Our current state

A keeping it real Sunday event.

Overall things are going really well.  Amazingly well when you consider it all.  Overall we are beginning to mesh as a family of five.

This picture was taken less than 24 hours after these two sisters met.  Their smiles at each other just warm my heart!

 

And this one taken almost exactly 24 hours after they met.  Don't they look like they got busted scheming something?

**Both those pictures are from two weeks ago ~ I'm just can't be bothered right now to go find my camera, the cord, and upload photos from the past two days.  Maybe tomorrow...**

But it isn't all perfect just yet.

There is the issue that Darcy prefers to do for herself.  Try to help her wipe her nose with a tissue and she glares and uses her shirt sleeve instead.  Ugh, Mt. laundry is beginning to pile up already.  Offer to help her put her clothes on or take them off and she swats in annoyance.  And feeding her?  Forgetaboutit...
Yes, it is great that she can do so much on her own.  But she also needs to learn that it is okay for mommy and daddy to do some for her ~ or at least help.

There is the issue that she is acting like a loner.  She'll play along with the rest of us for a few minutes, but then she just disappears and will go play on her own if we don't continually try to draw her in.  We need to pursue her, but sometimes when I'm so tired it would just be easier to let her play alone. 

And then there is the issue of sleep.  For the most part during the day she is doing well, but night is a totally different story.  She has been losing it around bed time.  By losing it I mean totally losing it.  The snubbing, grieving cry that is more heartbreaking than sometimes it feels like I can bear.  So Ian and I have done what we feel is best for her for now and she's sleeping with us.  And it's helping.  In the wee hours of the morning as she wakes up on and off I feel her grab my face between her little hands, as if to make sure that I'm there and not going anywhere.  Then as she dozes back off to sleep her little hands slip off, but she manages to keep at least a foot touching me at all times.  I'm a light sleeper, so I haven't slept well for a few nights.  I'm willing to make that sacrifice, but I sure would love it if she could sleep through a night...

Darcy sleeping in our bed also means that my sweet big girl who has looked forward to having someone in her room all night (Ky has sleep issues of her own, always has, we wonder if she always will...) is having to be really understanding.  And I just can't explain how much it pains me to watch that bottom lip quiver as she tries to be a big girl and say that she understands Darcy is scared and that someday she'll sleep in their room with her.  If we had something larger than a queen...

And there's also the unknown.  Some of our questions will be answered tomorrow.  Throughout our wait for Darcy we knew there was a real possibility that she may have glaucoma as part of her special need.  Two weeks before we left that was confirmed as the doctors who did her final medical before adoption picked up on it.  So we prayed for her eye and then set up an appointment with a pediatric opthomologist for as soon as we could after we got home.  They wanted pressure numbers and sounded in disbelief that she would be diagnosed without having measurements taken.  When we met Darcy it was obvious to us ~ even as non medically trained folks ~ that something was wrong with her right eye.  So tomorrow we go for our first appointment with her eye doctor (other appointments with other specialists will wait until language becomes less of an issue) in the morning.  Will you agree with me in prayer that the visit is not overly frightening to her, that we are able to get some questions answered about how the pressure has already affected her vision, and that we can get started with treatment to prevent further damage ASAP?