Addison K., Centerville High School
Learning the Ways of Change
When we first decided to adopt my brother we did not know how big of a change we were making. The first significant change our family stepped into was my parents leaving for weeks at a time to see my brother while he could not be home with us. At the age of only six, it was hard, and sometimes felt lonely to not see my parents for extended amounts of time. Every time they returned my family hoped everything would be approved so we could be complete when they returned home. Unfortunately, they did not the first time or the second but the third time everything was finally approved. It felt like ages till they finally returned but eventually when he came home I remember everyone being overcome with joy and relief.
Little six-year-old me did not realize how much I was going to have to adapt to this. All I knew was my other brother being in my life and I expected this to be the same. It was not the same, not at all. I did not know that it would include much time spent at doctors’ appointments and adjusting. My parents spent lots of time at doctors’ appointments with my brother as we learned about the new situations we had to help him through. We had to learn how to understand his habits and what he needed to help him accommodate his new lifestyle. I had to be able to accept that things would be different and even harder in some ways.
Together, we needed to help my brother adapt to his new life. It took lots of perseverance to continue to work with him because he did not always understand or choose to understand what we were trying to explain, especially in his school work. He had to learn to be able to work with others, communicate, and cooperate. These were all things that he struggled with and it became hard to continue to help him work towards achieving these goals. We are still working on helping him reach these goals today, but the more we pour into him the more growth we see.
All of these struggles have helped show me ways to help and understand others. Having the opportunity to adopt my little brother might not have been the easiest thing we have ever done but it has had the most influential impact on me.
