It's hard to believe that we left one month ago today on our big adventure to get Bethany home. Time flies....I hope it will slow down some or she'll be grown before we know it. We've had a really busy week. We went to Birmingham to the Internat'l Adoption Clinic, as I think I mentioned in my last post. The doctors, social workers and occupational therapists were pleased with where she is, considering that she's been institutionalized for almost 2 years. She was where she "should" be at this time. They said that normally, children her age are caught up to where they should be within 6 months. Her delay may be a little longer considering that she has a cleft palette and has some intensive surgery and therapy to endure. All in all, it was a good visit. They did tell us that her cleft palette is actually on both sides - it's bilateral - but her lip was only one side - a unilateral cleft. It will make her surgery more "intense" and recovery a little longer. We were surprised - had no idea it was on both sides - but now that we know what we're looking at, we can see it. They also recommended that we go ahead and get her to the ENT at Children's in New Orleans so that he can put tubes in her ears. He's part of the team at the Cleft Clinic in NO that will be her regular ENT doctor. The plan had been to have tubes put in when her palette was repaired - April/May timeframe - but now, we'll go ahead and have tubes put in as soon as possible. She has her first appt. with the ENT on the 13th. We hate to have to put her under anesthesia 2 times so close together, but her hearing is impaired from all of the fluid that can't drain due to the cleft. It's best for her, so that's what we'll do.
We are continuously surprised, thrilled, and entertained every day by Bethany. I know we always say this, but truly, her progress is amazing. She picks up on things so quickly and learns new things everyday. The child who couldn't hold herself up with her arms to even crawl when we got her is now crawling well and even running through the house. Even after we'd had her a week, she could only hold onto furniture and kind of "toddle" along. Now, she's running. :) We love it. She is a bundle of energy and she definitely has her likes and dislikes and does not mind letting you know what those are. She has "No" down really well and knows how to use that too. :) While she is definitely a strong willed child, she has the sweetest little spirit and soul. She wakes up almost consistently with a smile on her face - after we pick her up - and she is a happy baby. She just has the best time playing with us and her grandparents - she totally craves love and attention, and when she's getting those, she's pretty happy. She has the sweetest little giggle we've ever heard, and Todd says if we could bottle it, we'd make a million dollars. :) I have to agree.
We're going to try church tomorrow. Not too sure how long we'll make it, but we want to at least try going. She doesn't sit still long, so we'll see how long she lasts when it gets quiet. Todd is going back to work Monday, so that is something I'm not looking forward to. Bethany is so attached to him; she is crazy about Todd, and I think it's going to be really hard on her when he's gone for so long. She starts getting antsy when he steps out to run to town, so all day will be hard on her. She can't understand that he's not leaving for good and that he'll be back. All she knows is abandonment and change, so pray for her little heart, emotions and mental state to handle Todd being gone. Her night terrors are so much better, and we thank everyone for praying for those. She still has them, but they're less severe and less frequent. We're grateful for that. We just want her little heart and mind to be at peace and know she's loved and safe.
We'll try to do better about keeping up the blog. We are kind of getting into a routine - of course, Todd going back to work is going to upset that little apple cart. But, we'll be okay and get the routine back in place. We wanted to keep the updates coming a little more frequently, but this has been a crazy week with the trip to Birmingham. Anyway, thanks for reading, your interest in our sweet little Bethany, and most of all, your prayers for her. She is a little angel, and we are looking forward to being able to get her out and about a little more to meet our friends and family. As a side note, we tried Thursday night having her around new family members, and while it seemed fine at the time, it was too much for her. With these kids, too much activity or too many new experiences causes sleeping issues - major sleeping issues- and she paid a big price for our excursion. Anyway, I say all of that to say that we're going to be very slow in bringing new people into her life. Believe me, we really miss our friends and family, but we have to be careful not to cause her any additional stress. So if you're wondering about our delay in bringing her out to introduce her, that's the reasoning behind it. All of the adoption experts recommend doing this very slowly, and we've probably done a little too much in our haste to "show her off". We do send out love and thanks to everyone. Todd, Stacey and Bethany
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Finally! It is good to see that her adjustment continues to progress well. Everyone at the CNY celebration remarked about how well she was doing. She is such a beautiful child!
ReplyDeleteI know you hate thinking about the surgery to put tubes in her ears. You will be surprised by how much easier some things can be on children when they are her age as opposed to when they are older.
We are looking forward to a play date before too long!