I was pulling out some "official paperwork" this evening to take with us to kindergarten screening tomorrow. I ran across and re-read Em's adoption paperwork and court transcripts from Kazakhstan. It was VERY sobering.
Our daughter already knows she's adopted and I'll share these papers with her when she's MUCH older if she asks.
However, I'm going to HAVE to be prepared for that moment. Sometimes the truth hurts. But, due to the difference in culture and her rough start for the first several months of her life, the court paperwork is painful for THIS mother's heart. I almost wish I hadn't looked through it this evening.
I'm giving MY daughter some extra tight hugs this evening when I put her to bed.
We've gained some new followers in the past month or so and I feel it might be helpful to give a little background to explain what's so cool about this post.
The New and Improved Hypes Family
(minus big brother, Ryan)
Our daughter, Emily (or "Sparkles" as she likes to refer to herself occasionally), was born 10 weeks premature in Uralsk, Kazakhstan. I didn't get to formally introduce myself to her as "Mom" until she was 8 months old and we traveled to Kazakhstan to adopt her.
We lived in Kaz for 4 weeks while we bonded with her and went through the official adoption process. In February of 2007, Emily came home with us to Ohio.
In the years since, Emily has grown to be your ordinary 4-year old girl that happens to have a mild case of Spastic Diplegic Cerebral Palsy. As a result, she has high/tight muscle tone in her calves and ankles and also in her hips and waist. She goes to physical therapy twice a week to help with this and we do stretching exercises on a regular basis now. Last year, Em received botox injections in both calves to help weaken the muscles so her other muscles become more developed. Along with those, she also wore AFOs on both legs during the day and a DAFO on her left leg at night. (These are leg braces made of molded plastic that basically fit like a boot.)
Above is a sample of the braces she wore during the day.
Like any kid, Em loved to play outside on the swings and slides at an early age. (Still does!) Now, with that being said, there are a couple of differences between Em playing on a swingset and most other kids playing on a swingset. Em is a tiptoe walker when she's not wearing her braces. Standing on your tiptoes all the time make it very easy to trip and/or get knocked down. With her tight trunk muscles, it was difficult for her to sit at anything close to a 90° angle... which also made it very difficult for her to sit safely in a normal swing. :-(
We kept her in baby swings for as long as we could possibly cram those long legs of hers down through the leg holes. We also hovered around her when she climbed the ladders to the slides because it didn't take much for her to get distracted and lose her balance and fall backwards.
Finally, when she was about 3 1/2, the day came when we felt she was gaining a little more independence and would be ready to start trying to tackle a small playset on her own...
Can you feel the excitement?
It's been a little over a year since that video and she's doing great! We don't have to hover any more unless she's going up a really tall slide or attempting to traverse some sort of obstacle course that some of the doohickeys have on them. Em is no longer getting botox injections this year, she doesn't have to wear AFO braces during the day but still wears DAFO braces on both legs at night. She loves running and playing and sliding AND SWINGING.
And now, something related but, slightly off topic:
Why is that swinging part so important? That part is so important because of the next video I want to share with you. Do you remember the freedom you felt as a kid flying through the air on a swing? Do you remember how fast and how high you could go? Do you remember your hair blowing back and forth in the breeze and your stomach leaping a bit when you'd reach the really high part? Yeah? Ok, now, imagine you're confined to a wheelchair with cerebral palsy or for any other number of reasons. What are the changes that you're ever going to get to sit in a swing and experience that thrill?
Look what I ran across today. Wouldn't it be awesome if every town in America had one of these?
Today is yet another important day to remember in the life of Miss Emily. On January 29, 2007, (which also happens to be Ryan's birthday!) a baby girl named Nadezhda, lovingly called Nadya by her caregivers, became an official member of the Hypes Family!
Today (and this weekend) we celebrate our 3rd year of having Emily as part of our family. We LOVE you, Em!
As I write this journal entry, I'm enjoying Ohio noon-time temperatures of 12°F which are very similar to our daily temps in Kazakhstan 3 years ago. Oh, how I wish I could return to Uralsk for a few days for some of the things I miss:
Visit with our drivers, coordinators and translators.
The smell of lunches being cooked in the babyhouse while we visited.
Eat pizza at MacJohn's.
Shop for yummy bread in the grocery story where I can't understand anyone.
Brush my teeth with bottled water.
Walk up the smelly stairway to our apartment.
Pay $500 for excessive internet use so we don't miss our shows at home. (That was an accident!)
Watch packs stray dogs and cats walk around the city like they own the place.
Ride in a car through car-sized potholes and drive within inches of the cars beside us.
Shop in the outdoor markets.
Lose another 12 lbs. due to jet lag and strange foods.
Drinking the freshest tasting fruit nectar/juices and eating really tasty carrots and cheese.
The exhilarating feeling of discovering peanut butter my last day there.
Watching people.
Walking through the Russian Orthodox churches and cemetaries.
Learning about cultures and customs of our daughter's homeland.
Feeling my heart break as I watched children begging in the streets and (for our safety) I was supposed to simply ignore them.
In the most beautiful, sentimental way, this morning's fresh layer of powdery snow, ankle deep muddy slush in the parking lots, 19° temps, brisk winds and gray skies for days on end remind me of Kazakhstan, where we lived for approximately 4 weeks almost 3 years ago. We bonded with a previous little baby that to this day teaches us to laugh, show compassion to others, cry when we're hurting and dance on our tippy-toes when we're excited. Who knew that such cold, dreary days could consistently elicit such happy memories and warm feelings. I love these kinds of days and I'm homesick for my daughter's homeland.
