One Month Update

It’s been a month since Jim and Karolina arrived home, and I wanted to share news about her progress.   Each day seems to bring new and exciting developments and it’s been such a joy to witness this little miracle unfold before our eyes.    We all seem to wake up with a Tigger-like bounce in our step and the boys can’t wait to see her in the morning.  They are utterly enchanted by her.   They will peer into her room if she’s sleeping and if she’s already awake, they race downstairs to greet her.   She seems to sense how much her brothers love her because she lights up when she sees them too.   Gabriel volunteers to feed her every day.  He prides himself on how well she eats for him. 🙂

In addition, despite how much they protest anything pink, I know they have thoroughly enjoyed the new girly accessories in our house.   Earlier this week they picked out her outfit and “decorated” her hair with about a half dozen bows.  

I thought she would be annoyed, but she actually seemed to enjoy the pampering by her big bros!   Lol.

In terms of her development, she is off the charts in my book.:)   When we picked her up 2 months ago, she couldn’t sit up independently, her fine motor skills were poor and she wasn’t readily eating jar baby food.   Since she’s been home, she is:
Sitting up, crawling, and pulling herself up to stand!   Her fine motor skills have also improved significantly, and she uses her pincher grasp to feed herself cheerios, and rice puffs.   She eats 4, 6oz. cans of jarred baby food a day, plus bottles.    She did have a few rough days with teething, but her top teeth have broken through and she’s back to eating like a champ.  Here are her new teeth.  Cheeeeeeeese!

I took her to the Oak Adoptive Health Center at Akron Children’s Hospital last month, and she’ll have another appointment next week.   At her initial assessment, she weighed 18lbs and she received a battery of tests.   At her next appointment, she’ll get an MRI to determine if a brain condition that was listed on her medical records, is actually an accurate diagnosis. 
One thing I am confident of though, is God continues to lead and carry us along the way.   I don’t know if life has ever been sweeter than it is right now.   Of course, there are always things I wish I could change, like my dad’s cancer diagnosis and wishing for a miracle healing and grieving for those we know who are hurting…but nothing will be perfect until we reach heaven,  and for now, I’ll gladly embrace the gift of right now.