Updates

First, sorry that I haven't updated in so long. We have been busy and I'm adjusting to working again and have been very tired.

We started therapy last week. Speech on Mondays and PT and OT on Wednesdays. Lots of work to do. Ananya has decided that she hates speech therapy. The first week she tolerated about 15 minutes before she started crying and we trudged through another 15 minutes before moving to play type therapy. This week, Kerry (our speech therapist) walked in and Ananya started crying. She won't let me put her down so we didn't have the best session. PT and OT aren't that bad. They do more of what we do with her already. Stretching and strengthening. Poor baby needs baby yoga. We should start to see results soon.

I must say that this doll is doing wonderful. She is making great progress before therapy can start to do its job. Last week she finally started drinking out of a sippy cup. She is sucking very well now. She drank half of a sippy cup yesterday before we resorted to drinking without the lid. She has decided to be loud again and is vocalizing alot. All of her normal sounds. We are trying to give her new ones to imitate now. She is sitting up straighter. She is sitting longer on her bottom too.

The all time greatest though is that she moved. She bounces up and down when she sits on her knees. Well last Saturday, she decided to bounce around the rug. I mean really around. She went 3 or 4 feet BOUNCING!!! It was the funniest thing. She looked like a little bunny.

Yesterday we all went strawberry picking with some friends. Ananya loves to be outside. She would only eat the strawberries that I gave her bites of. Maybe next year she will be with the other kids chowing down as she picks.

I can not say enough about how much this girl is a blessing to our family. It feels like she has been here forever. I've been surfing other blogs and this morning I was in tears. I was watching a slide show by a mom who is waiting to bring her baby home. The family went on a visit (a Guatemala adoption). I can remember the pain of the wait so vividly. I would not trade one tear though. The waiting was definitely more than worth the reward. It honestly made me strong in my faith. I know that God is in control and all of the things she can't do are coming. I have to be patient. I try to keep looking for all the little things she does new each day. She is so happy now. She smiles so much. She makes us smile.

MY KIDS ROCK!!!!

On a personal note. I'm dieting with some other bloggers. These women are such a great support. We are all on a mission to make PERMANENT changes in our life to model a healthy life for our children. Anyone interested in joining us, the site is www.nomorejunkytrunk.blogspot.com. I have been doing well and lost a few pounds in almost 2 weeks. I've been trying to exercise at least 3 times a week as well.

I'm going to go to sleep now. We have our 2nd postplacement visit on Thursday.

I can't believe that we have been a family of 4 for 11 weeks now. Its just great.