it turned into forever


7 years ago this week Ruen came to visit and stayed forever. It wasn't what any of us had planned that day and it changed so many things in all of our lives, but I'm so glad it did.

Very often I hear people say that children grow up so fast even if the days feel very long and I am finding it to be true. Ru came as a little kindergartener and is now a teenager. I feel sad sometimes that we missed so many of his little years together. I feel sad sometimes that there are only two pictures of him from before you came to live with us and he are already 3 or 4 when they were taken. 

One of my first memories of Ruen living with us happened a few days after he arrived. We were leaving from the base after eating lunch on our way to enroll him in English school. He was sitting on the back of my bike with his legs criss crossed so he would not get them stuck in the back wheel. We stopped at a friend's road side stand and she gave him some crickets. Then just as I was getting ready to go again, he fell off and landed on the street. I didn't even know what to do. He was perfectly fine and got up and climbed back on, but it still makes me laugh. 

Now, this week, I got to watch him earn his yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do. I got to help him finish fifth grade which has not been easy for him. And tomorrow we leave for America after years of him wanting to go, waiting to go, not believing he ever could go. 

It is true that we missed so much in those first six years that he was not with us, but the past seven years have been full of all of the times that make us a family. When we asked him what he's most thankful for in these past seven years it's being that family. 

I am grateful his visit that one day turned into forever. 


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