Bonding

I cannot believe that this little cutie-pie is 10 months old already! He took about 5 steps in a row this morning in his new adventure of walking. His favorite past time is to tear apart the house. Obviously, it has been far too long since we've had a little one in the house, as we have way too many "things" on low shelves, just waiting for little fingers (and his mouth) to explore!

I've been getting questions a lot recently about bonding with him, since its pretty noticeable that he is momma's boy. I can honestly say that while we were going through the paperwork for the adoption, and then waiting, waiting, waiting,  I didn't spend much time worrying about if we would bond with our baby or not.  I expected the bonding process to take time and ...well, be a process.

I've seen the bonding process at work before. Hero left for his first year- long deployment when Princess Francis was not even one month old. Needless to say, when he came back a year later, she was less than thrilled with this "man" in the house that she had to share her mommy with.

I watched as Hero tried so hard to get our princess to accept him, and love him, but she would have none of it. It took just about a full year for the two of them to bond. Though the process was a little painful for the two of them, the bond they now share has withstood a recent year- long deployment and many battles of the "will".  She is now "Daddy's little girl" and knows that he absolutely adores her.

So, having seen the process at work,  I was ready to begin the process of bonding with our son when we flew to Atlanta to pick him up.  Imagine my surprise when, as early as the second night that we had him, he had bonded with me. I'm not sure if my voice resembles his birthmommy's, or what, but from that night on, only the sound of my voice could soothe him when he was crying out for comfort. Not even an inability to breastfeed him has hampered the bond between us. More often than not, I am the only person he will accept a bottle from, but that's okay I LOVE the snuggle time with him.

Now, I'm not saying that if you're contemplating adoption that bonding will be a piece of cake for you. In fact, I've heard of several stories where bonding with the adopted child was a very long process; honestly, that was what I was expecting to take place. Instead, God chose to bless me with a close bond with Prince Naveen right from the start and he is most definitely a wonderful addition to our family unit!