A family is born

My organizational skills are somewhat lacking. I started this site in a hurry - hit with an idea during one of the Dervish moments and blasted off but anyone who is interested in this story might quickly loose interest because I've been all over the place with my entries so here is my family from the beginning... at least where the kids came in.

In 1994 after 7 years of waiting we got the news that we'd been chosen to adopt a child. "Pie" was born in October and all of our dreams had come true.

Pie was a very active child and at the age of 2 I was convinced he was "spirited". He wore me out. He crawled at 4 months, walked at 9 months and talked at a year.

In 1999 we were blessed with "Dervish". He was 8 months old when we met and brought him home. We knew his history, his birth mother had been a drug addict and he was born about 4 weeks early and tested positive for cocaine in his system but was not addicted. He was taken from his birth mother at birth and had been in foster care since then. He was developing normally and meeting his milestones on schedule.

Life was not easy at first. He screamed every night and seemed to need to do that. We tried everything, we tried rocking him to sleep, reading him to sleep, singing, co-sleeping and it didn't matter, he insisted on screaming himself to sleep for several months after we brought him home.

I couldn't blame him for being out of sorts. After all, he'd suddenly been uprooted from everything he'd ever known and brought to a new home with new people, new surroundings, new smells and new sights but as time went on I realized that this was more than that... well, maybe some of it was that but not all - Dervish was an intense child.

Before we get to the next part, I just have to say that the Dervish also seems to have a sixth sense about some things and it can be a little spooky sometimes.

In the summer of 2001, the Dervish suddenly became obsessed with babies. Every time I turned around he was talking about a baby.. he wanted one. I've never been one to be into gender appropriate toys or anything but we didn't have any dolls around so for Christmas, Dervish got a baby. The baby was a girl he said and her name was "flower chips". He carted flower chips around and slept with her every night.

In January we got a call from our social worker. Dervish had a sister and did we want to adopt her?

Enter "The Girl". The Girl was born in September 2001 and was 5.5 months old when we brought her home. She was also born with cocaine in her system and had been born 7 weeks premature but was meeting her milestones at an adjusted age and doing well. And it was obvious from the get go that she had exactly the same temperment as her brother.

So that's it, that is my family. Pie, The Dervish and The Girl.

My Roller Coaster Kid - Parenting an Intense Child