Almost Easter

The past two days we have enjoyed the special services at church that lead up to the Easter Vigil tonight.  I was going to do a post about those and some of the beautiful prayers we heard in the liturgy.  Yesterday Therese said she got her foot stuck in the door and that it was hurting.  By the time the Good Friday service was over, her ankle and lower leg were alarmingly swollen and purple.  Bryan took her to the ER and an x-ray showed that she has a badly broken leg.  Her tibia is snapped completely in two.  The doctor at first said he thought she must have a skin infection.  He didn't believe that a child with a broken leg or ankle would be sitting there smiling and charming the nurses.  The x-ray was very clear, however.  The orthopedist on duty splinted her leg and we have to take her in early next week for the orthopedic specialist to look at it and decide how to set and cast it.  Today she is perky and cheerful, scooting around the house in her splint, but I feel so badly that she has such a huge setback just when she was learning to walk for the first time.  She could be in a cast for several months and we could lose the clubbed foot correction again since she can't wear her Ponsetti bar at night now.  I guess I should be glad that the wrap they put on her splint matches her Easter dress, and we will face each challenge as they actually get here.  Tonight we will rejoice!

Therese's AFO fitting

Therese had molds of her feet and legs made, for her AFOs, on the 18th of March.  After casts, these were very quick and easy.  The orthotist is such a kind and gentle man and puts the kids at ease.  Therese really liked the pantyhose they put on under the plaster.  She said that it was like what Mommy wears to Mass.  It will take a little over two weeks before we get the finished product.  She was so excited to choose the color and pattern--pink with pink and purple stars on them. 

Silly Sisters

These pictures are from Sunday, March 17th.  The girls looked so cute in matching dresses that I wanted to get a picture of them together.  For some reason, Therese didn't want to cooperate.  She has very good nonverbal communication skills.

 I don't want my picture taken.

Well, maybe just a little smile.

 Catherine's over-done silly smile:

 Silly girls.

This is a goofy face that we see when Therese is kidding around:

I think I'm done with this photo session.

 Maybe not.

 This is her mad face. She gives the best (worst?) stinkeye I have ever seen from a person so young.  When the upper lip goes into a beak shape and the glare starts, you know someone has not made the princess happy.

These aren't of sisters, but the boys are very silly.  The boys all had matching shirts, but they changed so fast when we were home from Mass that I didn't get a picture of them together.  Next time I will do it before we leave. 

 This was supposed to be a smile, but it has fake written all over it.  He does have nice teeth.

John did consent to look at the camera in the second one but he was very busy unbuttoning his shirt in imitation of his big brother Fermin, who was already halfway out of his clothes.

Context, Context, Context

Without context, a lot of things Therese says don't make any sense.  For example, last night she told me, "Papa put my barf on me."  For some reason she puts an "f" sound on bar, as in the Ponsetti bar she has to wear while she sleeps.  The braced shoes snap into a bar that hold her feet out.  She will need to wear this at night for a long time.  We found out that she was waiting until we tucked her in, then unbuckling herself and sleeping without it.  It is frustrating because her feet want to go back over and we could end up back where we started.  She looks like a little shackled inmate or maybe a very tiny snowboarder in her bar and I'm sure it isn't very comfortable to be stuck in one position all night.  I talked to her and told her that if she doesn't sleep in her bar(f) that she will have to get casts again, and she won't be able to take baths.  Not getting to take baths is the ultimate threat, since this little girl loves her baths. 

