Blerg! I Totally Forgot To Do a Six Months Home Entry.

What kind of mother am I anyway? Let's not answer that and move right along...

You already know parts of the story. It was hot. It was July in China. I was a wreck. He was already there. He had a broken blue truck. We were video taped for about an hour by the Orphanage Staff. We met a boy.
That boy was miserable really. Not physically but, emotionally. He was just a bundle of survival mechanisms and they were mostly of the "negative" persuasion. He was hell bent on survival and getting what he wanted/needed and he did this by extreme emotional shifts with a serious rut in the not so cute or endearing full on fight mode. Also he was nearly two, so you know, terrible two's and all that, on top of everything else.
It has been tough. HE was tough. He had this crackling, scratchy outer layer that we have had to wear down with love and patience and stability.
And then one day, something happened. I realized that he was getting it. He was starting to let go of the food issues. He was smiling more and laughing regularly. He was actually, you know, PLAYING.
We are not quite there yet. There is still alot of work on everyone's part, yet to be done. But he is a completely different child than the one I crossed that hot room for.
He is snuggly and smiley. Warm and open. He is Liam Wayne Ao Zhuang. He is parts of China and parts of us. He is our son.
These past six months have been hard. And wonderful. Amazing and maddening.