New Things

There are things, as the typical American child, that we take for granted. Things like warm food, clean clothes and bedtime stories every night. These thingsthat are new to my kids.

In conversation and behavior, we discovered slight things that gave us clues as to their past existence. They fought us at bathtime for the first week. We then realized through interaction with them, that they did not have regular baths at their last home and did not understand needing one everyday at our home. We have some bath toys and bath time has become a fun experience for them as they can play with boats and rubber ducks.

They also have interesting habits with food. When they were found they were about 10-15lbs underweight each. Food was not readily available to them. We discovered the reality of how they survived by one simple incidence.

My husband was going to cook hotdogs for them for dinner one night. We realized that one of the packs of hotdogshad expired the day before. We threw them in the trash can. My husband turned his back for a second and the youngest dug the hotdogs out and was chomping away on one. We quickly rushed and got them out of her mouth. She has repeated this action a couple of times. We realized that this was probably the only way they got food at their other home. The eldest hides grapes, snacks, books and toys under his bed. We have to check from time to time to make sure there is nothing under there. We have heard these are normal actions of children who were deprived of food at one time from the DSS case workers and other parents who have adopted in similar situations. They are so afraid of not having enough to eat. We are working with this. We show them our pantry and refrigerator are full with food and snacks for them. We also let them know that they can have access to it anytime they are hungry. We are hoping this passes within a few months of being in our home.

We also saw how little they had in the way of toys, books and other educational items before. When they came into our home, the first thing they ran to was the basket of dog toys we keep by the fireplace hearth. They grabbed out two a piece like they had found gold. We quickly took those from them and showed them the toys we had for them. The fact that children thought old chewed-on dog toys were the best thing ever, showed us that they had not been provided with such simple things. Every thing they receive is greeted with such amazement. It warms my heart, but breaks it at the same time that they were never given such things in the beginning of their lives. Our kids may come out a little spoiled, but I would much rather that, then having them go back to what they came from.

We got some hopeful news from the caseworker. In November, the judge may order an early termination of rights proceeding. I am trying not to hold on to false hope that may not pan out. The fact that we are even having to fight this battle is ridiculous. You abuse a child you lose your rights, period. This is another example in our legal system, where the prepetrators have more rights than the victims.

We are willing to fight however hard and long we need to so we can try to give these kids a better life. Please keep us in your prayers. Thank you for reading my blog.