It still feels so surreal that Ramya is officially home and ours, FOREVER! It is so crazy to think that it was barely over a month ago that I walked in to that orphanage and carried her out; what a great feeling that was!
Life is chugging along and things are going well. I had prepared for the worst while praying for the best, and I feel like things are going much better than I had planned. I'm not trying to say things have been easy, because I don't think adding a 3rd child to your family is ever an "easy" thing, but I am thankful that things are better than expected.
Ramya has come so far in this past month. Her English is getting better, she is coming to me when she needs something, she can play for a little while with Conner and Madi happily, she is learning to do things like cry (she used to just kind of quietly sob if something happened but now she cries and wants comfort from me), and she is enjoying snuggles and kisses.
I thought I'd share what a good day looks like and what a hard day looks like for us. I'll start with the hard so I can end on a good note ;).
A hard day means that Ramya has a hard time with transitioning, hearing and accepting "no", following directions, and things like that. She gets in her "funk", I get the look from her, and she just won't listen or come out of it. Redirection doesn't work, attempting to talk through it (in a basic, simplified way) doesn't work, and it just downward spirals into needing a time-in. Time-ins on a hard day are rough with her trying to hit me, taking off her clothes and throwing them at me, yelling, and all that fun stuff. This can happen once or it can happen multiple times in a day. Thankfully this doesn't happen often and the good times far far outweigh the hard ones! Her "moments" are also slowly tapering off, and for that, I am grateful! I pray often for God to give me patience and grace for all of my children, as I know I need those things myself quite often :).
A good day for us means that the kids get along pretty well. Our day flows nicely, I get something accomplished, redirection works, and our days feel "normal". If we do have a time-in, it's short lived and she follows our time-in rules. On a good day, we don't have any place we have to be. It's always nice when we can spend time in the house and don't have an appointment or somewhere to go. We just kind of hunker down and enjoy playing and being together as a family. These days are wonderful!
Conner is so happy to have Ramya home and often tells me how cute and funny she is and how he is so happy she's home. He often talks about how much he loves her. He will tell me it's more work having two sisters, but he also talks about how much he enjoys it. Madi loves Ramya, though they are true sisters. One minute they are playing nicely, the next minute someone has the other person's doll, but all-in-all, you can tell how much they love each other. They take care of each other, want to feed each other, want to help wash each other's hair during bath time, and things like that. It is very sweet to watch!
I know our journey has just begun and our road to attachment will be a long one, but it already feels like she has been in our family from the start. We all love her very much!
Life is chugging along and things are going well. I had prepared for the worst while praying for the best, and I feel like things are going much better than I had planned. I'm not trying to say things have been easy, because I don't think adding a 3rd child to your family is ever an "easy" thing, but I am thankful that things are better than expected.
Ramya has come so far in this past month. Her English is getting better, she is coming to me when she needs something, she can play for a little while with Conner and Madi happily, she is learning to do things like cry (she used to just kind of quietly sob if something happened but now she cries and wants comfort from me), and she is enjoying snuggles and kisses.
I thought I'd share what a good day looks like and what a hard day looks like for us. I'll start with the hard so I can end on a good note ;).
A hard day means that Ramya has a hard time with transitioning, hearing and accepting "no", following directions, and things like that. She gets in her "funk", I get the look from her, and she just won't listen or come out of it. Redirection doesn't work, attempting to talk through it (in a basic, simplified way) doesn't work, and it just downward spirals into needing a time-in. Time-ins on a hard day are rough with her trying to hit me, taking off her clothes and throwing them at me, yelling, and all that fun stuff. This can happen once or it can happen multiple times in a day. Thankfully this doesn't happen often and the good times far far outweigh the hard ones! Her "moments" are also slowly tapering off, and for that, I am grateful! I pray often for God to give me patience and grace for all of my children, as I know I need those things myself quite often :).
A good day for us means that the kids get along pretty well. Our day flows nicely, I get something accomplished, redirection works, and our days feel "normal". If we do have a time-in, it's short lived and she follows our time-in rules. On a good day, we don't have any place we have to be. It's always nice when we can spend time in the house and don't have an appointment or somewhere to go. We just kind of hunker down and enjoy playing and being together as a family. These days are wonderful!
Conner is so happy to have Ramya home and often tells me how cute and funny she is and how he is so happy she's home. He often talks about how much he loves her. He will tell me it's more work having two sisters, but he also talks about how much he enjoys it. Madi loves Ramya, though they are true sisters. One minute they are playing nicely, the next minute someone has the other person's doll, but all-in-all, you can tell how much they love each other. They take care of each other, want to feed each other, want to help wash each other's hair during bath time, and things like that. It is very sweet to watch!
I know our journey has just begun and our road to attachment will be a long one, but it already feels like she has been in our family from the start. We all love her very much!
On a wagon ride
At the Deer Valley Airport Restaurant
Asleep in momma's arms.... the first night she wanted to be rocked to sleep (she likes rocking, but normally likes to lay next to me to fall asleep and often likes to hold my hand)
So so so sweet! I think about you guys often. I'm glad that she's settling in and I hope the hard days become fewer and far between.
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