My anxious child

Hi. I am a mom to three children who are adopted. My children were all adopted as newborns. My oldest son will be eight this month, my middle son just turned five and my daughter is 18 months. My concern is with my eight year old. He has always been a bit high maintenence, even as a baby. He is very bright (was reading well at four), and has always been extra sensitive. He has had some fears most of his life. He always was sensitive to different smells, itchy clothes, tags in his clothes etc... We have always worked through these issues and in general he has been a serious child, but has also had a silly and happy side too. He can also be very defiant and has always had the ability to argue his point. He has always enjoyed school. I teach pre-school and so he went for three years and then Kindergarten and first grade. This year he is a second grader and it has been such a hard year for him. His principal died in the early part of the school year from cancer, he was 37 and had 5 year old triplets. This was very upsetting to the whole community and my son took it terribly hard. Even before the death, he had been having nighmares and could not get through the night without screaming for me. He now becomes nervous and cries every morning when I drop him off. He begs me to walk him up to the school. I have talked with his teacher and there does not seem to be anything different happening in the class. He tells me he does not know why he feels this way. He has other issues such as fear of high, open spaces. Water was a fear, but he tackled that with lessons. I had him see a couselor this fall. It did not go well. He would not open up with her, stating that all was getting better and she really did not seem to be able to draw him out. We gave up on that, for now and with her anyway. I know that many of his behaviors are anxiety disorder related. My mom and best friend have this and I have had my moments in the past. I have ordered some books to try and work some of it out and will present the problem to his pediatricain at his check-up this month. Curently, his brother is sharing his room and that has stopped the nightmares. Although, I feel guilty that it is not fair to brother, we are all getting much needed sleep and little brother loves being in there, I know this is just a temporary solution. Sorry this was so long, I guess I just needed to vent. Has anyone else gone through something like this? Like I said, he is very smart and I think when he hears about something ie: a death, the war etc... he processes lots of thoughts, but is still only a little boy and cannot process the emotions of it all. I try to limit what he sees, reads etc... but it is so hard. I want him to enjoy being a child and I feel badly for him. It has drained all of us. Any suggestions would be great! Thanks for listening. Becky PS: I have considered that the loss of the principal may relate to adoption issues. Fear of losing us????? Maybe I am looking to hard for an answer.