Adoption Update: Medical Exam

We had another lazy/laundry day on Saturday and set out to re-introduce Amelia to water/bath-time. We put a little baby bathtub in the middle of the floor in the living room and let Amelia "explore" it all day. Initially, just looking at it made her upset but we took it slowly and by the evening, she was soaking the ENTIRE living room with water from her happy splashes - we went through lots of towels and I took at least 30 minutes of video, watching her fear change to joy and seeing her process excitement about the water ... it was truly magical to watch!!!! It was very obvious that it was her first time playing with water (or anything at all for that matter!), it was absolutely worth all of the cleanup.

On Sunday, we took the kids to another indoor play place that also had a little play area for babies. The little girls had fun! Amelia has really opened up the last couple of days. She is smiling, laughing, looking up more and more. She is letting us hold her in our arms without protest. It is truly amazing to watch the walls of her heart come down and to get to see her experience the world for the first time!!!  She has even started leaning in for kisses and getting curious about the things that are around her, including us!

Today, Amelia had her first medical exam for her visa application. She weighs 18lb 8oz and is 30in long, both measurements are considered "off the chart" for her age (she will be 2 in 10 days!) but we expected that. The doctor did his assessment and didn't tell us anything that we didn't already know from spending the last month here - she needs glasses, a hearing test, GI consult, cardiology consult, etc. He also said that he is amazed that we are adopting her, he kept pointing out how far behind she is as if we didn't already know and asking how we are going to manage. He even asked how I could be smiling :(. If only he knew ...... He was nice, the understanding of disabilities here is just so different than at home, I did my best to explain and to make an impression!  We go back on Thursday to have her TB test read and to hear what his assessment was of all of her medical documents (there are only 9 total pages in her entire medical file - 2 are hospital stay summaries, 4 are lab results, 1 is her immunizations and the other 2 are handwritten notes written by the orphanage doctor so we don't have much) but they're all in Polish so I'm anxious to hear if there is anything noteworthy written in them.  As long as the TB test is clear and he doesn't find anything that we need to address in her medical file, we will be finished with the medical part of the visa application process after this visit!

It's supposed to rain all this week but Wednesday is a national holiday (their Independence Day) so we will probably try to keep the kids busy tomorrow and gear up for a rainy day at home all day on Wednesday and then the next doctor appointment on Thursday. We will most likely update again on Thursday with any news we receive at the appointment.

Thank you for cheering us on, what a privilege it is!!  We are blessed <3.

They have the neatest (and cheapest!!) indoor play places here!

The girls loved the baby area