Making the decision to adopt a boy from the orphanage was not by any stretch an easy decision to make. It took me about a year of praying and thinking before I decided to raise the possibility with the orphanage director. The implications to both my and Marlon’s life were obvious, and I made the decision very carefully.

As the idea progressed so did my excitement, along with my fear, at the possible outcomes of my adoption of Marlon. Would he become a positive member of my community? Would he fit in and strive for a positive future? Would his assimilation to my culture be too hard for him to bare? The possible outcomes were endless, and I guess my hopes and dreams for Marlon were like that of any other parent; as were my fears. What parent doesn’t look at adolescence with some amount of hesitation? I guess in my case though we were practically jumping from birth to adolescence in the space of a couple of months.

My biggest hopes for his first few months were : Marlon fitting into school well, making good friends, learning the language, transitioning well to our new home environment and situation, and us strengthening our relationship as father and son. I feared that if these factors weren’t achieved it could result in some serious underlying difficulties in his immediate transitioning to Australia.

The hurdles that I felt that we had to jump were : Marlon spending time with his new adopted extended family and adapting well, Marlon meeting family friends and being able to cope with meeting new people, him starting school and enjoying that experience, making friendships at school, feeling at home in our new house and accepting my authority as his father, adapting to Australian ways of life without too much culture shock, and him enjoying church and making friends at church.

Each hurdle Marlon jumped amazingly successfully, with a consistent aire of confidence and pleasure. He faced each challenge with excitement and a smile, and although only a month has passed, I feel like he has established strong bases for adapting well to his new country.

Some comments that he makes illustrate well his perspective of Australia. One day we were driving in the car when he commented “people who live in Australia live very fortunately, don’t they?” Or another time some Colombian music came on my ipod and I said “ha, some music from your land”, to which he replied “that’s not my land, this is”. Although these comments may be somewhat basic, for a child who expresses very little, there is a reassuring underlying message.

Our first test was in arriving to our family home in Canberra. Marlon arrived to Australia excited and relieved. As we saw Australian land we both felt the joy of finally arriving at our dream of 18 months. We went straight to Canberra where Marlon accepted my family with no hesitation. He fit right in to our family, and as each day passed we saw him more and more comfortable. His constant observation of our family dynamics impressed me, and he seemed so quick in understanding the unique characteristic of each of my family members. He became cheeky, outgoing and humourous; and he brought much laughter to us from his unique perspectives about his new situation.

Although initially I didn’t think he would be up for it, we had a gathering of close family friends, and Marlon related extremely well to all of our visitors. He was polite and unusually talkative, and he seemed to enjoy the attention he received by people wanting to meet him.

Our next hurdle was in coming to Sydney. I think that initially the reality hit Marlon that it was just going to be him and me, and to some small degree he seemed to miss the familiar company of a larger group of people. If you know the feeling of moving to a new bare house for the first time you would understand his feeling. It only took a few hours though to put our mark on the place, put up some photos, and make it feel more like our own home. We went looking for frogs and riding our bikes, and Marlon quickly felt at home.

When I was with English speakers Marlon was separated from what was going on, and I think he quickly desired to learn the language and to start school. It had been some time since he had been able to relate to other children his own age, and I think that he missed that contact. When I offered to him to start school he jumped at the opportunity.

Marlon’s first day of school was horrible for me. To leave him with the principal, without knowing one word of English, was incredibly difficult. I wanted to go into his class and sit beside him all day so that I could translate for him. And protect him. At morning tea time I wondered if I should pick him up half way through the day and give him just a half day. But I pushed through those feelings and allowed Marlon to tough out his first day.

It was such a relief to see him come out of school in the afternoon with a huge smile spread over his face. He had loved school. He had made friends, played ball at lunch; and had been completely unconcerned with the language barrier. Since that first day he has looked forward to school each day; and his teachers have described him as polite, well natured, popular and sporty.

I waited for a couple of weeks for church, but once that I asked Marlon if he wanted to go he jumped at the opportunity. I was worried that he might feel uncomfortable in such a large ‘kids’ church, and I offered to accompany him or for him to join me in the adult church. He said that he was fine to go on his own and he ended up loving the experience. He didn’t want to leave once that the service was over, and he quickly accepted a lunch invitation to a friends house. There we swam in our friends lake, threw rotten plums around the farm with his boys, and Marlon felt very accepted and at home.

I have enjoyed very much my new role as Dad. I like packing Marlon’s lunches and creating new, fun, healthy options to pack for him. I like picking him up for school and taking him for bike rides afterwards. We like to go down to Parramatta park to look at the fruit bats and the birds on the lake. I like putting him to bed at night and reading to him either in Spanish or English. He asks me to pray every night, and we thank God that we are finally together in Australia. We loved the beach, the pool, and we are embracing all that Australia has to offer.

So far the only thing that concerns me is his language skills. He seems to be coming along a little slowly with the language, but he is attending an intensive English course where he should advance rapidly. I guess only a month has passed and such things take time; but I am looking forward to the day that he can communicate with me and my friends in his new language.

Thankyou to all who have upheld us in prayer and thought. I am confident that my Lord is closely guiding us, as Marlon’s transition has been without problem.