Saturday, January 28, 2017

INDIA exciting developments!

  We have come to a very exciting part of our India adoption journey!  Our agency has been looking twice a week on the Indian child listing to see if any children match our profile.  We have had several calls already about possible children.  Some have been very young and some have been older (which we understood to be risky).  We were under the impression that we had to adopt in birth order and since Logan is 4 we would have to adopt a child younger than that.  Now it sounds like we could potentially try to send a referral through the Indian gauntlet of an older child.  They told us that they have declined matches before due to birth order, but that it's not an impossibility.  We are inquiring about a few children as it is.  We are in a very exciting but a very high-pressure-feeling discernment time.  Lots of prayer would be appreciated!
My sister Annie came and painted a Mandala on our wall (see above). :)  She painted a Hindi word in the middle.  Annie suggested some Sanskrit words, but we wanted to do Hindi so that our potential new addition could easily recognize it if they decide to learn Hindi later in life.  She painted the word "family" in the middle.  The lotus blossoms represent growth and new life.  I thought it was very appropriate.  She did a marvelous job and we love it.  It reminds us every day about the journey we are on.

Gianna update: her neurofeedback is going well and we are noticing some new cognitive processing.  She can now answer the question "what are you thinking about?" and "what did I just say?"  Her auditory processing is getting much quicker.  There's still a noticeable lag, but it's not as severe.  She will be sitting there watching a video with her brothers, and when there's a joke the boys will bust up and then a second and a half later Gianna will start to laugh.  Hey, it's an improvement!  Before, she would have looked at them, maybe fake-laughed cuz they were laughing and wonder what they were laughing at.  She had such trouble processing things that had just happened so many things were very confusing to her.  Also, she has much better memory in general.  She can actually remember things that happened at school and tell me about her day.  Part of that is she is becoming more aware of her surroundings and has less anxiety.  She can move through her day awake and participating.  Most days. :)
Therapy is still hard for her, but it will be for a very long time.  The therapist says she sees a noticeable difference in her eye contact with me.  She says it's clearer and more genuine.  That's very encouraging, and hopefully means true attachment is in our future.
Gianna is officially in size 7 clothes!  And very soon she'll be in size 8!  All of a sudden she really started growing and she gained 5 pounds and about half an inch in height in just the last few months! Hopefully that means other development will follow - particularly moving out of some of the toddler behaviors. :)
Gianna is really becoming a delightful family girl and joining in with our family more and more.  She's learning and growing every day and we are so proud of her.
Gianna just seems so much more relaxed and happy these days

She was a flower for her school play and I made her a little rose skirt.  She was so proud to be in the play.

Here she is waiting for her turn to dance.  She was the cutest little flower you've ever seen in your whole life.  She just was.  It's true.

Gianna you are the coolest thing, even with leaves on your teeth.