Bella, Post-Adoption: Month 9

Nine whole months. That's how long it's been since we met our sweet baby. The time continues to fly by at lightening speed and our Bella continues to bloom! A glimpse at what the last month has held for our littlest lady:

Language. Of all developmental domains, her progress in language has been the slowest. We were anticipating this, as her brain has been working hard to try and overcome physical obstacles and catch up with some of her developmental motor milestones, inherently putting language acquisition on the back burner. But, she is progressing, albeit slowly. The BIGGEST news of the month is that Bella is now the owner of a hearing aid, one that she likes to pull off (and chew on at times - the kid is quick and one of the tubes has already had to be replaced twice now :/ ). She is getting acclimated to it, though, and pulling it out less and less. It was an awesome day when she got it. As soon as it went in, she just started looking around in awe, taking in all the new (high frequency) sounds she wasn't able to hear out of that right ear before. She stared at her Daddy and me as we spoke to her in our audiologist's office, and it was just awesome to witness. We will continue to work hard with her speech therapist on helping her learn to use her words to communicate. That being said, we covet your prayers for continued progression of speech - this is one of my biggest prayers for her right now. 

Motor. Bels is walking longer and longer distances, but the biggest progress has been the control she now has when walking! She can walk slowly and steadily. She can stop while walking and then start walking again. AND she can push herself up from the ground and into a standing position. None of these are things she could do last month! I am trying to encourage no more crawling at all (it is still her preferred mode of self-travel) to help her continue to grow stronger and more practiced with walking.

And Bella is doing really well with her fine motor skills - this is definitely her area of greatest strength right now. That being said, I was worried she would not qualify for occupational therapy (OT) services as part of her curriculum when she starts preschool in the Fall, BUT I am so happy that the school OT decided that she would benefit from a semester's worth of direct OT services. This means Bella will get 30 minutes of one-on-one OT at school per week. If she continues to make good progress, she will go down to consultative OT status the second half of the year. We think this is a GREAT plan for our girl! 

Cognition. Bella continues to progress with her cognitive gains as well. I think that language sometimes hinders her ability to share what she knows, and truth be told, her cognition is still quite delayed compared to other kiddos her age, BUT she continues to grow and learn and we continue to cheer her on as she does! 

Out and About/Playing. The last month was filled with LOTS of fun for our family! Bella celebrated her first Easter (insert tears of gratitude, thankfulness, and joy here) and it felt like such a special day, having her here with us and able to freely celebrate Jesus. We also had Spring Break, which meant lots of fun around our town and visits with family, too! Family fun continued with trips to the zoo, strawberry fields, and more! And Bella typically enjoys being along for the ride, thank goodness. We are a busy family with no rest coming anytime soon! 

Etc. Bella had some big appointments this month! As mentioned above, we were frequent fliers at our awesome audiologist's office as Bella received her hearing aid. We also, after waiting for the appointment to arrive since January!, had our appointment with a highly recommended developmental pediatrician. I cannot say enough wonderful things about him. He was so kind, empathetic, and nurturing. His recommendations coincided with all the things we are currently doing for our Bels (weekly speech, physical, and occupational therapies; plans for participation in a developmental preschool in the Fall), which was great to hear. And, while we are anxiously awaiting our genetic appointment in September, he agreed it'd be a good idea to do some additional testing in the meantime. Back in the Fall, Bella's initial chromosome screen came back normal (praise!!!), BUT it was a very basic screener; so, we want to look deeper into genetics to make sure we aren't missing anything. We are still awaiting the results from the cheek swabs the developmental pediatrician took but have faith that God has a big, beautiful plan for Bella's life and that he is connecting us with the best healthcare team and support system to continue to achieve so many goals we have for her. <3 

And finally, there is another big meeting happening today! I am meeting with the educational team (school psychologist, teachers, therapists, our early interventionist, etc.) at the elementary school to review the results of the evaluations Bella had done earlier this month and to learn if she is deemed eligible for the specialized, developmental preschool offered within our school district. If she does qualify, we will also learn whether she will be participating at the program at our elementary school (the one Banks and Raleigh attend) or whether it will be a different one, still in our school district but a little further away. I have been eagerly anticipating this meeting and am excited it's all going down later today! 

And that's all she wrote for Month 9. Bella Elizabeth, what a beautiful blessing you are to us. It is through you that our faith and love have grown more than we thought possible, and we are so proud of how far you have already come, sweet girl. We love you with all our hearts. Next up, your birthday month! Month 10 with you is sure to be a GREAT one! <3