So how is is going?

The first question everyone asks is how is it going? Followed by how is Sophie adjusting? So here is my summary for all three of you out there wondering.

It's going great.

The first week provided the least amount of sleep as I tried to convince our daughter that day and night were now reversed. She eventually got the hang of it and I am very grateful. I already blogged about her pediatrician visit after three days home. Our pediatrician was very pleased with her overall health and growth. Today we had a follow up appointment and a one year well visit.

So after two weeks of being home Sophie had gained a pound, grown an inch longer, and her head grew another cm. My doctor just chuckled when she saw her growth curve go straight up in two weeks time. She might be a big girl after all, now that she is getting adequate nutrition. Time will tell.

All her medical reports from her blood work came back with good results. Her stool study came back with a diagnosis of giardia, which we already expected. We have been on meds for two full days now and the treatment lasts for five. The goal is for better intestinal health by killing the parasites, but I am here to tell you that today was by far the winner for nonstop blow out diapers! Disgusting! Let's hope we improve over the next three days.

Sleeping is going very well. She takes two naps a day for 2-3 hours each. She goes down with no fussing at all. Wakes up screaming and mommy comes running, so she has me trained well already. She goes down great at bedtime too, but still wakes for that middle of the night feeding she was accustomed to getting at Toukoul. She has skipped it a few times by herself, so I am hoping she will out grow it herself by getting more nutrition in the day and the reassurance that she will never go hungry. For now, when she cries at 2 am she gets a bottle. Thankfully she goes right back to sleep.

She is getting braver in her surroundings and can be found crawling through the house getting into all kids of things that siblings have left lay all over the place. She is still a bit wary of the dog, but every once in a while she will crawl up to Banjo and just touch her. She will pull herself up to play at her musical table, but mostly just crawls. She keeps a close eye on my proximity at all times and while she can be on one side of the room fine one moment, she will panic the next, bursting into tears, until I come and pick her up.

She loves to play with her daddy but does it better if I am not around. If I pass by she will cry and reach for me. She screams loudly and the tears come instantly. A faker at times, but she knows how to make her needs known. I wear her on my back in the Beco often, so that I can accomplish a few simple things around the house, or so my arms are free to hold Luke.

She really is adjusting to all these changes well. I feel so sad when I think that she has only been here two weeks and how foreign it must all feel to her. We are her fourth change of care that we know of in her first year of life. There was her birth mom, the orphanage in Harar, the Toukoul orphanage (who knows how many different care givers there in the course of 9 months) and now home with us.

That is a lot of change in 12 months of living.