Four months home!

Love you, Ana-boo!

Ana has been home for four months now!

It is amazing to look back and see all the little things that have changed.

She is now SO expressive. She makes coos and giggles when she is content. She "sings" loudly when she is happy. She laughs hilariously when she is wound up, especially when the boys are playing crazy games. She cries, screams, and wails loudly when she is upset. No longer do I worry about not knowing what she feels!

Ana, Mama, Porgies

A month ago I was not sure about her bond with Porgies; she seemed incredibly jealous of him and it was very wearing on me. Now she seems to like him quite a lot and no longer puts up a fuss when I nurse him or read to him. This is a very good thing!

Mama says "Smile, Ana!"

Ana loves "helping" with household chores; doing laundry with Mama or carpentry with Papa. She thinks that the blender, drill, table saw etc. are hilarious and loves being where she can watch projects.

She does not regulate her body temperature well at all which means that we have to be very careful about taking her outside when it is hot (which it is a lot where we live).

Ana enjoys watching rain from the porch.

The past couple of days have been unseasonably cool and wet, so we have spent as much time outside as possible to enjoy the weather before it is not safe for her to be out again.

We don't see big fluffy clouds like this that often...

I love this weather!

Ana has been wearing her "purple turtle" spinal brace for a couple of weeks now, and it has been quite a game changer. It is definitely accomplishing its purpose of aligning her spine and hips, which is awesome for her internal organs (her digestion has improved!) and very painful for her legs.
It used to be when she lay down that her legs lay flat and crossed over each other. Now, with her hips being aligned with her spine, her legs stick up awkwardly-- even with the brace off. She can no longer be two-dimensional. This has made sleepytime difficult, because what is most comfortable for her is being held by me, and I can't sleep like that. I don't foresee this getting easier for a while, so I definitely appreciate prayers for strength, and patience, and maybe even some sleep here and there :)

She is also plumping up quite a bit (so sweet!) which makes her crossed legs more uncomfortable as well.
We will see the orthopedic surgeon next week to talk about options for her hips, and I am really looking forward to that appointment.


On another note, I was scrolling through Reece's Rainbow's newly listed children this morning and saw this little lady:

Sweet Ella

Would you please pray for her? She reminds me SO MUCH of Ana, and seeing her pictures gave me new eyes for how much progress Ana has made. Little Ella has the same criss-cross legs that Ana has. (Impossible gait, they call it. For some reason that makes me laugh. How can they sanitize something like those little crumpled legs into such a ridiculous sounding medical term?)
She also has a host of other medical issues, certainly more that Ana has struggled with. Please pray that Ella's family would see her and trust in God's provision to bring her home.

Ana is a purple turtle!

Ana received her spine brace today! She doesn't seem to mind it, though as Took remarked "She can't do her slumpy trick anymore."

Hopefully we will be able to keep spine surgery at bay for a long time!

  

Look at this

Ana last June, when Papa visited her:

Ana now

No more blank stares here, folks!

This Ana has a family and she knows it! Sometimes it makes her laugh and sometimes it makes her cry, just like any kid...

Look at the life in her eyes! She is loved!

Praise God for the love he set on us through Jesus his son. We love because he loved us, we live because he lives!

3 months home!

Yesterday was Ana's three month home day!

She is doing well. As you can see, she loves to eat sweet potato blender food.

She has gotten louder. Happy noises, sad noises, angry noises, experimenting with noise noises... They have all gotten louder! She is very communicative. I have no idea what her speech potential is, but she definitely values communication and wants us to know her needs. What an amazing blessing! 

She generally sleeps well, sleeping through the night about 80% of the time. With Porgies who sleeps through the night about 50% of the time, this means that some nights are great, and some nights are not for sleeping. As someone who idolizes sleep, I have had a hard time with this, but I suppose it's actually a pretty gentle way of having an idol taken from me. 