 

It has been a long few weeks since the casts came off.  Therese has been super cranky and whiny.  I think she is frustrated at how hard walking is.  Her ankles flop over when she tries to put her feet down.  I got her a tiny walker and she can get around with that but complains about her feet hurting.  They are very swollen and of course the bottoms of her feet have never been walked on so the skin is very tender.  She has enough feeling down there to notice that.  She often just gives up and scoots around on the floor, or asks to be carried.  That is quite a change from our little girl whose motto was, "I do it by self!"  She got fitted for her AFOs last week and they will be done next week.  I hope those will help her. She is also complaining about her teeth hurting.  Now that we have almost finished her dental treatment plan she has only a few teeth left without enamel, and she can feel the difference.  When she had a mouthful of them she didn't know any better.  In schoolwork, I am reading her nursery rhymes and she is learning some phonics.  She has trouble with vowel sounds, I don't know if that is because she is a new English learner, or if she needs speech help. She is trying to memorize her first poem, and she can now color in the lines on a coloring page.

 

The good thing is that John is cheerful most of the time, and he has started the great adventure of potty training.  For him to be able to get out of diapers is a great step for his future.  We are seeing results from his new shunt--his balance is much better and he doesn't fall down nearly as often as he was.  When he falls he isn't falling as badly.  He used to just fall over, and hit his head.  Mostly when he falls now it is just to one or both knees instead of a total wipeout.  He is starting to learn phonics with the other kids and he is really enjoying his special coloring book.  He takes each page very seriously.  Most of my kids were uninterested in coloring books when they were that age or smaller.  I bought them, trying to be a good mom, but they only wanted to color on the walls, or scribble on plain paper.  Maybe he will like workbooks.  That could be a help for a homeschooling mom.

On Her Feet

Today for the very first time, Therese stood on her own two feet.  Her legs are very weak after being in casts, and adding that to not having much sensation from the knees down made it impossible for her to take off walking like she wanted to.  She was so excited to try out her new feet but is very wobbly.  She was frustrated because she wasn't able to walk by herself.  Soon, very soon little girl!

6 Months Home!

Today it is exactly six months since John Francis and Therese, along with Aunt Hannah and Mommy, arrived home after our long trip across China. 

Then:

  (I always think this picture is funny--the kids look a little surprised at the family that was awaiting them in America!)

 

Now:

John has gone through a lot of emotional upheaval with the big changes in his life, then just when he was getting comfortable, he had to have surgery.  The surgery was very upsetting to him, and even after he got home, got over the nausea, and got his equilibrium sorted out, he just wasn't himself.  He spent a lot of time just sitting around not wanting to play.  Fortunately, he is finally back to his normal self.  The sparkle is back in his eyes and he is entertaining everyone with his goofy dance moves.  This boy loves music and he improvises some pretty funny dances.  Since John had a happy childhood at Eagle's Wings and was in good shape when we got him, he hasn't changed drastically like Therese has.  Except for his medical issues he is just a really normal little boy.  The biggest change is that he is speaking English very well.  He was the best of the two verbally in Chinese and he also speaks English much better than she does.  We are hoping that the fluid in his spinal cord will go down now that he has a new shunt, so he doesn't have to have any more surgery in the next year or so.

Therese has changed so much, and developed so much, that sometimes it feels like watching a miracle unfold.  When I think back to what her official adoption file said about her, and then what bad shape she was in when I got her, I am amazed at the little girl we see now.  When I got her she could barely scribble on paper, and now she can use crayons and can write several letters.  She hadn't ever put together a puzzle or used scissors.   (She can definitely operate scissors now, and has added decorative touches to the sleeves of several of her dresses.)  She was filthy and dehydrated and her hair was dull and lifeless.  She has a plumpness to her cheeks now and her hair is smooth and shiny.  We haven't been able to weigh or measure her very well because of her feet, so it will be interesting to get her casts off and see how tall she really is.  She has gone up two sizes of clothes since I met her in China.  

She chatters all the time in English, but some things are hard to understand when she tries to talk too fast.  I miss the punchline of her jokes sometimes because I'm trying to process her accent.  She does have a cute little voice and is doing better all the time.  A bad thing she has mastered is whining.  I would say she has a virtuoso level whiny voice when she wants to.  She has bonded very well with us and is a very happy girl most of the time.  She does have some nightmares and will cling to me like a life preserver and cry and cry when I get her out of bed to hold her and comfort her.  She had told me recently that there was a monster under her bed in China, and due to her recent nightmares I have speculated on whether she thinks there is one here.  She tells me wild stories about her life in China as a joke, but she was very serious when she told me about the monster.  When she tells tall tales, her eyes twinkle and scrunch almost shut as she can't stop chuckling while she watches my reaction.

