Let me tell you right off the bat that I am not an attachment expert; I am not an adoption expert. What I am is an expert on MY kids. Because I, like so many before and after me, intended on adopting a baby AYAP (as young as possible for those who don’t know the ‘lingo’), I hadn’t done more than some very basic skimming of the toddler attachment in adoption books. Also I was already a practicing attachment parent so I figured what more did I need to know? Basically what I’m saying is that my kid has taught me a lot but I have no idea how what I’m saying here compares or reflects what is advised or expressed in The Books. So take it for what it’s worth.

Attachment does not have a finish line but rather is an endless journey that ebbs and flows.

I’ve been having a really hard time writing these posts lately. I’ve tried and probably written 5000 words on the topic but none of them have properly encapsulated my experiences. Today I was meditating on the issue of attachment, looking for the missing piece of the puzzle I needed to properly express my thoughts when the above thought entered my mind.

So often you hear internationally adopting parents proclaim, before their feet even hit US soil, that “attachment is great” or “we are well bonded already”. If parents are being very aware, however, and very honest with themselves they will admit that attachment this early on is just not possible. Some children will cling to their adoptive parents in an attempt to make a safe connection with ANYONE but this shouldn’t be confused with true attachment which is a journey, not something with an end point. If you ever say or think “We are done! We are attached!” you need to look closer. Attachment, as a process, will ebb and flow even with biological children. Think about the natural DEtachment that happens during the teen years. Think about your own relationship with your parents – it probably doesn’t look quite the same as it looked when you were 2 (at least I hope not!). Attachment is a journey and how it looks today may not be how it looks next year. I think if you open yourself up to the journey through attachment (instead of to attachment), you are more likely to be aware of weaknesses, strengths and changes and more willing to bend to them or accept them, when appropriate. Or at least I would have been.

It took me a full 16 months to get to the level of attachment I current possess with Addison. She was 6 months old when we met her. She was a searcher which made us feel immediately loved and made her feel, on the very most fundamental survival level, safe and secure. She was easy to know and it, combined with my own instincts, made it easy to know what she really needed and how her personality was really meant to manifest itself. It is only recently, after 16 months of patiently waiting and trying different things, that I have finally seen these needs manifest.

If you had asked me when we left Vietnam if I felt that Addison was attached to us, I think I would have said yes. She wasn’t grieving; she was sleeping, eating and happy. She was even nursing, she let us hold her and she laughed for us and played with us and looked in our eyes. But the thing is she never grieved. She played with anyone. She was a searcher, she looked into anyone’s eyes. She let us meet her needs and so long as she was surviving, she was happy. She had no coping mechanisms to deal with grief, pain, sadness, hunger, exhaustion, illness, etc. So she was either quiet and reserved or happy. To us this felt like attachment but it wasn’t. I mentioned before that it took a long time for her to learn to express negative emotions at all. All of that was part of the on-going attachment process.

Through her first year it was just not 100% there. She was still more or less indiscriminate about her affection. She wasn’t likely to climb into my lap and never asked me to pick her up. She was resistant to me soothing her to sleep; she was resistant to sharing her sleep space with anyone. She even called other people Mom. Of course she was still happy as a lark. But I knew – I just knew – that this wasn’t really her. There was still healing and growth that had to happen.

And sometime in the last 2-3 months it finally just clicked and true attachment really started to happen. Suddenly she needed me in ways that went well beyond survival. She needed me to sooth her tears away (tears!), kiss her owies, and hold her just because. She asks me to pick her up and hold her or carry her. She now needs to feel not just safe but important to me. She developed comfort rituals that involved direct skin contact with her Daddy or I. She stopped calling me Mommy and Mom and started calling me Mama again. She no longer runs to others indiscriminately but sticks close to me and interacted from a more healthy distance. She turns our face to look into her eyes and tells us she loves us, spontaneously. I wish I could say what finally worked, what changed. I have lots of theories but no real answers.

