One More Piece: September 2014

TWO MONTHS IN THE U.S.A.

My last post was about two months since our "gotcha day" for Emily. Today marked two months since we brought her home to her new country. Here we were on July 9, 2014:

And here we (or most of us) were this weekend:

Emily is so much more settled than she was on July 9th. She knows what home means. She knows HER house and HER crib and HER room and HER toys. She knows her way around and roams (under my ever-watchful eye) all over the house. She knows where she can find toys, books, bowls, bags, pots/pans, food, soap (girl loves soap!), and anything else. If you tell her to go to a room in the house, she heads that direction. She loves to get the mail with Daddy and she loves our sinks. She would spend all day in the sink if I would let her. In so many ways, she seems very different from the girl we met in China. She is two months older (and - we found out today - 1.5 pounds heavier - yikes!). She knows 70 more English words. She is stronger and is mostly running now vs. toddling/walking. More than that though, she is just settled. She is more calm. She listens more. She watches and imitates. She isn't as frantic or constantly on the move as she seemed in China. Looking back, it was - no doubt - that she was being bombarded in every possible manner with sights, sounds, people, modes of transportation, foods, voices, languages, etc... that she had never before experienced. She was taken out of her very good, but very limited and insular life, and taken on international flights, and on long trips in vans and cars. She saw millions of people passing by on foot and in cars, trucks, buses, trains. She slept in hotels and rode up and down in multiple elevators. Now she is less phased by new places and people and experiences. She approaches most things with delight - but with appropriate caution. She loves to go to playgrounds, to the zoo, to drop brothers off at school, to the pool, etc... She enjoys adventure and people (especially children), but she looks for cues from us before jumping into new situations. She is part of our family. She knows this is - and we are - her home.

We had a scare just after my last post because blood work came in showing a severely low neutrophil count. The count had also been low in July. Our pediatrician recommended follow up with a hematologist and we had an appointment on the books at the big children's cancer center in town. Scary. The nerd/psycho mom/crazed lawyer researcher in me quickly googled the world of possibilities, read Medline and other articles, consulted websites, polled adoptive moms on Facebook, and waffled daily between being very scared and being calm. Severely low neutrophils - or neutropenia - usually means that the person cannot fight bacterial infections. Children who have undergone chemotherapy often have low neutrophil counts, but that is not the case with Emily. There are some pretty devastating (but also very rare) syndromes which can be associated with albinism and neutropenia, but I tried not to let my thoughts go there. Emily has been healthy (other than two colds) since we've had her and she has certainly been out and about and exposed to people and germs. She was also (so the orphanage said and we have no reason - specifically because of the situation she was in - to doubt them) totally healthy during her life in China. No hospitalizations, no major illness or infections. Even our pediatrician said that because she is so big and healthy, she doesn't fit the profile for a child with severe neutropenia. Our appointment was this morning and it went very well. We had one of the nicest doctors (also Chinese) and he was so kind to us. Emily's neutrophil count was much better today - almost normal. He thinks the low levels in July and August were related to her body fighting off viruses (her two colds) and that her higher counts today, especially coupled with her healthy size (26.8 pounds), muscle tone, development, not having been sick, no enlarged lymph nodes or organs, etc... mean that we don't have anything to worry about related to the blood work. Thank God! We were so relieved! As we walked out of the outpatient cancer/blood disorder place, the doctor got down on Emily's level and said, "You were clearly adored at your orphanage and are adored in your new family. Emily - you are a blessing." Truer words he could not have spoken.

Adored and a blessing. Yes...that is our girl.