When I Grow Up, I want to be Just Like....Alberto

Yep, you got that right. When I grow up, I want to be just like Alberto. He is such an amazing kid!

In less than 2 and a half years, his life has gone through some major life altering changes. His birth mother relinquishes him after 4 days, he grows up for 8 and a half months with a family who takes him in and loves him as their own. During that time, this crazy woman comes and visits him and takes him to the Marriott, all the while disrupting his life and routine so she can get to know him. And after the 4th trip of this crazy woman, he doesn't see the family he grew to know as his family anymore.

He gets on an airplane and leaves his country and everything that is familiar to him with this crazy woman who he later refers to as Mami. Begins a new life in a new home, new country, new foods, smells and people.

His ability to adjust and transition didn't just stop there. In the past couple weeks, he's shown just how amazingly resilient he is.

He's adjusted to his new school and schedule quite nicely. I was so worried that we would have a major setback with the new school. I figured that the problems he was having in his old school were a result of his transitioning from one classroom to another. I had decided in my "narrow-minded" wisdom that he didn't do change well. But he has shown me that I can't put him in a box and determine that he doesn't do change well. He has been doing change quite well.

Now, if only I could do change so well...

Alberto wasn't happy about going to the doctor to get his stitches out. He didn't feel the need to pretend that he liked it. He's authentic and real.

But once the stitches came out, he was able to give the doctor and his nurse a high five. He held no resentment or bitterness towards them. He got back to life and enjoyed himself. Oh, I need to learn how to do that.

Alberto loves intensely and shows affection freely. He doesn't need a special occasion to say "I love you" or a reason to give you a hug.

After a day of going to school, playing, learning, playing, going to the doctor's and having them mess with his boo boo, giving them a high five, eating dinner like he was a grown man, loving on his dogs, playing in the yard, chasing his Nana around, and posing so Mami can take pictures with her Nikon D40, he has a grin on his face and is happy! Life is good!

How I hope to learn the lessons of resilience, learning to shake it off and keep on going, not holding a grudge, enjoying every moment, loving greatly and often, and most of all ending my day with a big grin, knowing that it's all good!