Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Life with Lili...

Little Tiger Lili has come so far in the last six months. I mean...you have no idea!!!! She is nearly caught up developmentally after several months of Physical therapy. She began to walk in March and although her balance still leaves much to be desired, it is wonderful to see her take off across the room under her own steam! She climbs up and down the stairs with ease now and walks outside (she wouldn't do that for the longest time). She climbs in and out of chairs...and in and out and in and out and in and out. She is learning sign language and will use the signs on her own now when she wants something, so she is understanding them. She can feed herself with a spoon or a fork and she has that whole pincer grasp thing down pat now! :-) I guess the biggest thing is that she is sleeping in her own room in the crib now! Hallelujah!!! She is quite the little sleeper now...which is big if you remember our trip to China and the first few months home.

We are still having some other issues with her however. She cries at the drop of a hat for the craziest reasons...sometimes for seemingly no reason at all! It is just insane. She is about to drive us nuts with the crying. The good news is that her recovery time has gone WAY down!! What used to be a 30 minute cry fest is now usually over in a couple of minutes. We used to not be able to distract her for anything, but now we can pretty easily get her on to another track quickly.

Poor thing is afraid of everything from soup to nuts. David has worked very hard with her trying to get her over her fears and getting her to toughen up that thin skin of hers. He has really done a good job, but it is far from resolved. I know it will take time to help her work through her issues, but MAN...this has been the most insane 6 months of my life...heck...the roller coaster has been on full speed for the better part of a year now and I am definately ready for it to stop!!!!!

Oh well...all things in their proper time. God is still on His throne and He is still in charge of this household, so I guess there is nothing else to do, but just keep the seatbelt on tight and hang on!! It is really hard waiting on God, but it always rewards us more than we could ever imagine!

I guess this is one of those blessings I was wanting to count! I have two beautiful children and a wonderful husband who loves me. How much more blessed could I ask for!!!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Shelley and David!

We met ya'll at the park a couple months ago and have some awesome pics of the girls for you. Glad to hear things are even better now...it will take time.

Hang in there and just think how blessed you are. We started paperwork in August of 2005 and now may have 3 more years to wait! Atleast you have the girls now and together you will look back on the troubles as just "when they were little" moments!

Hope to see the family again soon!

Love and hugs,
Greg and Wendy Dodd
www.journeytopandabear.com

Shelley said...

Hi Wendy! You don't have to tell me who you are!!!! I can't wait to see the pics from the park. :-)

Gosh, I didn't realize I sounded so ungrateful.

I really didn't mean to! I was just thinking yesterday about how I am so thankful to not be in the middle of this unbelievable wait with China. I can't imagine the frustration and emotional rollercoaster you are on right now.

We need to schedule our next Fellowship get together. Let me know when is good for you guys~

Blessings~
Shelley

Anonymous said...

Hey, I know your very thankful...we are just struggling right now! Once we get through the Review room-we can breath again! And maybe I won't be so darn cranky!!

Yes, we do need to get together-maybe in late August for us? The Fourth of July is my bday and the 13th is Greg's. Greg will be having surgery on the 10th-lap band weightloss! So that is exciting and we are a bit nervous too. I am doing the diet with him-so no real food for atleast a couple months!

But we'd love to atleast spend time with ya'll and the girls once Greg has recovered! We had a great time with ya'll and can't wait for you to see the pics! We will have to put them on a CD for you-the file is so big!!

Love the blog, BTW! Greg will like getting to read how things are while in recovery!

Take care,
Wendy

Anonymous said...

It's so good to see an update of your girls. I followed your website when you traveled to get Ali (and later to get Lili.) At that time we were beginning our paperchase. We have now been home for almost 16 months with Ellie. Best wishes from a fellow Tennessean.