The last few days I have been reading up on the skills we learned from Parent Child Interaction Therapy, and rereading the blog post of other parents rocking in the same boat. It is like a reawakening.
Today I awoke to LMS baby talking and giggling. Then we presented her with the toy that she earned back. (a green care bear that I won for her from a crane machine the day that we met) She began to hug it and jump and chant "Yayyayayay" In her babiest of baby voices. Then we sent her to get dressed. She came to our door, knocked and said "Mommas? Can you help me button my pants please?" Ok... My instinct " You are 7. You can button your pants." BUT THEN.... I thought, She is being 2--3... She IS 2-3 today.. ok. "Ok Just a minute." That was just the begining. Today for school we did phonics. I even let her hold her bear. We gave it a name, Pat. Then I got a my laptop, I asked Pat the Bear to name each letter and all of its sounds. After that I got out my laptop and Typed the alphabet out of order and had Pat name each letter, Then we worked on a few combined sounds EN, AN, AT, ON, IT in both words and nonsense. Pat the Bear did fairly well. Keep in mind here that LMS, is 7, in first grade and KNOWS THIS STUFF. She just wont show her teacher for deibls that. After that we did a LA lesson in which Pat helped me read The Gingerbread Man, and that was a success. After that we learned about the Trojan war. All the while it was me and Pat the Bear. Was it hard to stay in the minset of teaching Pat and not getting irritated at the baby talk? Yes! Was LMS happy and doing school? YES! Was it kinda fun? YES! Meltdowns? Not quite. I would say WINNING! aaand we had special playtime for 7 minutes. That was fun too. Today gets 9 on the awesome meter.
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Talked to Big1s Therapist today, and let her know that our call last night was good. That we enjoyed talking to her, and she seemed happy albeit a little reserved. I also wanted to ask if Big1 had been studying her culture and learning the language. She only learns a few words here and there but they do get once a week or month stories from their culture. She was happy to hear that we cared about that and that we had (and will look for again) Children's books and language learning materials. I asked if she would call us after she had met with Big1 and happily agreed.
We traded several emails with Big1s caseworker and she stated that they are shooting for a permanency to establish our guardianship of Big1 ASAP and will get back to us when it has been scheduled. She wants us to attend, but I am not sure how we can go about that yet. We would have to rent a car, and we would need someone to come along I think. We shall see. This is also exciting/crazy/ terrifying/awesome/unbelievable/infreakinsane! Of course there is still the matter that the judge has to rule in the caseworker's favor, and we are not native, and we are not a typical home. Of course the caseworker assures me that Big1 needs permanence, she needs stability, she needs love, and due to what she has seen of Big1's scrapbook, heard from Big1 about us, and heard from us, she is certain that we ARE the BEST and ONLY option, so to have faith. So I shall, but it's hard. I suppose nothing truly good is ever easy.
Though this has always been your blog, welcome!
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