ago. Did emotions come flooding back? There were times when he would lean back and rest his head against my chest and then others where he would lean in to study things more closely.
I also showed him the photos I have of him with his birth mom. He stopped dead and pointed. I told him that it was his birth mom and then he would point to the image and say “Mom.” Then we’d play and after a while he’d catch a glimpse of the screen and stop in his tracks and stare for minutes. Finally, he’d look at me, point and say “Mom” and I’d agree with him.
“She’s your mom too. We both are.” I hope that’s the right thing to say. I’m pretty sure it is. It is so great to have those photos where she is so visibly in love with him. I was able to say how much she loves him and hope that as he grows he will understand it is true.
It makes me really emotional. I hate that she had to give up this spectacular amazing child. I hate how broken her heart will be for the rest of her life. I hate that she now feels the way I felt for the past two years ... except that she doesn’t have the hope of being reunited with him that I did.
I realize that there is supposed to be some comfort to her to know that Luc is being well loved and taken care of and that he’ll have all kinds of opportunities, but is that really the consolation we all wish it were? I think I can answer that. Hell no.
The good news is that I received word from GLA that she is interested in participating in their education program where we supply the money and GLA enrolls Luc’s brother and two sisters in school. I asked if it would be possible for Luc’s birth mom to go to school too. They said it’s probably too late this year. Hopefully next year. I told them that we would pay for all of them to go to school until they are done, including college if they want to go, and hopefully they do.
Luc doesn’t come to us all by himself. I now have another sister plus two nieces and a nephew. None of them will be forgotten or neglected.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if these four people are able to get well educated and affect meaningful change in their lives because of what God is doing through this GLA program?
God is amazing.
The contingency my plan did not take into consideration was the possibility of Reed coming down with parasites and needing to submit samples of bodily everything on the same day as my appointment. It’s always the manure pile ya didn’t see, right?
I had to awaken Luc from his extra long nap (why today?!) and we all went to the medical office together. On the spur of the moment, it was decided that Luc would stay with me.
How. Did. That. Happen?? I planned so carefully! For weeks! WEEKS!!
Examination Room #2 was about 650 degrees F. The doctor walked in on Luc and me playing with his spinny stool (Luc was spinning me around) and didn’t seem super pleased, though he was really nice and pretended not to notice while we scrambled to the patient table.
About 5 minutes into the appointment, Luc announced “All done.” Some fussiness and cheese sticks ensued which were both politely overlooked. It seemed like we were in the clear.
And then the stink.
I checked Luc’s diaper: 1. before we left the house 2. when we arrived at the medical office and 3. upon entering Examination Room #2. However, it was not until we were well into the appointment that Luc decided to doo his magic.
The doctor scrunched his face a little (pretending not to notice ... did I mention he was British? God bless those discreet Brits.) and then held his finger just below his nose in the pontification pose, though I knew he was trying to shield his very soul; Luc has a gift for the pungent poo. Finally, he excused himself to “research medications.” When he came back, he left the door open but Luc immediately tried to escape and we had to close it again. Did I mention it was 650 degrees F?
What does one do in that situation? The doctor’s time is precious and while he was gone “researching” I thought he might come back any minute. He likely would have been displeased to return to Luc spread eagle on the examining table with a plastic bag containing a stinky orange diaper (yep, we’re still on the TB meds ) and a million stinky orange wipes crammed into said stinky diaper. So there we sat. Stinky.
At any rate, we lived and it ended.
When we got home, I showed Luc some video from our trip to pick him up and he was mesmerized. I’ve never seen him so enthralled. He was paralyzed with fascination. It was almost a full hour of unedited boring nothing, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the screen. At one point, he actually leaned forward to rest his elbows on the table while he watched attentively ... nay hypnotized.
A few times he reached for his sippy cup, took a swallow and set it back down on the table without taking his eyes off the movie. He even chuckled at some scenes where Reed was monkeying around with the video Luc. I felt like I had a 40 year old on my lap.
Roles seriously reversed, I regularly asked “All done?” hoping that we could move on to something interesting. Nope. It took Daddy (sometimes referred to as “Mom!”) coming home to break the spell.
Did he remember the orphanage? Did he remember our trip and leaving? He must have. It wasn’t that long ago. Did emotions come flooding back? There were times when he would lean back and rest his head against my chest and then others where he would lean in to study things more closely.
I also showed him the photos I have of him with his birth mom. He stopped dead and pointed. I told him that it was his birth mom and then he would point to the image and say “Mom.” Then we’d play and after a while he’d catch a glimpse of the screen and stop in his tracks and stare for minutes. Finally, he’d look at me, point and say “Mom” and I’d agree with him.
“She’s your mom too. We both are.” I hope that’s the right thing to say. I’m pretty sure it is. It is so great to have those photos where she is so visibly in love with him. I was able to say how much she loves him and hope that as he grows he will understand it is true.
It makes me really emotional. I hate that she had to give up this spectacular amazing child. I hate how broken her heart will be for the rest of her life. I hate that she now feels the way I felt for the past two years ... except that she doesn’t have the hope of being reunited with him that I did.
