***** THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME WE MET OUR BABY******
Sister & Brother being silly
She LOVES to kiss!!
Today it just hit me. Laurel has now been with us for 5 months. NO WAY it has been that long. The first picture I posted is of the first time we ever met her. Wow was that an exciting time but also terrifying. I will admit, after sitting and hearing her LONG list of medical "issues" that I wasn't sure if I was ready to meet her. How thankful I am that God gave me the courage to keep moving forward. Most of the "issues" they said she had she doesn't. Anyway, I just wanted to give a little 5 month progress report on how Miss Priss is doing.
1. She went from walking like a baby to running like a 2 yr. old
2. She went from hearing nothing to hearing with her hearing aids and understanding a large amount of what we say.
3. She went from SCREAMING all the time, not mad just communicating, to having about 150 either words or signs of meaningful communication.
4. She went from not understanding what a puzzle was or how to match anything to mastering 4 puzzles.
5. She went from eating till she was overfull and spitting up to actually goofing off at the table and leaving some on her plate.
6. She went from completely being diapered to now telling me when she has to potty.
7. She went from not understanding what a hug and kiss is to kissing you all the time.
8. She went from institutional rocking when she got upset and to put herself to sleep to allowing us to rock her to sleep.
9. She went from never hearing about God to signing and singing "Away in a Manger" and God is love Bible verse.
These are just a few of the major milestones that this brave girl has accomplished in the 5 short months she's been here. And they say she is special needs...... Hah. Someone forgot to tell her! :)
I want to publicly praise God for bringing our Ukrainian princess into our lives. Yes, I won't lie to you. Some days it's hard, really hard, but it has been so rewarding to watch this little soul grow and blossom. We have really had minimal transitional issues with Laurel and I know that isn't typical of adoptions but I am thankful to God for this. Noah & Laurel have also seemed to find a happy medium and are really doing great as brother and sister.
Are we there yet? Absolutely not. It is a constant work in progress (as raising kids always is) and we have some really big decisions to make coming up in the next few months about Cochlear Implants and her Chiarre Malformation, which we would really appreciate your prayers for. But..... we are getting there.Thanks for indulging me. I just had to brag on my baby girl.
she is amazing. I posted something similar recently about how ben had gone from completely incapable of doing ANYTHING for himself to acting like a child his age. or at least much closer to his age. and able to do his own cares like dressing and toileting. and he is talking more and more. Sophie the spoiled princess just gets smarter every day. she loves her ear pretties! and loves to love. they too had minimal behaviors. this is not to say they werent annoying! just not overwhelming! we really got us some wonderful kids. I cant wait to get more! (maybe 4!!! you can read ourgirlsbyheart.blogspot.com)
ReplyDeleteHooray for Laurel (and for her Mama and Dadat and brother)!
ReplyDeleteLaurel is an absolute doll baby!! How encouraging to read this post and see how much progress you've made with her in just 5 months. We have gotten VERY LITTLE information about Nadia so I'm preparing myself for whatever scenario we get once we're over there in Ukraine. Thanks for commenting on my blog and for letting me know they have Mcdonald's in Ukraine. :) (Might come in handy if we bring our 10yr. old who is extremely picky!)
ReplyDeleteKristin
hi, I just happened to chance upon your blog and was enjoying reading along when I noticed that Laurel is deaf and that you were considering cochlear implant for her.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't sure whether to comment or not. I thought I'd go ahead so you can be familiar (if not already) with the opposing views on cochlear implants, especially from those that are born deaf themselves.
Cochlear implants do work for some, and they don't work for others... for those that they don't work, they usually bring along a sense of failure and frustration, on both sides. For what it's worth, I think hearing aids are just fine, because the child can take them off any time she/he wants to. I have a relative who had a cochlear implant which did not work out for her, and she had migraines because of it. She was told it was too risky to remove it as it might give her facial paralysis.
I'd encourage just speech training and hearing aids, and you did mention in your previous post, that one of the speech therapist(?) thought she is doing well and may not need it...
That's all I wanted to share. I understand that you want what's best for Laurel, and I pray that He will give you wisdom :)
Please feel free to contact me if you need.
Much love.