Day 16 (Free Day)

Another day behind us, only a few more to go, right?  I really am having trouble remembering what day of the week and day of the month it is - Sam, too!  However, we are finally sleeping better, which is nice.

After today, we are the last family from our original group to be here.  It was really sad to say goodbye, but I am so glad that the people in our group were so wonderful that they will make us miss them so much!  Goodbye, U family, G family and P family!  Thank you for the last minute gifts of diapers and wipes - that will save us a trip to the store and a lot of money! : )  We love you all so much and are so glad we journeyed with you.  You made this trip fantastic, more beautiful and more bearable in the harder times.  A special shout out to little H - we sang songs in the van all the way home (aka the hotel) in honor of you - thank you for letting your little light shine!  Mistah Eedah and Sammy Brown love you (and C and FL, too!)!

We had a restful day, and that was a good thing because C had a really hard day.  I am not sure what was going on (probably the fact that her whole world was rocked 2 weeks ago), but she had 4 or 5 major meltdowns today.  FL had her first big one as well, so I am glad nothing was planned for today!  I tell you about this because adoption isn't all roses and sunshine - there are some really hard things.  To be quite honest, I haven't shared many of them that we've encountered because I am not sure where the balance is in providing information that may help someone in the future and my daughters' privacy. It doesn't bother me to share, but they may look back in the future and wish that I hadn't shared so much.

Anyway, we had a low key day with some hard parts and I think Sam and I were feeling kind of "done" as well.  With our friends leaving that made it just a little bit more difficult, but, again, I'm glad to have met them and shared most of the journey with them!

We did get some play time in with our friends because of the sunshine, so that was really nice!  We also had lots of play time in the room.

Everyone LOVES Papa!  Mama?  Well, she's nice and all, but she has rules and stuff and isn't as loud as Papa when she plays with us... : )

 We eat lunch in our room nearly every day - it is a very nice hotel, but mealtime can feel a little cramped.  I thought I'd show you a little of what it looks like:

  C sits on a side table since she has more muscle tone and doesn't need as much support.  FL eats in this giant wooden chair that looks like a throne!  Sam and I take turns feeding FL and eating in the chair.  It's usually too much effort for me to sit down because I end up getting up right away, so I stand. : )

 Don't take my picture, Mama!

I don't know how to cook these green beans, but they are AWESOME!  Even C eats them, and her foster family said she doesn't like vegetables (we are now pushing her to try things other that bread and noodles and she will eat them : ))!

FL eats pretty much anything that we will give her.  She was just getting bottles and congee, but she eats so well that we have to be careful that we don't overload her mouth.  Because of that, we really can't let her feed herself right now.  We ask her to "open" so we can check to see what is in her mouth, have her sign "more" and "please" to have another bite (not every time, but it beats getting yelled and grunted at! : )).  We give her small bites and chew with her.  For future cleft mamas out there, she has celfts on both sides, one that is really wide and one that is quite narrow.  The larger goes back and up as far as I can see (when she cries), not sure about the narrow one.  Occassionally, a piece of food will come out of her nose, but rarely.  She doesn't drool hardly at all, does try to vocalize, is great with signing (not sure she fully connects it with what we are doing, but imitates them great) and sometimes I can understand what she is saying.  Her clefts were considered severe, I believe and we think they may have had to do some reconstruction and grafting to make her nose and upper lip, but we will know for sure once we are home and have some Dr. appointments.  We have no trouble feeding her whatever and, to be quite honest, didn't bring anything special or make any special preparations for feeding or caring for her.  We did have to enlarge the hole in the bottle nipple because it was taking her 30 minutes to eat it.  She doesn't suck, but mashes it with her mouth and gets the job done.  Other than that, the only thing I do special for her as far as eating is to space out how much I give her per mouthful and how often (this is something that you might have to do for a non-cleft child, too).  She eats her gummy vitamins (omega 3s) and multi vitamins that are hard like flintstone vitamins without a problem.  I have even accidentally given them to her at the same time and we had no trouble. : )  Both girls have survived all of my "mommy fails" so far, so take heart, mothers to be and don't worry too much! : )

As for C, she's almost too easy sometimes, like having one of my friends' children over.  She understands me so well I have to remind myself that she doesn't speak english and not to move too fast or expect too much from her.  It is hard, though, because she has cuaght on SO quickly.  Another difference between foster and orphanage children, I suppose.

We didn't go anywhere, so I don't have any recommendations today, except make good friends on your trip and find places to eat around your hotel! : )  You'll need both!

Prayers/Praises:

* Please pray for us to parent our girls the best we can through these difficult and different emtional meltdowns

* Pray for continued health for Sam, for me to rebound and stay healthy and the girls to get better quickly

* Hooray for our friends travelling home (travel mercies!) and the children who now have families forever!

Thanks for reading!