I realize that there is supposed to be some comfort to her to know that Luc is being well loved and taken care of and that he’ll have all kinds of opportunities, but is that really the consolation we all wish it were? I think I can answer that. Hell no.
The good news is that I received word from GLA that she is interested in participating in their education program where we supply the money and GLA enrolls Luc’s brother and two sisters in school. I asked if it would be possible for Luc’s birth mom to go to school too. They said it’s probably too late this year. Hopefully next year. I told them that we would pay for all of them to go to school until they are done, including college if they want to go, and hopefully they do.
Luc doesn’t come to us all by himself. I now have another sister plus two nieces and a nephew. None of them will be forgotten or neglected.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if these four people are able to get well educated and affect meaningful change in their lives because of what God is doing through this GLA program?
God is amazing.
A couple photos
Luc sportin' some Mr. Potato Head glasses. I heard him chuckling to himself, and when I turned around I saw this.
This is a photo from a little while back. Did I already post it? Can't remember. Don't think so. Anyway, it's me, Luc and Reed.
We got our Christmas tree yesterday! I filmed the whole thing and will post video as soon as I get a moment to download it. Ha.
Luc was GREAT! We rushed to a restaurant after we got the tree to make sure we stayed on schedule for Luc and he was a delightful lunch companion! Other babies cry and pitch fits, but not Luc. We brought some of his favorite books and those kept him pretty happy.
Right now I am working on "Independent Play." Is it too soon? The doctor made it seem like I should play with him all the time and I appreciated most of what the doctor said, but enjoying time alone is so important in life and I want to teach him that it's good early.
So I am playing classical music and he is romping around as I type. Every once in a while he swings by to see if I've changed my mind about letting him bang on my laptop. He's doing well. I'm going to try to make this a 9:30am ritual. It follows reading together from 9-9:30am.
Parents always say they read with their kid "all the time." What does "all the time" mean? Morning to night solid? As their walking down the stree they read to their kid? I don't know what all the time means. And what kind of books should I read to Luc specifically? He's trying to learn the language and it doesn't seem like he is really following the storyline of "Where the Wild Things Are" but at the same time I figure it helps build his language.
I try to alternate between storybooks like "Where the Wild Things Are" and "Oh The Places You'll Go" and board books. I bought a few cool ones at MOCA that teach shapes, colors and body parts through famous artwork.
I found this site: http://www.bornlearning.org/. I also learned that the library has some programs and I am going to dive into those. He's such a curious kid (aren't they all?) and I want to foster that and help him to enjoy learning for the rest of his life. Learning in school becomes such a pain and then people seem to be kind of turned off by it as adults. Hopefully we can find a way to avoid that.
On the surface, none of this is really particular to adoption, but the twist comes in that Luc is already almost 2 and he doesn't speak English and he's been institutionalized for his whole life. Therefore there is a really delicate tightrope act I must successfully execute to make sure he learns independence and reading and speaking, but also that I don't push too hard too fast. Right now, my main goal needs to be teaching him that he is loved, safe and here with us for good.
That in mind, it's snack time. I'm going to go snuggle my Chubby Lion and feed him some zebras.
Luc was GREAT! We rushed to a restaurant after we got the tree to make sure we stayed on schedule for Luc and he was a delightful lunch companion! Other babies cry and pitch fits, but not Luc. We brought some of his favorite books and those kept him pretty happy.
Right now I am working on "Independent Play." Is it too soon? The doctor made it seem like I should play with him all the time and I appreciated most of what the doctor said, but enjoying time alone is so important in life and I want to teach him that it's good early.
So I am playing classical music and he is romping around as I type. Every once in a while he swings by to see if I've changed my mind about letting him bang on my laptop. He's doing well. I'm going to try to make this a 9:30am ritual. It follows reading together from 9-9:30am.
Parents always say they read with their kid "all the time." What does "all the time" mean? Morning to night solid? As their walking down the stree they read to their kid? I don't know what all the time means. And what kind of books should I read to Luc specifically? He's trying to learn the language and it doesn't seem like he is really following the storyline of "Where the Wild Things Are" but at the same time I figure it helps build his language.
I try to alternate between storybooks like "Where the Wild Things Are" and "Oh The Places You'll Go" and board books. I bought a few cool ones at MOCA that teach shapes, colors and body parts through famous artwork.
I found this site: http://www.bornlearning.org/. I also learned that the library has some programs and I am going to dive into those. He's such a curious kid (aren't they all?) and I want to foster that and help him to enjoy learning for the rest of his life. Learning in school becomes such a pain and then people seem to be kind of turned off by it as adults. Hopefully we can find a way to avoid that.
On the surface, none of this is really particular to adoption, but the twist comes in that Luc is already almost 2 and he doesn't speak English and he's been institutionalized for his whole life. Therefore there is a really delicate tightrope act I must successfully execute to make sure he learns independence and reading and speaking, but also that I don't push too hard too fast. Right now, my main goal needs to be teaching him that he is loved, safe and here with us for good.
That in mind, it's snack time. I'm going to go snuggle my Chubby Lion and feed him some zebras.
