Week 5

We’ve had a busy week. We survived an all day shopping trip to two malls and lunch at Rainforest Café. We had no less than 9 trips to the bathroom. Where I discovered that I believe there should be a code of some sort in restaurants aimed at kids that the stalls be big enough for both parent and child to fit in (or at least shut the door without the child’s head being in the toilet) and sinks not be either scalding hot or freezing cold. The kids did pretty well. A little trouble sharing the spotlight when trying on clothes and a certain 7 year old who decided she was going to have an attitude at lunch were the only issues. The kids had a great time shopping with my Mom and my Dad loved every minute of showing his Grandson the monkeys and apes.

Fast forward to Saturday night when Jelly Bean was going to bed and was asking about bad dreams and then revealed to me her abuse. She started with the sexual abuse that the 2nd foster father inflicted and then moved on to the physical abuse that her Mom inflicted. And after some discussion she finally agreed that if I stayed with her she would feel comfortable telling her therapist. We then gave her some power the next night when she was throwing a tantrum at my husband and he asked her if he could sit on her bed to talk to her and she asked if she could say no – and he said of course. So she said no and told him he could sit on the chair. Oh but the whining and the tantrums continued. Right up to last night when she lied about homework. It was exhausting. And while I suspect a lot of this has to do with her trusting us and now testing us to see what we’ll do I’m also suspicious that this is far deeper and that underneath is some reactive attachment disorder stuff. But then again the adults also forgot to give her her ADHD medication that morning. Hmmm.

We also went to my Mother-in-laws house and they got to meet her and play with her dog. She also lent us a ton of Disney movies which the kids really liked. And apparently that led Mr. Mohawk to consider acting as when he was supposed to be sleeping he was instead playing with his Snoopy and Turtle. When we caught him he pretended to be asleep and he was pretty convincing. So my husband took Snoopy and put him to the side and covered him back up. A few minutes later he went back in and it looked like he was in the same position. So he whispered “do you want your Snoopy” and poor little guy fell for it. First by nodding then by answering yes and finally opening his eyes because he knew he was busted!

We also went to church where the kids did a great job. And they visited my chiropractor. Who is amazing. And told us that Mr. Mohawk would start to share more. And sure enough at dinner time out of left field he said, “My Real Mom hit me on my butt and it hurt me.” Kind of hard to deny energy not flowing correctly as a cause for ailments when you hear that story. I’m a pretty skeptical person who has two feet firmly planted in reality but the fact that acupuncture has helped me so tremendously I have to trust that something inside the little man was blocking those feelings from coming out.