Coppelia has been home and with us for 8 months. We actually had her Early Interventions update meeting yesterday with her case worker and it is amazing how far she has come. I often get overwhelmed when I think about how far behind she is with speech, but then I remember where she was when she came home and how much progress she has made. She tested out and met all her physical therapy goals within 6 months and now that she is physically caught up her speech is beginning to grow. She still has a long way to go, but steps are being made day in and day out.
Not only is she catching up and growing physically but also emotionally. As we went to the Children’s museum with all the kids the other day my mom and I were reflecting on our time in Seoul and her grief and despair at custody and for the first number of weeks. We saw very few smiles from her, and yet now she is full of life and smiles and giggles. She still has her shrieking episodes but those are much more behavioral and less emotional (she is 2 after all and has VERY STRONG opinions).
We do still call her our little dinosaur and she still growls, but it is no longer out of anger but often when she gets real excited she starts growling which just makes all of us laugh. She also has quite the mischievous side and between her and Paxton we are kept on our toes.
She does love her brothers and doesn’t mind playing with trucks, in fact when I turned around at the museum the other day after we finished lunch and were playing outside I found her playing with the dump trucks. That being said, she is all girl, she loves shoes and boots, and sparkly things, and has started telling us after we get her dressed in the morning “pretty”.
It’s been and adventure and we are only still just beginning to know her and I am so thankful that I get to be her mommy and that she is my little girl.
Hiking Mommy 