18 Months Ago Today....

I arrived home with Alex.....from Ukraine. 

Six months and 12 days after the day we met him at this very airport when we hosted him, he was finally home!

Here he was in the airplane....

And here he is today....in between trick or treating

The same boy and yet so very different.

If you consider the year and a half home and how much he has learned, it's amazing!

Two Halloween's ago he was here on the hosting program and couldn't say "trick or treat"! He said "chicken-chicken". We laugh about it now. Just like we laugh about so many things that were such HUGE obstacles at one point. Things like:

Refusing to bath.

And when bathing, refusing to use soap.

Then once bathed, putting on the same old underwear he had on before. (gag!)

Now Alex is the poster boy for smelling good. In fact there are days when we all choke a little after he's put on his "man perfume". 

He even gel's and spike's his hair all on his own.

We struggled with homework and studying for months and months, I thought we'd struggle forever. 

Sure he has struggles but he attacks his homework, right after school and he has even confessed that he (get this) LIKES to read! (Insert sounds of angels trumpeting!)

I remember thinking that I would never have a two sided conversation with him and now we joke and tease and he's been able to tell me about his past, and the dreams of his future.

Today, I sent him down for hamburger in the freezer and he claimed we didn't have any. I told him we did and he looked again and still couldn't see it. I told him it doesn't SAY hamburger, just look at it. Still couldn't find it so as I walked down with him, we made a deal that if I could find it he'd owe me 10 kisses. Guess who got ten kisses today? And I didn't let him give them to me all at once - like he wanted to. I took one here and there all throughout the day. I told him that if I gave him a candy bar he could have saved it and eaten just a little all day long...right? That's what I wanted to do with my kisses.

Yep, we still have struggles but we've come so far. (Yes, I said we've. Because truth be told, I've been beside him, behind him, pushing him and dragging him - sometime kicking and screaming!)

I asked him today if it feels like he's been home eighteen months? No, he says he feels like he's been here three years! 

I, myself feel like he's always been here, how could we have been whole without him?

So happy 18 month's Alex!

We're so glad you're home!