March and April

It has been a crazy two months, and I have not sat long enough to write my monthly blog update. March and April have been very busy months for us as we started a new adventure as homeowners!

We started looking at houses when Scott got a new job in January. I know a lot of families deal with a commute but it was NOT working for Brielle. She was used to having her daddy 24/7, so him getting home at 7 was really hard for her. We closed on our house in the beginning of March, and moved the last weekend in March. It was a whirlwind month of packing, driving back and forth, therapy, and Brielle's birthday!

Her birthday was March 27th and we moved March 28th. As much as I wanted to throw her a big party I knew it was not in the books this year. So I thought about her favorite things, and that became her party: balloons, Chick-Fil-A, friends and cupcakes. It was low key, and just right for our sweet 4 year old. She had a blast and was asleep 5 minutes into the drive home.

Scott's parents came to visit right after we moved, and were a huge help painting. We painted our dining room ceiling, and whole master bathroom. We had the rest of the house painted before we moved in, so it was nice to check our final painting projects off. Then my parents came the next weekend, and helped us wallpaper the dining room. All we have left is to hang pictures!

Brielle has been making great progress lately. She is using her signs pretty consistently, even though she does mix up which ones to use from time to time. Now the struggle has been having her understand that she doesn't always get what she wants just because she is signing. Brielle has done pretty well with the move, and loves her big girl room. She has started standing independently for a few seconds at a time, and cruises along all the furniture to get around.

In OT she has mastered her first puzzle and a stacker toy, which are both developmental milestones. She loves the ball pit and the swing the most. PT is not her favorite, but we are seeing the results at home.

Last Friday we had her IEP test with the Paulding county schools. She will be starting their special needs Pre-K in the fall. She does really well in Sunday School, so we know  she will be ready for school. She will also receive PT, OT and speech at school.

Yesterday we got her AFOs (ankle-foot orthodics), and she really likes them! She likes things that squeeze, so she doesn't mind wearing them. She already is standing much better, and is working up the courage to take those first independent steps!

We still enjoy our sweet girl every day, but she is certainly a stubborn toddler. We have to be consistent in discipline, and the temper tantrums are fierce when she is told no. But she has become so much more aware of her surroundings and wants to help with everything from vacuuming the house to putting away laundry to feeding the dogs. She has come such a long way in just 8 months. Praise the Lord for all the healing He has done in her life!

Thank you for all your continued prayer and support!

6 months with our girl!

It is hard to believe that we have been Mommy and Daddy for almost half a year! February 14th will mark our 6th month mark since our Gotcha Day. Many families choose to celebrate different milestones in their adoption journey. For us Gotcha Day was a day of hectic schedules, an unsure child, and lots of forced smiles. The day that we celebrate is what we will call Family Day (October 8, 2014). This is the day our adoption became legal. We had to fight hard for the courts to process our case, and God proved faithful in the end.

Here is an update on our lives over the last month:

Brielle was evaluated for physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT) in January. We will now start seeing those therapists weekly. In OT she will be learning life skills (dressing, eating, etc.) and working towards developmental milestones (stacking blocks, coloring, holding a pencil, etc.) In PT we will concentrate on more gross motor skills. She is really getting strong in her legs! She pulls up and cruises all over the place, and is getting more steady on her feet. We should be getting her fitted for braces in the next month, and her PT thinks she will really take off after that! The PT was really impressed that she has gone from not crawling all the way to walking with assistance in 6 months.

 Brielle is becoming much more proficient with sign language, but she only does it when she feels like it. :) Typical toddler. She can consistently sign more, please, bath, sing, eat, and all done. We are trying to teach her 'no' to help with some of her frustration. We are also working on potty training, and she is doing pretty well. She also has 'rest time' from 1-3pm every day. We used to make her stay in bed, even if she was playing or reading books, but that hasn't worked lately. Just this week she has started doing the sweetest thing, when she is done playing she will crawl up in her bed and fall fast asleep! My girl is getting so big!

We are having more food battles, but they are typical toddler food battles. I know that is a good thing because she is forming opinions of her own, and is growing out of food fears. It sure is hard on this momma though! I never know if she will like the same thing day to day. But she consistently eats eggs, chicken nuggets, broccoli, kale chips, and plain pasta. One a good day we get some yogurt, turkey and blueberries too. I never thought I would be the momma to give into her child's food battle, but with an adoptive kid you just have to! When a child has gone without food at some point it is important for attachment for them to know they always have food, even if its not always what I made for dinner.

She has become much more affectionate with us, and often just crawls up in my lap to snuggle. Playing reciprocally is one of our OT goals, and she gets better every day. It is so fun watching her learn how to interact, and her realization that she doesn't have to always play alone. We have been hearing lots of belly laughs lately!

Here is a look at our last month together:

Finally fitting into some cute 3t clothes

 Always torturing loving her doggies

 Woods exploration

 Morning baths help cranky attitudes

 We've mastered eating with a spoon!

Fun time at Ben & Jordyn's house

 We have learned that one sheet of paper is not enough painting space for this girl

 Snuggles with a sick girl

 Boundary testing...

 Sensory play with Flynn

 Sleeping hard after playing hard

 She loved the goop!

