A Month Home

It is truly amazing that a month has passed since we met and adopted Maya. This happened on July 21st and 22nd that are as important as the birth of a child. In a way that's exactly what it was, a birth in our family and we had a little baby girl named Maya, ok not so little, she s nine years old going on sixteen at times and being barely five at others. Her transition to her new life has not been easy by any means. I'm sure she expected some changes but this is beyond anything she could've imagined.  Some days she's taking it like a trooper and others she does everything possible to alienate us. It was all to be expected but still hard to go through.

And now it's already been a month, short of two days since we've been home. July 31st was when we returned from China all tired and bleary eyed from the long plane ride home but excited to be on Canadian soil, to see everyone we love and to bring Maya to our family fold. It was a very long day and as tired as we were it was hard getting to sleep that night because of everything that's happened. We were a family of six now. Things would be different.

Since then days have passed one by one filled with happy, sad and awkward moments. There certainly have been all kinds of moments and emotions going on around this house but certainly never a dull moment.  We've battled sickness, some nasty cold virus. My husband and I each took a turn with it but Maya was not affected. She may have just had it or was immune to it. This made handling the transition even harder. Sometimes energy was lacking when truly needed but even so days have passed, weeks have passed and now it's been a month since we came home from China.

We were trying to keep up school so she can learn English as well as continue her Chinese. School wasn't always successful because she often got frustrated because I was teaching her things she already learned a long time ago but I'm trying to teach you the words for it, sometimes that was ok and sometimes it wasn't, she still wasn't interested. When she wasn't interested nothing really worked.

Brandon came over and wondered what to do with Maya because she wasn't going home - the home that was somewhere else not grandma's house. He tries though in his three year old way to get used to this but has some hard times transitioning himself. It is very much like if his mom had a baby and he realizes the baby is not going away or if he was in school and he figures out he's not the only kid in class. What is a little boy to do?  Retaliate of course any way he knows how but slowly he is learning to get along. It could be a very hard fact of life, to get along with others.

Sometimes they are very much like siblings instead of aunt and nephew, teasing, poking, pinching. Yes, this is her hand trying to steal his dad's hat but he would not have it. He was fiercely protective. 

This beautiful smile is also a smile for I don't hear you, I'm not listening or I'm going to do this and you can't stop me. Some days it can push my buttons and others I know to leave well enough alone. Older child adoption seems to be all about learning when to step up and when to back up, not always easy that is for sure.

And this little guy was going to roll in the puddle on his roller coaster even if he got his pants soaking wet so what's the use of getting upset when it's just a moment in time that will pass and tomorrow will be another day.

Maya Lanlan you certainly give me a run for my money sometimes but that too shall pass and I will still be your mom and you will still be my daughter. Soon you will know that your forever family will be here forever.