Our Down Right Beautiful Life: May 2015

Where has the time gone? Just 30 days and this pretty little lady will be ONE!

She weighs 15lb 11oz (4th percentile) and is 27 inches long (4th percentile). She is wearing 3-6 month clothes, size 2 diapers and size 1 shoes.

This month she started holding her own bottle!! Because she is drinking 11-month-old amounts through a preemie nipple, it takes her a looooooong time to finish a bottle so this is a very welcome milestone! She also started eating table foods this month. So far she has tried scrambled eggs, homemade vegetable/bean soup, toast, and cubed butternut squash. She has been consistently losing weight since her 10 month appointment so we will be adding olive oil (we can't add heavy cream yet since she isn't one but that's coming up next) to as many things as we can this month to try to see if we can get her at least maintaining and hopefully gaining again, there is also a concern that we may have to do some more testing because of her vocal cords/swallowing but we are going to wait a little longer to see if she improves on her own since solids are still quite new for her. Otherwise she is doing fantastic!

She also entered the "I only want my Mommy" stage this month, I am curious to see what happens when she finds out she is going to have to share soon. Her personality is shining more and more every day. She is hysterical, very expressive, and makes the best faces! She loves music, food, and bouncing and she hates [I mean, really HATES] baths. She favors her right hand for eating and "waving" and she kicks her right foot in and out when she gets excited! She has self-feeding with her hands/fingers figured out. She holds her bottle with her pinky up. She has started pulling up to her knees and she rocks back and forth on all fours. This month she also started reaching her arms up when she wants to be picked up AND she started sleeping in her crib in her room! She sleeps through the night (7:30pm-6:30am) most nights now that she's in her own room - her brother still doesn't sleep all night and was waking her up a lot when she was in our room.

I have *reluctantly* started planning her first birthday "Under the Sea" celebration! I just can't believe it's almost here already. We are so thankful for our little princess <3!

We know that we have been quiet and many of you have been waiting anxiously for an update!!

Claire's eye surgery went very well. Compared to her other surgeries, it was very, very minor - other than a bloody nose (and bloody eyes) for the rest of the day, you wouldn't have even known she'd had surgery. She finished up a course of antibiotic eye drops and now she's hopefully all fixed up. We just have to wait a little longer to make sure that it was successful. Her canals are very small so she may need tubes put in or to have the same procedure repeated.

Claire did lose a pound over the last month so we are adding in an extra GI appointment (between regular appointments) for her to be evaluated again. She is around 15lb now and will be 11 months old tomorrow (she was 16lb 4oz at 10 months).

Otherwise, she is doing fantastic!!!

And now for an adoption update...

Things are moving along and we have found favor at every single turn! If you remember back to my post about the five loaves and two fish (featuring our sweet friend Madison), I talked about how God multiplied one little boy's gift and they had leftovers!! I am so humbled and excited to share with you that we are not only FULLY-FUNDED but we have been able to bless another adoptive family with our "leftovers." God is faithful and you all are amazing! I remember telling a friend when we first started this journey that I knew God was calling us to bring this little girl home but that it took so much faith to commit to her - it meant that she was counting on us to find a way. I prayed specifically that God would begin to provide by stirring the hearts of His people to come alongside of us and you have all BLOWN US AWAY. This isn't over, we still have a long road ahead raising two sweet babies with special needs, one who will need lots of extra care for a while, and I'm still praying the same prayer - that God would stir the hearts of his people to come alongside of us. We cannot do this alone but we are confident that God knows and will provide for all of our needs.

We found a little over two weeks ago that Amelia has a heart defect and, as long as the information we received is accurate, it will need to be repaired through surgery. I called Claire's cardiologist to discuss the report and her heart surgeon happened to be talking to him in his office at that exact moment that I called. I get goosebumps thinking about all of the ways that God has provided along this journey. They both looked over her, very limited, medical "file" together (it's a half-page in total) and actually wrote a letter for us that will hopefully help accelerate the adoption even more, they both feel that she needs to be evaluated as soon as possible.

Amelia also failed all of her hearing exams and doesn't seem to respond to sounds. We are so anxious to get her home! She has a full medical team (thanks to Claire for paving the way and the amazing doctors and therapists at Mary Bridge) who are anxiously awaiting her arrival and saving spaces in their schedules.

We still hope to travel in June! The ONLY thing we are waiting for now is our travel dates from the Ministry in Poland. Please pray with us that we can travel very soon, for favor with the Polish judge; that we get assigned a court date soon, that he establishes a shorter period of required bonding so that we can get her home quickly so that she can be evaluated by our awesome medical team and so that we can return home to our big kids as soon as possible! I've also been praying that God would begin preparing her heart for us. The way that the Polish adoption process works, her bond with us will determine if and how quickly we can bring her home, and we would love for you to join with us in prayer for that as well.

Thank you friends!!!!!!!!! We will update the second we have travel dates!