Christmas is Almost Here!

We are SO excited for Christmas around here.  The first reason, of course, is that we have Jacinda home.  Over the summer, we were preparing ourselves for the possibility that we might not have her home by Christmas.  All the paperwork was just so uncertain at that point.

 

There is a lot that we don't know about Jacinda's first 2 years.  We have no idea if she ever received presents.  So we're a little excited to see her when she opens her presents.

 

Back in December of 2008, before we had Jacinda's referral, I had this conversation on Facebook:

 

12/6/08:  Me – Sherry Barber Wolfe is SO happy Immigration approved us so quickly after getting the new document!!!!!!

12/6/08:  Janna (my sister-in-law) – Way cool Dude! Maybe I'll have another new niece by next Christmas!

12/6/08:  Me – Janna, it will probably be longer than that, unfortunately. But crazier things have happened!

 

I think I need to listen to Janna a little more.  She must have known something we didn't!!!

 

The other major reason we're excited for Christmas is that this is the first year Luke really understands all the hype.  He knows that Christmas is when God sent us baby Jesus.  He knows that we get to open presentqs.  We took him to a store and let him pick out presents for each of us and he's helping us wrap them.  So he also understands the giving part of Christmas.  We let him choose some of his old toys to give away to kids that are in need of gifts this Christmas.  He also helped us put together shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child.  It's really been a lot of fun for us to see him learning about all of this.

 

This is also the year that Aaron and I have been discussing what we want to teach the kids about Christmas and what traditions we want to start and continue in our house.  We really want our kids to know that Christmas is not all about opening presents.  Yes, that's a really fun part of it, but it isn't the most important part.  We want to give them things they want, but we already have so much stuff.  We also want to instill in them a desire to help other people who don't have as much as we do.  And not just at Christmas, but all year long.

 

We'll definitely post lots of pictures of the big day, so stay tuned!

A Little Update

While I have a semi-quiet minute, I thought I'd type out a little update about what we're up to around here. Both kids are eating a snack and playing together and dinner is simmering on the stove - Navy Bean Soup.

The kids and I are settling into a routine during the weekdays. We usually run an errand or two in the morning and then try to go to the park if it isn't raining. Even if it's cold, we bundle up and go! The kids love running around and it's good for all of us to get some fresh air. Then we usually come home and have lunch and the kids take naps!!!!!

The kids still have their moments, but they are slowly playing together better. So that's good news! Jacinda continues to leave a path of destruction wherever she goes. She gets into things that we forgot we had! She undoes everything I do. Or, she makes a bigger mess somewhere else while I'm getting something done!!!! Needless to say, our house is not clean and tidy all the time! We have been having both kids help clean up all the toys every night before bed. So at least the floor is toy-free at some point during the day!!!!

We should be starting her speech therapy soon. She qualified for once a week therapy. Because of the holidays, we don't have a starting date yet, but that should be coming soon.

Update on Jacinda's Surgery Plans

We met last week with the Craniofacial team at our children's hospital. We are so fortunate that we have the Operation Smile doctors here locally. The consult went really well. Jacinda was very cooperative with everyone.

The orthodontist we saw said that her teeth looked great so far. Right now, we just need to do what we'd normally do with a 2 year old, which is brush her teeth. He said we'd need to start orthodontic work probably when she's 5 or 6.

The plastic surgeon was very informative. He said that during her surgery, he would do 3 things. The most important thing he will do is close her palate. Then, he will touch up her lip just a little. He was pretty impressed with her lip repair, though. The third thing he will do is try to even out her nose a little bit. He said that that is the hardest part and that her nose will probably be a bit uneven forever. We don't really care, because that's something you don't even notice unless you're looking really closely.

He also said that we need to meet with the ENT surgeon at some point soon. If she needs tubes in her ears, they will do that during the surgery as well. As far as we know, she doesn't have issues with ear infections, but it's pretty common with cleft kids to have ear fluid issues.

We also met with the team's Speech Pathologist. She doesn't deal with speech really, mainly just with feeding issues. She was very impressed that Jacinda is using sippy cups and not a bottle. She will work with us while we're in the hospital to teach Jacinda how to eat with a repaired palate. She also said that if we need any help getting Jacinda's speech therapy services taken care of, she will help us.

Surgery is scheduled for Wednesday, February 3rd. Jacinda will only need to stay in the hospital for 1 night, assuming everything goes well. She will need to be on a liquid/soft food diet for at least a week. She's going to LOVE that part! The good news is that our surgeon does NOT use arm restraints for kids Jacinda's age. It's fairly common for kids to have their arms in splints after surgery so they don't mess with their surgery sites. We were really worried about that and were happy to hear that we won't have to deal with it.

We just had Jacinda's evaluation for Speech Therapy services today (Tuesday). She is developmentally on track in all areas, except speech. In fact, she is ahead developmentally in a few areas, like fine motor skills. She does have delays in expressive and receptive speech. Pretty soon, she will start speech therapy once a week.