Monday, May 30, 2011

Pack light and leave your type A at home :)

no sitting on the seat for this boy!  put me in the rails and let me walk in circles forever!!

this is where PT mama noticed full open chain knee extension for the first time!! woo hoo!


again!? why sit when I can stand??

rear entrance of another stop at the social workers office today to finalize papers which are now on a train back to the capital city.

typical street scene here...iris and poppies are the most plentiful flowers around right now...

Am I type A? Yes of course I am… in fact some of you might say in certain areas of life I leave type A and cross over into the world of OCD!

I planned to leave my type A at home for this trip and I think I’m doing a pretty good job….not sure…you’ll have to ask Dan later. Three times now our driver has shown up late for various reasons shorting us anywhere from 30-50 minutes of our visitation time…. But I’m rollin’ with the punches.

Most often in when trying to get food other than at the grocery store we’re drawing pictures and playing charades….it burns extra calories right?

Cockroaches? No problem… they’ve all been in the stairwell…not in the apartment…yet!

And the big one…. You are probably all wondering (especially judy, vinny, mom and dad who are so wonderfully turning their lives upside down to take care of Simon and Danielle) DID WE GET OUR COURT DATE YET?? Well, thankfully I left my type A at home, because NO…we did not get our date today. I am hopeful and still calm though because our facilitator feels everything is in order, and that we probably do have a date assigned, but due to the new computer processing it is just not “showing up yet”. She estimates it may “show up” at 1 AM….once everything is processed for the new day tomorrow. She hopes to have word for us tomorrow morning. The Senti family had SDA on the same day as we did and has been on the exact timeline as us and they found out that their court is this Friday. Now…we are in different regions, with different courts and judges, but I’m hoping our news will be similar.

Once court is complete we can take the overnight train back to the capital city, get an appnt at the embassy and then fly home… FINGERS CROSSED PEOPLE…. Extra strong prayers please. I miss Simon and Danielle and want to get back to work so I’m not eating up so many of my limited hours off. (because gee, there are some other big things around the corner for our family in the months to come!)

As for our visitations there are some specifics on the other blog. We’ve noticed a trend with our boy. We have 2 really wonderful visitations…and then the third visit we get a grumpy butt with a definite stubborn streak for at least ½ of the session. Again…nothing major, I’ve been around enough kids to know this is pretty typical stuff! Let’s hope we get the sweet angelic version of our boy when it comes time to take the plane ride home J

I’m thrilled at how his English is progressing each day. He is counting to 10 with me now. He as also started to mimic words or phrases quite often without being bribed with treats.

I'm noticing even more knee extensor and flexor control over the last few visits than I did on our first day here... on the swing today his feet were touching the ground and he fully extended his knees a few times to lift his feet up in the air!  Great news for ambulation!

I discovered today he is a pro at drawing circles. We also worked on a project where I drew tiny dots and had him place teeny stickers on them…he did great! He is his mother’s child as I noticed if his sticker was not exactly covering the dot he would make me help him take it back off so that he could redo it more perfectly!

He has officially become a pro at giving kisses too! We are sooo thankful also that 80% of the time the visits have been going very well and that the weather has allowed us to spend so much time outside. I don’t know how the families who do this in the winter months bear being isolated to one visitation room for 4 hours every day… praises!

To close… I’ll point out a parallel I noticed today. Dan and I often report how becoming adoptive parents has opened our eyes in just a small small way to how intense God’s love for his children (us) must be. This morning during some rough patches of our visit with a grumpy boy who was not getting his way I realized another revelation…. Dan and I were trying to redirect Shea to something that was safer, would not get any of us in trouble with the nannies, and was ultimately way more pleasurable in the long run for Shea. He fussed and wiggled and whined, which turned into tears of a 4 year old who wasn’t getting his way. I knew if he would just realize what was about to happen, if he could let go of his strong will and trust us to give him what was just right. He would know that all of his struggling was a waste of time and energy. OK GOD… I get it! Maybe I should leave my type A unpacked even once we return home. Maybe I should trust that you always know what is best for me…and I shouldn’t exert so much energy trying to make things work my way and in my timing…. I get it…. Please keep reminding me!

3 comments:

  1. All of us need this reminding and often it is through our children and older parents. But remember Dear Friend, God made you just right and He needs you to be a Type A person sometimes, now and again. That is how He made you, for His purposes...I wonder if you weren't Type A, if three very special children wouldn't have a forever family....You Are Wonderfully Made. Beautiful. An inspiration. A role model and I know I like you just the way you are.
    J.

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  2. Danielle has been very interested in seeing all the pictures you are posting...she recognizes the music from your blog and when she hears it she comes over on her own to see what she can see...

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  3. Shea sounds like he is doing amazing!!! Well, beside the grumpy part, but English and motor skills. Awesome!!!

    Praying for the quick court date!!!!

    (Are they ever going to take some clothes off of that boy?)

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