Hearing Test and ENT

Good news!

Lily's ears are working fine! The fluid has resolved in its own in the right ear where her ear tube fell out in February. The tube in the left ear has extruded as
well, we found out today. The ENT physicians assistant that we see told us that she will see Lily in 3 months, and if all is well then - she will be released from her care :-).

Lily's hearing test went well. She scored normal/borderline normal on most items. Praise the Lord!!!

Man Shall Not Live By Bread (Donuts) Alone

This week we had a trip to Krispy Kreme.  All the kids had a blast picking out their donut, and watching the conveyor belt carry the donuts under the glaze waterfall and onto the racks to set.  Even though Lily undoubtedly never had a donut in China - she loves them!  Matthew loves them, too.  They are probably his most favorite treat.  Last year for his birthday, that was his request - and we actually found a mom and pop donut shop that makes a giant donut that can be served as a cake.  It was about 1 foot in diameter, and we put candles on it and served it up as his birthday cake when he turned 10.

We usually do our morning devotions together over breakfast, so we brought our stuff to Krispy Kreme to do it there.  You can see how Lily has scribbled all over  decorated our record of Bible readings.  We are going through the Psalms now - one a day.  We are also reading Egermeier's Bible Story Book.  Do you have any resources or routines you have used for devotions for family or kids?  Another one we absolutely LOVED and have gone through many, many, many times is The Jesus Storybook Bible.  It is wonderful!  I would love to know how you do family devotions.  Always looking for more inspiration!  We have done other things in the past, too, like Keys For Kids, Discovering Jesus in Genesis, Leading Little Ones to God, The Picture Bible, Read-n-Grow Picture Bible through the years.  

To keep it real, it is a struggle to get through our devotions most days.  Lest you think that my kids sit quietly while I read to them - a typical morning involves me corralling them back to the kitchen table (my kids love to eat and run, even when they are eating, they are only sitting on their chairs halfway), and then we are interrupted by Lily flipping the pages of the Bible or book to another place, or Aaron asking me if he can have another egg, and then finally by me giving them a lecture about how we should only interrupt if it is an emergency and defining what constitutes an emergency (blood or fire).  But we get through it - and they are improving.  Every time we have added a new baby though - things definitely are very hairy for a while.  Anyway, I would LOVE to hear any tips, resources, books, etc. that have worked for your family!  Have a blessed day :-).

Psalm 17:8 (another video)

"Keep me as the apple* of the eye;  Hide me in the shadow of Thy wings."

* - or, the daughter

Lily's Voice Part II

I took a couple of quick videos of Lily's speech therapy session yesterday at Lucile Packard.  You can watch the video to get a better idea of how Lily speaks :-).  Her speech pathologist is April, and she rocks!  We all like her very much, including the boys who come along almost every time. 

And one last one - a video I took this morning of Nene and Lily jumping around on the bed.  You can see what a loving brother Nathan is, and how Lily loves to imitate him and play with him.

Summer is In Full Swing

Lots of sun and swimming, time with family and dear friends.

Lots of yumminess, too :-).

We are enjoying our summer. Hope you are, too!

And a cute story:
These past few days we have been staying with my in-laws in Los Angeles. Last night, after a long day of swimming and fun with my side of the family, we came back and were trying to get my older two boys into the shower. Aaron and Lily had already had a bath earlier. I was talking to my mother-in-law in the dining room and snacking. At the same time, I was telling Matthew and Nathan to hop in the shower. When I went to our room to gather towels and toiletries for the big kids, five year old Aaron came up to me and said, "Mama, you can talk to NaiNai (grandma). I will take care of everybody." Sweet little love.

My 4th of July sparkler

Happy Independence Day to all of you!

This dress that Lily Is wearing was given to me last spring before I had even met her. A dear friend gave it to her and I have been saving it for this day.

When I received the dress, I hung it up in the closet thinking - next year.

Next year Lily will be home and will wear it on the 4th of July.

And she is here. Home. Wearing the gifted dress. With us. Part of our family. Celebrating American Independence Day as an American citizen.

God is good :-).

Lily's Voice

I am going to update you all on how Lily's speech is coming along.  Before we adopted Lily, we knew she had a cleft palate and a repaired cleft lip, but we did not know how profoundly that impacts one's speech development.  Even after her palate was repaired in December, she did not seem to be making that many new sounds.

In February, she began early intervention therapy with the county's Infants and Toddlers Program (Early Start).  Once a week, a teacher comes to our home for an hour, and engages Lily with games to help her learn to attend to a task (girlfriend is SUPER active and is almost never still - but has come  long LONG way in the last few months), while all the while working on having her produce sounds.

As you can see, Lily has a lot of fun during these sessions, and big brothers can join in, too.

The parachute is a favorite activity that they get to do.  Aaron and Lily are singing "Twinkle Twinkle" while Lorraine (our teacher), and Nathan are holding it over them.  This is the only time that I have taken pictures instead of participating.  The program is actually for the parents - and it is necessary for a parent or adult to be present at all of the sessions.

Lily helping to put the parachute away.

Lily also began speech therapy in April with a speech pathologist who specializes in velopharyngeal inadequacy at Lucile Packard (Stanford's children's hospital).  30 minutes once a week.   She has made a lot of progress in the past few months.  Some of it, I am sure, is because she is settling in more and probably over the shock of transition and now able to learn and grow freely.  Some of it, though, is definitely because of the implementation of these two programs that are a regular part of our weekly routine.

This will probably be boring to everyone else - but I will record it here so that we can keep track of her progress. . .

Now, Lily can make these consonant sounds in isolation:
B, D, G, K, L, M, N, P, R, S (distorted), W
CH (distorted)

She has a lot of trouble if they occur at the beginning of the word.  She is unable, still, to blend them into the rest of the word.  So, she can say, "D" (like duh) in isolation, but then if I ask her to say "duck," she will drop the "d" sound and say "uck."  At the end of the word is better.  April (her speech pathologist) explained that it is harder to blend the beginning consonant because you need to sustain air flow (and she is still learning how to stretch her soft palate to block off the air that would escape through your nose when speaking).  Haha - take all this with a grain of salt.  This is what I understand - but I could have many mistakes in my explanation.  This quote by Einstein is SO TRUE.

And that's how I feel about this cranio/cleft/speech stuff.  But praise the LORD - He understands everything that's going on with Lily's body and with her development.

Lily has really found her "voice" in many ways.  In the last couple of weeks, she has started yelling for me from across the house.  "Mamaaaaaaaaa!"  Although it is not the best habit to get into, I love the fact that she has now realized the power of words.  You can communicate and make things happen by using your words.

Even without being able to say much, Lily says SO much in other ways.  She knows many signs in ASL, but besides that - she expresses her opinions with body language, pointing, bringing me to see what she wants to show me, and by her expressions.

Thank you always, for praying.

A couple of weeks ago, our pilot light went out in our hot water heater.  The PGand E man came to relight it.  When he saw Lily (who was on my hip), he immediately asked, "Does she have a cleft lip?" The reason he asked, I found out, was because his 15 month old daughter has a cleft palate (repaired).  We shared our experiences and talked about speech stuff.  He said to me, "They will talk when they are ready."

We will wait, dear girl, for you to be ready.  In the meantime, we rejoice with every new sound, every new word, and every step you take.