For the first time since his arrival, Roman chose to read the book "Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born." It was written by JL Curtis about her experience adopting a daughter. I have read the book myself a few times but never out loud, to Roman. I explained to him what it was about, and as we read I compared the story to our own journey to adopt Roman. He asked all kinds of questions, also for the first time. "What's a baby home?" "Was I a baby or a little boy?"
At one point he pointed to a picture of the exhausted parents on the first night of having a baby and asked, "are those my parents?" I explained that we did not have any pictures of his Russian parents but told him a little about each one. Between tears, of course. Tears of happiness because he's ours, regret that we can't connect him to his homeland very well, melancholy because I can't fill in all the holes for him yet and make him understand. Not sure I want to fill in all the holes of his story for him. I explained, also for the first time, that both he and I grew in another woman's special baby place (how we finally had to call it, as Roman did not like the idea of babies in tummies) and then came to live with our family. I explained that is called adoption.
Way too much information for him, but it's a start. We definitely have to keep the conversation going now - with our friends Nicole & Paul having a baby, Roman definitely has become more "knowledgeable" about where babies come from, and just starting to figure out that his story is much more complicated.
At one point he pointed to a picture of the exhausted parents on the first night of having a baby and asked, "are those my parents?" I explained that we did not have any pictures of his Russian parents but told him a little about each one. Between tears, of course. Tears of happiness because he's ours, regret that we can't connect him to his homeland very well, melancholy because I can't fill in all the holes for him yet and make him understand. Not sure I want to fill in all the holes of his story for him. I explained, also for the first time, that both he and I grew in another woman's special baby place (how we finally had to call it, as Roman did not like the idea of babies in tummies) and then came to live with our family. I explained that is called adoption.
Way too much information for him, but it's a start. We definitely have to keep the conversation going now - with our friends Nicole & Paul having a baby, Roman definitely has become more "knowledgeable" about where babies come from, and just starting to figure out that his story is much more complicated.
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