But each adoption is different—each kid with a special need
is different—and at this point in our journey, we are also so aware of the
impact the orphanage had on Matthew. For 18 months, our boy basically lay in a
crib without much interaction at all. This means that while a normal infant in
a family developed alongside plenty of snuggles, kisses, songs, words, and
facial expressions, Matthew probably likely stared at the cold boards of his
crib bottom or the white walls of the room where he lay. It’s not much
stimulation for a little person who has just entered the world. And we are
seeing the effects of that lack of stimulation in very significant ways right
now.
These days I spend my time flip-flopping between feeling so
proud of Matthew for all that he is accomplishing and feeling impatient with
how slowly his progress is coming along. Everyone we talk with and run into
wants to know about Matthew—how he’s doing, how his mouth is healing, and if
he’s talking. I have to admit I’m a little tired of that last question, because
my answer is still NO. No, he isn’t talking.
I’d rather they ask me what he IS doing—what he’s learning,
how he’s attaching and continuing to settle into our family—because I do have
many wonderful things to share.
I thought it might help other adoptive families reading our
blog, and our friends and family who follow our story here, if I laid out a
couple things for all of you:
First, we’ve been encouraged to think about Matthew’s
“homecoming” as the start of his developmental life. He’s been home just over
nine months, which means in many ways that developmentally he should be at the
level of a nine month old baby.
To top that off, when he had his palate repaired in late
November, we learned that he had basically NO hearing in either of his ears. So
those first five months, from June to November, he wasn’t able to develop his
language or speech at all because he couldn’t hear a thing. His palate repair
was four months ago, which means that in terms of speech and language
development, he’s about the age of a four month old.
Nine months in physical development, four months in language
development. Those of you who know Matthew will agree that he’s definitely
farther along than these developmental markers. In fact, we had another
assessment today by our speech therapist, and based on her results, she said
he’s about 23 months in gross and fine motor skills, and about 10 months in
speech and language (all for a boy who is, in total, just 27 months old).
This is good news. He’s gained a lot of development over the
past few months (since starting speech). Our first evaluation plotted him at 4
months for speech and 16 months for gross and fine motor skills. So he’s
developed along at rapid pace, almost doubling his development in three months.
I wrote these results in my mind and on my heart today, to
remind me when I begin to feel discouraged that our boy is learning and growing
in so many ways.
Speech therapy isn’t just about making the mouth shape the
consonant and vowel sounds. It’s also about developing all those pre-linguistic
skills of play and interaction. These skills weren’t developed in Matthew when
they normally should have, so he’s working hard to catch up. He’s started
signing, which is a blessing because he can finally start telling us when he
wants something.
The biggest gift to us right now is the fact that Matthew
has attached so beautiful to our family. Whenever I start to feel discouraged,
I think about how life would be if he talking but refusing to attach to his
parents. It would be incredibly difficult to parent a child with an attachment
disorder—and I have the greatest respect for those of you who are facing this
challenge.
Sometimes I wonder how much differently it feels to parent
Matthew than to parent any other child with a special need—or if it’s really
different at all? Since the attachment piece is in place, we are dealing with
advocating for his needs, supporting him, determining how much to expect and
how much to let go. Parents who have kids on the whole spectrum from ADHD to a
severe genetic cognitive delay know the challenges of these kinds of tasks. I
now understand the strange looks from people in the grocery store—although unlike
some parents I know, I haven’t yet learned to ignore them. Our boy is still
young and quite cute (at least we think so), which goes a long way for us in
terms of helping him appear endearing to other people.
However, part of me just thinks, “who cares?” It’s not like
strangers in the grocery store know our story, or Matthew’s story. He’s doing
such a good job learning and growing—and yes, he’s delayed in some things very
common for adopted kids with cleft issues. But the beauty of it is that we are
here to support him through it all. We are here to advocate for him, to help
him learn, and that’s our job.
I’ve been feeling very emotional about all this for the past
many weeks now—emotional to the point of tears several times. Sometimes I feel
guilty or ashamed when I am frustrated with Matthew and his slow development—because
I know that among all the things he needs, one of the things he needs MOST is a
family that is supporting him through every step.
And while this isn’t exactly what I was expecting with this
adoption, I was expecting it to be hard—I just didn’t know how. We welcomed
Matthew into our lives and our family aware of the fact that he would bring
needs with him—that we would use some of our best energy helping him grow and
learn.
And I could make a very long list of all the ways he has
grown and changed and developed, especially over the past four months since his
palate repair, but I won’t. I will let this post be as it is—telling the truth
of this moment in my heart and in our family and for Matthew. Tomorrow, perhaps,
it will be a different reality. When he says his first word, my blog post will
be FILLED with elation and joy—and the long-awaited reality of verbal
communication for our son.
But until that day, I will see each and every moment with him
as the gift that it is, and try to cling to my best enthusiasm and hope for
him, which is really all he needs from me.
Matthew and big brother Sam, one of his favorite playmates! |