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10/17/2006 Happy anniversary to my parents today! We are so grateful for your model of a marriage. Trust me when I say, I feel completely inadequate as a wife and mom when I look at my parents, but I am grateful for a model to strive to be... We had another great day. Maria becomes more and more delightful. Every time I put her ear medicine on (to keep from her earrings becoming infected), she shudders and says, "COLD, COLD" and does this fake little scream. She also now just brings out her little changing pad and a diaper bag when she is "tinky" in her words (as well as dropping her pants around her ankles). Tonight, I set her on the potty just to see how she would react. She wasn't really happy at first; I think she was convinced she would fall in (there was a potty seat ON it), but she relaxed and pretended to wipe and everything. Not that we are planning on moving her to underwear any time soon, just letting her see what is ahead. If you think about it, say a prayer tomorrow afternoon/evening. We are meeting with the social worker for the last time for our follow up visit. Our social worker is VERY nice, but these kinds of meetings always make me nervous. I guess you just feel like every little action or word is under the microscope...then those wonderful feelings of inadequacy rear their heads... We have definitely decided to move Maria to a younger class for church. I think the consistency of one teacher and a more closed in room will help her with feeling secure. I have felt SUCH a peace about it since we decided that. It also means I can go back to my Bible Fellowship for now, though I am going to "sub" when needed in her original class. And in a few months if she continues to progress this way, she may be ready to re-join her group. Please pray for Sunday as she makes that transition. I don't anticipate her being giddy about it, but hopefully, like most other things, she will settle into that routine... |
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| 10/16/2006
We finally had a family photo made. It only took us six weeks to do it! And, yes, we are all in Razorback attire. Congratulations to my friend Megan and her husband for getting out of PGN!!! What an answer to prayer! What a night we had last night! Around midnight, Mark and I were settling down to go to sleep when he asked if the monitor was on. It is almost always on, but I had turned it off to take a nap that day. He turned it on, and we immediately heard Lauren crying. Mark went to check on her. She had thrown up EVERYWHERE. I also need to remind you that she is on the TOP bunk so Maria's bedding had been hit too. Now Maria is sitting there wide awake, just looking at us like, "Hey, guys, what is up?" So we put Lauren in the shower, stripped the beds, made a sleeping bag mat on the floor for Lauren, and got an afghan for Maria's bed. We finally got them settled down and asleep. (I think Lauren's was a food thing...she felt fine after she threw up.) Then around 5ish we heard Maria crying on and off. She finally settled down without us going in there. Finally, when Mark woke her up to take her to my mom's house, she started crying again. Poor thing! Her earring was stuck IN the afghan. She couldn't sit up! No wonder she had been fussing. It was like a comedy of errors around here. However, we hope for more sleep tonight... Oh, Maria now says, "AMEN!" when we pray! I have more to say but not enough space...it will have to wait. Good night! |
| 10/18/2006
Hello from the cold state of Arkansas! Yesterday it was WARM outside, and it was for most of the day. In fact, when my kids came in from recess, their little faces were red, and they all smelled sweaty and hot. By the time we got to leave school, the temperature had taken a BIG nosedive. Now it is in the 40's. I think the saying is, "If you don't like the weather in Arkansas, just wait...it WILL change." I think this might be the coldest weather Maria has ever dealt with. Today we had our follow up visit with the social worker. Once the report is completed, we will be "done" with the adoption process, though we will eventually "re-adopt" in the state of Arkansas. I wasn't sure how Maria would react at the social worker's office. In new situations, she tends to shut down. Well, apparently, it felt very homey to her. She was just delightful. She crawled all over us, talked, laughed, basically showed off all of her wonderful qualities. She is a funny girl, or "dilly" (silly) as she says. I am so glad the social worker got to see that part of her. The social worker was very pleased with her attachment to us as parents and Maria's obvious happiness. When we look back over the past seven weeks, we are just amazed at the progress she has made! She is developing very well and understands more and more English every day. It will be fun to watch her continue to grow and become the young lady God designed her to be. We often get asked about how the adoption process and the transition is going. We don't lie...the first few weeks were very rough for all of us. Communication was the most difficult factor. I think since I know some Spanish, I really thought it wouldn't be an issue. Well, the problem is that my Spanish is still limited and so was Maria's. Just because she was in a Spanish speaking country does NOT mean she knew a LOT of Spanish. Or at least words I would use. Her vocabulary was very limited, so telling her in Spanish to not do something or to go somewhere didn't always help. But as she learns more English, that problem is diminishing (at least for now). We have commented to one another that "NO!" used to be her favorite word. Now she is much more likely to say, "Yeah!" in a sing song voice. And the number of temper tantrums has been reduced tremendously. Don't get me wrong, she still has these two year old moments, but she is just becoming more and more fun each day. Well, tomorrow is D-Day. (Day Care Day) Please pray for her transition and for the teacher's patience. We hope that soon it will be just another part of her routine. Oh, we want to send out Get Well wishes to Papaw as he recovers from surgery. (Next time, Papaw, let us know BEFORE the surgery so we can PRAY for you!) |
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