What a Difference a Year Makes!!

The first time we met Laurel

Our first day visiting her at the orphanage

"GOTCHA DAY" One year later: We celebrated with McDonald's

which is what helped us make it through the 6 weeks away from home.

Miss Priss at the Zoo for our Gotcha Day Celebration

The Big Brother- He's a working man now

Just look at them changing out those brakes!!

Never in the midst of all insaneness of last year would I have believed we would be doing a "ONE YEAR LATER" post but.... here we are. Sunday officially marked "Gotcha Day" for our family. Laurel and Mike walked out of the orphanage and she walked into a family. She has grown 10 inches and gained 11 1/2 lbs. in just one year!! I can't believe it. She and Noah wear the same size clothes!! So much has happened in that year. She really isn't even the same child. She is confident, loves to laugh, has a strong spirit and is ready to please. Did I put stubborn as a mule sometimes in that list also? :) Laurel is a true joy. I love to watch her soak up new experiences. Noah is the best big brother EVER!! They are really learning the art of communication with a hearing impaired sibling and I am so proud of him. He had to endure a lot of changes in a very short amount of time and he has been a champ.

Laurel Update: Laurel turns 3 on October 12th. SHe will transition from her Early Intervention therapies to therapies through the School System. I will admit I was very hesitant and unsure of what to expect with the school system. We have had 3 meetings with her IEP team and have had a wonderful experience! They truly get her and the issues that we want to address. I praise God for putting this wonderful team of professionals together. About 3 weeks ago Laurel had a full speech/language evaluation and a Cognitive and Developmental evaluation done by the school system to see what services she would be eligible for. Our IEP meeting was yesterday and PRAISE THE LORD from their findings her only delays are speech and language. In fact their exact words were "The sky's the limit for this little girl". She will be receiving Speech/Language Therapy once a week in home and Speech therapy twice a week at a local school. We will also continue our once a week parent session at another organization for Language therapy. So..... back to 4 therapies a week but it seems to be paying off! She won't be going to a preschool yet. We visited the one she is eligible for and it is phenominal but about 45 min. away. Her therapists and all of the team agreed that "she's in the best preschool right now..... HOME!" That was pretty awesome to hear!

Update on Noah: Poor little Noah is having some major teeth issues. He is following in his mother's footsteps of chalky, weak enameled teeth..... compounded by the fact that he LOVES sweets!! Anyway, he's already had one crown (or a gold tooth as he calls it) and will have to have another. Then he'll have about 6 more cavities filled! All this after brushing twice a day. We've now added flossing and a flouride to help prevent this from happening again. He's a trooper I'll tell you. He got a filling and a "gold tooth" all in one sitting. When we left he kept looking at it in the mirror and said... "Mommy, I want a lot of gold teeth!" I replied, well I don't b/c they are about $350 a piece!!

Noah is doing really well with learning his letters. He has become interested in what letters are and what they mean so we are going with it. He has also mastered drawing all sorts of shapes lately. Smart litle boy.

So that's about all in our camp. Busy Busy as usual but still taking time to Praise our Wonderful God who has made all of it possible....... In the words of one of my favorite songs....

"How Great is our God..... Sing with me.... How Great, is our God..... and all will see

How Great, How Great, is our God!