Believing.....

Meeting Yana in Jan. 2010: (please ignore ME!)


I want to share something with you. The following are sentences from Yanas referral papers before we had ever met her...

"Mild dilatation of the lateral ventricles", "follow up transfontanel echolgraphy was carried out: hydrocephalus interna, cystic formation in the right hemisphere, several smaller in the left, dilated brain ventricals", "The child is often ill with catarrh of upper respiratory tract, bronchitis, frequenstly passing with obstructive syndrome.", "Chronic carrying of Moraxella catarrhalis is established, which as been treated with out specific success".

And most specifically: "It concerns a child who is with severe lagging behind in her physical and neurophysical development. She can sit and stand with support,she crawls, does not walk does not speak, does not understand, can not eat independently. She eats only with a bottle while lying down. There is no progress in the motor development for the period of last evaluation, irrespective of the physical exercises applied to the child" "Age level of development - 7 months. Motor skills, - 10 months. Manipulative activity - 8 months. Emotional and social - 4 months. Speech-7 months."

"There are no changes in comparison to the preceding age period."

But the line that stole my heart, that made me know that this child was mine is that in spite of all these delays and supposed inability to learn "She frequently take off her shoes and socks, and those of the other children as well." It made me laugh, I still don't know why. She still has a shoe and sock fetish. :D

Yana today:


6 months home and GREAT PROGRESS has been made in all spheres of development! And she DOES understand! And she IS learning! And her motor skills ARE improving! And I still don't know what all that medical talk about her brain actually means... But I do know that her little brain is working so hard to catch up, and there is a whole little person in there that is just starting to emerge!

There are things Yana does that crack me up, amaze me, and let me see a glimpse of her personality that continues to shine more each day. Things like:

1. If you make her mad, she turns completely around and won't look at you.

2. If you give her a new sippy cup and she starts to drink it upside down, she takes it out, looks at it a second and turns it the right way.

3. She LOVES to crawl up onto our dog Kizzy and snuggle and lounge all over her.

4. She twirls everything she can. She got 2 "twirlies" from my mom and Xmas and twirls them constantly!

5. She has an obsession with licking straps (like on a backpack).

6. She spits when she is bored, mad, hungry or tired.

7. She loves to have me say "mama kisses!" and then offers her cheeks up to be kissed.

8. She pats me when I sing to her sometimes.

9. She loves to take a box or container and just push it around on the floor in circles.

10. She loves bathtime now. She dunks herself under water and then laughs. She likes to lay down and "swim" and hog the bathtub when Tavi is vieing for room... drives Tavi nuts. :)

Obviously there is much more... but these are the things that I know the orphanage didn't get to see much of or any of. And it definitely isn't represented in the referral.