Noah's 6th Birthday

On July 16, Noah turned 6!!! My sister-in-law, nephew, Gage, Noah, & I went to Grapevine for the day. We took Noah to the Rainforest Cafe for lunch & then to Legoland. He loved it! We came home, ordered pizza, ate cake, & opened a couple of presents with daddy. I could not help but think about his biological parents. Did they even realize it was his birthday? Do they miss him? Do they think about him & wonder how he is? Do their hearts ache not being able to see him anymore? I can not imagine all the questions Noah will have one day. I remember watching him play in the bathtub after our fun filled day & he was so happy! Will he continue to be happy every birthday or will there come a time his heart will ache on that day knowing his birth parents are not there to celebrate with him? Adoption is a beautiful thing because it gives children a chance to live a life their birth family could not provide but it is also something that I wish did not have to exist so that every child to could be cared for & raised by their birth family. I just know this is one more challenge he will have to deal with when he gets older & I hate that for him. Friday we took a trip to my parents house for the weekend since Noah has never been to Nana & Grampy's House. On Saturday, we invited friends & family over to meet Noah & celebrate his 6th birthday. We had small swimming pools set up for the kids, food, & cake. Noah had a BLAST!!! I laid in bed that night feeling thankful, loved, & overwhelmed. All these people came to show their love & support for our new son. When God called us to adopt we had many fears. One of those fears was wondering if our new son would be accepted & loved like our bio kids. Would his skin color matter to others? Would they treat him like our other kids? Not everyone has been happy about our choice for adoption. I had to realize that not everyone would understand or accept him but that all that matters is what God wants from us. I am not going to lie, it does bother me at times but I just have to do what I know God wants from us. Even with Autumn, some people are just not comfortable around people with disabilities & don't know what to say or how to act so they just stop coming around. I have to accept that & move on & do life the way God has called us to. For those who have been supportive, it has been overwhelming for me. Your support means SO much to me! As I stood there watching all my family & friends sing Happy Birthday to Noah & watched the smile on his face, it reminded me of God's love for us. Here is this little boy who was taken from a bad situation at the age of 2, thrown into a couple of temporary homes, finally placed in a stable foster home, had to say goodbye to that home that he knew for the past 3 years, walk into a new home with a mommy, daddy, & siblings & here he is celebrating his 6th birthday with all these "strangers" who love & accept him. No one was thinking about his past, broken life or cared about his skin color. They were just loving him like Christ loves us no matter what we look like or our past. Reminded me of all the questions I had just a few days before about how Noah will feel when he gets older but Saturday reassured me that no matter what questions he has or challenges he will have to deal with in the future, he will know he is loved by us & our heavenly Father. I'm thankful we always have that comfort & hope in Christ when situations & people fail us. I can not believe it has only been 3 months since Noah came to live with us! He has changed so much! He is officially potty trained!!! We even took away the night time pull ups 2 days ago & so far he is staying dry in the mornings. Yay! His vocabulary & comprehension is improving as well. He is learning to write his new name & he just seems to act older than he did 3 months ago. His behavior has improved so much. I think he is starting to get over testing boundaries & understands how we expect him to behave. He's still a typical child who has tantrums & disobeys but for the most part, he is doing really good & such a sweet kid. I have finally adjusted to having 4 kids. The first month was rough! Bonding does not come instantly in adoption. I felt like I was babysitting someone's kid the entire first month. All I did all day was discipline. I was so sick of constantly saying no! I just wanted to love on my new son but he's not a newborn baby who just sleeps, eats, & cries! He's a 5 year old who runs around, throws fits, tests boundaries, does not want to listen, asks questions over & over, & has a bundle of energy! I admit, there were some days I would cry & wonder what in the heck did we do! I hated that I felt that way because I had been waiting for over a year for our son & here he was & I was wondering how am I going to handle this! When summer got here, I was dreading it! The break school gave me would be gone & I'd have all 4 kids here ALL THE TIME!!! It was hard at first but summer really has been a great bonding time for us. I actually know this kid now! I figured out his likes & dislikes. The feeling changed from a kid I was babysitting to my son. It's amazing how it has changed. I love him like my bio kids. I don't look at him differently at all & even forget people can notice he's adopted since he's much darker than the rest of us. :) I'm shocked the change & adjustments have happened so quickly. It's just natural now.