Thoughts On Our New Family & Samuel

I haven’t talked much about our new family and what we are all going through.  I guess we have just gone from one day to the next – and all of a sudden, here we are, with over 3 months of being a family under our belt!  So I thought I would share some RANDOM thoughts (and they are very random!)

 

·         Life has changed…  it’s not all hard; it’s not all easy.

·         Daily life?  We struggle just like any new parents… I think the hardest part is not knowing if you have made “THAT” connection or not.  I will be honest and say that I always wonder if I mean more to him than the next person who wants to hug him.  Given I am working full-time, I only have mornings and nights with him, so I am trying to make the most of that time (though it’s hard after a long day at work.) 

1.     SIDE NOTE:  I am not sure I will ever feel like I am giving enough.  In my head I am always tell myself I should “go get that book out Jill”… “or go color with him.”  Sometimes just having him sit on the counter while I cook is all I can give in the evening.  I always try to do something with him.  I just wish it could be more.

·         We love him so much…  our favorite time is first thing in the morning after he has his bottle.  It’s like a switch turns ON and he lights up with babble talk and love…  J

·         We have not been hit with racial issues – not once, and we very thankful.  I guess I am not really prepared for that to occur either – not something that I can relate to (meanness of people, or those who want to make a race issue out of something that is pure.)  So far, we have had nothing but positive support and comments from friends, family and people in the grocery store.  I don’t know… maybe Portland has this thing figured out and our exposure to this will be limited.  I have never in my life focused on the color of skin… we are just people (am I naïve?)

1.     SIDE NOTE:  We have met 2 Haitians in Portland (doctor and Trader Joes employee, but of whom were so thankful we had Samuel home with us…  the doctor even called our house to see how things were going.)

·         I will be honest… we aren’t even sure was is “PC.”  He is Haitian-American…  not African-American.  He is black, not white.  But does it matter?  He is beautiful…  he is our son.  We love him.

·         In my mind I have put together this box of “stuff” that we will give him when he is older…  PBS created a very good documentary on the earthquake (he needs to be older though), I have the blog books, scrapbooks, newspapers, news videos, and paperwork.  But what we don’t have is much info on his family.  I don’t think we would have enough to help him out if he wanted to search, but - if and when he gets to that point, we are more than willing to support him.

·         Samuel is a picky eater…  he eats yogurt, Mac & Cheese, Gerber oatmeal stages, salty tortilla chips and goldfish.  He won’t touch ice cream (honestly!)  We are trying to figure out how to “slip” thing in without him knowing, but he catches it every time.

·         He is sleeping in his own room, own bed…  we have worked hard at this.  He has been on a strict schedule and looking back, we are both really glad we committed to this.  He still wakes up 1-2 times per night, but will usually go right back to sleep once he knows you are out there.

·         While he has a good heart and is a truly good kid, he does test us!  J  And he knows how to bat those eyes when those moments of “oh crap, I am in trouble now” hit him…

·         We are on a search for a daycare/school for the fall.  We have some good prospects, so we are going to visit a few and get this figured out.  It’s not going to be easy though.

 

Tomorrow we get to meet up with Jamie (one of his volunteers in Haiti.)  She is in Portland for her birthday so we get to spend a few hours playing tomorrow!  I will post some pictures…