Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Bella, Post Adoption: Month 3

Another month has passed with our sweet littlest lady and in keeping with last month, this was a busy one! Honestly, because our Bella is a bit of a mystery, we are examining her from head to toe and addressing needs as they arise. To be totally transparent, I have yet to leave an appointment without need for follow-up or treatment or a new referral. While it can be overwhelming (see: my emotional breakdown a couple weeks ago), I am so, so thankful that Bels is getting all she needs to achieve her potential. She is the most resilient, determined, joyful little girl I have ever known, and it is a privilege to be her momma. For now, we take things one day at a time and continue to watch our littlest girl shine! Also, I do think things will calm down once we get all these appointments and referrals and surgeries and treatments out of the way; so, each appointment we complete means we are one step closer to being done with them! 

Any.way. Let me dive right in to what our beautiful Bella is up to now that we've been her lucky, lucky family for three whole months!: 



Language. Bella has learned more signs ("open"; "please") and her receptive language is just rocking! She understands SO much of what we say, and does a great job of following commands (e.g., "Bring Momma the fish"; "Put the ball in the cup"). She also mimics (some) sounds, has learned to make two animal sounds (snake and lion :) ), and is starting to learn body parts. Further, we are working on oromotor strength in therapy, as her tongue has such low tone. We now use a specialized straw cup that forces her to use her mouth correctly when sipping, and she has been doing a GREAT job with it! And get this: after her spinal surgery (more on that in a minute), she decided to start showing off some of the words she can say. We were sitting in our hospital room several hours after the surgery and she started saying things she has never said before: "Eggs," "Bread," "More," and even attempting to say "Delicious!" We were floored! We hope and pray we'll hear more words soon, but for now, we just talk to her all the time and encourage any attempt she makes and then celebrate like crazy when she succeeds. Go Bella! 




Motor. I cannot even describe how much stronger Bella has gotten over the last three months! She has gone from not being able to climb a single stair to easily climbing all 16 of our steep stairs. Her favorite, though, is sliding back down on her tummy. :) And last week, she was sitting on my legs when she suddenly pushed herself up to standing and remained upright for a good second or two - this is big for her!!! And actually, she did this multiple times again, just yesterday. Bella also now has bilateral AFOs (ankle-foot orthotics) to help with her severe over-pronation. She has gotten really used to them now, and we are hopeful this will help to strengthen her muscles so that she can walk independently and correctly. Her fine motor skills are also improving and she has been tolerating all her weekly therapies really well. She works SO hard and we are so proud of her!



A week ago, Bella had surgery on her spinal cord. She has "Tethered Cord Syndrome." My hub and I suspected it after discovering that she had a sacral dimple while we were in China, which is often an underlying symptom. It had never been documented in any of her medical files - we'll never know if this was deliberately or was not recognized. Nonetheless, having a tethered cord was one of those things we checked "yes" to when filling out the Medical Conditions Checklist at the very beginning of our adoption journey (aka, the specific needs we felt confident we would be able to tackle head on, as a family :). Our suspicions about TCS were confirmed following an MRI of her spine several weeks ago. So, Bels underwent surgery to de-tether her cord, which her neurosurgeon confirmed was "very abnormal" once he was able to see it while operating. This may sound strange, but knowing it was so abnormal was actually good news, as we are hopeful she will gain more sensation and muscle strength now that her abnormal cord has been de-tethered. So, while we are having to take two weeks off from physical therapy, we are hopeful that she will quickly re-gain the skills she had acquired and continue to reach, and surpass, the goals we have set! You've got this, Bella! 



Cognitive. Our girl is a smart cookie! She has a great memory and picks up on things very quickly and remembers things she has only seen a time or two! She is very observant and is constantly studying the world around her, taking it all in and trying to mimic what she sees. We can't wait to see where life takes our beautiful little lady!



Sleeping. I hesitate to write this (again), but our girl is such a great sleeper, which is such an answered prayer. So many sweet kiddos who are adopted have a terrible time sleeping - there are very often night terrors and tantrums and looooong screaming sessions, all due to trauma. But, praise Jesus, our girl goes to sleep with a smile on her face and almost always wakes up the same way. We are so grateful that she sleeps so peacefully (knock on wood). 




Eating. Bels still loves to eat, especially if carbs are involved! She is not a big fan of fruits, and only some vegetables, but homegirl loves some carbs and loves some meats. And eggs? Good gracious. This sweet baby will eat four scrambled eggs in one sitting. She also loves her almond milk and water. AND she even feasted on something ice cold this month - a Chick-Fil-A cookies and cream milkshake - ha! Looks like no one can resist the delicousness that is a CFA milkshake. :) Multiple people (like, at least 10) have commented over the last week about how much she's grown over the last month! Grow, Bella, grow! :)



Attaching. We have seen the greatest gains in attachment this month! From the beginning, she has been very attached to her Daddy, big siblings, and I, thank the Lord. This girl just adores her family (feeling's mutual, I assure you). BUT this month, I was able to leave her in the care of another while she was awake. This was HUGE for her. It meant she felt safe and secure enough to know that everything was okay and that Momma would be coming back. I know it helped having her siblings with her. <3 She has also done a really good job of interacting with her therapists. Actually, sometimes she does better when I'm not in the room, which means I am spying through the crack of the door #stalkermom :) 



Out and About/Playing. Life marches on and so do the Lu Crew. This month, we visited family out of town and had family in town; we hit up our town's Fall Frolic and spent time with friends, one of our favorite evenings being at the Chinese Lantern Festival. This girl just rolls with it all. And, she is doing well in achieving another of our therapy goals, which is purposeful playing. When Bella first came home, her play basically consisted of banging objects together. Now, she loves to zoom cars around and play with shape sorters and pretend to talk on the phone. She hugs her babies and plays the piano and listens to books being read. She brushes her hair and her teeth (followed by some extra brushing by her momma) and looooves to jam to music. She is so fun!






