What were you doing one year ago today?

I know it's been a while.  I have good intentions.  Really, I do!  I just don't have the time to follow through with my good intentions...

We're coming up on our one year anniversary.  I look back and am just plain amazed at the progress this child has made.  And the progress this family has made!  Viktor has adjusted to being mainstreamed at school (with proper ESL support of course!).  He very confidently asks what things mean if he doesn't understand.  He no longer has the melt downs and feels stupid.  He has made some friends and figured out what foods he likes and doesn't like.  He loves his brother and his dogs.  He loves mom and dad too!  He will come to us for comfort and love and support.  He feels safe here.  And he feels loved here.  But there is still a part of him that is scared, down right petrified actually.  He saw something on TV about the "hot sauce" mom that was on Dr. Phil.  His eyes were very wide when he turned to me and said "You won't do that to me, please mom?  I don't like hot sauce!".  I reassured him vehemently that I would NOT do that to him.  Ever!  How awful to not be sure of the love of your mother, to be sure that she wouldn't do that to you.  To not even give it a second thought...oh how I wish I could give this child that peace of mind.  Maybe with time...

Despite his adjustment, Viktor misses the food, his buddies and his language.  But he wouldn't go back.  He is very happy here.  When we tease him mercilessly, we remind him that he picked this family, he could have said "No way do I want THAT family to adopt me!".  We ask him constantly "Dude, what WERE you thinking?". 

On another note, since we are well within the timeline where we started our first trip last year, Viktor and I started reading the blog from day 1.  We read one day at a time so he can see how things unfolded.  He is mesmerized by the accounting of our journey from this side.  He remembers so many things from those visits!  We talk about how he felt as things played out.  What he was told, what we were told.  What letters or documents he wrote as his contribution to the massive paperwork and how many copies.  What horrible things he had to recall and document.  He's seeing what documents we had to prepare, meetings with notaries and lawyers and inspectors and directors and on and on.  He had no understanding of what was happening to make sure that we had court and could finally get him home.  He's getting the picture now!  He remembers that our coordinator Lesya disappeared and he had no idea where she went.  The blog talked about how she went back to Kiev with paperwork.  "Oh!", he says.  Things started to make sense from his viewpoint.  And he remembers how hard it was to communicate when she was gone.  Alas, my Russian really hasn't improved much!  Thank goodness his English has...