March 30, 2008

I left off telling you we got a "No" response which was great. Now we've gotten 2 affirmative answers. She sometimes answers, "Okay", but now we get, "Fine!" Today I was holding her and another little boy at the same time. He wanted to see the horse so I lifted them both up to look at the horse in the field next to the school. He was pointing to the horse and I asked S to point to the horse. She pointed and said, "Point" I asked her to point to something else today and she did it! That's been something we've wanted her to do for a while now. She did point to something in a book a little while back, but not when I asked her. It's really hard to access where she is developmentally because she is really stubborn and doesn't want to do things when we ask her. If you ask her to go pick up the hat, she'll go do it, but if you ask her to point to a hat, she won't. So we know she knows so much more than she lets on. I think it's part of maintaining the last bit of control. It's heartbreaking to know she hasn't completely let her guard down after a year and a half. While we were outside swinging today, I remembered a time when she was afraid to even get in the swing. If you didn't know where she started, you might worry about where she is today. But since we've been through it all with her, she has overcome so many obstacles. I think she has learned much more than other kids her age who have not been adopted. Along with all of her developmental milestones, she first needed to learn who we were, her new surroundings, her new language, and the biggest thing she needed to learn was trust. That most basic need has to be met before you can go anywhere. When you think of how old she was and how long it took to be comfortable with her new life, I think it's remarkable where she is. I know other children are much farther along, but she doing great for her personality and her obstacles. She just came up to me while I was writing this and said, "Excuse me" while she moved my legs to get past me. More later....