3 month update:

We have had our new addition in our family for 4 months now.  What a fast paced 4 months it has been!  In that time frame, we have decided to open up an in home preschool (to utilize my teaching degree), engage in the process of looking for a home, and purchase a home.  How strange to suddenly have debt now, and quite a large chunk of debt at that!  We feel completely at peace about this "mortgage debt," and in fact feel quite blessed to have it.  Instead of sleeping in a living room on a twin bed , our son has now upgraded to an actual bedroom on a full size bed.  He is living the good life!  He's pretty content no matter what, in actuality.  He's non-materialistic like that.  We're blessed.

We have been struggling to find alone time as a newly married couple.  Trying to balance our time with one another, opening a business, unpacking our home, and helping our teenager find his identity has been quite a challenge.  I'd like to talk a little bit about our teen's struggle for a second, though, to help those on the outside understand what it's like to be him.  He was raised in his biological family unit for his first 15 years and 2 months of his life.  He has the inherited traits from both of his parents, and the acquired traits from the parent who raised him.  Then, he moves into a new family unit.  One that does not resemble his previous family unit (size/race/gender/rule/affection/communication wise) in any way, shape, or form.  So, in his case the whole "nature versus nurture" issue that hits most adopted children doesn't even come into play.  We had no part in his raising.  We had no part in his genetics.  At this point in the game, we're simply trying to help him adjust to his new life and assist him in making sense of all that has happened in his past.  He's having an identity crisis that is unlike many adopted teenagers.  He isn't trying to figure out what his biological parents looked like, if he resembles them in any way, or where his biological family is.  He knows the answers to all of that.  He is trying to figure out where he fits into this world now.  He's attempting to escape his past.  He's attempting to separate all that he knows about this world into categories of "TRUE" and "FALSE." Not only that, but he is having to relearn almost everything that he taught himself in the past in order to do it in a more productive or socially acceptable way.  For example:  How to shower.

We're doing quite well on the bonding front.  We all love each other.  But, as any family unit struggles we do as well.  So, all that I can ask of anyone is that they pray for us.  They pray for our strength as parents,  they pray for grace to readily abound in our family, and they pray for our son.  For his relationship with Christ, for his mental health, his educational progress, his emotional turmoil, and his coping mechanisms.