Three Weeks With Bella and Sophia

Well, Bella and Sophia have been here three weeks. I feel that we are finally really getting to know them and learning some of their likes and dislikes. 
Bella is one opinionated little girl. She has quite the attitude! If I feed Sophia first — Bella screams. If I hold Sophia — Bella stands next to me and yells. If I put on my coat — Bella cries and cries to go with me. If I give Bella a drink she usually won’t drink it until she sees me offer a bottle to Sophia — then she is fussing for HER drink. She has actually learned one English word — MINE! She will grab Sophia’s doll and yell “MINE” and run. Anything she wants that someone else has is “MINE” according to her. It is amazing to me how fast she learned to say this. If I want Bella to do something I know I just have act like I am doing it with another child, and Bella immediately wants to do the same thing. She craves attention and is happiest when she has your undivided attention. Yesterday, Abigail was playing with Sophia and it made Bella so mad that she ran over and started pulling Sophia’s hair — she was quite angry that Sophia was getting so much attention. Bella can be quite jealous of other kids getting too much attention  — in her opinion any attention given to others is too much. 
On the other hand, Bella is a sweet child. She will babble and babble to me and make the cutest little faces. She will rub my face and seems to be bonding some to me. She likes me to rock her a little but won’t really sit still for long. She is finally going to bed very well for us and sleeps all night long until about 7:30 or so the next morning. She is always very cheery when she wakes up and is ready to run and play. She is a very easy child most of the time  — as long as she is getting some attention. 
Sophia is not very demanding at all. She will sit or lie on the floor and be content for quite a long time. She is finally watching some of what the other kids are doing. At first she never looked at any of us. She didn’t even seem to see us, and our doctor thought she might be blind in one eye. But, now she is looking at things and us a little more. She especially seems to watch Bethany some. At least it seems that she does. She is not very interested in toys or much of anything. We are trying to get her attention in many different ways, but it is not always easy. She saw an OT today for the first time and she said that we need to treat her as an infant as she is very delayed and needs to go back and get some of what she missed. She said we need to start with “tummy time” and then go from there. So we will start putting her on her tummy more and give her lots of bright toys to look at — though she doesn’t like to be on her stomach. The OT also said that she thinks that Sophia has CP on her right side. I have a good friend that went out and bought Sophia and Bella so many new bright and musical toys that Sophia will have plenty to look at. We are hoping to get her to start reaching for toys and wanting to play a little. She does love me to hold her and just sit  — rocking seems to be a little to much for her right now so we mainly just sit together. She has many appointments in the next couple of weeks which hopefully will tell us what caused her to have such a problem using her right side. She is a very sweet child and loves to be held and loved. 
2813b

2813e

2813d

2813c

2813f

2813g
2813n

2813o-2

2813m
Some good friends of our came by this past week to see the girls and their daughter really liked the idea of brushing Sophia’s hair. I’m not sure how much Sophia liked it but she didn’t fight her too much.
2813p

2813q

2813r

2813t

2813v

2813u
Our daughter, Katie, turned 19 this past week. Happy Birthday, Katie  — holding our friend’s daughter. 
2813s
We also had another visit with my granddaughter, Reagan, and as always I took a few pictures. 
2813a
2813h

2813i

2813j

2813k

2813l

Comments

  1. Great to hear how the girls are doing! Bella sounds like she has personality to spare. How nice that the Lord placed her in a large family where she can learn about love and sharing at the same time. So good to hear that Sophia is enjoying being loved and can get some of those baby times that she missed. She sounds like such a sweetheart.

    All the girls are absolutely beautiful!!

  2. Adorable…all of them!! That was a great update! Thank you sharing!!
    Hopefully Bella will realize soon that there is no shortage of love there, plenty to go around, and will never run out!

    Sophia looks so much better to me in these pictures than she did while still in country. She really looks to be flourishing!

    Just beautiful!

  3. Loved reading your update 🙂 All the beautiful new additions for your family!

    I agree that Sophia does look to be doing so much better than before. I hope you will be able to get some answers at her appt on how to best help her and what happened with her left side.

    Bella is quite a little lady-it is funny to read about what she is like. She must've been spoiled a bit by the caretakers! Ben has suprised me with how well he has responded to me and is accepting love and touch so someone must've loved them while they were there.

    Oh, I am so glad our children are all HOME!

  4. They look like they are thriving! Thank you for the update. I especially love the pictures with your other girls interacting with them. Beautiful family Sharon!

    Sue H.

  5. You have such a beautiful family! Congratulations on your new additions! You are an amazing photographer as well!

  6. I can't believe I've missed reading all your new posts! Somehow, I got lost in sleepless-ville and haven't kept up since your newest girls got home. My Jordan came from Varna like Sophia and although he doesn't show any signs of CP, they have SO MANY similar behaviors. The fear of new places, the teeth grinding and strange noises to express anxiety and stress, the lack of interest in toys and people, etc.

    Although the orphanage seemed nice, I really DO NOT think that our little ones got the attention they needed. Jordan seems like he was so very socially and emotionally deprived. He also did not drink when he got home and still only drinks about 4-8oz. a day. It is not quite enough, but it'll do. All his food is soup consistency, so he is getting a few more cups of fluid that way.

    I think having so many older children in your family will really help draw Sophia out of her shell. My kids certainly have helped with Jordan, though it has been really hard to figure out how to engage him. He still learns more slowly than he is capable of, because he is hard to get to engage or attend you. Knowing how long he spent without somebody responding to him really makes it a special pleasure to be with him and see him in a home, in his own yard, in his own clothes, etc.

Leave a Comment

*

Sign up to receive posts from dearlittlegirlofmine in your email

Loading