So this sweet love has been with us for 4 months. When we got her she was a few days older than 14 months old. She was at a 6 month developmental age, couldn't walk, could barely crawl, had almost no strength (seemingly less strength than a baby), had clearly lost weight (had droppy skin under her arms), and we were unsure of her medical issues. We thought she had something called Golden-Haar syndrome. And a hole in her heart, and clearly big developmental delays that could be masking other issues.
In four months time......she has caught up to her developmental age of 18 months. She eats EVERYTHING and is very heavy to carry around. She has started growing out of her clothes. She has an ear drum that works in her bad ear (her ear canal is collapsed so she won't be able to hear until we fix her missing ear in a few years), the hole in her heart is nothing to even think twice about (20% of humans walk around with the same pinhole their entire lives - more people than are left-handed). Her kidneys are perfect (and she has two of them), her lungs are perfect, and she can hear almost everything out of her good ear. Her hair is growing, and she is smiling. She is learning to laugh and make louder noises (she had no core strength which affects her ability to talk, laugh, etc.
This picture is at the geneticist where they told us she likely has no syndrome of any sort. They think blood supply was cut off to her ear in utero - or there was pressure on it - that caused it to not form correctly. But she should live a completely normal life.
Her pediatrician has said she doesn't need his adoption expertise anymore - we are sliding right into normal well visits.
China seems so much in the rear-view mirror. And I find myself forgetting so much about the trip. It was so very hard. We are truly in a place where we are enjoying and managing being a family of six.
So many emotions as we hit this mark. To think what her birth mom missed out on.
(This picture is her playing peek-a-boo at the doctor's office.)
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