New Realization

Yesterday, S was at Chinese school. She normally sits in fear of the bell ringing, getting anxious 20 minutes before it is rung, with her hands over her ears. Yesterday, it went off and she calmly asked, "What was that?" What is even more remarkable is that we hadn't been to class in 3 weeks. That would have given her more reason to be anxious. I have been seeing less sensitivity to sound lately, what a blessing that is!!! She is even trying to eat more food. I spoke with her quite a bit about eating more foods when we were away. Yesterday, she tried a new flavor of greek yogurt and liked it! It was raspberry, with SEEDS. I thought the minute she detected a seed it would be over. She only had 2 bottles yeasterday. The end is in sight, finally. My only concern is replacing the nutrition properly. One day none of this will be a concern....

School

We had a report card conference with the teachers yesterday. They said that all of the children were asking when she would be back the entire time she was gone. When Monday rolled around, they all anticipated her return. They were so sad she didn't come in that day. They thought she wasn't coming back at all :( (she slept until 1 pm that day after being awake most of the night)
On Tuesday, we got caught in traffic for a big event, so we were 30 minutes late for school. When she made her grand entrance, she was mobbed by all of her classmates. Her teacher said she was quite overwhelmed, so she made the kids give her space. Apparently the rest of the week, everyone wanted to parter up with her, she was the one to be with. What exciting news for this mommy! I hope this does wonders for her self esteem, even though I think she only has self esteem issues with adults. She can't wait for her first soccer game today. We did her NR before our teacher conference. She really wanted to dilly dally, but we got through it all. I think we might work through this weekend to make up for lost time.

Catching Up

I think we are finally over jet lag. It was a busy trip, but I think we got a lot accomplished. We went to establish a connection to a small orphanage to make some improvements there. After visiting the orphanage and a school in one day, after hours of travel, S said she wanted to leave and go back to our hotel. She was clearly overwhelmed. We went to a private foster home with about 40 children a few days later. We have been here 2 times before in previous years. Each time, she has some issues with being with the babies. We stayed for several hours, and she actually played with some of the older babies. This was a huge step for her. She really managed the trip better than any typical 5 year old would. Considering her circumstances, she did better than anyone could have expected her to! Her latest question for me is, "Are you (im)pressed and proud and big happy with me?" Of course I always answer yes. She really needs my approval with everything, which is a huge step with attachment. Yesterday she started soccer. I signed her up mainly so she can meet other kids her age that live nearby. Since she doesn't go to the local elementary school, she doesn't know anyone that lives near her. She had so much fun! I couldn't be happier. I think she is actually going to be really good at the game. Without NR, this could never have been possible. I just wish others were overwhelmingly convinced by our progress. Even though some people have seen where she started, so many are content to think it would have happened on it's own. I KNOW it wouldn't have. I saw the progress before NR, and it was at a snails pace. I saw the quantum leap once we dedicated ourselves to it daily. There is no doubt that this works. I think the reason parents don't want to do it is because they can't make the commitment. I thought I could in the beginning and I couldn't. You need a child who can give some level of cooperation. I have had several people move my daughter's limbs to get through it, and it doesn't work. We needed a level of attachment first, but ironically, it came from the time spent doing NR. In the beginning, a lot of the time was spent trying to do NR, but not accomplishing it. This is where the attachment came in. The quantity of one on one time got us to where we needed to be. I think she also saw that I wasn't going to give up, so she had to give in eventually. I really don't think we are going to graduate this time, and I'm not ready to hear it. I am going into our next eval expecting to hear we need more time, and will be happily surprised to find out we are finished. We have only been doing 5 days a week instead of 7. We also have had an almost 2 week break. We didn't do anything yesterday, but did start back the day before. She did great!!! She was so cooperative, I was pleasantly surprised. We go for our re-eval in about 4 weeks, I so hope we are finished.