Tortoise or the Hare?

We have been home two weeks and so many things have taken place that I thought I better write about them now instead of at one month so I don’t forget! After being greeted at the airport by family and friends we take Esther to her new home.  Let the attachment begin. 

WEEK 1:

Esther is sleeping in our room and is a great sleeper from her very first night home.  We found out quickly that she is neither a fan of Chris or the dogs.  She is, however, a fan of anyone that has blonde hair.  We have been blessed by many families that are delivering meals to us each night.  Esther warms right up to the women that are blonde.  Introducing her to new foods has been a breeze - she LOVES food - only turned down strawberries – think it’s a texture thing.  She is chewing and swallowing all of her food and drinking out of different types of cups and loves milk.  She has mastered the stairs both going up and down.  It has been very cold and she has not been outside to play yet since she came home with a cold.  She was afraid of the bath and now we can't get her out! She is attached to Tiffany 24/7 never letting her out of sight.  Esther doesn’t like being told “no” – she is two - but she is very eager to communicate and picking up signs quickly.

Lots of Dr. Visits!

We went to the International doctor at Children’s hospital where she received a thorough evaluation and blood work.  We will wait to hear the results of the blood work and stool samples to see if she is parasite free.  She tested very high in fine motor skills and low in gross motor and not on the charts for language.  Her weight is in the 25^th percentile and her height is 3% but she is on the chart! We will go next week to the audiology clinic for further hearing testing.

WEEK 2:

First outing - Target

Eden getting tonsils out

Eden and Parker are becoming AWESOME big brother/sister! They are so helpful and love helping take care of Esther.  Esther is beginning to warm up to Chris and finally came around to Madi again.  Biggest shock is the dogs – she loves them now AND she is warming up to others that come in the house – even if you don’t have blonde hair! She is venturing away from mom and has let Madi put her down for a nap and Chris put her to bed once so she is settling right in!  As she becomes more comfortable here she also becomes more “2”!  Pushing boundaries and testing limits like any two year old would does. Makes it difficult with 3 that are doing that, but heart warming at the same time!  She continues to try new foods – doesn’t love green beans but she will eat them if you tell her to.  She plays well independently and learning to play with others (I didn’t say share with others just play with others)!  She went to Target for her first outing and was not impressed.  She doesn’t seem to get over stimulated with her surroundings.  She does LOVE to ride in the car and associates shoes with the car and gets really excited to put them on!  We took Parker and Eden to school and she wanted to stay and play with all the kids.  She has learned about seven signs and uses them in context and picking up new ones daily.  She even likes to have her teeth brushed now! We've come a long way baby!

This week we went to the audiology clinic at Children’s. She did not hear in either ear and has fluid behind each eardrum (not infection just lots of fluid).  The dr. does not want to label her with hearing loss until she meets with the ENT on April 5^th.  This doctor will decide if he wants to put tubes in to drain the fluid and when they will go in and do auditory brain steam response to get a better picture of the hearing loss and pinpoint, more accurately, each ear and where the loss stems from. http://www.chp.edu/CHP/Auditory+Brainstem+Response  So far, the doctors don’t think that she was ever hearing.  She does make some babbling sounds but no words are ever formed.  She also “talks” a lot by moving her mouth but no sounds come out.  She can move her mouth and do motions to songs(patty-cake, 5 Little Monkeys & Itsy Bitsy Spider) – SO cute – but no sounds come out.  

During this second week home Eden had her tonsils out so we are recovering and home for spring break and learning lots of things! Esther is parasite free but we are having to do some more blood work because it looks like some of her vaccines did work properly. We will do some more testing.  She also has an iron deficiency that is easily treatable with drops for thirty days.  She wheezing so we are doing some breathing treatments but she sits through them with ease!

Some favorite photos of the past two weeks:

                                                    

Eden teaching Esther how to write with chalk

Silly Sisters

LOVES the Lego table!

We are still baffled that no one at the orphanage, in almost two years, realized she was completely deaf.  If you spend even 5 minutes with her away from other children it is very obvious.  This would NEVER have changed our mind about adopting Esther it just would have been nice to be prepared for what we might be facing and have time to line up doctors etc. ahead of time and brush up on our signs.

We are confident that whatever we are facing we can handle but how nice it would have been to know.  Now we just wait to get into to the specialist and wait to see what he thinks our next steps will be and wait and wait and wait – after waiting so long to bring her home you would think I would have learned some patience by now! I have always been the Hare and God continues to refine me and teach me to be more like the Tortoise in order for me to win the race!

Thanks to ALL of you who have prayed us through this journey.  Please continue to lift us up when we come to mind, as our journey of 1818 is one of a lifetime not just a journey to Haiti and back.

Blessings,

Tiffany