3 months

It's been nearly 3 months since we met Jadyn and our lives changed forever.  We are so in love with this beautiful little soul!  She astounds us daily.  Of course, when Shannon and Austin were this age, they astounded us as well, but this is so different because we have only known each other for 3 months.  Jadyn is very quick to catch on to what we are trying to communicate--with the exception of the word "no", for some reason that one doesn't stick too well!  Ha--how age appropriate.

We are knee deep in bonding, working on some speech strategies and finding a new normal.  The whole normal thing is a real stretch for our family in any circumstance! 

I won't say that 42 is too old to become a parent, because age truly is relative, but it certianly is a different ball game.  Just  thought I'd share.

We had an evaluation at Shriner's last week.  Jadyn was examined by:  speech therapist, audiology, psych, plastics, orthodontic, ENT and LPN.  They all met to discuss Jadyn and what needs to be done.  The result was ear tubes.  The claim is that her hearing is muffled and is considered a mild to moderate hearing loss.  In my experience, at home, she hears quite well, but it was explained to us that she is probably hearing as if she is under water.  This explains some of the speaking difficulties she is having.  Her cleft palate (repaired) will also affect speech, but we have to start with the ears and see how that helps.  We are hoping that the palate repair she had will be sufficient for her to form certain sounds.  Her early language development was happening when her palate was unrepaired so she learned them wrong, basically.  Now that she is repaired, we need to encourage and teach her how to make these sounds.  Everything is so new to her at this point, we hate to put her through a medical procedure, but this could be vital to her language and speech, so it's really unavoidable.  Plus, she has had several ear infections just since we have known her.

In order to work with Shriner's, Jadyn had to be brought up to date with her immunizations.  Last Friday, we went to get that done.  We are going to believe the shot record we got from China.  This meant 3 shots--ouch!  She was such a trooper.  Only screaming when each shot was administered.  I have to give kudos to the Markham County Clinic for being soooo much better than I thought it would be.  They were clean, professional, prompt and totally free.  (We were caught between insurance coverage and I decided to attempt county services.)

So here's a few of the latest picts of Little Miss Jadyn:

Napping in my chair.

Downtown at the Sherrif's Office for the re-adoption.

Cheering on JieJie, Shannon at her basketball game.

Love the big giant hand?  She loves to eat and was having the time of her life with this egg.

Jadyn gets cuter every day.  Shannon says at least 10 times a day, "She's just soooo cute!"  We agree, but she is growing developmentally by leaps and bounds, too and that just blows us away.  

I don't want you to think that EVERYTHING is roses, though.  We struggle with, attachment issues, tantrums, overstimulation, strong willed child, language barrier---all these things are interrelated and cause much frustration on her part, and ours.  It really does help to see Jadyn as a 3 month-old, at times--her family age--to understand some of what she is doing.  Sometimes describing her as a 3 month-old trapped in a 23 month-old's body.  Of course, that is not an accurate description of her, but it does explain a lot.  I think I posted once on what Jadyn may be feeling.  It had to do with being taken from your family, etc.......look it up if you want, but the jist is, how would you or one of your kids feel, if they were taken from their family?  How would they feel 3 months later?  Everything is still so fresh.  So if you see what we are doing and don't understand some of our parenting strategies, feel free to ask.  We have done much research in this area.

Blogging is more and more difficult...trying to find time.  Honestly, I don't have as much interest either.  There's not the same need for venting (during our wait).  I spend most of my time playing with Jadyn and basic daily stuff.  One of these days will be my final post.  Not sure I'm cut out for the daily/weekly mommy-blog.