Bonding is ohhh so sweet :)

I didn't realize it had been a week since we last posted :/ Obviously, life here at the Grabowski household has been a bit crazy but ohhh so worth it!
A day or two after our last post an amazing thing occurred with Luke. I know I keep on saying that word amazing but Luke is blossoming like a flower and I can't think of any other word that describes our feelings. I can't remember if I read about doing this or perhaps it was Dr. Farber's team who relayed these words of wisdom to me but it worked!!! Remember in the last post how I told everyone we were having difficulty with Luke and his afternoon naps? It's almost as if he wakes up extremely disoriented and doesn't know where he is...you feel so bad for him as he is crying his little eyes out. He cries for a good 30 to 45 minutes, it truly is heart wrenching!!! It was suggested to me that when Luke gets up from his nap that I automatically take him to a mirror, talk to him in a calming voice...such as I Love you Luke, Mama's here for you, etc., let him see himself in the mirror and Mama holding him close to me, kissing him, loving him. Well, it worked!!! I was just as astonished as everyone who is reading this right now :) He only cried for 20 minutes, which is about what we our at right now. I just keep thinking "baby steps" everything happens in "baby steps". It's like watching magic, honestly it is!!!
I also want to say we are having eating issues with Luke. Not that huge but probably worth mentioning. When we first received custody of him, after court, we noticed this child is a big eater...then again we are basing everything on Ryan and Ryan is not a typical eater, I think there are some days when Ryan survives on air, honestly! He ate as much as Ron in Russia. When he came home he still ate as much as Ron, if not more at that point. I mentioned this to Dr. Farber (b/c as I've said we never truly had any of these issues with Ryan, if anything Ryan never eats enough) and she told me that once Luke feels comfortable in his surroundings on a daily basis and he knows that the food will always be there, we will see a change. Well, low and behold we have been seeing a change for about 5 days now, where he is starting to "actually" leave food on his highchair and giving us the sign of all-done. Again, I'm going to say it...amazing!!!
I believe that Ron, Ryan, Luke and myself are now into a routine. Which I think makes life a little more easy to live. Dr. Farber said to maintain structure, predictability and provide a routine...as much as possible. This is especially important the first six months to allow the child to learn to trust their new environment and of course their new parents.
Those first two weeks home were unpredictable, I will state that. We (especially me) went from caring for a 5 year old (Ryan) who is basically self-sufficient to an 18 month old, who came off the plane running!!! We tell everyone (jokingly, of course) that he doesn't crawl, he doesn't cruise, he doesn't even walk...he runs to get from point A to point Z and everywhere in between. A friend of mine told me that it's not as if we had 18 months with him to prepare for him running everywhere. I told her she was exactly correct in this statement! I've re-learned what it is like to care for a toddler again but yet he is still an infant in many, many ways. These past few weeks have been an eye-opening experience but like I've stated before "ohhh so worth it"!!!
It finally is starting to feel like he is ours. I've stated this to Ron and to friends of ours (Jesse and Jason) that it felt as if we were babysitting him at first, then again I have felt this way with Ryan too. It's just a surreal feeling is the point I'm trying so eloquently to get at. I do believe that other adoptive parents have felt this way...or at least I hope so :/ But unless you have been through the whole process of adoption, I think it's difficult to relate. I truly did not mean to offend anyone and if I did I'm sorry :(

Love & HUGS,
Jenny, Ron, Ryan & Luke :)