Parents are the lucky ones

Michelle and Scott Morell with their two youngest sons. Ethan (left) is from Anhui, and Luke is from Shaanxi. They arrived home in Allen, Texas on March 10. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

We brought Claire home from Tianjin in 2009. We didn't find her special needs to be so challenging; rather the transitioning into our family was harder. It took Claire about five months to adapt.

She is a girl with strong emotions, so when she lost everything that she knew, though she was only one year old, she grieved hard. She woke up frequently at night crying. In the beginning she would cry out for her foster mom, and after a while she would wake to make sure we hadn’t disappeared too. It was really hard for her.

On the other hand, I was glad she was raised by a loving foster family. Claire understood what a family was. She had the expectation that if she had something wrong, we would help her. She trusted that we would take care of things. She knew love, how to receive and give it.

The two three-year-olds, Luke and Ethan, just got home on March 10. They were born with gastric intestinal issues that will need management throughout their lives. It is nice that they have each other to understand the challenges together. Though those challenges will be part of who they are, we hope to teach them it is only one part. And the lessons we hope they will learn from having medical issues is that of compassion, empathy and strength.

The boys have only been home for a month. While they have so much to learn and adjust to, they are doing really amazing. They are more relaxed and have an understanding of what is going to happen next, which has helped them be less fearful. They are okay with us leaving for a little bit and knowing that we are going to come back; they come to us to help solve problems or ask questions. Ethan just asked me about why there are two parts to the refrigerator.

Many times people will say to me that our children are "so lucky" to be in our family, but they don't really understand that we are the "lucky" ones. We get to be parents to these beautiful amazing children. When I tell my children, "I am so glad I get to be your mom," I can't even express to you how much I mean that.

We are grateful to China for allowing international adoption and in so doing allowing us to bring so much richness and beauty to our home.

We thought we were done after five children, and now we have seven. We do not have plans to expand, but we never say "never".