Her WeGO Talker

Our Molly really is amazing.  Though she is missing her radial bones, can't rotate her wrists, use most of her fingers, and has no thumbs, this girl can do anything using her hands that any other four year old can.  She has beautiful handwriting, can cut out any shape with regular scissors, can dress herself, eat, get her own water...and the list could go on and on.  Truly, she amazes those around her daily as she is one determined little peanut.

Despite being gifted with most all motor tasks and being cognitively on target for her age , she really struggles with articulation of her speech.  It is still very, very hard to understand her.  Officially, she has an apraxia diagnosis because her difficulty seems to be related to motor functioning in her mouth and not her hearing.  Recently, we were able to get her a talker like her sister Jillian, who is almost completely nonverbal, has, and boy has it been a game changer!  She is very, very bright our Molly, and using this thing to build sentences of all kind is a breeze.  Finally, she is understood, and it is huge for her!  She uses her talker all day long, and especially loves to chatter away at dinner.  We are absolutely grateful that she has access to this technology, and that she is making such huge strides with it!

What a precious gift this girl is to our family!

The End of Preschool

This little lady has grown so much this year.  We are so grateful for her incredible teacher, and all she has learned at school as a three year old.  She is writing her name, knows all of her uppercase letters, most of her lowercase letters, some sounds, and about thirty sightwords.  She is doing great, and her teachers were amazing!  They put together a little program to celebrate the end of the school year, and our Molly performed for everyone.

Perler Beads with Miraculous Molly

The sweetest thing about our beautiful baby girl, