Six months ago we met and adopted Hunter from Bien Hoa orphanage in Dong Nai province, Vietnam. He came to us happy, smiling and full of exuberance. That has remained a constant. He also came to us not knowing how to share, take turns (especially with girls), cat calling attractive women, simulating gun play and throat slashing. Happily - most of that is gone.
Within 2 months, he stopped saying almost all Vietnamese words and he learns more and more English every day. He no longer struggles for words or spends time converting in his mind from Vietnamese to English. He talks in complete sentences and full paragraphs. We have lost count of how many total words he knows and we suspect it in in the thousands. He talks openly about his life in Vietnam and it is his favorite way to delay bed time. He knows we will let him stay up and talk about that topic far longer than we let him otherwise.
In 6 months, Hunter has learned to swim, fish, kayak, ride a bike, hit a baseball. He has learned to take out the trash, fold his clothes and take a shower by himself. He loves to play video games with big brother Marshall is is quite willing to play Barbies or house with Lily. He is the first one to run up front when the kids are called up at church around the table as the minister prepares the Eucharist. He can say grace, the Lord's Prayer and the Hail Mary. He can sing the Sponge Bob theme song and the ABC song. He counts to 20 (often skipping 12-17) and can write is name. He hates when anyone calls him Hung and refuses to respond to anything other than Hunter. He can spell all our names.
He still loves to eat fish eyeballs and any weird tropical fruit. He gets in trouble at school at least once or twice week for being "loud," "rowdy" or "rambunctious." His ESOL instructor says her biggest challenge is to keep Hunter from calling out the answers when she is trying to get other kids to speak. He is a bit of a mommy's boy and he loves to snuggle and cuddle. He loves teasing and rough housing with Daddy. He is adored by his Grandmas, aunts, uncles and cousins. He has formed a fast friendship with friends Jacob and Maddy (adopted from China) and their new sister Sarah just home from Ethiopia.
He is all boy - bright and beautiful and our little hero. Integrating him into our family was one of the hardest things we have ever done but our "new normal" is pretty fine.
Six months ago we met Hunter's foster parents. The very first question they asked us, as their "son" Hung ran to be with his new big brother Marshall and Lily sobbed gut wrenching, hysterical tears of intense jealousy, was how close did we live to Hung's foster sister who had been adopted more than a year earlier. We could see the look of disappointment when we told them about 12 hours by car. Jim and I immediately promised them that we would get the kids together as soon as possible and reassured them we were in contact with her adoptive family. We delivered photos her family had asked us to carry with us.
Tomorrow, this Florida family of 5 boards a plane to Kansas City, Mo. and then will rent a car to drive 4 plus hours to Iowa to meet Hunter's foster sister and her beautiful family. What a gift that both these children are home with their forever families and that we can make sure the kids remember the love they shared and they received while they waited. The words to Steven Curtis Chapman's song "I Will Be There" keeps running through my mind:
I will be true
to the promise that I made
to you and to the one who
gave you to me....
Within a few hours, the last two children to be referred in Dong Nai will meet their forever families. Annette and Dustin, Peter and Ana - may this day be everything you dreamed of for the last 2 years and so much more. Our prayers are for an easy transition for Jacob and Dannette. Praise God that these families, like us, will be no longer waiting.
If you read this and are grateful Hunter or the other Holt families are home with their precious children, please say a prayer for those children throughout the world who continue to wait for their forever families.
