Attachment & Bonding

Dear Family and Friends,

As we have prepared ourselves for the upcoming day of bringing Jaymi Viktoria home, we have learned a lot about attachment and helping her adapt to her new surroundings. To best help Jaymi adjust and form a strong bond with her sisters and parents, we have a few guidelines that we ask you all to respect and follow. 

Jaymi loves to give hugs and will give them to anybody she sees. Typically, she will just walk up to the person and hug their legs. We ask that, for the first little while, if she does this to you, please just gently pat her on the back and/or give her a high-five or thumbs-up. Please do not bend down and hug her or pick her up. We NEED her to learn that she can't hug any stranger, and right now, everybody other than Jeana and Wayne are strangers. We know that this will be difficult to resist the temptation of hugging her back, but the day will soon come that returning the hug will be just fine.

Another guideline is in direct relation to the last. Again, we NEED Jaymi to learn that she cannot expect any person she is with to care for her. We are her parents and will be the ones meeting her needs. As such, if she asks for food, a drink, to go potty, or anything similar to this please tell her to go ask Mama or Papa. 

We are so happy to have such wonderful family members and friends that have supported us through the past year and know that we would not have been able to get to this point without you. Thank you! And please talk to us directly if you have any questions or concerns about how to help Jaymi.

With much love and gratitude,

Jeana, Wayne, Kaelyn, and Bryn and Jaymi!