I just wanted to share with you all that our adoption was finalized in Indiana this month! This has been such a rollercoaster of emotion, and I can now officially speak freely about Ellie (her brand new official name is Elizabeth but we call her Ellie).
Everyone has been asking about how she's doing. I've been very shy to post on social media any photos or medical updates. It is a delicate process when you have social workers in your home and life and I wanted to be cautious about all of that. Although I have to say, we completely LOVED our social worker. I really felt that she was FOR US, and that I could ask or say anything. She saw a lot of tears across our kitchen table as we talked about Ellie's lack of developmental progress and growth, and shared our tears of joy that we feel so blessed to be her parents.
Little Ellie is still VERY Little Ellie. She is almost 11 months and still wears a size 1 diaper and 3-6 months clothes. She sees several specialists: gastroenterologist/nutritionist, cardiologist, neurologist, and her pediatrician. She receives developmental intervention and physical therapy at our house. We are now stocked with a living room full of therapy equipment. She has dropped into the "severe developmental delay" category, but is working hard. She is now full of smiles and coos, and has started to babble with consonant sounds. We are really encouraged by that because Abbey never made any consonant sounds. She can't sit up, can't eat baby food yet, and takes a high calorie formula condensed to add even more calories per ounce. But, she sleeps great, still naps, and really loves to eat her toes.
Her big brother had to write a personal narrative for school. When I got to see it, it was all about her adoption. He talked about how hard it was to wait to meet her while we were flying out to Indiana, and that sometimes he couldn't sleep because he was so excited and sometimes he couldn't sleep because "my stomach was in knots." He talks about going to court, getting spit up on, and how much he loves his little sister. He is quite determined to teach her how to say his name! Sometimes when she's cranky I will give her to him and he walks her around a little and she falls to sleep. He gets a big kick out of this and is sure to tell me that HE is the one with the "magic touch." I love seeing God shaping his heart and using his sisters to make him, and his little brother, into a man of great character. I don't care what jobs/careers my boys end up having in life if they know how to love God and love others...it's all that matters to me.
How am I? That's a whole different post. LOL God is shaping my heart too. Sometimes it's hard and I don't want to change or surrender my plans and hopes and dreams for this sweet girl. But I trust that the God who created her, sustained her in the womb despite the trauma of drugs and alcohol, and then saved her life after a traumatic delivery and lack of oxygen at birth HAS HER IN HIS HANDS. Before she was my little girl, she was his. I believe he has great big plans for this tiny baby. She's a miracle, you know?
But now she's officially OUR miracle, and that feels really great.
