She's a Savage!

This blog post will be a review of Esther’s first year as a SAVAGE!  What a year this has been for her filled with many ups and downs. 

We brought Esther home a year ago today; she landed on US soil in Ft. Lauderdale on my birthday.  We were blessed to have made new friends from Iowa as we traveled home from Haiti who helped us maneuver the airport and customs.  We were greeted by a group of friends and family from Ft. Lauderdale and Esther got to meet her Mimi and D.D. for the first time.  By this time it was clear that Esther was totally deaf and I began teaching her signs.  She got to come home to meet her brothers and sisters and friends and family at the airport.  Once we got home, she was greeted by her two dogs that she was not at all a fan of (oh how that changed). 

We quickly got a diagnosis of profound bi-lateral hearing loss (she is totally deaf on both sides).  She was poked and prodded and tested for many days.  She was developmentally delayed but only due to her hearing loss and is quickly catching up! 

We stayed in for several weeks and then her first outing was to Target – she was not impressed with the vastness of this store, which later turns out to be one of her favorite places.  She got to try new foods – which she loved, go to school for the first time and ride a bus, celebrate holidays like Christmas,Easter and Birthdays and many other first that would take up an entire blog to post.  Esther is now implanted in both ears, attending a Regional School for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children, she is signing and learning to speak and has been remarkable in her ability to learn and grow.

As far as attachment goes……Esther is a very social, fun loving girl.  She has attached very well to our family but still has some issues with others that we continue to work through.  Occasionally we see “orphanage” behavior show back up but those times seem to get easier as people are more educated about adoption and attachment.   This year seems like it has flown by and I can’t imagine a day that Esther was not part of our family.  Happy Birthday to me and Happy 1 year home to our precious baby girl!