A hesitant little boy walks in the classroom with his mother holding his hand. He is the first child in the classroom that morning and his mother helps him take his raincoat off. He looks at his teacher, back at his mother, and—realizing that he is here to stay again—his face crumples. His mother bends down to give him a hug.Mother: It’s okay, you will only be here for a little bit and then mommy will come back to get you. I think you will have fun playing with your new friends. Now...give mommy a kiss.
Boy: (blows kiss at his teacher)
Mother: (laughs) You’re such a cute & silly boy! Alright, now, tell mommy ‘bye-bye’!
Boy: (waves at the teacher) Buh-bye.
That was our morning; Iliya really was ready to go on to work with me and not stay with his teacher. However, that wasn’t an option. Adopted from Russia in July 2007, Iliya was not too keen on leaving his new mama every day. So I gave him one last kiss and a hug before leaving him with his teacher to get acclimated to his classroom. I made my way back to my office and down to the business of wading through more emails and papers that had accumulated in my maternity leave. It was a fairly calm (and productive) morning at work.
The rooms of our daycare are equipped with state-of-the-art observation booths, complete with one-way glass and a listening system. Using the booth as my shield, I checked on Iliya once that morning. After playing in their big multi-purpose room, his class was back in the classroom, and he seemed to be doing okay.
The newness seemed to be a little stressful for him—he would play for a couple minutes, become serious, cry for a few seconds, play for a minute, be serious for a few seconds, play, cry...and so on. But his cries didn’t seem to be a really tearful cry; he just really had his serious face on when I was observing for those few minutes. His teachers were paying attention to him—talking to him and engaging him in play.
When I went to pick Iliya up after his lunchtime, most of the other kids were napping, and he caught sight of me as I walked through the door. He grinned the biggest grin, called out to me, and began dancing in circles before running up to me. It was precious. But I had to tell him to “shh...” because all the other children were trying to sleep!
As the week progressed and Iliya realized the permanence of school, drop-offs became a little more difficult before they got better. Although he didn’t want me to leave in the mornings, he would calm down rather quickly and would be so excited to see me in the afternoons—a sign of his solidifying attachment.
We have thoroughly enjoyed having Iliya in our family. He is a blessing to us in so many ways—ways in which we never imagined! As it turns out, child care has been a good thing for our family. My husband and I are both able to work in jobs we enjoy while Iliya is also playing hard and improving his social and language skills. We have a great child care team working with our family. And most of all, we have a God who is good, looking out for us every day.--Melissa Bridges, Alabama
