It has been a terrible month in the history of Ukraine. I have spent a great deal of time praying for our friends that we met while in Ukraine who received their referral letter the same day we did for their sweet little girl, Alina. I am SO happy they made it home safely this past week! More answered prayer!
Matthew is doing really good. He is SO full of life and energy. We have all said several times this month that it is SO MUCH FUN to have an active boy around the house again. Brandon was a very active boy and we have very much missed having the constant commotion of a boy thumping around here! In all seriousness, please pray for my nerves. Our firstborn son, Brandon, died in a bike accident from being "all-boy" and the constant activeness and dare-devil things that Matthew does really makes my stomach tie up in knots ALL the TIME. I hate to be a helicopter, hovering Mama, but honestly, my nerves are shot, simply because Brandon and Matthew have a very similar activity level.
The other day I nearly had a panic attack when Matthew put his hand down the sink WHILE the garbage disposal was spinning. When I flew across the kitchen like a rocket and grabbed his arm to jerk him back out of danger while screaming, "Matthew NO!!" he laughed at me and said, "Neecheevo (no big deal) Mama. Neecheevo." Little does he know that the disposal could have severed his hand! Earlier in the month he jumped into the pool when it was only 70 degrees outside and the water was probably in the lower 60s. He lost his new contact lens while doing that. God surely protected him from pneumonia. He rode his bike to the outside of the neighborhood with no helmet on and without anyone knowing he was outside (which is not something we allow). He flips and jumps all over the place on the trampoline. He is always in motion and a very big risk taker. Seriously, please pray for my Mama-nerves to settle. I don't want my little boy to get hurt, but I also do not want to be over-protective and hover around him all the time. How many times over the past two years I have wished I WAS over-protective of sweet Brandon, but at the same time, I'm glad I wasn't. Brandon would NOT have been happy if I had restricted his activity. He would have been so miserable. I have decided that I am giving Matthew over to God, but my nerves still get the better of me a lot of the time and I do tend to hover. (He hasn't seemed to notice or mind so far).
What is really neat is Matthew is really settling in well with the family. He has jumped in and contributed to chores around the house. He absolutely loves to help me out. He takes initiative if something needs to be done and does it without being told. He gets along with everyone else in the household very well. He has a wonderful sense of humor and will tease any one of us at any given moment. He doesn't mind being teased back either. Brandon took about 3 months, so we are grateful that so far Matthew has settled into the family within a month of being home and absolutely no sign of RAD or any other behavior issue.
He's already growing like a weed! He came home to us weighing 72 pounds. The first 2 weeks of being home he lost 2 pounds. I'm not sure if he lost weight because of his activity level or if it was because he didn't eat much as I'm sure everything tasted funny to him. He had his U.S. physical the other day and he was up to 75 pounds and 4 foot 9 3/4 inches tall!! He has a wonderful appetite and follows the lead of the other kids by finishing all his food and saying "thank you, Mama" for cooking the meal.
I'll close with an example of his sweetness. A few minutes ago I asked him if he wanted to take a few cookies to eat outside on this sunny day and he said, "No thank you, Mom" then turned to run outside. He stopped dead in his tracks and came back to say, "I love you, Mom" before he happily ran back outside.
He's such a joy to be around and such a wonderful addition to our family. I am taken back by God's goodness in helping us find our long, lost son. Matthew did NOT belong growing up alone in an institution and I'm humbled that God chose us to raise him. He has so much to offer the world and we pray that God allows us to see him grow up to come to a saving faith in Him. We pray that he grows to be a godly, pure man. We pray he will be a hard working man, and that he one day leads his own family to love the Lord as well.
"And whoever welcomes one child like this in My name welcomes Me...See that you don't look down on one of these little ones, because I tell you that in heaven their angels continually view the face of My Father in heaven" Jesus (Matthew 18:5,10).
No comments:
Post a Comment