Our 1st Year With Jedidiah

Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in Him!

Psalm 34:8 NLT

  

Anyone who sets himself up as "religious" by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this:  Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight...

James 1:26-27 MSG

On April 8, 2014 at 11:30am in the lobby of the Sheraton, Hohhot, China, our lives changed forever.  As I reached out, a little boy reached out to me when his orphanage's adoption director told him in Chinese, 'This is your mama.' A little boy born across the world from us, in an instant, became our son. That moment was pretty extraordinary! We were so full of emotions. We had prepared for that day, waited anxiously for that day. But poor Jedidiah, I can't imagine what he was feeling, scared perhaps, wondering how his little world had gotten so turned upside down. Here we are 1 year ago...

And here we are 1 year later!

I can't believe it has been a year! To look back and see how far we have come in so many areas in a year is amazing. Each one of us in our family has learned more about unconditional love than we ever knew possible. We have learned about sacrifice, selflessness, and patience, just to name a few character lessons. We have grown in our relationships with one another and with Christ, which is priceless really. But I can't go further without saying, it wasn't always easy. There were many tears and sometimes great struggles along the way. Our family was in uncharted waters. We had never had a 2 year old son/brother placed in our arms before. Up to this point, it had always been newborns. We got to know them while they cooed, slept, and ate. We had their undivided attention while they laid there and snuggled. A very active 2 year old who was very adorable for sure, but who was on the go, who threw tantrums, knew what he wanted when he wanted it, and had just been taken across the world away from everything he had ever known...now this was something none of us knew how to do. There were so many days when I told God through tears that I don't think I can do it, I don't think I am made for this. My 5 kids are watching how I am doing this, and I am failing miserably. The very first time I had that conversation with God, and every time afterwards, I felt the same soft, calm voice of a caring Father say to me...Silly, Edel, when will you learn...you are so right, you cannot do this, no, you were not made to do this...ALONE...I am here, your heavenly Father...you are made to do this with Me. My strength would be renewed. I would remember His mercies are new every morning, and I would get up the next day to start fresh again. What a great year of learning!

But now we have this last year...to look back and see how far we have come. We have transitioned to a family of 7, we have had all this time now to get to know who Jedidiah is, his likes and dislikes, what makes him who he is. We have gone from a little boy who, when Brad went to hug and kiss him that first day, totally moved away and didn't want any part of it, to a cuddly, smiley, secure child who initiates hugs and kisses numerous times every day! It has been so incredible to watch him blossom!

We have moved from a time of bonding to making our way along the attachment process. Wow! What a privilege to be part of this process! It really is a beautiful thing to watch unfold and be a part of. It has been so neat to watch Jed build a special, unique relationship with each of his siblings. This has been one of my favorite parts of the last year!

We have gone from really struggling with sleep the first 6 months to Jedidiah sleeping through the night every night! What?! Can this be? There were times early on when I thought I would never get a full night's sleep again and this little guy was never going to have peaceful, restful sleep. But yeah...we are all sleeping well...everything is better with sleep, so this was a huge corner to turn. Thanking God for this small miracle!

God has made Jed really good with his hands, which has served him well as we have taught him lots of sign language.  He loves learning new signs. It is really cute. He works really hard at them until he gets them down. His sign language has been invaluable since his speech has been pretty slow in coming. He and I participate in speech therapy several times a month. There is still a concern that his palate repair may not be working correctly. If that is the case, then he will need surgery as soon as possible to correct it. We will know the status of all of this by mid-May.

We have some great friends who have adopted and have helped us so much in navigating through this last year. The adoption community is pretty amazing in that way. We have been blessed!

Jedidiah is such a fun-loving, sweet, energetic, and strong little boy. We love every inch of him! We have had a very extraordinary year with him and we are so excited to watch him grow and develop this next year. And we can't wait to see how God continues to grow each one of us in our family as He knits us tighter and tighter together!

TODAY IS JED DAY!
April 8th will forever be JED DAY in our house. We will celebrate each year by doing something special and fun together. Today we went to Prairie Kids Club, a place Jed loves, to play on all of the equipment. Jed's big sister, Ella, made cupcakes for Jed and he got to blow out his 1 year candle, which he was very thrilled about! We sang 'Happy Jed Day' to him. All day we asked him what today was...he said it is Happy Jed, Jed Day! Adorable! Here are some photos of our day:

PHOTOS FROM OUR YEAR
Here are some photos of Jed's first year as a Gunnink. It has been a fun adventure! Can't wait for many more!!