4 months...hard to believe 4 months ago today we arrived back in San Antonio with Halif and were reunited with the girls! We have all grown, literally and spiritually, by leaps and bounds. Halif is no longer the tiny, frail, fearful 6 month old we brought home but a 10 month old that recently was called "chunky" by a stranger - YEAH!! My baby boy has dimples on his knuckles, chunk on his thighs, a little ring around his wrist and the sweetest cheeks around! At his 9 month appt. he was 17 lbs. 1 oz. which put him in the 11%. He is probably up to about 18 lbs now and as healthy as can be. His development is right on if not ahead and he is VERY verbal - talking constantly and not just babble but real words - hi, bye-bye, dada, mama, uh-oh, ba-ba for bottle, poo-poo and is signing "all done". He understands so much too - responds to no by stopping (most the time), dances when we say the word, follows simple direction like "get the ball" or "give it to mama", etc. They are just sponges at this age. When we got our referral back in June we were told that they didn't know what his developmental delays would be because of his malnutrition and God has just healed and grown this sweet boy up to be as healthy as possible.
The most challenging part of the past 4 months has been Eden... my sweet, strong, stubborn, funny, passionate, cuddle-bug, 4 year old. Wow - this has ROCKED her world and we have been on our knees asking the Lord to guide us through this. There was a period of 6 weeks where she'd bring me to tears almost every.single.day. because she was going to get her attention one way or another. She was used to being the baby and she was now the big sister. She was now sharing me during the day and we couldn't just go and do what we wanted all the time. While searching for scripture to pray over her for a spirit of love, self-control, patience, obedience, a funny thing happened...the Lord led me to those scriptures that very clearly was for ME. I was not leaning on the Lord and His word to fill me up to display these attributes I wanted to see in her. Conviction? yes!! I have learned that Eden will control the whole house if I let her. And my response is what determines what will happen. Me staying calm, praying that "in your anger, do not sin", forgiving just as HE forgave shows Eden what I pray to see in her. The last 3 weeks have been so much better and I'm thankful that just as in any challenge, the Lord has shown me how I was blessed and what I learned. I pray I can continue and show all of my kids how much I love them each as individual, unique, special blessings to me!
Here are a few things I'd like to jot down:
- Halif loves shoes or I should say is OBSESSED with shoes, loves Rollo the cat, wants anything with buttons, loves music of any kind but especially the Fresh Beat Band
- Eden started gymnastics in January and is having a blast; she also has pneumonia over the Christmas break
- Claire lost her first and second tooth, broke her first bone (collarbone), had pneumonia, strep and a stomach bug...all in two weeks time
- Neil and I celebrated our 10 year dating anniversary at Jim's...with Halif in tow =)
- I was really sick during Christmas break and was so thankful for Neil. He took care of all three kids like a rockstar and I think this is when Halif got so attached to Neil
- Halif is sleeping better these days...he goes to sleep right after eating which is still about 3-4 hours. We are still exhausted but it's getting better.
- Eden can't get enough of school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She asks to go everyday and poor girl has one more year to wait before that happens.
- Claire has started Girl Scouts and just today, Ballet. She is growing up so fast and so motivated to do her very best in all she does. She sold 286 boxes of cookies with very little help from mom and dad. She is also really loving reading and science! She wants a science experiment birthday party.
- Halif gets his helmet off Feb 14th and it has done an incredible job rounding out his sweet little head. He got it on Oct. 25th and we will have to get used to seeing him without it when he's been wearing it 23 hrs. a day
And here are a few more pics:
2 comments:
You are such an inspiration to me on being a Godly wife and mother. I admire you so much! I love that Halif loves Fresh Beat Band. Lyla found it on Netflix and watches it all the time. I could sing most of the songs on demand. :) I love that Claire is taking ballet. She has a perfect little ballerina body!
I love the photo of you with the exuberant smile wearing the red shirt and holding H!
In case it is helpful - I was doing some attachment research last summer and was surprised to read preferring dad to mom can be a sign of attachment issues. Now, obviously, I think there are a lot of qualifiers to that statement (but it is listed point blank like that on the checklist). In our case, Evie did prefer Dan to me for a long time. But Dan worked a lot so he was away 60-70 hours a week, which I think made that preference more strange. I do think her preference for Dan was part of her larger attachment issues in general. At that time she preferred everyone to me. As she moved toward secure attachment, she started to prefer me more and more, and now I would say she prefers me most of all. I wish I would have known that this was related to attachment early on, but I didn't. This might not apply to you guys at all, though. It's just our story. But if it's any encouragement to you, you may notice that changing as H grows in his security with you.
Just last night we were laughing about how Jude had the hardest time adjusting to Indigo. Once, when Indi was 6 months old, Dan and I were talking in the kitchen and we heard a muffled cry in the living room. Jude had put a pillow over Indi's head and was sitting on it! Who would believe that now they're BFFs?! But they are. AND we can laugh about it now, too. :)
Post a Comment