Wongs Loving Life: Come so Far

"Hold on, to me as we go

As we roll down this unfamiliar road

And although this wave is stringing us along

Just know you’re not alone

Cause I’m going to make this place your home."

It's hard to believe that James has been home almost seven months and that next week we will go before the judge and he will finalize what our hearts have known for a very long time.

This amazing story of how we found what was missing in our family...only it was not something that was missing..it was someone....the adventure that took us half way around the world ...the long journey that was filled with many delays, that tested our patience over and over again, that taught us that sometimes all you have is faith and that you must learn to lean on it more during the really hard times...this miraculous story that has come to be over the last three years has found its way to the courthouse and in eight days a judge will put his seal on it... he will put into writing what has been written in our hearts.

It is amazing to think about just how far we have come...How hard, exhausting, and
just how messy those first days were. It seems like a million years ago that this little boy had his whole world turned upside down when he traveled half way around the world to come to the place that he would eventually call home.

James came off the plane active...

and it wasn't until bedtime that the grief set in.

Words cant express how hard it is to see a child grieve the loss of the family that they have known and loved for so long. I had to remind myself often that foster care was not a permanent solution, and that finally this sweet child would never have to say goodbye to a family ever again- that we were forever. Sometimes at night, when his grief set in and he would cry so hard, I would cry too. I cried because we live in an imperfect world where this little boy has had to know this kind of loss...I cried because I had already loved him so much and it hurt to see him hurt..I cried because there was nothing else I could do to fix his scared and hurting heart. Finally when he would fall asleep I would stay awake and watch him all night..I would listen to him call out in his sleep...and I would pray that one day we would be a family.

"When you first arrived home it was hard to see you in such pain and experiencing such grief. You cried for your Omma and I wished that I could make her appear to comfort your hurting heart. You cried so hard and I could see the hurt in your eyes and I wondered if you would ever let me comfort you - would you ever let me be your Mama." - From my blog at a few weeks home.

He would fall asleep with his blanket as I sat next to him quietly telling him that it was all going to be ok..He wouldn't let me hold him ...he didn't trust us yet...those first days this was the only way he would fall asleep.

Then slowly his personality started emerge.

Slowly I started to see the little boy that I met in Korea before his world was

rattled so hard....before everything changed for him.

He started to look at sister and follow her lead.

Slowly I knew that everything was going to be alright.

That we just needed time.

And one day, after a few weeks home, he looked at me with his huge grin and called me Omma.

He called me Omma!!! He knew that I was his mother the way I had always known that he was my son.

And slowly, we became a Family.

Slowly, he trusted us...

more and more each day.

Weeks went past...and then months...

and we found our new normal.

We saw more and more smiles....

and less and less tears.

7 months ago I would have never believed that we would get to this good place...this place where we know that James is secure in his attachment...that he understands that we are his mother and father and is happy because of it. A place where when he tantrums its because he is two and not out of frustration
because he does not understand what is going on around him.