Normal is not an Option

My newest son is a walking paradox. He works overtime to demonstrate his hatred towards Jennie and me. He has an amazing intellect, so he is quite good at knowing the things he can do to push us away, push our buttons, and generally make the entire family miserable. In fact, he has made our family miserable and increased our stress level about 700%. He said his adoption day was the worst day of his life. He has asked several times before he was adopted if he could find a different family…which is why what I about to tell you is so sweet.

On the day our kids adoptions are finalized we have a big party welcoming the kids to the family officially. Its kind of like a wedding ceremony for us. We gather family and friends, make promises to the kids, pray for them and give them meaningful gifts.

One of the gifts is a ring. We explain that the ring is a symbol of the promise we are making to be their parents forever. We buy the rings a little big so the kids can grow into them and have given them the option to wear them on a necklace. We fully expect they’ll keep them in a drawer. Actually, our first two lost their rings rather quickly. But our newest…the one that works so hard to express his hatred…has never had it off since his adoption day. That is quite a feat considering it is too big for him. He has to work consiously to keep it squeezed in between his fingers to keep it from flying off.

I find it ironic that while he is spending so much time trying to push us away and prove that we’ll abandon him, he his literally hanging on so tightly to the promise that we’ll never leave him.