Could this be for real?

Children from the system have attachment disorders. Children from the system struggle with school. Children from the system are insecure. Children from the system fight you and fling poo.

This is what we heard. This is what we expected. This is what we were prepared and willing to deal with.

Aiden is loving and huggy. He likes to sit in our laps, but not for too long because he has things he wants to play with. However, if he gets hurt, he will curl up in our laps and put his head on our shoulders, just like all our other kids.

Aiden is super smart. There is a minor speech impediment (the result of chronic ear infections--if you can't hear, you can't speak correctly), but that is correctible with some speach therapy. He knows his letters, his numbers and the make and model of every car we pass on the road. I am not anticipating trouble with school.

Aiden is far from insecure. He definitely has his opinions, but is also willing to submit to authority when he realizes it's for his benefit. He doesn't speak (much) of monsters in the closet or bad dreams. If we turn the hall light on at night, he is happy as a clam to roll over and go to sleep. He knows who his family is and is friendly to those who belong to other families.

As far as fighting and flinging poo...we are told he used to do that. We will forever be grateful to the foster family who loved him for the past two years and taught him to express his feelings with words, to sit in time out, and to keep the poo in the toilet. They were truly a gift to Aiden and to us. He resists time-out as most four-year olds do, but we do not see violence or behavior that is inconsistent with a "normal" kid his age.

We keep marveling at the fact that kids like this just don't come out of the system. We are almost waiting for the proverbial "other shoe" to drop.

Well, maybe kids like this DO come from the system occasionally. Maybe once in a while there is a good social worker who places the child with a good foster family. Maybe once in a while God has a really tight grip on a child as he prepares that child to join a "forever family."

Maybe we were called to be willing to deal with the issues we mentioned above, and maybe the Lord gave us the sweet surprise of Aiden as a blessing for our obedience.

I don't know what the future holds for all of us, but what I do know is that God is faithful during the "easy" times and God is faithful during the "hard" times. We are grateful for this relatively easy transition and know it is not the "norm" with these types of adoptions. We will continue to hold Aiden's hand as God holds ours.