Hairstyles and Baby Sit Ups

Over the past week, I have tried out two different styles on A's hair. I had been waiting as long as possible to start doing any styles (other than her "free hair"), because she is still not able to sit up on her own, so that makes styling much more difficult than it already would be. But, A Bear's hair is just WAY too long to put off attempting styles. Eventually, our sweet girl will have to sit for quite awhile as I style her hair, so I have to begin training her to sit for a little while and get used to my tugging on her hair. So far, she's not exactly thrilled, but we will press on!

Here is our most recent styling attempt... these are called finger coils. Some stayed in better than others, because A has different hair types all over her sweet head. Some looser curls on the top, and tighter on the side (and the hair growing in on her bald spot is SUPER tight).

I'm going to try these "puffs" out again soon. There is also a third toward the back of her head that is hidden =) Her hair was a little too wet, and left her puffs lacking the puff.


Yesterday, A's occupational therapist (Abby) came over for our first session of OT! When Abby left, I felt very encouraged. We have some work to do, but it was nice to have some tools to be able to work more effectively with A during the day. The main goal right now is to strengthen A's core, so we have been doing lots of "baby sit ups". I hold her hands and have her lean back, and then slowly pull her back up too, allowing her to work on her core and neck strength. Sometimes she thinks it's funny and laughs. Other times, she squawks at me and starts kicking, which simply means, "I'm done... stop that!".

I'm so excited to see how A improves over the course  of her therapy. We are going to the beach in two months for A's first birthday (but it was mostly my reasoning behind a family vacation..), and I'm really hoping she will be able to sit up and play in the sand! I really do daydream about it often. I will surely cry when she sits up that first time.

Having a babe who has developmental delays is not easy, but we knew it was a possibility from the beginning. There have been those days when I feel like a failing mother because our daughter cannot do the things that other babies her age (and younger..) are able to do. But, I know I cannot think that way, because it does nothing except make me feel sorry for myself, and it's not even about me! Instead of feeling sorry for myself these days, I tend to look for little things that A is learning to do. The day she figured out how to chew a puff (and now chicken, blueberries, broccoli, and anything else she can easily chew), Ryan and I couldn't stop talking about it (or stuffing puffs in her mouth to watch). Every little "milestone" she accomplishes, we rejoice that much more! Working so hard makes each step so much more sweet than if she had just figured things out the way most babies do.

Ok, time for another baby ab work out!

Development

I have a couple of posts I need to get down, so I'll roll this one out for now. My birthday post will have to wait.

Last Wednesday, Ryan and I took Sweet Girl to get her hearing checked and then over to another building to be evaluated for eligibility for an early intervention program here in Kentucky called First Steps. We have been working through the steps to receive eligibility and this was one of the big steps. Her hearing checked out wonderfully. During her physical evaluation, A mostly just "played" with a woman with First Steps who was assessing her motor skills, language, cognitive skills,self help skills, and social-emotional skills. We have known since the day A Bear came home, that she was developmentally delayed, but we wanted to wait a few months to see how she would/wouldn't catch up. While she has definitely grown and developed, the delays have become much easier to see as most babies her age are usually crawling around like crazy, but our sweet girl still is not sitting up on her own, pushing up on her hands while on her belly, or manipulating toys very well.

While I try not to compare our girly to other kiddos her age, it's hard not to, especially when friends around you have babies the same age (or younger) doing things that A seems to be nowhere near accomplishing. I do know that every little one is different, so I don't want to take her "test results" too rigidly. I also realize the standards for "normal" are based off of full term babies in America, not severely malnourished babies from another country with a history of neurological problems.

Thursday morning, we got a call with the results. Her motor skills were very low. Her cognitive, language, and self help skills were "borderline". Her social-emotional skills were average, which thrilled me, and may as well have been genius level in my book! We were told that they still need to look over medical history, but that she definitely needs further assistance, so I'm pretty positive she will be eligible for services. Now we just wait to set up a meeting to discuss her "plan" and go from there with the therapies she will need.

I'm so thrilled that A has access to these types of services, and I know she will grow up into the lady that God has for her to grow into, but I'm a little anxious at times to get going! I want to see my girly sit and play and crawl and WALK soon. I know it will be later than most of her friends around her, but it will be when it will be, and I will just enjoy the extra snuggly time with my girly. I will certainly cherish her smallest milestones much more than if I were just expecting them to happen. Like the time I cried the first time she moved a toy on her excersaucer purposefully.

Use our girly for Your glory, Lord!

Our New Blog Home

Welcome to the new blog! I really hated to leave behind the other, but I really wanted a blog that was more centered around what God is doing in our family as a whole, and I didn't want to add onto A's adoption story. It will be nice to have the previous blog to look back on as we remember God's faithfulness in our sweet girl's life.

As far as the title of this blog... I'm not very catchy or creative, so I'm sorry for that. I really wanted this place to be about giving the glory back to God, not trying to make us famous. This verse (and whole section of Scripture) is really about remembering our place. We are tiny and pretty insignificant when it comes down to it. Our family will quickly be forgotten when we move onto our permanent home, so we want our small time here to be about God's fame, not ours.

This blog will mostly be little collections of what is going on in our family, and it may not be very thrilling or deep sometimes, but that's OK. I loved blogging throughout A's adoption, and I have become very passionate about several issues because of that journey, but blogging about those issues may not occur often as we seek to have more intentional relationships with those right here, around us. I have met some amazing people through the blogosphere and online adoption community, but I have neglected many around us because of it, and we fully intend to flip some things around.

So, this blog will be whatever it is. Our journaling, experiences, challenges, passions, etc. It may be consistent for awhile and drop off, and that's fine, because it will mostly be a reminder to our family that God is faithful and the only constant in our life through each post we may look back on.

If you want to follow along, type your email address in up there in the top left. I will only post major announcements on Facebook for others to read. Otherwise, I will not be linking my posts to any other social media site.

Thank you to all of you who followed our previous journey to our first daughter. We think of you all and pray for you often as we thank God for you!