We probably should have thought long and hard before we adopted Taylor Joshua into our family.  Now we're starting to have second thoughts.

For starters, Taylor has insisted that we call him by his "given name": Little Beaver.  If we don't call him "Little Beaver", he gets enraged and tries to hit us.

Seondly, he is 12 years old, hardly a little boy.  In fact, he is a good head taller than my wife.  Even though he is barely a teenager, Little Beaver is nearly six feet tall ... and still growing!  He's also big for his age: he weighs a good two hundred pounds plus, and it isn't because he is fat: he is just build solid.  It's all muscle!

Little Beaver is no match for my tiny, four-foot-seven, 85-pound wife.  I bet he could throw her over his head if he got angry enough.  I wouldn't doubt tht he could.  Seems that our son does not take to authority figures very well.

Little Beaver has several issues, among them being Asperger's (a mild form of autism), ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), bi-polar illness, learning disabilities, and is often depressed; if he is not depressed, he is angry.  Very much so.  It is scary when Little Beaver gets angry because when he does, he turns violent.  

The last time he blew his stack, Little Beaver strangled the cat and bounced her off the floor, breaking her neck and killing her.  We were astonished at the level of violence he used on this poor, defenseless little animal.

Needless to say, we put him into the hospital, where we had him admitted to the adolescent psychiatric ward, until the staff there could get him (and his medications) straightened out.

If Little Beaver could do this to an animal, then what could he possibly do to my wife ... or any of his younger brothers and sisters??  It chills us to the bone to even contemplate what might happen.

We have tried to be loving and patient with our new son, but Little Beaver is mking it more and more difficult.  We may eventually have to terminate our adoption and have him put back into foster care because he is obviously way too much for us to handle!

~To be continued.~