My wife and I knew that adopting a 4-year old Ethiopian boy would have some rough spots.

Dawit spoke a northern Ethiopian dialect for three years, spent the last nine months learning Amharic and has about 3 weeks of English under his belt now. We knew that would cause some issues.

We had no idea how many issues.

He is learning some words to help him get his needs met. He knows all about juice and he understands some basic concepts. But he is still fighting to keep Amharic words for water and car and other little phrases. Some of it may be a control issue. Some is just pure orneriness.

At first, he would react to these language barriers with hysterical screaming fits and pouting. Now that he has figured out that we actually like him and aren’t trying to be mean to him, he just pouts in brief intervals.

Overall,the bonding and transition couldn’t have been much smoother for a 4-year old who has been with us for less than a month. That doesn’t mean it’s been easy.

But nothing that is good is ever easy. And having our completed family together under one roof has surely been good.

PS – This is my first blog post. I’m a publisher/columnist by trade and training. Make sure you leave some feedback to let me know what you think. Thanks,Kb.