Friday, May 22, 2009

Just Eli


5 of the kids and I took a trip to the dentist. I was worried about Eli. He tends to be over dramatic when it comes to pain, hates to brush his teeth and we did not have an interpreter to explain to him what was going to happen. Fortunately things went really well. I had him watch the other kids first...he then had a bunch of x-rays, a cleaning and check by the dentist. He only has 1 cavity. I was shocked because his teeth look terrible. The dentist said that it is just staining due to his China diet.

It is interesting to note that Dave and I have questioned if Eli is older than his given age- the dentist said that he has the dentation of an older child -older than a 6/just turned 7 year old. I have read of parents pursuing birthday dates changes but we will just leave things as they are.

Eli has started talking with us about his adoption experience in China. It is amazing that he knows enough English (in 8 weeks) to bring up things we did when we were in China. He also talked a little about his foster family and their apartment. I have been thinking a lot about his foster family lately~ I keep thinking about what a blessing Eli has been in our lives and how empty their life now must seem without him. We did send two disposible cameras to China in hopes that one would be returned with pictures of the family but all we got back were staged pictures at the orphanage.

I will admit that I do have the foster family's address. I will not share how I got it, but I do feel the need to send them a few pictures in hopes that they send a few back for Eli. I will honestly state that at his time I am going to hold off on sharing anything that I would get back with Eli. I don't think enough time has passed ~ he has made some comments to his school interpreter about his seperation from the foster family and remember- his gotcha day was terribly traumatic. Matter- of- fact now that we are home and settled I can see how deeply sad he was when we were in China.
His true personality is now shining - and he is a wonderful ray of sunshine in our lives.

2 comments:

Ron said...

Good job on only 1 cavity for Eli. I dread the dentist.

The Montieth Family said...

What a brave boy Eli was! :) Whoo-hoo.
That is very interesting about the possible age difference...I have heard of that before. It sounds like you are handling it all in the best way...good for you. :)
He is still just sooooo cuuute!