Week One Recap

First I must say thanks to all the wonderful people who have showered us in love, phone calls, emails, gifts and especially meals. We are so thankful for the large family that we belong to...some through blood and some through friendship. Our transition home has been very smooth and that is due to many prayers and all the help we have received. I need to give some special recognition to my mother...we honestly do not know what we would have done without her this past week, I am so blessed!

So a recap of week 1:

Our pediatrician was amazed at the social skills of our little Faith. She is actually on the growth chart, 3%, but she made it on the chart. She has the development of about an 8 month old, but at this time we are waiting to start any type of therapy. Our doctor is very sure that within a few month she will begin to catch up.

We really struggled at first to get her to eat any food. In the orphange she was eating what would be considered stage 2 foods all from a spoon. She is now eating chunky purées from a spoon and has started eating some simple finger foods like bananas. It is funny to watch her try to eat more solid foods. She doesn't gum them like most babies, she tries to chew them up with her two front bottom teeth.

She is a great sleeper and takes a nap each day and sleeps about 12 hours straight at night. This is with jetlag, horribly swollen gums from teething, a cold, and a crazy week of doctor's appointments. We have had a few episodes of screaming but overall she has a great temperament. All in all things are going much better then we could have ever imagined.

After 7 tubes of blood and a whole bag full of stool samples, all the lab work has come back with great results. Her ppd tested positive and we had to take her for a chest xray to make sure there was no active TB in her lungs. The xray looked great. Praise God with us for the wonderful lab results!!!

On Wednesday we had our appointment with the Pediatric Neurosurgeon, Dr. Myseros. If you are ever in need of a pediatric neurosurgeon go directly to this guy...he is amazing! Even more, his nurse worked in international adoption medicine for 10 years. Dr. Myseros strongly believes that the lump on her head is a dermoid cyst. He came in the room grabed the bump on her head and moved it all around and then said, "Dermoid cyst, that's easy". A dermoid cyst is basically a benign tumor of skin cells, all superficial and the surgery to remove it only lasts about 30 -45 minutes. We will have a MRI next week to determine for sure the diagnosis and to assess if it is a dermoid that it had not attached to anything significant through her fontanelle (baby's soft spot). Again join us with a huge shout out to God for this great news!!!

While both of the boys love her, Tyler is having some difficulty. We are not sure if it is because of his new birth order position, spending two weeks away from mommy or all the spoiling of adoring grandparents while we were out of town...probably a combination of all three. Still when the princess cries all three of her adoring men come running to see what is the matter. Thankfully all of Tyler's frustration is directed towards mommy and not the baby.






This week was Tyler's 4th birthday. He wanted to celebrate by going to the swimming pool and Faith got to put her toes in a swimming pool for the first time. Unfortunately it was a cool day and the water was freezing so the time in the water did not last long. She screamed when she touched the water. No worries, though, there will be many more hours spent at the pool this summer. However now that she has been in the water I think we can officially count her as part of Team Judkins... water love is a requirement for this clan. I just loved seeing her in a bathing suit. Definitly the cutest baby at the pool! If all goes well over the next month we hope to spend some time in August at the beach. We are all dying to get our toes in the sand. I am just so thankful that we can even consider it a possibility for this summer. Truly amazing.

Without her "coconut" (as Kody refers to it) she would not be our child. The families we traveled with adopting children without special needs had their paperwork accepted in July 08, ours was accepted in February 09. We are so thankful that God brought her to our family. She is definitly one very special little girl and we already cannot imagine our lives without knowing her.



We are excited for each of you to meet her in person. We are slowly having visitors and would love for you to come by...just give us a call. And if she offers you her hand, then you are in the club. Give the back of it a kiss and count yourself loved by a beautiful little girl named Faith Shetu.