Adoption Update: Together Again!

Claire is "home"!!!!  During rounds on Friday, the doctor told Justin that they weren't ready to discharge her but that Sunday was a major Polish holiday so there would only be students in the hospital until Tuesday .... so Justin decided to jail break her :-/. He promised the doctor that we were well-trained and purchased a nebulizer and picked up her prescriptions on their way home. Imagine my surprise when they showed up ;).  She actually did pretty well overnight, Justin and I each took a shift and she had a few worrisome moments but she is doing well this morning. Her 02 is 94-95 today which is much better than it was a few days ago but still not perfect. It is still lower at night but that is to be expected. Go Claire!!

I decided to take advantage of the "one baby" morning and give Amelia a bath ... we had kept putting it off because we were worried it would be traumatic for her and we are trying to limit things that might upset her until she is more comfortable with us. She did better than I expected at first, she cried at first but then calmed down, she wouldn't look at me but that's still typical especially in moments where she feels overstimulated. Once she seemed completely comfortable, I decided to try to wash her hair (since it hasn't been washed in at least two weeks and was collecting an embarrassing amount of food/sticky Kiesel :-/) and she immediately tensed up and put her face completely under the water like she just wanted to get away. My hands were covered in soap and I was NOT expecting it so it took me a second to react but I pulled her up out of the water and she didn't cough or gasp like I had expected, it was if she had done this many times before and knew how to hold her breath. I called for Anna to come help me rinse her off while Amelia strained against me to try to get her head back under the water as if she couldn't handle the washing unless she could somehow get her head back under :(. Despite my best efforts, she did get back under one more time. I got her out and cried and held her until she calmed down, it was a really scary experience, seeing her so afraid and with such intense determination to get under the water. I will make sure to have Justin nearby the next time that we try.

She still would spend the entire day biting on a cup and rocking back back and forth all alone if she could but she is starting to REACH for me to pick her up when she sees me!!!!!! And she looks up at me a little more each day. She will sometimes let Levi play with her but she has NO interest in Claire or Anna and tenses up/grinds her teeth/grunts at them if they come anywhere near her. We know it will just take time and Anna is starting to understand and be more patient. Initially, her feelings were very hurt. The Tula still works well for getting her to let me "in," I think it limits her stimulation and allows her to relax so she can tolerate me touching her.

We still haven't found anything solid that she will eat - she had half a bowl of rice cereal on Thursday afternoon (exactly a week since the last time she had solid food) and has refused everything since but she has been eating formula even when she is awake!!!!  Which is a huge improvement from only drinking Kiesel in her sleep ;).  It really seems to be a texture thing, I need to find something with NO texture that is thick and nutritious - she gags on things that are the consistency of baby food or yogurt, I make the rice cereal very thick but I think it has too much texture for her to like it.

I'm not sure if you remember but when we came in July, the nuns had told us that she HATED to be touched (remember she wasn't even able to lift her head), they had left her in a bouncy seat all day and night as that was the only stimulation she could tolerate - even for eating and sleeping. They told us that between our trips, they started working with her (massage, PT, eating solid food, and now I also think bathing as well) as they really wanted to impress us but all of the changes have been a lot for her. They did tell us that the training that they did with the spoon was very traumatic for her and they truly are not the least bit surprised that she isn't eating :(.

We know that in time it will be like she has always been with us! And we are patiently enjoying all of the small improvements each day. We truly feel so so so blessed to be here and to be able to show love to such a precious little girl who has never been touched except to quickly meet her basic needs, or been outside, or had toys, or experienced love.

Tomorrow is a major national holiday here (All Saints' Day - http://culture.polishsite.us/articles/art10fr.htm) so everything will be closed both tomorrow and Monday. And then we have court on Tuesday at 10am (that's 1am back home) when Amelia will become a Howell!!!!  Tuesday afternoon we will travel by train back to Warsaw (and all breathe a big sigh of relief as we will be near a much bigger hospital for the girls!!) where we will stay for the duration of the appeal period and until we leave. We do have to travel back down here once to pick up Amelia's new birth certificate (!!) before we can apply for her passport and visa but we think Justin might do that alone as it is much easier than bringing all of the kids.

It was confirmed at our social worker visit what I thought I had translated properly from Amelia's current birth certificate, that her parents didn't give her a name (her name on her birth certificate is blank) but that she was assigned a name by an officer at the civil registry office and it was added as a note at the bottom of the certificate about a month after she was born :(. She wasn't given a middle name so we will be giving her one.

Justin and I were talking last night about how sharing the journey is the hardest and most vulnerable part for us... knowing how to love and care for Amelia feels completely natural, like we were made to do it!!! We have studied, we have read, we have taken classes, we have prepared in every way we could think of, but most importantly, God has prepared us specifically for how to care for THIS little girl and we see evidence of that every day. We truly aren't afraid or worried, we are confident and we know that He has called us to her and her to us and that no matter how long it takes, how emotional it is, or how long the days may be, she is ours and she is with us forever - He will supply all of our needs. But we continue to share because we know that through our sharing, more families will be made aware of what orphans with special needs experience and might consider opening their hearts and homes to one (or more) of them and even beyond that, people will be able to see the work of God through Amelia's journey. What an honor to get to have a front-row seat! She is such a treasure.

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. -1 Peter 1:18-19

Thank you for cheering us on!