A Day in the Lives of the Urbans

My favorite Christmas presents this year, there were two actually...We got a phone call from our facilitator on Christmas Day telling us our SDA appointment (They work Christmas Day in Ukraine). The other gift I received was this video link from Valerie, who had just returned from meeting her son who lived in the same special needs room as Ava. The only way I could figure out to post it was by putting on the link......CLICK HERE

Can you see why we were so smitten with her? I probably watched this video 100 times in the 3 1/2 weeks from the time we received it to the time we got to meet her for ourselves.

A couple of observations we have had since we've brought Ava home....
1. Remember the train ride when I was trying to get her to sleep and she was SO ticklish? Any kind of touch to her face or her body would send her into giggles. Well she is not nearly so ticklish anymore. Must be that she is receiving so much more stimulation now and she is not so sensitive.

2 .Remember how dry and crusty her skin was? Well within days of having her she has the most beautiful pink skin.

3. When we used to pick her up she was stiff and drew her little legs and hands to the center of her body. Now she feels more relaxed when you hold her.

4. The only way we could get her to smile or laugh at first was to stimulate her....tickle her. Now she smiles and laughs when her daddy gets home from work and gets close to her, when her brothers and sisters do somersaults or jumps up and down, when she hears a funny noise.

5. Her hair is growing in some places, and not in others. I thought at first it was just "orphan hair", bald where she had laid for so long, and that is certainly part of it because some patches have grown in. But some haven't. I haven't talked to the pediatrician about it yet, but I believe she has alopecia. Any hair dressers or dermatologists out there that can give their advice on this?

6. She made her first sign, although it's pretty subtle, she can sign "go" when she wants to be pushed in the swing. We wait until she lifts her arms up, usually after we say, "Ready....Set...." then we wait...When she lifts her little hands, we push her. You know how much she loves to swing, so this is good motivation for her to indicate what she wants in order for a need to be met.

7. She can be quite stubborn, especially when it comes to trying anything by mouth other than her bottle. (Surprise surprise).

8. We love her more and more every day. When I looked at this video the other day, I realized how much I loved her from a distance on Christmas Day 2007, but how much more since we know her and she seems to love us back. John has thanked me several times since we have been home for talking him into adoption. He just said to me last night, "I'm so glad we adopted her. Thanks for being so persistent." HA. Now you all know that I can be persistent. :)