Six Weeks Home

Sorry the update took a bit longer than the weekend :).  It took two weeks home of adjusting to the time change.  During those two weeks Anna was starting her day between 1 and 3 AM and would go strong until after lunch.  I had to wake her from her afternoon nap and she was typically not at all happy about it.  Those meals some of you provided were soooooo appreciated through those days.  She was extremely withdrawn and reserved during those first two weeks also.  At bedtime and naptime however she would rage for at least an hour before she fell asleep while being held.  Our other three were beyond thrilled to just have us and her home.  Thank you Jesus for that because there really would have been nothing left of me to give if they were in need.  Natalie especially just sat by Anna and waited for her to be ready.  We had never seen our big girl so patient but yet persistent.  Those first two weeks were truly brutal.  We knew it would be but I don't think anything could have fully prepared us on how to contain her grief and fear, support our other three, integrate her into the family, process all the depressing developmental assesments, catch up on work and bills and unpack on VERY limited sleep. 

Two days home.  They still will do anything to make her smile!

By the end of the third week home (first week in November) we were seeing a bit more of the Anna we saw in China and her days and nights were straightened out.  She was raging less, if at all, before going to sleep and was cuddling more when being rocked. 

No longer content running after the ball.  She wants her own stick too! 

The last three weeks have held the excitement of meeting with a CHOP plastic surgeon and envisioning her life with a repaired palate, teaching her some basic sign language and watching her go overboard on communicating, seeing our other three making up silly sentences using just their limited sign vocab and experiencing a much more relaxed, regulated and connected Anna.  Many days the hours are longer than the days themselves but we really are slowly progressing.  Some things I am looking forward to...  A second cleft repair opinion although her surgery is scheduled for February 3 at CHOP, expanding her signing vocabulary, starting a Mommy and Me gymnastics class (because we just need to do something fun together!), putting on her new Christmas dress and getting photos taken, watching her open Christmas presents, having her molars cut through (grrrrr...), reading through an entire book with her. 

Play Doh play is stressful but necessary.  Holding her doll helps her cope.