Two weeks home!

What a joy to have little Ingrid home! Each day there are so many new things for her to experience and for us to learn about her!  She loves to be held and kissed, cuddled, tickled, fed, and rocked.  We had 18 months of not being able to do that for her, so we are pouring it on thick around here!

Ingrid has been to our favorite pediatrician and all reports show she is healthy!! They feel she was fed some descent food - no nutritional deficiencies like we expected.  However, she  is underweight- due to not getting enough volume of food to eat.  We are offering as many calories as possible! We do know that she will be a more petite little one based on the region she came from, but 16 pounds at 18 months is pretty small.  She is eating up a storm... her favorite foods are roast beef, pork, and hamburger.  Interesting foods for this sweet little girl!

Three meat pizza is also a favorite!

We also went to the International Adoption Clinic at the University of MN. We wanted to see if she needed any PT or OT and learn more about attachment. Again, she is doing great so nothing extra is needed at this point. We were encouraged to hold her as much as she wants, run to her when she is hurt and give her comfort, and pick her up every time she cries.  Since no one picked her up when she cried in her crib, that is something we are doing each night.  Half of the time she is in our bed, and the other half in our arms.  We love it that she is needing us and we can give her what she needs.  She has weaker trunk muscles because of the lack of opportunities to build them in the orphanage. We are encouraged to roll with her and crawl around with her and help her do squats to build her tiny little gluteus muscles! The boys love to crawl and roar and even hide from her and then jump out and scare her. That's not exactly what we had in mind for the siblings attaching but she loves it!

She likes to hides in the cupboard

She has also been to the pediatric cardiologist at Minneapolis Childrens.  They were able to take a good look at her heart with an echocardiogram- she sat still for about 20 minutes!  Actually, Matt laid on the table, Ingrid rested on him, and she ate Cheetos and watched Thomas the Train on TV.  It worked!  The reports are good!  The surgery in China was successful and she will need another major surgery at around age 1. She does not need any medications and no restrictions at all!  What incredible news for us!  Our  heartache is for her little friend that is still in her orphanage with a heart repair that didn't work.  We will contact our agency and see if there is anything they can do (or we can do) to get him help.  There are lots of tears with our hearts aching for that child who needs medical attention.  There are also lots of tears of joy as we watch Ingrid flourish.  Praising our God who created this little sunshine!

We look forward to celebrating her Chinese culture!

 

Besides going to the doctor Ingrid has been to football games, cross country meets, soccer games, and more.  The boys love her at their games, and they think this little Vikings outfit someone gave her is really great.

Our sunshine is exploring so much each day.  She looks around and points and either babbles or is speaking in Chinese- we are not sure.  What joy! 

 

Love to you from Ingrid this beautiful fall day!