Jim's recap of Week One

How Alejandro Came To Us

When we were ready to have another child, we looked at all options. We could have tried to have a birth child again, but we both felt that God was leading us toward adoption. There are so many little kids who needed a family, and we have such a good one. We knew that an adopted child would be every bit a part of our family as Annalise. And Annalise lobbied for almost two years for a baby brother or baby sister! She was a great big sister even before we came to Ecuador. She helped arrange his room, picked toys she was going to pass on to him, and even helped pick out his name.


(There’s a lot of history behind the name. When Lisandra and I were pregnant with Annalise, we went through the baby name book.  She kept coming up with boy names, and I kept coming up with girl names.  We decided if it was a boy, we'd use her pick, and if a girl we'd use mine.  Well, when we found out it was a girl, the first person who asked, I said her name would be Isabella.  Lisandra said, "Well, we're not really sure yet."  I thought, "OK, we've re-opened negotiations!"  As much as Lisandra insisted, I never gave in --- until we were on our way to the hospital.  Come on -- she was creating a new human, I knew I wasn't going to win that one.  So I told her we could name our daughter Annalise, but I had naming rights on a second child.  Pretty shrewd on my part, huh?

At first Annalise insisted we call her brother Nick (after St. Nick), but I explained that Nick Knotts would sound strange. After a couple of days, she suggested we could solve the problem by changing our last name!  We wanted to preserve his Spanish heritage, and still reflect his being a part of our family. We considered Diego, which is James in Spanish, my middle name.

So I suggested we name him Donald Diego Knotts. All his life he would be known as Don Diego, and I'd call him Zorro! How cool would that be?!  He’d always know what costume to have for Halloween. And when he wanted to do sports? Fencing and horseback riding!

In the end, we settled on Alejandro, with agreement that Annie and I could nickname him Scooter. At leat, Annie and I agreed.  Mom hates that nickname.  We hope he likes it.)

So we started the adoption process and after countless hours of work by Mom, and after about fifteen months, we were eventually matched with Alejandro. What a great day when we received his file with a little picture! It was our ninth wedding anniversary. What a wonderful present! As many people know, I'm pretty obnoxious about making everyone look at pictures of my kids.  I carry lots of pictures, and I started carrying Alejandro's around the minute we got it.

When we arrived in Ecuador late on a Saturday, we were expecting to meet him first thing Monday morning. Then we learned we had to wait for a lady from Child Protective Services. When she arrived that afternoon, she brought us a very special gift – a book of baby pictures. What a treasure! We thought we would only have pictures from when he was two years and older. The book is thanks to the social worker at the orphanage, Laura and the speech therapist, Marta. The love all the staff have for him pours off of every page. Mommy sobbed with tears of joy.  As a rule, I never cry  ;-)    As we learned, all the people at Pequeñitos de OSSO loved him very much and took such great care of him from the minute he arrived. He is so lucky to have gone through their care.

We met Alejandro for the first time that evening, January 25, 2010. He lived in a “casa” with 5 other kids. The casa was a series of connected rooms, including a large living room with a kitchen in the corner, a playroom filled with toys, a changing room, and bedrooms. He shared a room with 2 other kids. His favorite possessions were a small blanket he carried around like Linus from Charlie Brown, and a book of his new family. Just before Christmas, Mom made a picture book of all the family members and neighbors he would see all the time. The Tias who took care of him taught him who all of the people in the pictures were, and he knew Papa, Mama, and Nyanya (Spanish for Sissy) when we arrived. He was so proud of that book, he carried it around all the time and he would not let anyone else touch it. Annie was so happy to learn he had a nickname for her. It was a great surprise.

He was a fairly quiet and calm baby, slightly shy at first. We were told he was the alpha male of his casa, expecting to get attention first, be fed first, and play with toys first. What seemed to break the ice was a cake. His second birthday was that Thursday, and the Tias had planned a big birthday party for him on Tuesday afternoon, knowing he would be gone by Wednesday or Thursday. The cake they made was sitting on the counter. He was pointing to it, so I picked him up to see it. Then he didn’t want me to put him down!

That Wednesday he came to spend the day with us, and never left.

Alejandro's First Week with Us
It is amazing how quickly he took to us. He cried only a little that first night, but he's been a part of the family from that first moment. In the first week, we’ve gotten to know him a lot more. We can tell he is VERY intelligent. He sees things once, and then he can repeat the actions. He was particularly proud when Mom taught him to spit water after brushing his teeth! He’s learning to blow his nose at 2, when Annalise didn’t figure that out until she was almost 5. (That may not seem like a big deal, but when you have kids you know how bad you feel when your kid is stuffed up and just doesn’t know how to blow their nose. It’s a major developmental milestone, mostly for parents.) He constantly put things in order, like stacking books and magazines. He always puts thing back where they go, which makes him unique in our family.

Alejandro don’t talk much, even though he understands everything we tell him and will do what we ask (let’s hope that continues). We’ve heard him say “papa,” “ma (for mas, or more),” “mama,” “nyanya,” “bu (for bus),” and “no.” He growls every time he sees a dog, and he will spend a half hour looking out the window at the river and especially BUSSES! In the first week he has been with us, he has learned and repeats that cats say “Meow,” cows say “Moo,” and sheep say “Baa.”

His first word in English was “butt.” Annalise was doing something and said “on my butt.” We distinctly heard him repeat “butt!” We can blame his sister . . .

I always wrestled with Annalise, and the two of us have been wrestling with Alejandro. Interestingly enough, he wasn't ticklish when we got him, but after a week of wrestling and playing with Dad and Annalise, he has become ticklish above his knees and inside his hips. He has even start attacking back! I had to trim his fingernails because he cut me when he grabbed my face.

He really surprised Mom when she was doing puzzles with him.  He put all the pieces in a pile away from her and then laid on top to hide them, then laughed! He thought that was so funny. So did we. We can tell he's going to be a prankster. But he's also very loving. It made Mom’s year the first time he gave her a besito (kiss) . . .

And Annalise is so thrilled to have a baby brother. She wants to help do everything, from giving him a bath (he LOVES the water) to changing his diaper (even the stinky ones!). She was over the moon when she was sitting beside him at dinner one night and he reached over to hold her hand. She wants to give him kisses every day before she leaves for school. We hope they continued to grow close. We expect the fights, but we also look forward to them taking care of each other as well.

Everyone back home is so anxious to meet him, especially Grandma Knotts. We’ve been doing video calls almost every night, and he comes running every time he hears her voice. He likes to see his picture in the video screen, and even when people take photos he expects to see them on the camera. Grandma and Papa will be his daycare when Mom goes back to work, and being the only Grandson, there is no doubt he will be spoiled!