Adoption Update: One Day at a Time

We have now had Amelia with us for almost six full days. Overall, she is doing well! She is opening up to us and beginning to make eye contact. On Friday I had left to grab lunch for everyone and when I got back she looked up and saw me and smiled! I cried. She doesn't look up very often at all so even just that little piece is such a triumph! This morning when she woke up, I went in to get her and the second she saw me she started screaming :( so there is definitely "good" moments of progress but also just as many moments where it is hard as well.

Getting her to eat is still the most frustrating although the orphanage has told us that everything we are experiencing is normal for her. Yesterday she went the entire day without eating a single bite and she refused every single bottle we offered as well. Today she has had three bottles (yay!) but, again, no food. Thursday she ate three bowls of rice cereal and three bottles after only eating a little here and there every day before that. Our food adventure is further complicated by the fact that I can't read the labels at the grocery store or the preparation directions once we get the food home so I'm not confident that I'm preparing the food the way that she likes it. We have tried LOTS of things and have discovered that she only likes apples or bananas (although I was able to sneak in carrots only once) and they HAVE to be diluted with rice cereal. She does not like her food to have any texture or much flavor. If I feed her the wrong thing or try to get her to eat when she isn't ready, she has a sensory meltdown including banging her head, screaming, tensing and biting herself and once she starts, we can only calm her down by getting her to fall asleep. Feeding her in a reclined position so that she can relax her whole body, making sure that she is VERY relaxed, and massaging her face and mouth before I try to feed her also seems to help. I also wonder about not having a high chair here, it will be nice when we are home and have access to other tools that may help her. Of course rice cereal and a couple of bottles per day is not enough nutrition to sustain an almost two year-old so we have a long way to go but for now we rejoice with every single bite as they are very few and far between!

Each day, she seems more relaxed to be here. She is starting to recognize us and interact more with us each day although she still "pulls back" into her own space often. And I feel like she is even starting to learn that she can communicate her needs/wants to us and we will respond, although she is definitely still learning how to do this. The Tula (baby carrier) has helped significantly to help calm her down when she starts to get overstimulated and has allowed us to take little trips to the mall and even the zoo! It helps to relax her, limits her stimulation and still lets her know that I'm here and she isn't alone.

We went to the zoo yesterday, it was Amelia's very first time ever really being outside. She did pretty well although she was not a fan of the sun ;). I'm sure others thought we were crazy because when she needed space, we had to just set her down on the ground and wait for her to be ready again but we made it and she actually slept most of the time!

Our first social worker visit on Friday went well! Amelia slept the entire time but we were able to show her pictures and tell her how she has been doing. She was very impressed with her progress and told us that she is very lucky!! Her only concern was that our older kids were "too well behaved." So we told her that we bribed them with cake and that they are usually typical kids ;). She seems to be very nice and I think court should go really well! We found out that we will not only have a judge and prosecutor but also a full jury!!! They don't take adoption lightly here, we have a lot of people to impress! We have one more visit on Thursday and then court the following Tuesday. After court, we will travel back to the capital where we will wait out the appeal period (the judge will set either a 14 or 21 day appeal period at our hearing) and then once that has passed, we can apply for her new birth certificate, visa and passport.  She also has to have a medical evaluation done by a special doctor in Warsaw before she can travel back to the US since we have applied for her to become a citizen immediately upon landing.

Please continue to pray that Amelia will eat, that the walls will continue to come down, and for strength and patience for all. There are quite a lot of tears over here... from everyone!

Thank you for cheering us on!!

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God 

has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 3:14