Over the Moon
We have been home from China for two months now and we are utterly amazed at Lilianna's progress. She turned 18 months on June 1st! And what is most remarkable is that we have not seen any signs at all of her experiencing any grief or sadness. She is a happy, happy child! We marvel every day at her bright spirit.
When
we met Lilianna in China, she was weighing in at a little less than 15 lbs (which
was about 6 lbs underweight for her height). And she was not even able to hold
herself in a sitting position. Today she is just over 18 lbs and she is not only
reaching and sitting up, but she is only days away from walking on her own! She
can take up to 6 steps by herself in fact! She has a great sense of humor and
loves to play pretend games. And she loves to sing along with the radio!
Lili
loves to eat... loves veggies and fruit but she is still partial to her bottle
4 to 5 times a day. She seemed to have an allergy to milk-based formula, so we
have had her on soy since China and she is doing great with that!
In the
last few weeks, we have noticed that Lili is much more demonstrative with us.
She hugs us and blows kisses all the time. When she is sleepy, she will lean into
my chest and we hum a song together until she falls asleep. She loves her big
sister Sophia and each morning wants to give her a hug and a kiss to start the
day. And she likes to give her big brothers the "high 5" as often as
they will let her. She is just precious!
Bath
time is her favorite time of the day! She gets so excited when she hears me start
to run the water and she squeals and laughs with unbridled excitement!! She even
wiggles her whole body and throws her arms in the air! It is truly a sight to
see!! (Needless to say we have much video tape of this!! LOL)
This week
we had her evaluated by Child Development Services and they tell us she is right
on track for her age. The one thing we need to work on is language, so we are
enrolling in a baby sign language group. Lili seems to have no trouble understanding
us, but we sometimes do not know what she is saying. With the sign language, we
can teach her the sign that goes with the word so she can communicate by using
the sign while she is trying to also say the word. We had already started this
and it seems to work well! She does say "mama", "daddy", "baby"
and "hi" so far.
We also took Lilianna to see Dr. Angela Gilladoga,
a pediatric cardiologist in Bangor, Maine, to have her ventricular septal defect
(VSD) evaluated. When we adopted Lilianna we were told that she was diagnosed
as having a 2-3mm VSD and that there was a 50-50 chance she would need heart surgery
to repair it. As it turns out, the doctor gave us both good and bad news. The
good news is that the hole seems to have gotten smaller and now measures 1mm.
The bad news is that it is located in the worst place. It is "sub-aortic"
which means it is located just below her aortic valve and the concern is that
the suction from the hole will cause the aortic valve to prolapse. Dr. Gilladoga
tells us that the prolapse happens in 5% of cases like this. So they do not recommend
surgery right away, but rather regular echocardiograms to monitor the hole.
We also learned that Lilianna has another heart defect that had not been detected
before now. She has what is called patent foramen ovale (PFO). During fetal circulation
babies have a small hole located in arterial septum that is used to speed up the
travel of blood through the heart. Normally the foramen ovale closes at birth
when increased blood pressure on the left side of the heart forces the opening
to close. In Lili's case, the hole is still open. So, while Dr. Gilladoga is not
recommending surgery at this time, we will be watching Lilianna closely.
So,
two months home and we are as delighted as ever to be parents of this beautiful
little girl! I have heard that many prospective parents are worried that the child
they will adopt will be developmentally delayed. I have to say that we could easily
have looked at Lilianna two months ago and labeled her "delayed" in
most areas, but after just a few weeks of love and care she has blossomed into
the little person she was meant to be!
I have also heard that these Chinese
children are fighters and I have to agree. I am inspired in some way each day
by our newest daughter. And I can honestly say that day after day she takes my
breath away.
I want to thank Lillian and the entire staff at CAWLI (and all of our wonderful, wonderful guides in China!) from the bottom of my heart for making it possible for us to become Lilianna's parents.
We
are over the moon in love with this little girl!
Christine
Buckley-Clement
Mommy to Lilianna Grace RuoBing Clement
Forever Day - March
28, 2005
JiangXi