Hair! Not sure I'm ready for this!

So, during the months before we left for Ethiopia to get Desi, I spent a lot of time thinking about her hair. ...did a little research, but mostly just felt like I was going to be totally inadequate with her hair! Now, you may not know this, but I am not a fussy mommy. I will ALWAYS choose comfort and ease over frilly and fussy. Emily hates for me to even touch her hair, so even if I wanted to put bows and pretties in it, she wouldn't let me! I suppose I'm the reason she got that way....I digress.

So, back to Desi and wondering what I would do with her hair...well, when we got to Ethiopia the point became moot [or at least delayed] because here's how she looked.....

One one hand..."whoa! they shaved her head! Was that really necessary? How will anyone tell that she's a girl?"

[the answer is, yes, it was necessary...she had ringworm on her scalp. ew.]

On the other hand..."well, at least I don't have to cross that bridge right now!"

So we started from scratch.

6 months later we have a HAIR DO! It's not much, but it's the first time I've gone beyond a hair band!

I know this is just the beginning....pray for me!

[by the way...it's really hard to photograph little afros! these are the best of about 15 shots I took! ]

First Steps...

....when we went to Ethiopia we didn't know if Desi could walk. It was kind of crazy. Luckily, I got to see her "first steps" in Ethiopia. What a relief![not technically her actual first steps, but the first steps she would take in front of me to prove that she could walk. Sadly, Ryan missed it because she was being a major booger at the time, which was understandable....]

But this post isn't about that kind of first steps. It's about Indiana First Steps. Our state's early childhood intervention program to get little one with developmental delays help. Our pediatrician recommended we have little D evaluated right away, which would have been a huge mistake, but within my adoption community I was encouraged to wait and give her a little time to adjust and get more comfy with her new environment. Since I am a fantastical procrastinator, I chose the latter advice and put off the eval until after the holidays.

On Monday morning a couple of really nice and helpful ladies stopped by the house to do the evaluation. They played and interacted with Des to see how she was doing developmentally. I was kind of worried about how D would do...she tends to go stone cold around strangers. But to my surprise she seemed very at ease with these ladies and did really well! Yay Des!

Really, my only concern about her development has been her language delay. I know I'm not suppose to be comparing her to other kids, but I was starting to get pretty worried that she wasn't picking up more English...I'm still not sure that she's where she could or should be. But my real motivation to have her evaluated was to see if we could get her some low cost speech therapy. After the evaluation I had this gut feeling that they weren't going to qualify her....they seemed a little befuddled by her.

The outcome of the evaluation was that she is really doing very well! They had no major concerns at all! Even though I really wasn't worried, it was very nice to hear them say it! Puts my mind at ease.

Oh! and by Wednesday I got the call that she qualified!!! [hands clapping!] So we are going to get to take advantage fo some sessions with a professional! I think it will be excellent to have a 3rd and impartial party work with her. Takes a lot of pressure off of Ryan and I, I think.

...to completely bring you up-to-date, [since I'm struggling to get 2 blog posts out in 1 month...sorry!] I also filed the paperwork to finalize our adoption here in the states and legally change Desi's name. I'm waiting for the official documents to come back so I can get her a SSN and be DONE DONE DONE with paperwork!


Also, since I'm on a roll with the up-to-date stuff...check this out....
I actually sold her a few weeks ago. It felt good to see her go to a good home! I'm on to a couple of new projects....one is a sweet little Craigs List treasure that I'm very excited about! Maybe I'll show you sometime soon.

Okay! That's it. You are pretty much caught up! Maybe I will try harder to not wait until I have a pile of random thoughts to post...maybe. Let me treat you to a few pics from January 2011. I can't believe that it's almost February! What??? And we are almost to the 6 month anniversary of being home with Desi! This blows my mind. Crazy! Where is the time going?

