Attachment

For a child to develop normally it's imperative that they emotionally attach themselves to a caregiver.  Typically a child attaches to its parents quite naturally.  In the case of an adopted non-infant, one of the priorities of the new parents is to create an environment that helps the child attach to them.

For instance... Joshua was abandoned when he was approximately 2 months old - so he spent some time with some caregiver, more than likely his biological parents. He then lived in an orphanage for about 2 years where at least 4 different ladies cared for him.  No he lives with us.  You can understand that he might be a little confused about what it even means to have parents.

What's this all about....???

Joshua seemed to be bonding and attaching well with us so we've recently taken a few liberties.  For instance, at Lora's birthday party we let Joshua pretty much run free which means several people took the opportunity to hold him and/or feed him.  Didn't seem like a real big deal.  BUT TODAY.  Today we decided to try putting Joshua in the church nursery for the first time.  Heather stayed with him so that she could be there if he needed anything such as the bathroom.  Long story short, it appears he might not be as "attached" to us as we thought.  It seems we need to be a little more diligent about ensuring that Joshua doesn't get confused about who his parents are.

Sooooo, if you're one of the 6 people still reading this blog please don't be offended if I don't let you hold Joshua, or feed him, or really do much of anything for him.  It's not you, you're great.  My son just needs to understand that he has 2 parents, not 25 parents.