I did just receive some updated photographs from our orphanage, most of which were photos of Katie as a baby. It is a very strange feeling to see photographs of your child as a baby, with short hair, looking so small and not recognize the photo or even have a memory of her at that age. There are 730 days of her life that I never knew her. I can't conjur up memories of my little girl as she learned to roll over for the first time, or how exciting it was to watch her master the skill of crawling. But as sad as that was for me to accept in the beginning, I have found peace with her missing past and know that she is with us now, and that is what matters most. Some day, she will probably fight her own demons as she struggles to understand her past and lack thereof but I pray it will not be a long struggle and that she will be able to accept this missing piece of her life with grace and forgiveness.
Katie has recently started daycare and she really seems happy there. She does not panic when we drop her off and is happy to see us at the end of the day. She is in a very small in-home daycare about a mile from our house and gets to spend her day with her 2 year old cousin, Karli as well as two other little girls, ages 1 1/2 and 2.5. They all get along very well and Katie seems very comfortable there.
Speaking of comfortable, she is really starting to accept and enjoy the added attention from extended family and friends. She will now let grandparents and aunts and uncle hold her and she does so with a big smile on her face, which is a significant change from just two months ago. Surprisingly, she even does great with a babysitter, as long as her brother and sister are with her.
The only thing that keeps Katie from being just like other children her age is the fact that she is still not communicating. There are no words or attempt at words. A few months ago she said "Mama" several times but has never said it again since. She makes noise and can definately let you know what she wants with the help of voice fluctuation and sign language, but no matter how many times I over pronunciate the word "SHOE" as I put her shoes on 19 times a day, she just looks at me as if to say "nice try Mom, but I'm not going to give you the satisafaction of hearing me try to sputter the word "shoe"!"
We start speech therapy on Wednesday and I hope that we start to see some progress over the next few months. Everyone asks how do you do speech therapy when she has no speech to work with? Great question! I'm not so sure, but we will find out on Wednesday! Her comprehensive language is fantastic. She understands everything that we say, which makes me forget that she can't communicate. My friends keep telling me to stop wishing away these "quite times" because once she starts talking its all downhill from there! Maybe that is why three kids has been such an easy transition....I'm seeing three but only hearing the chatter of two!
