The Puzzle I Love

Shaun Groves reflects on the first days of their new adoption:

He speaks sentences of five or six words. He can put on his own shoes, get his own glass of water, throw away his trash after dinner, and use the toilet (most of the time) all on his own. He can count to thirty, name animals in pictures, recite his ABCs. He’s four.

He wakes up two or three times some nights. Sometimes he’d rather be held than walk. Sometimes he’d rather be in a lap than in a chair. If I leave the house to run a quick errand he cries so he’s almost always with me. He’s an infant…or two…or…

Our case worker prepared us well for international adoption. The classes we were required to take have been incredibly helpful, reassuring – we’re not the only ones who’ve ever parented a puzzle. He is a puzzle. Emotion, cognition, body, attachment – every piece of this child is at a different stage of development.

But he’s a puzzle we love.

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