Update and signing off!

I wanted to share one last post before ending our adoption blog.  Amelia has been a busy girl lately.  She was evaluated for speech and had a global developmental evaluation as well.  She is doing great in everything except for expressive language.  We were very encouraged by the evaluations and are looking forward to getting her speech therapy started soon.  We would love for her to be able to communicate better so she isn't frustrated.  She does well with signing and usually can get her point across, but I know it would be so much easier for her if she could use words!

She had her two-year-old check-up last week.  She is at the 75% for height and off the chart for weight!  She is 32 pounds -- no wonder I feel like I need a massage!  She got a clean bill of health and didn't even peep when she got her flu mist or immunizations!

Amelia celebrated her 2nd birthday a couple of weeks ago.  We had a pumpkin theme for her party.

She enjoyed all of her gifts, but the cards that sing were the absolute best!

She got her gifts from us on her actual birthday, and we have had many tea parties since then.

We have started the proceedings for her readoption in IL (mostly so she will be able to get an IL birth certificate whenever she needs one), and we had to take her to the county sheriff's office to be served her court papers.  Her court date is scheduled for January 6th.

Amelia thoroughly enjoyed her first Halloween.  We don't go crazy over this holiday, but we do let the kids dress up and take them around to family members and a few friends to trick or treat.  Amelia's costume was easy - she went as the China doll that she is!  After about the second stop she had the candy thing all figured out and eagerly held up her bucket at each house.

Overall, Amelia continues to amaze us.  She is easy-going, caring, affectionate, mostly compliant, and generally a very happy little girl.  Every once in a while she has a moment that reminds us that she has only recently joined our family -- a nightmare that leaves her in tears, short moments of time when she seems to withdraw a bit.  But these are far between and short-lived, and we are so thankful that she is doing so well.  To God be the glory!

This will be my last post, as the purpose of this blog was to chronicle our adoption process, and our Amelia has now been with us for nearly 5 months!  Thanks for following along!

Look who was sneaking in the pantry

The catch on one of our pantry doors broke, which means Little Miss can now open the door whenever she pleases.  She was quiet for just a little too long the other day, and this is what I found when I went looking for her.

"Look at this great big blue box I found with little bitty crunchy things in it!" 

"Am I not supposed to be doing this right now?"

Happy Fall!

We've been busy enjoying all the activities of fall here in the midwest.  We took Amelia for her first trip to the apple orchard, and she had a great time.  It didn't take long for her to figure out what to do!  She had fun picking apples and carrying them carefully to the bag.

Amelia still hasn't picked up much English -- just a few words that come and go.  We decided to go ahead and have a speech evaluation done.  She's only heard English since June and she communicates well by signing and gestures and her few words, so we thought about holding off.  A speech pathologist friend of mine noticed that the sounds Amelia makes are mostly in her throat.  She doesn't have a "b" or "p" sound at all, so she might really benefit from some speech therapy.  We decided that if she needs some help, there's no reason to put it off.  So tomorrow we have a meeting to fill out paperwork, and then we'll have an assessment done.  Hoping they will be able to help her and give us some guidance in working with her!

We are still feeling so blessed by our sweet girl.  She has such a fun, jolly personality!  She loves to tease us.  For example, when Mark or I wash our hands in our guest bath, she runs in laughing, grabs the hand towel, and runs away with it!  She then brings it back, just grinning from ear to ear.  She is also very concerned about others.  If one of the other kids is hurt, she will go over to them, look carefully at their face, and rub their back with her little hands.  She is sweet, silly, and fun, and we are so thankful to be her forever family!

Orthopedist report

Today we took Amelia to see a pediatric orthopedist. Her pediatrician wanted him to evaluate her feet, since according to her referral she was born with "crossed feet that have been corrected." When we first got her, her legs were very bowed but her feet always seemed okay, and her legs have gradually straightened the longer we have been home. Well, the orthopedist said that if she had truly had clubbed feet, which is what everyone thought "crossed feet" were, it is very unusual that she would look and function as well as she does now. His thought is that perhaps her legs were bowed simply because of how she was positioned in utero and that those things often self-correct. So, he said she doesn't need anything else done. She can wear any type of shoes. The end result is that our daughter, labeled as a special needs child, seems to be completely healthy! We are so thankful and praising the Lord for His grace in Amelia's life! We know that adoptive families often face more issues than they were expecting, and we feel so blessed that our Amelia's special need has turned out to be a non-issue. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

New pictures

Here are some pictures of Amelia taken just a couple of days ago. She continues to blossom, and her little personality shows itself more and more. She is silly and loves to tease. She can now point to several body parts (mostly because she loves "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes"). She also can do a perfect somersault. We are still waiting for her to really start talking, although she is slowly adding words to her vocabulary. She is a very busy girl, which makes homeschooling the other kids a challenge! We love her so much and are so thankful that the Lord blessed us with her!

Good News, Bad News

It's hard to believe we've had Amelia for just over two months already! The days are really flying by. Our doctor wanted to do some recommended testing, and we've gotten the results back this week. First, the good news. My poor baby had to have SIX vials of blood taken to do all the testing they wanted to do. My dear husband -- and my hero! --- took her to have that done while I stayed home with the other kids. We found out this week that all of the blood work was normal! We had a few questions about some results that came with her referral back in January, so we were thrilled that she seems completely healthy! Praise the Lord!

On the other hand, we found out today that Amelia has giardia, an intestinal parasite that comes from contaminated water. That explains the consistently nasty diapers. . . We will be starting treatments for that as soon as the pharmacy has it ready. Apparently the medication does not normally come in a liquid form, but there is one pharmacy nearby that will make it for us that way. Hopefully it works quickly for her.

We have an appointment with the pediatric orthopedist in early September to have Amelia's feet evaluated, and then we should hopefully be through with the doctor's visits for awhile!

Cuteness

We came home after church on Sunday and made chocolate chip pancakes for lunch. This is something our older two kids love, and something Amelia had not yet experienced. Somehow I think she was quite pleased!

We'll be doing this again!