2.5 months home - and our first Holiday!

Time is moving along. I have to say it feels like she has been home longer than the amount of time we were in Poland - but it really hasn't been that much longer. I think it feels that way because she is incorporating herself into our lives and routines so well. We are getting ready to do our first update to Poland and I'm happy to report how well she is doing.

Halloween was so fun with her. Our son really taught her that "spooky" is funny so we went all out and decorated the house and yard and had a Halloween party. The kids had a great time and Alissa did really well. We were a bit worried since we had 45 people in the house, but she just needed her mom and she was fine. She had really met most of the parents and kids before which I think was critical. The picture on the right is at the end of a game we played. We tied doughnuts to a string and had the kids try to eat them without their hands. It was hilarious and many of the kids who chose a chocolate doughnut had it ALL over themselves the rest of the evening. Alissa tried for 2 seconds, then looked around to see who was watching, reached up and grabbed the doughnut off the string and shoved it in her mouth. It could have been her first doughnut - and she loved it.

The party did prepare her for trick-or-treating the next weekend. She seemed to do well with a group of kids following them around and doing what they were doing.

She went to each door and said, "trick or treat" and then "thank you" after each piece of candy. Keeping her from ripping into the candy she got is another issue. She doesn't really understand the concept of "saving for later", but she is doing remarkably well iwth it. I've used the concepts from "Parenting the hurt child" and have had her put the piece of candy she has asked for on her placemat to eat after dinner or after lunch. She tells us all that it is only hers, but she has been leaving it there to eat later AND we have had no tempertantrum with that answer.

We started talking about the next holiday, Thanksgiving as we were taking down the Halloween decorations. When I said you say thank you and get to eat lots of yummy food- she was sooo excited. she really loves eating right now (I think we are going through a growth spurt.) She looked at me and said, "thank you home" - "I like eating". I'll have to come up with a good way for the kids to share what they are thankful for. For our son, I'm going to try to incorporate his allowance money that has been set aside to share with others.

The technical side of transitioning a child that has had trauma in her life. (I hope this info is helpful to those going down this route, and I would love to hear stories of how others have tackeled these issues.)

We have made it through much of the evaluation process with the county and the list of doctors we were told to see. It has been a roller coaster ride. On the positive side it seems that all the medical information we were provided with was pretty much on target, so far no surprises! In fact many doctors have been very impressed with the care and special services she received in the orphanage. Interestingly, they did some testing to make sure that the shots that were in her medical records were actually given to her. The doctor drew blood and checked for markers from the most expensive vaccines. He said if they were there they could be rest assured that she received the cheaper vaccines. Everything came up normal!

On the negative side we have had some issues getting speech services from the county, even though she is clearly behind her age group. We ran into a lady that had some predetermined notions about how learning and early intervention should be applied to internationally adopted children. Not sure why early intervention is good for US born kids, but unnecessary for internationally adopted children. BUT we just saw a nuerologist and he said early intervention for Alissa was imperative and referred us for speech services so we are going down the health insurance track now instead of the County. Lucky for us our health insurance does not exclude the diagnosis of "developmentally delayed". Alissa did qualify for some county services in special-ed support in social interaction and physical therapy.

AND her preschool continues to be wonderful in helping her learn about socially interacting with other kids. I love the fact that they are encouraging the kids to be outside, learning about nature, and hiking through the "forest" spotting wildlife on the Audubon preserve. They even do painting outside - I thought this was a wonderful idea.

I be remiss if I didn't point out how wonderful her brother has been in helping her learn how to play with kids. He has been so patient and caring that she just loves playing with him. When we first met, she had no interest in interacting with him. Now - she just glows when they are playing together.

Holiday Ideas

I'm interested in others ideas on how to introduce the holidays for the first time and birthdays.