Etc. Let's see. Also, over the last month, we received Bella's official "Certificate of Citizenship" in the mail. She also now has a social security number. Hooray! Additionally, she continues to smooch my cheeks approximately 347 times a day and is the best little hugger. She lets other people hold her and loves to play outside. We have several more medical/health issues on the agenda we hope to knock out by the end of the year; so, the rest of 2017 promises to continue being super busy as our persistence to give Bels everything she needs to achieve her potential is still in full swing. We continue to be busy and tired, overwhelmed and overjoyed. Mostly? Happy beyond belief that we get to spend our life with this precious girl by our side.





Happy 3 months post-Gotcha Day, baby girl. We love you with all our hearts! AND Happy First Halloween, darlin'. Bring on the sweets! <3

Monday, October 30, 2017

Cheers to the Weekend...err...Week Edition

Whelp. The ol' blog is back up and running, but only after having to buy a new computer after mine died out of nowhere last week. A couple trips to the Apple store later, and here we are. So much has happened over the last two weeks, and for sake of my little online scrapbook, here are some of the things we've been saying CHEERS to over the last couple weeks: 

Visits with family. We had a lot of fun with my "side" of the family last weekend, with one of my sisters and her trio coming to the Mill to meet Bella. We had been counting down the minutes for this meeting and once my sister finally got the green light, she was able to come and meet her newest niece. We had the BEST time together that weekend, and it was SO needed. We laughed and cried, we ran and lounged, we played with the seven kiddos who took over the house, and just enjoyed each other's company. It was blissful.





Then, we headed to Columbia that Saturday, along with the rest of my siblings, to surprise my momma at a retirement party! My mom was SO surprised and, for the first time ever, we had all 13 BLOMPS cousins together. :)






Fall Fun continues. Ever since we moved to the Mill five years ago, we haven't missed our town's Fall Frolic - it is one of my favorite Fall traditions! And now that one of my sisters lives right down the road, we met up there and enjoyed it together! So fun!







 


And then, this past Friday, one of my good friends hosted a chili night at her home. There were seven families, a whole bunch of kids, and a whole bunch of fun! 



School success. I am so, so proud of Banks and Raleigh and how well they are doing at school in their second grade and kindergarten years. This is the first year Banks gets actual grades and he brought home a straight-A report card. Go Banks! And Raleigh brought home an awesome report card, too, with the sweetest comments from her teacher. Go Rals! Proud (bragging) momma, over here. ;)


Halloween fun. We are SO excited for Halloween tomorrow! I convinced my kiddos to dress in themed costumes, and I about died when I tried Bella's on her the first time. Can't wait to share! And tomorrow is my most favorite social media day of the year. I may despise social media sometimes for many reasons, but Halloween is not one of them - seeing kids in costumes is my FAVORITE! We were also thrilled to continue the tradition of being "Boo'd" and getting to "Boo Back" two neighbors. The holiday season has officially been kicked off!


Losing a game...and a tooth. Okay, so I'm not CHEERSing the fact that Banks' team lost their flag football game last Thursday, but I am CHEERSing that Banks lost his tooth during the game! He got hit in the mouth (thank goodness for mouthguards!) and came running over to the sideline, crying. "I lost my tooth!" he cried. Only...it was still in his mouth, hanging on by a thread. So, he pulled it out, handed it to me, and went back in the game where he scored a touchdown and got an interception. AND it all happened in front of his sweet teacher, who came to cheer him on in his game. <3  



College BFFs. It is no secret that we are avid Tiger fans in my house. It's where my hub and I went to college (and met and fell in love). And it's also where I met some of my favorite friends in the whole wide world. I just love my girls so much. So, this weekend, six of us met up in Tiger Town for the Clemson/Georgia Tech game. The forecast promised rain but that didn't stop us. No siree Bob. Honestly? It was a BLAST going to the game in the pouring rain! And because of the ski pants, poncho, and baseball hat I wore, I was warm and completely dry to the bone! It was such a great weekend away with my girls.






And, my hub had a blast with our kiddos - at one point, having eight kids playing at our house while he solo dad-ed it. Ha! A win-win for all, especially since the Tigers also got the win! Woot!  


Modern medicine. I'll go more into this in tomorrow's post, but I am also saying CHEERS that Bella has recovered from a major surgery she had last week. We have an incision check this week and another check again in two weeks to ensure everything is healting as it should, but I am happy to share that our little rockstar is completely off her pain meds. Go, Bella, go! And a big shout out to my momma, who took care of our big three back home while we stayed overnight in the children's hospital with our Bels. <3









And, that's all I've got in me for now - if you've made it this far, thanks for reading! I'll be back tomorrow with an update on our Bellaboo and again later in the week for the Halloween costume reveal. :) Have a GREAT week, y'all!