Tuesday, October 8, 2013

1 YEAR!!


One year ago today, our 4th daughter joined our family. It has been such an amazing week, corresponding with our travel group about the awesome year that it has been. Awesome is not the right word, I don't even know what the word is that would describe this year. Maybe not the year, but Emily, and the whole adoption process. The very very best that there is.
 Look how much she has changed!!!
She's a happy, naughty, busy busy busy two year old!

 loves dish towels
 Can pretty well manage an iPhone
 loves to dig dirt our of sidewalk cracks
loves her some dorritos (she only likes the bag)
She is so happy and so wonderful and so LOVED!

In the past month, Em had another palate surgery. In our state, to close the cleft in her palate, they screw in a plastic prosthesis that has been custom made for her mouth. It looks like the roof of a retainer. They wear that for however long it takes for the bone to grow over it and close itself. As the child grows,  the prosthesis comes loose, they take it out and put in a bigger one. That was what happened to Em. So we went in for a prosthesis exchange and the surgeon came out and told us that her palate had closed. We were surprised, but so happy! They let the little screw marks heal for a few weeks, and we go back next week and they will close up the little fissures that are still there, and then her palate will be finished. They will do some cosmetic work on her lip and nose in 2 or three years, and close her gum line around age 6 or 7, and then we will be finished. The benefit of the prosthesis is that now her  bone will continue to grow with her face, and we hopefully won't have any underbite or jaw issues that can be so prevalent with clp. We love our clp team here.
 Em is signing a ton, and trying to talk. She is so happy and joyful, and BUSY! I love it more than anything! It takes nothing for me to remember that weak sad little girl that we brought home last year. She had no use of her hands, no muscle tone anywhere, and showed very little emotion about anything. Emily shines! She is so wonderful and we love her so very very much!
My favorite news of the month is that we have found out how to legally change Em's birthdate!! I am so happy about this. We have had 4 doctors completely independent of each other, tell us that her birthday is off by 9 months.  As soon as we are home from China, we will remedy that, and she will continue to be the two year old that she is!  

We are about a month away from travel approval to go get our little boy! It has been a long year waiting for him. We have his stuff all ready, and are reveling in boy things. It's so fun!! His room is coming together, the UPS man is coming frequently bringing BOY things!

We are so excited to be FINISHED adopting! I am so ready for my heart to be whole really, for the first time since Chloe was born.  10 years of waiting on the Lord to show us where our kids were, and to help us bring them home. 10 years of being patient, really really really impatient, wondering, worrying, lots of time crying, lots of time on my knees, and tons of peace and assurance that He is in charge. We have seen so many miracles in the past many years. Our family is the way it is by His design. We finally have the children we were meant to have. We had to find them, we had to look for them, and wait for them to be born, and we had to trust in God to lead us to them. Adoption has been a tremendous blessing to our family so far. We are ever so anxious to meet our baby boy, and start living LIFE instead of living adoption. All of our kids finally together. I will be grateful for eternity that we listened and followed when we felt the urging to bring our babies home from China.