 This never happens, but she fell asleep on our way to youth group

 Wagon in the woods

 She has decided to eat apples like Mommy

 First trip to the Dekalb Farmers Market

 First time in Sunday School 

   Gotcha Day & Six Months Home!

Thank you for all your love, support and prayers!

New Year, New Accomplishments

We kicked off 2015 we an eventful start! We had our first night away from our girl. Every year for 6 years we've spent New Years Eve with friends from college. We had planned to bring Brielle, but my parents kindly offered to come stay the night with her. I was a little nervous because her toddler behavior has increased lately, but of course she was a little angel for her grandparents. It was so nice to have a night away! I can't believe we didn't take a single picture together!

Scott has also started a new job with Ventiv Tech, which he loves! His position is more web development than his previous one, and he commutes 3 days a week to the office. It has been an adjustment to have him gone, but it makes our family time all the more special. Brielle certainly misses her daddy while he is gone!

We had an appointment with the ophthalmologist, and it took 4 hours! She did great, but does have a slight vision problem. We hope to pick out her glasses this week. Then the next day we had her OT evaluation. We are excited to start with some therapies because I know they are going to help her tremendously! The evaluation went well, and right now our concentration is learning how to color better and learning how to stack blocks. We have a PT eval on the 23rd, and then we will start both therapies weekly.

Brielle has been growing and changing all the time! She has gone through so many developmental stages since we got her in August, and she is coming fully into toddlerhood. It is very fun, but also very challenging. She has a lot of opinions, and does not like to be told no! She may not talk but she certainly makes her opinions known.

One of the best things about Brielle when we first got her was that she would eat anything, veggies and all! But with toddlerhood has come picky eating...I'm just thankful she still likes avocado and broccoli.

We also started potty training last week, and its going really well! I'm not sure when we can actually move into big girl panties, but it is really nice to use one or two pull-ups a day instead of multiple diapers.

She consistently signs 'more' or 'all done' when given a choice between eating more or getting down. She is pretty consistent about obeying 'look at mommy', which is a big victory because eye contact has been hard for her. I am hoping she will learn the sign for going potty, but we're still working on it. Food is a much better motivator!

Her laughter is still medicine for my soul! She is a child of big extremes, very happy, very sad, or very mad. We certainly enjoy her, and she pushes us to our limits.

I know 2015 holds great things for our girl! I cannot wait to look back over the year when we get to our gotcha day, and see all the expectations she has exceeded!

Here is a look at our life lately:

Rainy Saturday=Chick Fil A breakfast

Music is still her favorite thing

Long day at the eye doctor

Equals long nap

Love when she still snuggles after nap is supposed to be over 

Flynn is hanging out with us again!

She loves her doggies more than they love her. 

Working on our coloring skills

Nothing like a playset inside with Mommy, Brielle and Coalie

Christmas...The time of expectations

Our daughter's first Christmas...words that held a lot of expectation. She may have celebrated Christmas in the orphanage, but we will never know. She didn't have anything to bring from their, so it's safe to say she had never received any gifts. Christmas is a time of of family traditions, celebration, and laughter. Or at least that was my expectation. We tried to keep our gifts to a few, but I kept finding more and more things I just knew my daughter would love.

Here is how our Christmas went:
We went to church on Christmas Eve, just like we've always done. Our service was at 4:30, which is prime playtime for our child. So that is what she did. Laughed and played during the service. Not exactly the peaceful service I had pictured.

Then we went to Chinese for dinner. My family has always gone to a Chinese restaurant on Christmas Eve. It's an odd tradition, but I wanted to carry it on. All she ate was french fries.

All I wanted to do before she went to bed was read the Christmas story from Luke 2. She screamed so loud the entire time that Scott had to start over twice.

Christmas morning she was up bright and early at 6:30...the child who normally sleeps until 8. Scott went to get ready to video her reaction to the Little Tykes play set we built in the living room. She screamed because she wanted to go with Daddy, but I kept her in the bed room. The end of her temper tantrum is caught on video, and she just goes still when she sees the playground. Then promptly scoots back to her room to play with her beloved car.

Although everyone was excited for her to open her gifts she was overwhelmed by the attention, and mostly screamed when ripping open the paper. Then chose to play with the boxes and bags.

I am not saying all of this because we had a bad Christmas. We truly had a wonderful Christmas, and my heart was full just having my daughter here with us. I don't know that I could have endured another year without her stocking on the mantle. The expectations for Christmas were mine, not hers. She had a great time getting to know all her family better. She got lots of attention, was read lots of books, and received lots of love. And that is what mattered to her. Now we're slowly reintroducing some of her gifts, and she loves them. She plays everyday with her play set, and got brave enough to slide by herself today.

I learned that Christmas with an adopted child is best when expectations are set to the side. (Or maybe all children, but this is my first experience). Next year my goal is to just soak in the time with family, buy less toys, and check my expectations at the door.

Got to finally see the Sanjines family in the US!

Christmas in Virginia with the Hamilton Family

Christmas Eve...Our first nativity!

Christmas morning

 Christmas Day with the Dunton Family

Hiking with the family