Joy in the Journey: June 2012

I am so sorry it has taken me so long to post a blog since we have been home. I never knew what busy was before I got this little guy. ;) Believe it or not, Jack has been home one whole month today! It has certainly been a tough journey so far, but he seems to get happier by the day. I have debated on sharing some of this with you all, but really it is harder for me not to tell the truth. I'm not good about hiding my feelings and feel that in sharing this truth, I hope to encourage others that may go through a similar post adoption experience.
For me, the first two weeks we had Jack were the toughest weeks I ever experienced in my life. Jack was not very happy with us, and he would show it by hitting us and scratching himself. Sleep deprivation (only getting a couple hours of sleep several days) and not being able to communicate with each other, added to our frustrations. It was beyond difficult to feel such rejection from the child we had wanted for so long. We expected things to be tough on Jack's end, but really didn't know how tough it would be on us, and it caught Bryan and I off guard. After some time and prayer, though, we realized we had to readjust our expectations and know that this was going to take some time for us and for Jack to feel like a family. We needed to constantly remind ourselves that this is a major adjustment for Jack and we need to rely on God and love our little guy through it.
As cute as Jack is, he formed a lot of, what we would consider, bad habits while in Korea. Jack wasn't told "no" very much and was very used to getting his way. So, sometimes, Jack can be a very stubborn little man. :) His diet wasn't very good either. At 16 months, he was still taking an 8 oz bottle every three hours, and only eating rice and cookies/chocolate. So, we have been working hard on improving these things.
By the third week, things were getting a little better, once we were sleeping during the night, had a good routine, and he could understand when we said "no" we meant "no." ;) We got him down to two bottles a day and eating almost anything (except veggies, of course.) And this last week, Jack's seems to be getting a little more comfortable with us and his personality is starting to show more.
Jack, of course, possesses MANY qualities that Bryan and I love about him. He has lots of energy but can also be sweet and gentle. He is very curious and perfectly fine following his mommy around all day long watching everything I do. He loves music and dances and sings. He also likes stuffed animals and loves to give them big hugs. He smiles a lot, especially for the camera (as you can see below). :) He loves to eat and uses sign language to say "eat," "more," and "all done." Jack doesn't speak much English yet, but can say, "all done," "hi," and whispers "night night" when we go take a nap.
Jack has been sleeping in his crib pretty much since week two, but one of us has to be in the room with him. He gets up once or twice just to see if we are in there with him, but goes right back to sleep. We have our mattress on the floor in the nursery and hope to be moving out soon. Just these past few days, I have been sneaking out during his nap (like right now) by putting pillows under the blanket, so he thinks I'm still there. ;) I have been able to get a little work done while he naps and then I sneak in before he wakes up. We hope to get him off his bottle completely too, but trying to take it slow. The poor thing has been through a lot. Even though it has been hard this last month, I can truly say it gets better every day. I believe the biggest thing that has gotten me through this past month is yall's prayers. Even though we are finally home with our son, finding "joy in the journey" still continues, and your prayers are always so appreciated. Thank you all for your emails, notes, gifts, meals, texts, calls, and just the love you have shown us. We are so humbled and love you all!

A few pics from the past month...