That sums up how life has been the last several months. It is hard to believe Adia has been home over 5 months now. The first 2 months home seemed so easy compared to the months following...WOWZERS! In the back of my mind I knew it was to good to be true but was still hopeful that we wouldn't have those more serious struggles. But..the honeymoom is over and life has become quite difficult. I am not talking about attachment and bonding, I believe those things have gone really well. It's the reality that we brought home an almost 3 year old that is a super strong willed toddler, figuring out her new life and also being diagnosed with significant hearing loss. Yep, you read it right our sweet girl hears only about 20-30% of what is being said. This explains so much and I am sad that we knew nothing about it. I am hopeful that her shrieking fits will come to a hault once she can hear what a God awful sound she is making. Haha, I can dream right? :) We have had to make several trips to our local childrens hospital for the developmental testing, Hearing procedures etc... Adia seems to be doing pretty well considering she can hardly hear. Most of her results showed her at the age of a 2-2.5 year old and fine motor skills at 3 yrs. old. We were very pleased with the results and know everything will improve very quickly once we get hearing aids. Our insurance does not cover hearing aids(another huge stress)and they cost thousands of dollars. We are very THANKFUL to have Adia in early intervention for speech and physical therapy. This program has hooked us up with temporary hearing aids in January that we can use for 6-months until we can buy our own. Our audiologist gave us a great way to explain her hearing loss. She said its like reading the news paper with only vowels for words...everything else is all jumbled. :( It just breaks my heart but I am sooooo excited to see the difference in our lives after she hears at 80%. Her language is not horrible, so I can't imagine how it will take off in the next couple of months.
Other than our stressful visits to the doctor and getting Adia the services she needs, volunteering at the older kids school and being a taxi cab life has been good. We are definately having more better days than not right now and it makes my heart happy. We have also had two great weeks at church, the weeks before that not so great. Adia is just a doll and has a smile that melts everyone's heart. It's hard for people to believe she can be such a challenge when she is a charmer to EVERYONE else she meets. We are blessed to have her as a daughter and I wouldn't want anything different.
We've had our adoption video done for several weeks and I haven't had time to figure out how to post it. I love it!!! We watch it all the time and still cry everytime. Hopefully soon I can share it with you. I am still reading everyones blog and following on FB but responding is a challenge. Please know that I do pray for all of our journeys and am thankful for the friendships made. Hopefully someday I will be able to blog more frequently. For now, some days are better than others and I am just doing what I can.
Here are a few picks from the last several months. Happy Holidays to everyone!
Family pyramids after our Thanksgiving feast...fun times!
Halloween 2009= skeleton, leapord and a goth girl.
Adia turns "3" with all her cousins
