A Weekend of Walks

A ride on a tractor

A Walk in the woods

A walk in the wagon

No he wasn't choking her!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with all our friends and family. Yes, it was busy but Hey, aren't all Holidays? In between huge meals, we tried to go for some walks in the woods with the babies and walk off all those extra calories. Heres to trying! We found a beautiful place in the woods that the kids loved climbing on the trees and playing in the leaves. As you can see from the picture directly above, it was exhausting. :)

ps: In medical news...... LAUREL GETS HER HEARING AIDS TUESDAY!!! We are so excited but guarded b/c we know she still may have to go to Cochlear Implants in order to make sense of the new sounds she will be hearing. We truly appreciate your prayers about this matter. We'd love nothing more than she be able to hear on Tuesday and begin to learn to talk. She has done really well in the last week with language. She now says "bye bye" and "Pa Pa" for Poppy!! She making all sorts of new sounds. Also, on a positive note, her loud screaming (or talking as she thinks it is) seems to have calmed down some now that she makes some sense of her language.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Boy, we have so much to be thankful for this year. Last year at this time it was only a dream to say "in 2009 I'd wish I could have my little girl here". By God's grace it really happened. The longer I look back at our process and all that it entailed, the more I see God's sovereign hand and how he directed our path. Yes, there were dark times and times of uncertainty but I can say with my whole heart that God takes care of His children. If we wait upon Him, we WILL rise up with wings as eagles. I praise God this season of thanks for my family.Also for my parents, sister, in laws and extended family. My church family and my many friends that I have made through this adoption journey. It is to be truly a HAPPY THANKSGIVING.

MAJOR UPDATE

Hi out there in Blogger land. It's been a while since we've updated but our lives have been crazy the past couple of weeks. An update on Laurel: Sunday, Laurel was dedicated to the Lord and some of our family was able to be there to see it. A very special day indeed!! Yesterday (Monday) we had a marathon day. At 9am the CDSA came to do Laurel's developmental evaluation which went pretty well. Then we packed up and went to UNC to do another hearing test and meet with the ENT. Big news is she actually passed her test- well, she tested that she does indeed have moderate/severe hearing loss. This is a HUGE praise because now we can start with hearing aids. She got the molds for her hearing aids and we will get them in December. We are praying these will give her the boost she needs to hear and process speech but the Drs. are very careful to caution us that with Auditory Neuropathy about half of people have to have Cochlear implants in order to process speech. However, everyone starts with the hearing aids to rule out that they won't work. Either way, it's progress and we are very excited!! She also endured a EKG and blood work for some Genetic testing. We have scheduled an MRI for December also. She was such a trooper even though we didn't leave the hospital until about 5:30pm.

So please remember sweet Laurel in your prayers. We appreciate each and every one of you.

Fall Wonderful Fall!!

Butterfly Princess & Buzz Lightyear

Getting our first Doughnut

We love fall around here (see Noah's blog pics at www.thelittleredhouse.blogspot.com). Laurel has had her first doughnut at Krispy Kreme (loved it!), been to the Fair, a Horse Show and dressed up for Halloween. I'd say that officially makes her an American child! She's adjusting wonderfully although as with any other child we do have our days!!

I wanted to share a bit on the progress that she's making. When Laurel came to us as with most children in orphanages, she had a few institutional behaviors. These included getting up on her knees and rocking when she was upset or to fall asleep. Also, she would completely have a full blown meltdown and smack Noah if he came around me or sat in my lap. Finally, she would feed herself, never allow you to feed her and when finished clean herself up. I know that sounds wonderful to most people but she learned this out of necessity and we wanted to regress her in some ways to help her attach to us as caregivers and bond.

We started to work on the "rocking" behavior by rocking her for a few minutes each night (as long as she let us) and then put her to bed. Six weeks later the "rocking" has completely stopped-even when she gets upset! The down side is that when she wakes up sometimes in the night she cries and wants us to put her back to sleep but I see this as a HUGE postive. She actually NEEDS us and Wants us!!

As to the aggression towards Noah, that has scaled way back. They are playing together and after nap, her favorite thing to do is go hug her brother and rub his head. Definately progress meaning she feels more secure.

Now to the food issue. Her gorging has stopped-she is realizing that food won't go away. She still likes to do it herself (which we still encourage) but will now allow me to feed her some. Also, she "asks" for help in cleaning herself and plate up now.

I am so proud of this little girl. She is as tough as nails but Oh so sweet. She has a fighters spirit and I love that about her.

As to what's next in the way of medicals. We had a third hearing test on Friday. Laurel actually semi cooperated and we got a reading on her. From what they could tell, her hearing loss is in the Moderate/Severe Range. She is not hearing speech levels which is a problem. We go back to UNC on Tuesday for an evaluation by the ENT, schedule and MRI and do another hearing test. If they can get a reading then we could possibly schedule her to try hearing aids and see if that will help her hear some speech. With Auditory Neuropathy it is a "try and see" method with most things. If the hearing aids do not work then the MRI will tell us if she has an intact Cochlear Nerve to see if Cochlear Implants are an option for her. We truly appreciate your prayers as we still journey to help Laurel hear.