Today we took Emma to the adoption clinic. Everyone there was wonderful and we all felt the appointment was very helpful.
As we answered their questions and talked to them about our concerns we all realized how much progress Emma has made over the last three months. It has been nothing short of a miracle! And since everything is going in the right direction (some areas slower than other but still in the right direction) - we are going to continue with the current plan.
They recommended that Emma continue with OT, speech and ELL. She will also continue with her activities of swimming, karate and gymnastic. Expectations are low in all of them but again she continues to make baby steps. ( It may seem like a lot but all the girls do them together at the same time so it works for this Momma- they are kind of our homeschool gym class)
Some of the diagnosis I originally thought of are now in the past (at this point). They are thinking that she has sensory deprivation from neglect resulting in many delays and cognitive delays.
Emma has not been able to make the language transition to English like the other children have. She seems to understand what we are saying but she cannot utter more than one or two occasional english words at a time and that is usually with prompting. In fact she is silent for a good portion of the day- taking everything in and answering with a nod of the head. She will officially be starting speech this week with a wonderful speech pathologist. I am looking forward to progress in this area, too- but of course my expectation are closer to reality than they previously were.
The adoption clinic is also sending us to a Pediatric Psychologist. He is an excellent DR and will be retiring in January. He just happens to be Chinese and although he is ending his career he has agreed to see Emma. Did I mention he speaks Mandarin! Thank you Jesus!
Hopefully we will be able to get more answers through him but for now we press on!
We have seen God written all over this adoption and it is so comforting! This little girl is such a joy to us and to think if we had known about her disability maybe, just maybe, we would have said no - that would have been a tragedy... We would have missed out on so much, so much love, so much potential and so many blessings...
