When I sat down to write this post, I had to look back at last month's because I couldn't remember how long we've had our sweet girl. It's crazy because I feel like we've had Bels forever but also like we were just in China last week. But it's been eight months now. Two-thirds of a year. And I am so thankful for each day, no matter how hard some may be. This girl has blessed our family in ways I cannot even begin to describe.
And now, onto our Bella and all that she has conquered over the last 30 days, with her biggest supporters standing behind her:
Language: Bella is working hard in her weekly speech therapy but this definitely remains an area where we see significant delay. We are making progress for sure, albeit sloooow progress, day by day. Luckily, we have the best speech therapist in all the land, whom Bella just adores! And receptively, Bella continues to soar. I would say she is now pretty proficient in understanding the English language and is increasingly able to follow simple commands. So, while the language gains aren't as overtly evident, we have great hope that Bella will continue to find her voice and use her words. <3
Motor: Bella is getting stronger by the month! Her most favorite thing to do is to walk from person to person. Often, she gets in the way of her own progress by lacking confidence in what she can do, but we believe in her! And we know this girl is going to move mountains one day. She has walked as far as one side of the playroom to the other (maybe 12-15 feet), but these days, she prefers shorter distances - she is just not as sure of herself when she perceives the distance to be too long. Well, she did, until she did a huge trek all around the downstairs the other night while following her daddy! Yay! We are trying to encourage her to slow down when walking because she always gets so excited that she basically runs and lunges into the arms of whoever she is walking to. :)
On several occasions, she has stood steady and made little steps to pivot her body in the direction she wanted to go before taking off. And just this week, she stood herself up from a squatting position, without holding on, nor pushing off of, anything. This requires significant strength and balance, which shows us just how far she has come in just a month's time!
And Bels is doing really well with her fine motor skills! She LOVES to color, cut, and craft (girl after my own heart :) ). She often uses a developmentally appropriate tripod grasp when holding her writing utensil and is able to draw both horizontal and vertical lines now. Yay! We are working on circles. :)
Cognition. Bella's cognitive development continues to grow. She is getting better and better at puzzles and was able to problem-solve several tricky, novel questions during her recent preschool evaluations (more on those in a minute).
Out and About/Playing. As always, what a busy month it was for Bella and the rest of our Crew! This month, Bella got to join Raleigh and me for our third annual Red Carpet Viewing Party, where we get all glam and have snacks and watch the red carpet coverage of the beautiful Oscar's dresses. Bella also experienced her first St. Patrick's Day, which coincided with our sweet town's Spring Fling.
And of course, tomorrow is Easter. It brings me to tears knowing that our daughter is being raised to know and love Jesus Christ. In China, Christians are being persecuted, their churches destroyed. But now that our Bella is home, she goes to church every Sunday to learn about the love of God our Father, so much so that he sacrificed His own Son to save us. I would like to think Bella's birth mom knows that her own sacrifice resulted in a life for her daughter in which she is loved beyond measure, a treasured daughter and sister of a family who ADORES her, and living a life where she will learn of the love of our Heavenly Father. Happy [almost] 1st Easter, sweet Bella. <3
Etc. We had several big appointments this month, including having Bella fitted for a hearing aid (which we will hopefully have by the next post-adoption post!), having her evaluated by our local school to determine eligibility for the preschool program (this involved having speech, cognitive, fine motor, and gross motor evals done at our beloved elementary school) - we'll find out the results at the start of May, and seeing a pediatric rheumatologist just a few days ago. Regarding the latter, I am so, so happy to share that the doctor ruled out any underlying autoimmune/rheumatological disease as being the cause for the constant edema she has in her hands and feet, intermittent, painful inflammation she experiences in her arms, and infections she has gotten in her fingers. Unless certain symptoms worsen, we'll be able to steer clear of medication management. Instead, we will continue to focus on improving her strength and muscle tone, which will hopefully improve her circulation, which we now believe is the cause for these symptoms.
And now, we march into April, looking forward to the memories we'll make as a family of six. Bella, we are so proud of you for so many reasons and are so very thankful to call you ours. Happy 8 months post-Gotcha Day, baby girl. We love you with all our hearts.
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