Nik continues to amaze me at his adaptation to life in the United States. He continues to understand us more and more and is speaking more English every day. Recently, I started encouraging him to string words together into simple phrases. As he has learned more English words, his communication with us had started to result in yelling out one word phrases. "Water" at the top of his lungs means "I want water now!" "Eat", "Movie!", and "MOM!" were becoming common so now we are prompting him to say more polite phrases, "May I have water, please?". He is learning quickly, but its a work in progress. I am shocked that Nik knows most of his letters and many of their sounds. His love of books reminds me of Maddie who taught herself to read at his age. And, he is also almost completely potty trained!
Poor Nik has had some not-so-fun doctor visits this month. He had an MRI done a couple of weeks ago to follow up on a brain issue that we knew about when we adopted him (hence, his "special needs" classification in Russia). The Neurologist can't see us until April for follow up, so we don't know the results yet, but he is showing no indicators of problems. Nik also had a visit to the cardiologist to follow up on some confusing statements from his medical reports, indicating a possible heart issue. We are happy to report that a heart echo showed no heart problems! Sadly, we spent this morning at the doctor after Nik woke up sick. He has the flu. We are hoping his first illness with us is short-lived.
Earlier this month, we went to the zoo! We got zoo passes for Christmas and hope for a lot of zoo visits this year. It was a hit. Nik had a great time, as did the rest of us. Watching him see animals for the first time is a lot of fun!
Emotionally, Nik seems to continue to bond with us more and more. When we first got home from Russia, it was hard to tell if Nik viewed us as parents or simply nice caregivers. At this point, Nik seems to be much more connected to us and responds to us very much like Maddie and Dylan do. He tells us he loves us, seeks us for comfort, and is not afraid to get mad if he doesn't get his way! In addition, my heart melts as I listen to him pray. He is forming his own prayers (in English!). The other night he prayed "Dear Jesus, Thank you for brat (Dylan), Maddie, Grammy, AMEN."
Brent and I have closely followed the news of the ban on American adoptions in Russia. I was interviewed for an article in the March issue of Christianity Today magazine on topic, and will try to post the article when it comes out. Almost daily, I am reminded by someone that Nik is such a blessing given that we adopted him just prior to the ban. While my heart breaks for the orphans of Russia who so desperately need families, it has been a blessing to have the constant reminder of God's redemption of Nik. And, it has been a blessing to be able to share this story with so many people.
Here are a few of pictures from our trip to the zoo. The biggest "hits" were the lion (Nik loves to make a "ROAR" sound), the horse (although a little scary up close to Nik) and the elephant statues (it was too cold for the real elephants to come out!)
