5 months ago today, a judge said "Da."

Exactly 5 months ago today, Mike and I stood nervously in a Russian courtroom and poured our hearts out to a judge and prosecutor about how much we loved Polina and were prepared to bring her home and make her ours.  Wow... has it really been 5 months?  Seems like just yesterday I was envisioning missing court and being sent to a Russian hospital instead, yet it feels like Lina has always been a part of our family.  I really have to try hard to remember what it was like without her, just like it's difficult remembering what it was like having just one child! :)

We bring Lina places like to Evan's playgroup, over to friends' houses for playdates, and out and about on everyday errands, and no one would know she was not born to our family, aside from her big chocolate brown eyes in contrast to our blue and green eyes.  No one would know she has only been my child for just under 4 months as she has an EXTREMELY strong bond to me as her mama.  No one would know English is her second language, and that she has only been exposed to it for less than 4 months as she understands and follows simple directions, and has a large signing vocabulary.

Yes, we still have our obstacles.... Lina still has a difficult time getting through dinner as she despises vegetables and most meat.  It can take her over 2 hours to get through dinner- and that's eating a pretty small amount.  We have found that she does like ketchup, so that's been our saving grace for the meat department.  For veggies- when I'm desperate I will give her one of those little fruit/veggie squeeze pouches you find in the babyfood aisle.  I need to invest in a juicer or start making smoothies- any advice in this department would be wonderful as I have never made either!  I think she'd do better if she could drink it instead of having to chew- she just gets so lazy with chewing when she isn't motivated to finish.  She will take forkfuls and forkfuls and just hold it in her cheek pocket like a little squirrel, but refuse to chew, hence making dinner a 2+ hour long process.  I am not comfortable letting her up from the table when she still has food in her mouth, and she has literally sat with the same mouthful of food for an hour, chewing once every minute or so.  Painstakingly SLOW.  We've tried enticing with treats afterward, but she will often lose interest and just opt to get down without getting her cookie or ice cream.

Our other big obstacle has been the little Russian souvenirs she came home with from the orphanage that were living in her skin.... the scabies.  Lina herself has been rid of the scabies for a few months now, but apparently she passed some of the lil buggers on to Justin unbeknownst to us.  Long story short- I have been taking Justin to the doctor since June for this unknown rash that wouldn't go away and kept spreading to different places and getting worse- scabies was totally off the radar since this was after we finished treating Lina and myself for them.... The pediatrician's office (multiple staff members) were attributing it to some sort of allergy/eczema and tried several different creams and oral medications.  I finally got sick of this and took him to the dermatologist who quickly diagnosed it as scabies.  And wouldn't you know it- I got them again too.  And to sweeten the pot- both Justin and I are allergic to the cream to treat the scabies.  Justin had a much worse reaction than I did- the poor thing was covered from the neck down in eczema and his hands broke out in blisters- looking like he had chemical burns.  We are still treating his poor hands and feet from the reaction, and the dermatologist gave Justin and I an oral medication to take instead of the cream for our second and hopefully last treatment against the scabies.  Praying this does the trick!!

For our next steps- Lina was recently screened to qualify for special education services through the county schools, and will begin further testing next week.  We're hoping to have her enrolled in the special education preschool class by October.  She will begin preschool 3 mornings a week at a local Christian preschool in September, and we plan to send her to the special education preschool the other two days a week so she can receive the bulk of her therapies there.  Lina is going to need a LOT of speech therapy- that is her biggest weakness right now.  Her fine motor and self help skills are excellent, and gross motor skills aren't too bad either, though she could definitely use some work there also.

We recently had a family photo session through Red Thread Sessions, and to say I had high expectations is an understatement.  I have seen countless *perfect* photos on their site as well as many other photographer sites and wanted that perfect photo of my very own.  Sadly, I didn't find out about the Red Thread Sessions until the hot summer hit Maryland, and we were all absolutely miserable in the scorching heat.  Lina was drenched in sweat, Evan was constantly running in the opposite direction, both Evan and Lina took a spill on the pavement at one point or another and scraped their knees... and it just went downhill from there.  You can find a sample of our photo session on their site HERE.  I'm thankful I got the family photos from church! :)