And lest you think this sounds a whole lot like insecurity and regression, let’s talk about that for a minute. Regression is a natural and normal part of the early part of the attachment journey. Regression is also not something Addison was interested in. There were some points we were unbending to – we fed her every single bottle she ever took, we carried her when possible, we rocked her to sleep almost every nap and bedtime. But if you’ve followed my blog for awhile you will know that Addison is naturally driven, extroverted and independent. Regardless of those personality traits, I have always intuitively felt that she was not ready for the big independent steps she wanted to take, that she still had work to be done as a baby that she had not yet done. Now I am finally seeing the manifestation of that. She is still outgoing, she is still very friendly and loves to play with other kids, she still goes off and plays by herself at home. She is not clingy, she is not insecurely needy. She is just….healthy.

I know that the work has just begun, though. To say “we are attached” would be to dismiss the great ebb and flow of human relationships. I can say we are more attached than we had ever been before, for sure. I can say that for the first time in 18 months I can see my daughter’s true potential, her true capacity for love and affection and it is pretty awesome to see after KNOWING it was there for so long and just not being able to coax it out.

I also don’t believe Addison’s attachment is unusual or that she ever had an “attachment problem”. I think that for adoptive parents to believe that a child who has lost not only their first mother whose womb they knew, whose heartbeat they were in sync with, whose sounds and smells were their world for 9 whole months (or more) but then to lose yet another familiar environment most often with loving nannies whose sounds and sights are familiar, smells that are familiar without serious effect regardless of the temperament of the baby is extremely naive. The human spirit is amazing and has the capacity to rebound from these losses but not without much time, much work and much love.

At 24 months old Addison’s spirit has rebounded and now we continue on this attachment journey together.

Friday we went to the park. Snakes were caught, some big, some small. None venomous….this time. Whew. Little did I know this would be the least of my concerns. Friday night I made note of a bug bite on Teegan’s leg that was swollen. It wasn’t bothering him so I didn’t feel too concerned. He tends to be overly allergic to mosquitoes so I assumed it was just his usual mosquito reaction.

Saturday, the bite had doubled in size. Into the ER we went, with thoughts of black widows or worse, brown recluses, on my mind. No, it was just a bite, they assured me. I think this was supposed to be reassuring but all I could think of was that if his body reacted this way to a simple bug bite, how might it react to venom? I do know that all bug reactions aren’t made the same. Right below the mystery bite was a red ant bite. Some people have serious reactions to those and, go figure, Teegan’s was fairly typical. We were sent on our way with oral steroids but told it would resolve on its own either way so we held off on the steroids.

Saturday night I watched as it grew bigger and bigger and bigger and basically took over his leg between ankle and knee. I have to admit I was totally freaked out. Finally a dose of oral Bendaryl (which we have now been instructed to give whenEVER he is bit by any bug) stopped the growth and it has been slowly shrinking since then. Today it’s about the size of a half dollar or a little bigger - about 3 times smaller than it was at its largest.

I have given some serious thought to allergy testing and allergy shots. Teegan has been bit by red ants and stung by bees and wasps without effect. It only seems to be the mosquitoes that are the problem and it seems like it’s getting worse. Google tells me he probably has Skeeter Syndrome but it can really only be diagnosed with allergy tests. Unfortunately Teegan is phobic to needles like I am phobic to dentists. I think he even scared the hell out of the ER when we came in just because he was so totally panic-stricken at the thought of needing to give blood or get a shot that he couldn’t settle. It was awful. So for now, we’ll stick with the Benadryl or Zyrtec this summer along with B1 which I have heard makes one less yummy to mosquitoes. We’ll see.

Sunday Dalton was out at The Hill* with his friends when I called him home. Its a long bike ride home. He sped down the hill, coasting along, when at the bottom he realized the chain on his bike had come off and he wiped out. Can I just say right now that this is why I rest so much easier when BOTH my big kids are out together? And also why BOTH my kids will have cell phones on them at all times when they are away from home. All that said, he fixed his bike and came home just fine. He didn’t need to call me, he didn’t need Teegan. But it freaked me out anyway.

Today its raining. Pouring. The old man is snoring. I really REALLY needed this rain break. All the excitement of the Great Outdoors comes with lots of risks and some days I handle those risks better than others. Today I just want to wrap my boys up and keep them safe forever. Of course I know I can’t and I won’t but I still want to.  I know a lot of people are worried about child predators but to me, the bigger child predators are venomous snakes, spiders whose bite can necrotize human flesh and cars that can hit my kids and leave them for dead at the side of the road.

* the hill is a sidewalk on a very steep hill that the kids meet on to ride down, for fun. Doesn’t every neighborhood have a hill?

