One month and counting...

The first time we met her - I gave her the cookie!

"Dude, make this woman stop touching me."

I met my daughter one month ago today. I thought that waiting for Kate was a roller coaster ride, but it's got nothing on actually being with her. In the last month she has hated my guts, tolerated me, ignored me, laughed at me, sought out my attention, pushed me away, loved me, taken my hand, taken my heart, kissed me, screamed at me, cried on my shoulder, asked me for comfort, asked me to go away when she needed comfort, and the list could go on and on. And through everything, I am constantly amazed at God's hand in all of this. He is the creator of families, and he is teaching me about what that means.

More on that another day. Right now I want to give an update on the past few days. We saw an International Adoption doctor on Wednesday where they drew a lot of blood, asked me to collect stool samples, and other fun and exciting things. We also saw an OT. Basically, everything looks good so far, with the exception of her speech and her ongoing ear infection. She is on her third round of antibiotics, and she has had it with the meds. Tomorrow she will be assessed by a early intervention specialist, who will help us to determine what types of therapies she is a candidate for.

I have had a lot of interesting questions and comments lately about Kate NaNa's cleft and speech (ok, some of them were interesting & some of them were just silly), so I thought I might fill in some blanks for those who are curious. A month ago, all we knew was that she had a repaired cleft lip and an unrepaired cleft palate. That is still true, but we do know a bit more now. For example, her cleft is complete, meaning that it goes from her gum line all the way back to the back of the soft palate. Food sometimes comes out of her nose, but she is pretty good at controlling that sort of thing. It seems to be a wide cleft, although I really have nothing to compare it to. As for her lip, I am not convinced that the muscles were connected when they did the repair, but it is possible that she has just never learned to use those muscles. I don't see any movement where that scar is. We will see the cleft team next month, and after that we will have a better picture of when the surgery will take place, and how many there will be (I am guessing multiple).

Because of all of this, she cannot suck out of a straw, bottle, or sippy cup. (She has no interest in the bottle or sippy, but she is dying to use a straw.) She cannot make most consonant sounds. She cannot speak in English (except for a few things) or in Chinese (except for a few things). However, she is extremely smart, and understands most of what I say. Around the house, we have developed this weird language that is a combination of English, Chinese, ASL, made-up signs, and pointing. She speaks to me through a combination of sounds and signs.

The ASL is saving my sanity. Literally. She can now sign bath, cold, cookie, hot, sleepy, milk, cracker, ice cream, apple, more, and candy. And she knows when I sign clean, dirty, drink, and play. And I am sure there are some I am forgetting. We are trying to get her to say our names with sign. We have even made up signs to represent Ben and Will. The only problem I have had is that all of the Signing Time videos are checked out or lost from the library, so I went last night and put in a request that they buy more. Libraries rock.

I would love to write more - about the boys and how amazing they are, about attachment issues and adoption, and about what she likes and dislikes. Not to mention just ranting about things I think are annoying about life. But I find that I stay exhausted. I come here for a creative outlet, but I don't have the energy for much. Two year olds are busy little people. Continue to pray for us. We are having a fantastic week, and I am so thankful for my family. I tear up just typing the word family. Ben told me today that he is so glad that we are finally all together. Man, he kills me. Have I mentioned that I love my kids???Staying up late with Daddy