Flor: the latest

Two posts in a day, lucky you guys (just kidding...)

So today Flor did something awesome and it reminded me that I have been meaning to update about her and haven't gotten around to it yet.

So the awesome thing?? I was in the kitchen making dinner and as far as I knew, Hallie and her friend were outside and Flor and Jace were downstairs playing. I soon heard the toilet lid lifting up and thought that Hallie  must be using the bathroom. However, she was outside and I didn't see her come in, so I walked to the bathroom to check on the situation, and lo and behold, it was FLOR! She had come up the stairs, walked herself to the bathroom, and went! All by herself. I was so proud! (ahhh, parenting-- you know things are bad when the most exciting part of the day is when your daughter takes herself to pee...wahoo. But yes, it was so exciting!!)

check out this cute little mug. All dressed up and ready for school one morning.

In other news, Flor is loving school (no surprise there). She gets excited every day to go and her teachers are sending back great reports every day. She is working on a lot of gross motor skills it seems like. It is interesting because I remember when I was with Flor when she had just turned one and she had no normal gross motor skills that one-year-olds have, such as sitting up, rolling over, crawling, etc. Now, her teachers are working with her on rolling over...I didn't realize that she still didn't know how do to this. She is missing some serious developmental milestones, but I guess we are going back to pick them up now!

The doctor report: Flor has now seen the long awaited geneticist! That is the biggest news. That appointment went well, despite her screaming every time he touched her. Oh, well. The doctor we saw was very thorough. He took a lot of pictures of her, reviewed her past medical reports, asked me a lot of questions...etc. While we don't have any answers yet, he is skeptical that her diagnosis of fructosemia is correct. He asked if anyone else has questioned this diagnosis and I told him that they have not. Basically, he said that it is so incredibly rare that he hasn't seen a case of it in his career (and he was an older man). He also said that only two labs in the United States have the technology and equipment necessary to diagnose it through blood tests, so it seems unusual that Ecuador has the capability. He also said that her reports didn't indicate any major symptoms before other than an odd odor, but that could mean a whole variety of things. He did say that it is possible that her ethnic group has a higher incidence of this genetic anomaly, so perhaps the diagnosis rate there is higher and the country could have the capabilities. His office is trying to get pre-authorization from our insurance to do a complete DNA sequencing to see if she has it. If they approve, she will have blood drawn and it will be sent to a lab in Boston to be analyzed. Who knows when we will hear what our insurance decides, but i hope they approve it (obviously) because it would be really nice to have answers. The doctor suggested that we keep her on the diet just in case, but can you imagine? All this time withholding sugar from her when it's no big deal? Ha. So we will wait and see.

The doctor did feel that she has something going on, even if the fructosemia is not the correct diagnosis. He did say that she has Microcephaly,  though she has never been diagnosed with that before. Basically, her head is significantly smaller than normal for her age and sex, even given that her height and weight are also smaller. It is not in proportion with the rest of her body. This can be a genetic condition as well and he thinks it could be a defect that happened in the womb.

So yes, we will see...maybe we are one step closer to answers!

We also saw a therapist recently in order to open the door for her to see a PhD psychologist. She needs to have a Psych Eval and an IQ test in order to get on the waiting list for DSPD (Division of Services for People with Disabilities). This has also been quite the process...eesh. The therapist was interesting. She just observed Flor and then asked me some questions. I imagined Flor going to therapy as a bit humorous, after all, we all know that Flor isn't going to answer questions. (side story: Flor just got a new bus driver, and after about a week of driving her to and from school, the driver asked me one day, "so, does she talk??" When I answered that she is non-verbal, she was like, 'Oh, that makes sense...that makes much more sense..." I didn't ask, but I just imagined that she must have been asking Flor questions all week and wondering why in the world she wasn't ever responding. Ha ha.)

Alright. I think that's it for an update on our little Flor! Things have been so good with her the last few months, really, so good. I still look back on our first few months home and wonder how we survived it. Adoption (this kind at least) is tough on all involved. I think we are finally out of the really rough woods and into the light. That's not to say that they are not still hard moments, but they are much fewer and far between. We understand each other now much better and I feel like I am much better at being intuitive to know Flor's needs, like I am with my babies when they are first born. I can sense her needs instead of wondering what in the world is going on in her head, which has been much nicer.

P.S. Don't forget our raffle! I know I already posted about it once today, but twice won't kill anyone, will it? :) Really, we love this family and want to do whatever we can to help them. $5 and you are entered in to win a Kindle Fire! Win, win! Go HERE for details.