April 2012 China vs. June 2012 USA

It’s hard to believe that is the same child in the pictures above. Smiles come easy now and they light up her entire face…her entire being! We are so blessed! Thank you Jesus for beginning to restore this little life. Hope is making so many developmental advances it is hard to keep up with her! It is incredible to watch. She has got crawling down. We are seeing more transitions from all “fours” to sitting up and vice versa. She also can transition from standing to sitting a little better. When she is walking (holding a finger still) she is learning to bend over and pick something up. She likes to throw a bouncy ball and then chase it to pick it up and throw it again. She definitely needs the finger for stability but she is developing the strength to bend her upper body over and pick it back upright. She is starting to show have a preference for what she is playing with, awesome! Generally we put toys in front of her and she plays with them. Now, she will play with them and then sometimes she will spy something else she wants and she will crawl over to it! She is also starting to “parallel play”! She will even crawl over to Eden to play next to her and with her. Several times in the past three days we have seen all three children play with the same thing TOGETHER! She also has come to us three and told us…”milk” in sign language.  Both times it was indeed time for a bottle! She will also sign bed when she wants to go to sleep and she signs shoes all the time. She loves her shoes. So she is asking for things in sign language that she needs/wants. She asks all the time to go “out” with her voice but the milk thing is new and cool. She also is taking more time to drink her bottle instead of guzzling it. She lets go with one or both hands often during feeding and lets us hold the bottle for her. She doesn’t have a “death grip” on it anymore. AND she sometimes won’t finish a bottle. Which I’m sure sounds weird to be excited about to some, but it is a sign that she knows that we will always give her more, she doesn’t have to eat like its her last meal.

Hope has gone a couple nights without crying out and on the nights that she does the frequency has definitely decreased. Last night was kinda weird though. I was upstairs sleeping in the bottom bunk of Noah’s bed (currently the most comfortable bed I can sleep in now, but that is another post), and I heard Hope crying out. If I heard her in Noah’s room she had been doing it for a little while or was especially upset. I got up and walked to the top of the stairs and I could hear Eric trying to soothe her. She was only half buying it and not settling down. So I snuck downstairs and quietly sat on the bed. Then I just said, “Ya ya, Mama’s here, it’s okay.” She instantly stopped crying, but still fidgeted awhile then she went back to sleep. It was like the many times I would try and try to comfort her and then Eric would speak once and she would settle. FINALLY, my voice soothed her! I’d like to get all puffed up about that but I don’t think that it was preference issue for Hope last night. I think it was a combination issue. It wasn’t that she wanted me over Eric, she wanted us BOTH there.

She had her first “off” day since we arrived home. It was Sunday and it was really hard to watch. She was behaving very much like she did the day after Gotcha day. She wouldn’t make or hold eye contact much. She didn’t want any real interaction but wanted to sit in our laps. She would get her feelings hurt really easy and she didn’t smile or laugh much. She was equally “put out” with Eric and I and we would have to “tag” each other in when the other was on the “bad list.” We couldn’t actually comfort her per se, but we could distract and redirect her. She wouldn’t hold her grudge long but it was long enough to merit another parent getting involved. She wouldn’t drink her bottles and she was just generally moody. **warning gross content ahead** That night while she was sleeping she started making these weird gurgling/snorting/gagging sounds…can’t really explain it and we discussed it seemed like she had a cold and was gagging on phlegm. (sorry) We don’t really know if she has a cold because her nose doesn’t “run”. Gotta love these new experiences with a cleft lip/palate child, don’t really know what we are doing here!! She seems a little more crusty and has more visible boogies (could this get any grosser?) but other than that she appears fine. So her “off day” may have also been the beginning of a cold day. But it was definitely a grieving day. It was a rainy, gloomy day and looked very much like Chongqing weather. We gave her some Advil that next morning and she had a super day yesterday. As “off” as Sunday was, Monday was equally opposite and “on”. She was precious yesterday! So engaging, fun, full of smiles and giggles. Sigh…welcome to international adoption, eh?