Ephraim’s One Year Adoption Anniversary

How has this little guy only been a part of our family for the last year? He is silly, rough and tumble and yet sweet and sensitive. He is seriously the funniest two year old I have ever known, he makes me laugh out loud every day. He loves to make everyone laugh and his smile is absolutely contagious.

Tomorrow, November 17th, is one year since we passed court and Ephraim officially became our son. I feel like the year has gone so well. When we met with our social worker way back in the beginning when we started our homestudy it felt like she really warned us about attachment and all the things that could go wrong and how difficult it could be (she was just doing her job) but it has gone amazingly well. Right from the beginning Ephraim knew the boundaries, actually, he pretty much made his own. He knows we are his parents and he has become so affectionate and will just randomly run up to us throughout the day, hug our legs and say “I love you so much!” Or if he sees Jared and I hugging he’ll run over and grab our legs together and yell “FAMILY HUG!”

Attachment has not been an issue, looking back on the last year I would say the “issues” we’ve had have all been medical, but thankfully nothing has been overly serious.

I thought I’d give you a little overview of the year in bullet points:

• in November & December we spent just over five weeks together in South Africa, taking in the sights but mostly focusing on getting to know each other
• we arrived home a couple days before Christmas and were able to celebrate the holiday with our immediate sides of the family without overwhelming him too much
• one of our suitcases didn’t make it home with us (and still remains MIA to this day), which had the majority of Ephraim’s medication for TB, so we had a lot of trips to the TB clinic for the first while
• we took life pretty slow the first few months, just going to doctor appointments, church and seeing family & friends
• in March Ephraim had his first two seizures, an ambulance ride and a night in the hospital
• April had us taking a road trip out to BC with my parents to see my brother graduate from Bible School, Ephraim wasn’t a fan of all the sitting but he made it through
• May 1st was Ephraim’s 2nd birthday, he woke up at 5:30 with a fever (due to immunizations) and welcomed his birthday in with his third seizure, thankfully he was able to nap for a few hours and woke up ready to party
• we had a few parties the weekend of his birthday and also our first post-placement homestudy visit
• he really shows his inquisitive side, he always needs to know how things work, how parts move, etc, unfortunately, he’s broken a few things trying to see how far some of the parts would bend, but he’s getting better with that
• the summer had us spending lots of time outside and taking a few trips to the lake (one with friends & the other with family), of course with Ephraim’s luck, he got the hugest leech stuck to his foot (a little salt and we got the guy off)
• Ephraim learned his shapes really quickly, his favorite is the hexagon (which to him also includes octagons), and he loves pointing them out as we are driving
• we also spent the summer doing a number of stool samples and rounds of medication to remove a parasite (fun stuff – *sarcasm*)
• we have done tons of reading, Ephraim likes to read the same books over and over, his favorites are:
  • The Foot Book
  • One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
  • Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You Hear?
  • Monster Says I’m Sorry
  • Up, Up, Down
  • How Do Dinosaur’s Say Happy Birthday
• Ephraim has had a couple of appointments with an eye surgeon, he currently wears an eye patch for an hour a day, alternating eyes each day, to help with his strabismus (his eyes don’t look in the same direction), it has been helping but he will still need surgery some time next year
• he loves to sing and can stay on key pretty well, his favorites have been Jesus Loves Me, Twinkle Twinkle, ABC’s and Rend Collective’s My Lighthouse (often he’ll come up to me “Mommy, can we My Lighthouse, shining in the dark?”
• fall brought a couple viruses upon our house, one of which Ephraim caught and resulted in two seizures and a trip to the hospital (nothing to be concerned about but two seizures in 24 hours is uncommon but seems to be Ephraim’s specialty)
• nap time is starting to be phased out, he’s fighting it hard but has troubles going the whole day if he doesn’t nap
• and most recently: we started potty training, now that we’ve got the official word that he is clear of parasites it’s time to get it done! Thankfully he actually started initiating it a few weeks ago so it shouldn’t be too hard (famous last words?)

It’s crazy to realize how much has changed and taken place in the past year. I forget until I start to really think about it. A year ago they told us this little boy was “lively” but when they put him in our arms he was still and quiet. He was quiet for days after we passed court, but slowly his personality has come to life and he is showing his lively personality. He is still not 100% himself when we go out, and he does get overwhelmed and worked up in bigger groups but if you could see him at home . . . he’s a sweet & silly little firecracker.

In an effort to not overload this post with a million photos, I’ve included a video of the year in photos: