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Saturday, February 18, 2006Whew! We are all relieved and grateful to have Isabelle's open heart surgery behind us! Nothing but blue skies from here on out ;) Isabelle continues to show in her appetite and energy level that indeed her heart has been repaired and all parts are now in working order. It's wonderful to be able to make something for her to eat and have her actually eat it! Her favorites are still cheese and any related product, but she has expanded her repertoire to include a few new foods that she wasn't so sure about before. We have been trying to get her off her usual 4-5 bottles a day with limited success. Right now she has a cold and feels yukky so the headway we had make sorta went out the window. But we think that in a few more weeks she'll probably just take 3 a day and we hope to have her on only an AM and a PM bottle before long. We aren't in a hurry to get her off the bottle completely as we feel that it really helps promote attachment, something I am learning is an ongoing process. As our relationship has evolved I can look back and see how much she has and is continuing to attach to us. When we first came home we would try to bring Isabelle into our bed for a morning snuggle. She hated it. Now she loves it and is content to lay on our chest when doing so before made her very uncomfortable. She will allow herself to be 'cradled' now, quite a milestone for those who understand the attachment process. And when she is hurt or upset, holding her this way actually soothes her. I must say, as a new adoptive mom who has previous experience with having only biological children, this is a whole different ballgame. The similarities are in the physical care of a child, but emotionally I feel like I'm in unknown territory. So I try to read about attachment, spend as much time fostering her dependence on me and pray that the doubts that she once had about someone being there for her will fade away.

Isabelle is growing! She is up to 31 inches, which is about 50% for Chinese girls and 24 pounds, which is above the 75% for Chinese girls. She is finally out of her 6-12 month sized clothes and I couldn't be happier. To see her blossom and grow gives me so much satisfaction as a mom. She is quite the climber and we have had to secure all important/dangerous/breakable items out of her reach! She can climb onto the dining and kitchen tables, the fireplace mantle, her brother's bed, the bathtub and just about anywhere she's intent on going. This girl doesn't give up without a fight. But she has such a sweet, soft nature, and she really tries to do what we ask of her. To watch her display self control at this age is amazing! And when she does get reprimanded for doing something the tears just flow. Now I'm not sure if she does this out of pure sadness of if she's learned that it is a wonderful technique to get out of trouble. But I'm playing it safe because I can't resist scooping her up and comforting her with all-over kisses until she smiles again. She loves affection now and even throws her head back so that we'll kiss under her neck. Another change is that she used to NOT be ticklish, when we tried it seemed to make her very uncomfortable. Now she loves being tickled especially if I sing the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and pretend my fingers are the spider climbing up her to tickle under her chin. She starts laughing when I start singing the song now. One area that we are not seeing any progress is verbally. She will mimic us and has been heard to say "dog" (like on the Baby Einstein DVD), "stop" (imitating her brother) and "dye dye buys" (imitating us saying "bye bye guys!" as her brothers left for school. But she STILL won't say "mama". She will pretend like she's yelling for someone (I don't know where she's seen this) and hold her hand to the side of her mouth and yell "mom!' but no "mama" when it might be appropriate. She will use her baby signs, her favorite being 'please' since that word seems to work for just about anything. She signs "more" and that's it! She points and fusses the rest of the time. If we try to insist that she use a word or a new sign to get something, she throws herself on the floor and kicks around crying. As dramatic as she is attempting to be, her daddy and I can't help but giggle.

On Valentine's Day we made our adoption officially official. We readopted Isabelle in the state of Illinois. We decided to do this so that no matter where we move, which, being a military family might be any number of places, that she will be recognized as our daughter, having an equal share in everything we have along with her siblings. It was a particularly special day as we stood up in court before a judge and promised, under oath, to always provide for her emotionally and physically. We gave her a second middle name, Glennyn, after her grandfather, Glenn. Chris' dad adopted him when he was just a boy and raised him so choosing this name has a doubly special meaning. When we first decided on Isabelle's name we were concerned over her having too many names, that it might make life difficult for her in the future and we knew we needed to keep her Chinese name intact. So that meant that she wouldn't have the same middle family name that the other kids have. Well, we changed our minds ;) We decided that we wanted her to have a tie to her new family in her name and that those forms would just have to make room for another name.

We want to thank everyone who said a prayer for our precious Isabelle during her surgery and recovery. She healed so flawlessly that we truly feel all those prayers were answered. Our prayer for her to sleep through the night again was finally answered this week and for that we are SO grateful. We also had another prayer answered, we are officially DTC for a sister for Isabelle! We will call her Sophie and we hope to bring her home in May or June. Please keep Sophie in your prayers, that she would be healthy, loved and cared for until we can bring her home. One week post surgery

Our little Valentine

Thanks, but I can do it myself

Isabelle loves to make music

Happy Chinese New Year!

Readoption Day!

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