Six years later

I was looking at the calendar and thinking back to the days Wy came home.  I realized that the dates and days match up exactly this year as in 2009. Wy came on an extended visit this day six years ago- Friday, November, 20, 2009. He went back for one night to his foster home and then came home for good on Monday the 23.

  Kind of surreal to think back on this day. I remember it vividly. The fear of the unknown, the happiness, the ten thousand questions going through my mind. Thinking of this little child who had no clue who we were or what we were doing with him. He was 18 months old. He was a baby. We were strangers to him. 

I think of how flawless he meshed into our family. How readily Anna accepted and loved him.

How open our family was to loving someone they had never met. He literally walked through the door and his life completely started over. He didn't have a choice in the matter, he didn't fuss or cry, he just started living. God had His hand in all of these things 

Sometimes I don't give Wy the benefit of the doubt enough.

I don't like to think about his past before us, because it was not a good place. I look at him now and I see this amazingly sweet kid who is so eager to please.

This funny, happy and always ornery boy. This silly and sensitive kid who has a thousand questions and so much to say.

 I sometimes forget where he has come from. I forget how far he has come. From the moment we met him making us smile and always keeping us on our toes. He has empathy deep within him and a sensitivity beyond his years. 

I see this when I see him with his baby sister. I can feel the love he has for her.

The way he tends to her and makes her smile. I pray that at some point he had that as a baby. I pray that someone held him when I wasn't there to. The truth is, he probably didn't. There are many things he didn't get in his first 14 months of life, most of which we will never know. But, I do know that every time he asks to snuggle- I will snuggle. If it makes him feel better to be in our bed to fall asleep, he will come in our bed.

If there are questions he has or answers he needs, I will try to help find them. As he gets older I will do all I can to help him make good choices. To know that no matter what he is a good boy and he is always loved.

That sometimes (well many times;) we yell and he will get in trouble, but that doesn't change how much we love him. We are just trying to help him to be the best Wy he can be. 

Six years ago today we brought this little boy into our home for the first time. Virtual strangers to a toddler who had known nothing but loss and change. We brought him into a home with hugs and kisses and an open pantry door. With apple juice and snuggling. Blankets and stuffed animals. Things he had never really known before. 

When you look back at where he has come from, the little man he has become today is an absolute miracle . Sometimes I forget that he wasn't always mine. Days like today are the perfect reminder of where his life has brought him and what an incredible little person he is now.