Strength

Hope is having a tough time. She is angry and lashing out at everybody. My best guess is the holidays are exacerbating our normal, difficult life with RAD. There are minutes when I want skip Christmas completely. It is not reasonable and I never take any action to abolish Christmas in our family. Sometimes, though, it is so tempting.


Hope is just starting to talk about the trauma she experienced in her previous adoptive family. That is a sign she is experiencing some feeling of security with us. I don't think she wants to feel any security with us. I think she would rather stay in LalaLand and pretend life in Texas was good and she didn't have behavior problems until we kidnapped her. Hope knows this isn't true, but is much more comfortable in the alternate universe where it is true. I can't imagine living through the trauma she lived through and still having the will to  fight the world. I keep reminding myself that Hope's strong will is ultimately one of her greatest strengths. It just makes the now so hard.