In spite of what her file said, she seems quite bright.  She has excellent hand-eye coordination and she is very quick to learn things.  She knows her colors and can count in English, and she is learning letters.  She knows what letters Therese starts with, and anything that has a word on it that starts T-H, she will ask if it is for her.  We haven't had her evaluated by a developmental pediatrician yet but I have every hope that she will live a normal life, and she will be helped by her happy and charming personality.   That will be an excellent outcome for a little girl who had so many labels and who was so chronically malnourished during her early years.  Whatever she does accomplish, she has a family to cheer her on. 

Therese's Tendonotomy

On February 24th, Mr. B., Thomas, Therese, and I made a Sunday evening drive, checked into our hotel, and tried to get some rest before checking in at the surgery center at 6:30 AM on Monday morning.  Therese thought the hotel was splendid.  Here you can see her enjoying the bed, and you also get a good view of the pads that Mr. B. taped on her casts to protect them.

Here is a series of funny faces, so you can see what kind of a silly girl she really is:

 

Saying goodnight to the kids at home:

I didn't take any pictures before or after surgery, partly because I was so tired (both kids slept all 4 hours in the van, so they were refreshed and ready to party and wouldn't go to sleep until midnight), and partly because one little girl was all I could handle.  Bryan sat in the waiting area with Thomas. They did more walking up the stairs and riding the elevator down than they did sitting.  Therese was quite wild in the pre-surgery area, laughing and carrying on.  A nurse walked by and said, "she is really enjoying the happy juice!"  I told him that she hadn't had any happy juice yet.  When they gave it to her, it just made her wilder.  When the doctor came in, she pointed at him and yelled, "Hey, cheeky!"  That is what it sounded like, anyway.  I'm not really sure what she was calling him.  As the medication kicked in she started to hiccup and couldn't hold her head straight.  She basically looked like a hilarious miniature drunk.  They cut the casts off, and then the nurse carried her off to surgery.  She leered drunkenly at me over his shoulder as they disappeared down the hall. 

After surgery we had one cranky little person and the fun was over.  She didn't seem to have any discomfort from having both her achilles tendons sliced in two, but she really, really hated the IV.  When they brought me back to be with her, she was just waking up, and her upper lip was pouted out like a beak.  When her lip looks like that, it means she is MAD at someone.  She was giving the post-op nurse, a very nice woman, the worst stink eye ever.  We went back to the hotel, ate breakfast, and packed up in the van to head for home.  Both kids took naps part of the way.

 The nap refreshed our silly girl and she was back to her normal happy self.  I am sure I would not look this happy if I had just had my tendons severed a few hours previously!  She never needed even a dose of Tylenol. 

Her souvenir from surgery was the pink oxygen mask.  We had a lot of fun with it on the way home.  Therese used it on her stuffed clown bear that she took to surgery with her.  This was such a funny joke that soon the bear was saying, in a voice that sounded suspiciously like Therese's, "Mommy, I need a catheter."    That's my girl!

Chinese New Year

Here are some pictures of all the kids dressed up for the Chinese New Year party with the local Families with Children From China group.  The party was on February 23.  I bought these silk outfits when I was in China, and it was a challenge to find one for each child in the color they requested.  They all loved their outfits but the sizing was another matter.  Jose's pants were so short that I (mean mom) about fell over laughing, but his shirt fit, so he just wore jeans with it.  Catherine's dress was too big, and I could barely stuff Therese into hers.  She has grown so much since I bought that dress in China!  She loved the dress, even though it clashed with her red casts.