During the first week that he was here, Jasper did not leave my side. He was the essence of the phrase, “he follows me more closely than my own shadow.” He was interested in everything I did from making spaghetti sauce, to loading the dishwasher, to straightening my hair. Where i was, so was Jasper. Then, I went to my first day back to work since he had arrived, and my husband Christian (aka “ShuShu”) was on full-time daddy duty for our four kids. In typical Christian form, he wanted to be productive with the day, and he enlisted the kids to help. He rolled out the shop vac to clean our car. Jasper’s eyes grew wide. He jumped off the bike he was riding and threw his little body into the back of the Jeep like it was a pit of free candy. He started vacuuming and waved off Christian or anyone else from joining him. He even detailed the upholstery like it was gold. With a smile on his face the whole time and Christian cleaning the interior alongside him, he seemed utterly and completely happy. If that experience hadn’t won Jasper’s heart enough, Christian broke out his beloved scooter to give the weekly neighborhood scooter rides to the kids. Again, Jasper jumped on the scooter, looked at Christian, and grinned with a smile to rival any other happy, healthy child.
He was hooked on ShuShu (“uncle”) and has not looked back. He asks about ShuShu when he is in the shower. He looks for ShuShu when he is taking out the trash. He mimics ShuShu when he is picking up lawn debris. He smiles and cackles at ShuShu when he sings a silly song in the kitchen. He literally jumps at any and every opportunity to help ShuShu even when it’s clearly too much for his little frame. To “work” with ShuShu. To be with ShuShu.
While he is still very much my shadow, he adores his ShuShu. {sigh}
This sweet boy so needs a dad. He craves a father figure who will teach him, pray with him, play with him, and show him how to grow into a man of integrity, devotion, and love. I so hope that he won’t have to call whoever may be caring for him Ayi and ShuShu for his whole life. I so hope that someday soon he can vacuum and wash a car, ride a scooter, throw a ball, dance in the kitchen, jump into a pool, put training wheels on a bike, and belly laugh with Baba…his very own Daddy.
P.S. I just called to check in with Christian while I am work again today. He is fully engaged in yet another car cleaning session with our sweet little Jasper shadow and our three other helpers.
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We are currently hosting the boy MAA calls “Brett” for advocating purposes; our friends are hosting “Jasper,” the boy featured in this post. If you feel the nudge that one of these boys may be your son and you would like to learn more about him, email me and/or Sara, the social worker at Madison who is working hard to find them families too. Note that Madison is offering $3,000 in grants towards each boy’s adoption with possibly more available!
