ABCs of Adoption: V is for Victory

With what may seem like endless amounts of setbacks it is important to celebrate the victories, however small they may be.   Finding the positives at times can be challenging, but without them it is hard to see the light of day at times.  Some of the small victories we have celebrated recently:

• Junior didn't wake us up until 5:45 AM.  I would much rather sleep another hour or two, but this is so much better than being woken up at 2, 3 and 4 AM.   
• We get daily progress reports or point sheets from school.  At the beginning of the year junior was earning only 10-20% of the available points.  When he got to 50% it was cause for  huge celebrations.
• Junior played independently by himself for 30 minutes.  

These may not seem like much but they are signs of progress and we are trying to focus on the positives.   A year ago junior couldn't go more than 5 minutes without needing us for some reason, and asking him to play by himself was impossible - last weekend we asked for 30 minutes of quiet time and we got 40!   We were thrilled.

The look on junior's face when we tell him how proud we are or make a big deal out of what may seem to us as a small accomplishment is worth it.  While he isn't composing sonatas at 7 years old or starting his own company he has come so far in the last year and that is cause for huge celebrations.