Has it really only been 1 week?

Picture 1: The many faces of Jonathan. He likes to pose and then see his picture in the camera.
Picture 2: Thinking of what he can get into next
Picture 3: The princess gets the sofa for movie night.
Picture 4: The 4 Shafer boys snuggled down for our first movie night as a family of 7
Picture 5: The 5 Shafer men at the playground.

It was only 19 days ago that Li Futing was first introduced to us. It was 18 days ago that he officially became Jonathan Futing Shafer. It was only one week ago that we arrived back home. This last week has been one of the longest weeks of our lives (makes the trip to China seem like a vacation) but in some ways it seems like we have been a family of 7 forever.

Jonathan is a ball of energy who is constantly on the move. He LOVES to be outside. He rides his big wheel all over the driveway. He runs (Jonathan style) from one end of the house to the other pushing his cars up and down the hallway. We are thrilled that he is such a happy energetic boy, but all that energy can wear out Mama and Baba!

Here are some things that have changed in just one week:

• We are starting to get a bedtime routine in place, and that helps him sleep through the night. I am being reminded that there is nothing like rocking a child to sleep.


• When we were in China, if you tried to rub his back he would cringe and move away. He now allows me to rub his back.


• He is starting to repeat and say many English words. He can say the names of his 4 siblings, "where ball?", "uh-oh", "hello", "bye-bye", count to 3, and say "please."
  


• We have discovered that parenting 5 children under the age of ten is hard, but rewarding. It is really cool to watch the older children rise to the occasion and help care for Jonathan.
  

He is the perfect fit for our family, the piece of the puzzle that was missing. (Jeremy says the puzzle is now complete!) The neat thing is that the four older children have said things like- "When we adopt another child..." While this makes Jeremy turns pale, it also confirms for us that so far this has been a good experience for them.

It hasn't been easy for them to suddenly have a 3 year old who thinks it is funny to turn their Wii off in the middle of the video game; to have a 3 year old brother who suddenly is taking up a LOT of Mom and Dad's time; to have a brother who laughs and pours water over your head in the tub!

Without hesitation they have welcomed Jonathan and loved him unconditionally. He is a brother to them, and he is part of the family!