FINAL POST

Precious Angel

Big brother showing Laurel how to pick.

Daddy painting the Princesses' nails

We had a great day today. We took Laurel strawberry picking. She wasn't sure what to do at first but Noah quickly showed her what to do. She ended up eating more than she actually put in the bucket. It was a surreal time for Mike and I because last year when we went strawberry picking we were wondering if Laurel would ever actually be here and get to do this with us. We had just committed to bringing Laurel home and were so excited! Pretty neat to see how God worked in just a year.

After the strawberries, we went home and planted our own garden. Laurel loved playing in the dirt. Tonight we made strawberry shortcake and then had a makeup party!! Yes, we ALL got makeovers. Laurel loves makeup and we had a great time getting painted up. Da Dat showed us all that even he can paint toenails!

On another note, this will be my last post on this blog. Laurel has been here 6 months and I feel it's time to continue her journey on our family blog www.thelittleredhouse.blogspot.com.

To sum up this past year I'll say a few things. GOD IS SO GOOD..... ALL THE TIME! Without him this would not have been possible and such a positive experience.

Ukraine is a wonderful country with very generous people. God bless them and thank you to the ones who see the need to help these precious angels find forever homes.

Laurel is a gift from God. She was meant to be with our family.... problems and all. Has it all been easy?? NOPE! Has it all been worth it?? ABSOLUTELY!

Thank you all who have followed this journey to our daughter. We'd love you to continue to follow our progress at our family blog. God Bless!

www.thelittleredhouse.blogspot.com

ICE CREAM

We LOVE to fish!

My sister's wedding is over so life may begin again. It was perfect, beautiful and lots of fun. We loved seeing long lost friends and relatives and catching up a bit. It took us a few days to recover though. Laurel's weeks are still very full with therapies every day except one. She is making progress everyday with her language and even today making a new "g" sounds. When I drop her off at her preschool developmental therapy she now cries for me not to leave her. A great sign that she actually cares who she stays with now but it hurts my heart to leave her. The teacher says she stops crying within a few minutes-and I only leave her for an hour! When I picked her up Tuesday the therapist told me she "had trouble with adult authority!" I had to laugh. You think?? She 2 years old and has all this new found freedom and HATES to be told No. We decided it would be best to have me leave her at her Thursday Therapy for 1 hr so she could take orders from someone other than me. She did great there today! So, we are just working on some tantrums still. On a really positive note, she and Noah have really started to play WITH each other instead of around each other. They are actually getting the communication thing and talking to each other which isn't easy with a hearing impaired child with no language and a 3 yr. old boy who doesn't stop moving! Something I've tried to work on a lot.

So everyone, enjoy the beautiful weather and get out and have an ice cream cone!We sure are.

Little Miss Priss

I have the ultimate prissy girl. I swore I'd never have a prissy girl yet I do..... and strangely, I LOVE it. She is so much fun to dress up and I love to watch her get excited about pretty things. Now don't be fooled. She can roll in the mud with the best of them but she does like to dress up.

What's going on in Laurel's life you say?? Well, I'll fill you in.

Monday we had our spinal MRI to check on her Chiare Malformation. She showed no problems with her spine. He brain MRI does show a Chiare 1 Malformation but no other problems exist in the brain or spine. We are going to do a repeat MRI in 6 months just to be sure, otherwise she should be good to go unless she starts getting severe headaches. The Neurosurgeon really thinks this was just an incidental finding and nothing will come of it. Praise God!

We have made the decision to stop signing to her in order to see what she really understands. THis is so we can make an informed decision about Cochlear Implants. Since we've done this her verbal language has really picked up. It's not real clear yet but she talks now more than gesturing and can says tons more words than she could when we were signing. We start her speech therapy Wed.

As to behaviour, well let's just say the orphanage behaviour is gone. By that I mean the compliant, whatever you say goes little girl that was afraid we'd send her back if she disobeyed. Not anymore! :) She's definately an Americanized 2 year old with fits and a will and all. Which, even though it's tough, I'm glad to see this "normal" behaviour from her. She can throw a right good fit to get her point across. So, we are working through the "terrible twoes" and strangely happy to see them.

Anyway, that's the update from here. More updates after my sisters wedding this weekend!