Happy second birthday, Miss Addison Mai Noelle Bradley.

Today we celebrate your life. We celebrate your first Mother who chose to give you life. We celebrate your past, your present and your future. We might not have all the answers, we might not be able to fill in all the blanks but there are some things we know. We know you are the most loved baby girl that has ever existed, we know that you have a gift to offer this world and we are incredibly blessed to be the vessel from which you are guided toward that gift. We know that two countries celebrate your life, your joy, your intelligence, your spirit, your beauty.

Addy-Mai, you do 2 like no other! Your spirit and joy are palpable and contagious. You have brought laughter into our home and hearts. People can’t help but smile when they see you, talk to you or watch you. You are a total character. You have sass, you have attitude, you have grace, you have humor, you have sensitivity. You have it all.

You understand that your birthday was coming, you know what this means for you: presents, cake, food! You talk about where you will eat on your birthday and get really excited with the options, you help decide how we will spend your day. You have opinions, you understand complex ideas, you are grasping the concept of time. We get to experience anticipation through your eyes!

You are a talker. You have big long sentences now, you convey everything you are thinking and feeling, you talk out your problems and discuss your opinions. How does this happen in just a matter of months? You still use a few baby signs, specifically the sign of banana, sometimes the sign for more and the signs for ice cream and bird. But now you use the signs like a flamboyant speaker, going on and on about birds while doing the sign, for instance. How is it possible that just 4 months ago you only just strung your first 2 words together?

You are a social butterfly, carefully feeling out situations but willing to giggle with a new friend very quickly. You love to play! You don’t understand when kids are mean or rough, it breaks your heart in a million peices. In your world, there is nothing but love and joy. You are accepted easily into groups because you will openly applaud and encourage other kids’ silliness and make them feel important.

You are still a total girly-girl. You love your babies and your play kitchen. Playing “house” is a full time job. You love to have your nails done. Now that you have long hair, you have developed the age-old ability to shake the hair out of your eyes or brush it aside with a flick of the wrist and you do it with drama and intent! If I brush that hair out of your eyes for you, you will intentionally replace it covering your face so you can dramatically shake it away. You like the accessories - shoes, hats, bows, jewelry, purses. You have already asked to have your ears pierced and are sure you won’t mind the pain. You like new outfits, you love to shop. How does this happen to such a tiny girl?

But no, you aren’t a delicate flower. You are one physical kid. You jump everywhere if you aren’t running at full force. You climb, you explore, you get dirty, you fall and rub your knees and run off again. You will try anything at least once. But you are wiser now and have discovered your limits and so you are careful, steady, wise in your approach to some things. The exception to this would be gymnastics where you may break your neck but it will not stop you from contorting your body in new ways, pushing yourself to the limit. You have a natural gift, you are strong, determined, focused and fearless. This scares me to no end. You challenge all of my vulnerabilities as a parent, what a gift that is! When you aren’t back-bending, front-rolling or doing the splits all over the house, you are throwing and catching balls, playing catch with your baseball and mitt, kicking balls. You also love to dance and can be very dramatic with your dance moves.

Was there ever life before Addy-Mai? Sometimes one of the kids will say just that. No one can remember how we found joy, what we smiled about and who entertained us endlessly before you came into our lives. No one can remember what we did with the ridiculous amounts of love we feel for you. We are more complete, as humans, for knowing you and loving you.

And Addison now I can really say without a doubt that your love and attachment to me are every bit as strong as mine to you. While I loved you at first sight as if you had grown in my womb and sprung forth from my own body, you took much longer to learn to trust again, to learn to rely on human love and nurturing, to learn to feel things other than joy. I remember when I first met you I thought that I would never let you cry again. Now, when you cry, I know that you know I am here, I love you, I will make it better and you can count on me. I will hold you endlessly, carry you next to my heart whenever you need me to, dry your tears, feed your soul and grow your heart. And now I can see in your eyes, hear in your voice and feel in your touch that you know this too.

Today we’ll have a quiet family day…..well, as quiet as our family could possibly be! We’ll share fresh fruit for breakfast, explore the aquarium and ride rides together, cuddle up for a nap together, tear through your gifts, play and play, eat cake and celebrate this amazing human being that is you.

*** for my real picture post of the birthday girl, check out the photoblog