A Match Made In Heaven?

When we started our adoption back in 2006, our Peanut was just barely four. He was still very much a Mommy's boy, and I was more than a little bit worried how we react one day when our Maia finally came home. Along the way we tried to keep him as involved as we could in the whole process, even taking him along for fingerprinting a few times! We wanted him to be as much a part of the whole experience as we could, and we tried not to keep any "secrets" from him about the reality of what was coming. We let him help us paint Maia's room, pick out some special clothes and toys for her and set up her room before our trip. Funny thing was that he actually seemed genuinely excited about her from the very beginning, even though I knew he couldn't quite undertsand or grasp the whole idea of adopting.

As the years went by, Maia was almost like a ghost in our house. We talked about her so much over the two and a half year journey that she almost seemed to exist with us in an eerie sort of way. When we thought we were headed to Vietnam in the fall of 2007, we hurried to finish up her bedroom, and so we ended up having a beautiful pink room for almost 2 years upstairs. I think, even though this was torture for Mommy, it really helped Peanut to accept the reality that his sister was coming.

When the time came to leave for China, no one was as excited to as Peanut was! For him, and for us all, it was the adventure of a lifetime. When we met our Maia for the first time, I could see in Peanut's eyes that he was completely mesmerized with her. In China, he shared a room with my Mom, so he and Maia had some space and weren't together all the time. It went so well that I could hardly believe it.

But when we came home, and Peanut realized Maia was here to stay, he had some very difficult moments. He missed Mommy a lot, and had a hard time understanding why Maia was allowed not only to sleep in our room, but in our bed. (This wasn't exactly our plan, but it ended up being our plan when all else failed:). Our Peanut definatey needed some TLC, some alone with Mommy time, and a lot of reassurance at first that he hadn't lost his special place in our hearts. We actually let him "camp out" with Daddy in the living room a lot those first few weeks, and this really seemed to help ease the transition. Now he doesn't seem a bit bothered by Maia being our bed, but I have to laugh when he tells her "You know, SuSu, that when you turn five you have to move to your big girl bed". I guess he already has this all planned out for her!

Somehow, we all muddled through that first month or so, and Peanut seemed to make his peace with his sister along the way. In fact, instead of just tolerating her being here, the two of them have become inseparable! What seems to help is that SuSu looks up to Peanut so much, and he loves to be able to show her how everything in teh world works. Because she's so tiny, I think he feels like he's taking care of her in a lot of ways, and we try to praise him over and over for that.

What I always prayed for for Peanut was that this whole experience would not only be a blessing for us, but for him, too. When I see them together today, I know that he truly does "get it", and it does my heart so much good! I can only pray that God continues growing and strengthening the love they share, and thank Him daily for the miracle He's doing in our Peanut's heart!