Day 9 - Chen Family Temple

Today we toured the Chen Family Temple. It was very pretty. Their old architecture is amazing. The hand carved wood is wonderful! The museum area had great samples of area art and pieces from old homes like traditional, solid wood beds. Words just don't do any of it justice! We also had a group lunch at a traditional Chinese restaurant where they put all the food on a turntable in the middle of the table. Great food! Discovered Addie REALLY likes fried dumplings! Another item we need to learn how to make. Have to add that to steamed meat rolls. After we got back to the hotel, we finally got to use the pool for about 5 minutes before it started raining AGAIN! Everyone swam for awhile anyway because we just can't escape the rain. I think they're calling for rain everyday. Slowly figuring out how to maneuver the stoller and an umbrella at the same time.
Addie's getting so much more comfortable with us. A little more every day. She's playing w/ her babies right now and is actually talking to them in Chinese. So great to hear her voice even though I can't understand it! We think she's feeding all of them right now! She was bopping them all with the balloon earlier. She's still shy in groups. Completely clams up. But that's okay!
We spent some time w/ Veronica again this afternoon. She read the surgery discharge sheet that the orphanage gave us, and she gave us much more detail eventhough we STILL don't know what ACC neck surgery is. She's going to research and see what she can find out. The discharge sheet said they tested ranges of motion for Addie's neck and hands and they were all normal. Blood work was normal. The problem was her feet - specifically the ankle area. This made sense to us after talking to Veronica last night and looking at her memory book.
Back to my progress report (excerpts anyway as it's 3 pages in Word) I started in the previous blog:
After returning from the hospital due to the fever in May06, a specialist came from Guangzhou to provide a rehabilitation plan for her. By Jan. 2007, she could move independently, crawl to get toys, and smile on her own. In June 07 (23 mn), she could walk and get back up quickly if she fell down. She liked to dress in new clothes and didn't like to change out of them.
2 years - July - at the orphanage, they make them change out of their new shoes and in to old ones when going outside. She wouldn't want to change and would want the nannies to carry her so she wouldn't have to change. In Sept. 07, she was moved to the Little Sister program with Half the Sky. She was the youngest in the program. Eventhough her motor skills weren't as developed, she was very curious. She liked to play with other kids and would share her fruit with her nanny. But, her roommate told the nanny that she only shared the fruit she didn't like. In Dec. 07 (29 months), she was potty trained and still not speaking alot. In June 2008, the nannies started work on her speech by playing games.
Nov 08 - would start to talk to other kids but in a low voice and would scream when playing. Once when playing at the play ground, she wanted to ride on the teeter totter, but it was full. She pulled off the other child and took over the seat and held on tight and didn't want to get off. In Mar09, she helped someone when their potty chair fell over. Went and got the teacher, and tried to sit up the child on her own. In June 2009, her speech became much better and more brave. She started taking pictures with more pose and expression. She could speak in sentances. She spanked another child when she was laying on the floor crying. She told the teacher "she still crying. She won't come up." July 2009 (4 years) - Language has made big progress. Can understand everything but doesn't want to express. She was told that she was matched with a family in June 2009. In Nov, she would start to say "hi" to everyone and was more polite. She's said to not be as naughty as before, but they stated that she would hide other kids' toys and get in trouble. Her hand movements are still difficult and detail still not very good. Writing is difficult. When the teacher became impatient, Addie became impatient and threw her pen away. In March 2010, they started showing her our pictures. In April, she could count to 5, could stay sentances like "teacher I want to do that", and communicating with the other kids more. Talking alot more than before.
So, we can definitely see documented progress over the years. We could tell even before getting this info that we probably need therapy for fine motor skills and maybe with her feet. May also need speach therapy, but that's a bit difficult to judge right now since she doesn't understand English. We're able to communicate to her and express our desires so that is a plus. I think she's a little sponge right now just observing everything. This is our goal this next year - English, and working to identify w/ the doctors what we need to address. We're saving the big step to kindergarten for next year.