Progress

In the world of bonding with an adopted child, progress frequently comes slowly and in unexpected ways.

This morning, progress looked like an eight year old asking, "Mom, can you hold me like a baby?"

So there, right in the middle of making breakfast, I picked up my big boy and rocked him and sang him the same songs I sang his siblings when they were babies.

This is progress!  That he would let me hold him and treat him like a baby is a good sign.  It's a sign that he wants to have a mommy to take care of him.  He wants to trust me to meet his needs instead of feeling like he must always be looking out for himself.

When his sisters wanted me to pick them up and rock them and sing to them he said, "She did this for you when you were little!  I didn't get to have that."  And it's true.  All of my other kids were rocked and held and sung to, and they learned to trust mommy's love for them.  Slowly, much slower than we had anticipated, Marcus is learning to do the same.  This makes my heart very happy!