Here are a couple of shots of Desi reunited with her little ET friend, Amaya. Desi was kind of a dud at the playdate. I think that she is somehow confused by Amaya. I'm sure she'll become more comfortable with time. The second picture really captures her demeanor....

Little flowers....

Bath time fun...bubble beards...this pic of Em cracks me up.

Had to edit this one just a bit to make it more G rated...but seriously the best part of the pic is under the heart.... I feel I must apologize for the lack of Jake pics in this post...I'll try to get more shots of his cuteness to share. He really is so handsome.

2010 Wrap Up!

Well I'm exhausted!

In fact, I've been working on this blog post for a while and kept getting sidetracked! Latest obstacle...the nasty flu! Blast You, flu germs!!

We certainly ended 2010 with a bang! What a year! It's hard to believe that the excitement started all the way back in April when we received our referral for a sweet little 14 month old girl. We decided to make her ours and by the end of the year we were celebrating her First Christmas and her 2nd birthday!

Des has really grown and changed so much since we stepped off the plane in early August. She's put on a ton of weight [maybe setting some sort of record.] and grown a head full of hair! [One of my new years resolutions should have something to do with learning how to style her fro! ] Plus she's really letting her personality blossom as well! The only thing we wish we were gaining more ground on is speech. But we're getting her evaluated for Indiana First Steps and hoping she'll qualify for some speech therapy.

I hadn't written about it before, but in October we ended up hiring a friend of ours, Emily, to nanny for us for 2 half days per week when I went back to work. We thought it would be best for Desi to be at home when I'm at work and we kept Emily home with her. It's been so good and the girls adore Miss Emily! She is a huge blessing!

Des got home just in time for a whirlwind of holidays including Emily's 3rd Birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and her own birthday! She's probably thinking that all we do is celebrate and party around here!

December ended up being quite the month! I did a lot of baking, which is one of my favorite parts of Christmas! As usual, the Christmas shopping got me really stressed out. I swear that every year the shopping is "this close" to ruining my Christmas! There must be a better way! I also loved having Jake home on Christmas break. I've missed having him around during the day this year. Big 1st grader. One positive of him being at school is that it's given me, Em, and Des some girl time! I think that only having each other to play with has been good for both Emily and Desi.

Here are some pics of our Christmas Celebrations and Desi's birthday! If you're my facebook friend you can check out more pics over there on my page!

The kids all dressed up before the Christmas Eve worship gathering....

Emily in her new leotard and tutus... Jake's favorite...wii games.

Desi did great with all the presents!

On the 26th we loaded up the van and drove to Missouri to spend time with my family. The kids had a great time with their MO cousins!

[and by great I mean LOUD.]

Em and Desi with Papaw Whitten

Hanging out in the TV room. Des and Hay were like peas and carrots all week!

Opening presents...

Em and Papaw Vinny.

That's a pretty crazy look that Des is shootin' at Cody!

Desi getting snuggles from Papaw Vinny.
We also got to go visit some good friends who also adopted from Ethiopia this year! The world really can be rather smallish. This is Ade. If long distance relationships work, this might be the beginning of something beautiful!

And this is the face that I refer to as the "stinky face". It makes frequent appearances..especially when cameras are involved. While you can't see it in photos....the right eye actually twitches during "stinky face"....nice.
Desi's birthday is December 31st. We spent it in the van...oops. We did have a pre-birthday celebration in MO with my family and a post-birthday celebration back home with our Indiana people.

I made the cake...kind of ghetto, no? It's not that I didn't try...

Desi with Papaw Sonny.

Another highlight of the year was when our good friends, The Fousts, brought their little girl home from Ethiopia. [I told you the world gets small-ish sometimes.] I'm sure in previous posts I mentioned that their daughter, Amaya, was Desi's bedmate at the orphanage in Ethiopia? Yes, super cool, I know! I can't wait for our first playdate! [which would have been TODAY had it not been for the blasted flu!!]

So that's the wrap up on 2010! On to 2011!