Ana always allows us to comfort her. She is very welcoming of love and affection from Mama and Papa, and from her brothers as well. When she can't fall asleep in her own bed, she will sleep in my arms (anyone who has adopted from an orphanage knows how AWESOME this is). I have to remind myself how huge this is when she is snoring on my shoulder and all I want is sleep :-)

She has gained 3 lbs since coming home. We are still working on optimizing her diet, and it's a moving target, but I am very positive about her ability to avoid a g-tube. 

Completely unshockingly her vitamin D levels were basically nonexistent. We are working with her pediatrician to get those levels up. She hates her supplements and lets me know it :-)

She has been fitted for a spine brace. Her spine is curvy, but very flexible, so the brace should be very effective and not too uncomfortable. I am excited to see how her body responds to some good support! 

Her hips are the biggest medical issue that we need to address. Her thigh adductors are very contracted so that her legs are permanently crossed. As she has gained weight this has gotten more uncomfortable for her. As much as I don't like major medical interventions, I want to have hip surgery done sooner rather than later. 

It has been wonderful to see Ana's progress in these 3 short months, and we are thankful to God for his preserving and protecting our family.

Calling all parents who have had kids with g-tubes...

Hi! It's Ana's mama, and I want to hear what folks think about g-tubes!

If you have any experience with a child with a g-tube, could you please chime in on the comments section?

 

What made you decide that a g-tube was necessary? Inability to eat? Erratic eating? Just not getting enough by mouth?

Does your child still eat by mouth at all?

How did you feel about tubes before you decided your child needed one? How do you feel now?

Do you use blender food? Formula? Combination?

Anything particularly difficult about care/maintenance?

Has your child been weaned off the tube/do you foresee this happening?

Ana is a great eater... When she wants to be. I really don't like the idea of sticking a tube in a child that CAN eat so well, but we live in a hot dry climate and on "I don't wanna drink" days I can spend hours slowly shoveling thickened liquids in... Where we live, dehydration can happen fast and it is imperative to keep the liquids going! Porgies now knows firsthand about the results of dehydration...

Anyway, miss Ana sees the GI on Thursday and I foresee this topic coming up! Therefore, I welcome your input.

If you want to comment privately, please mention such and I will not publish it.

Thanks!

Bonding and Attachment!?

A lot of people have asked me "How do you know if bonding is going well? When will it be okay for Ana to be with other people?"

I wish it were that simple...

The big concern about children like Ana from an orphanage situation is that they are used to trusting nobody but themselves. Our desire for Ana is that she will know that she is loved, and that we will give her everything she needs. No longer does she need to use her cute wiles to make sure that she will be kept alive...

We have definitely been "cocooning"; nobody but Mama or Papa has ever fed, clothed, bathed, or held her since she has been home. Our family and friends have been great about staying at arm's length, as hard as that is for some of them ;-)

I have seen both good and bad responses from Ana in different situations.

Here's a bad one; at the Dr.s office Ana always goes into major cute mode. We walk in, she crows and giggles whenever she sees a medical professional. It's like she's saying "notice me! I am cute!" She will sometimes arch away from me to get a better look at whatever nice nurse just entered the room. Honestly, I am glad that she does happy attention getting behaviors rather than freaking out, but I would be happiest if she knew she didn't have to be over the top cute to survive.

Here's a good one. My parents still have four kids living at home; teenagers down to age 8. It's a very exciting active place, and the boys really like going there to play. We went there today, and Ana was obviously happy to be there, but didn't try to attract anyone with her cuteness. She sat on my lap for a while and then laid on the floor and watched all the action; very content and just enjoying events like a kid.

I hope this helps you to have an idea  of how bonding is going and what sort of cues we are looking for!

Three of a kind

Before Ana came home I bought three O-balls for the three children.

I have wanted Ana to work on hand eye coordination but haven't been able to get a good setup for her to do that.

Until I thought of this...

For the first time I have seen her really exploring an object (though not really using hand-eye coordination).

Of course , both boys needed leashes for their O-balls...

But porgies was a little disappointed by his somehow...

No accounting for taste, I suppose.

He has since made his peace with it...

I am glad I got three of them!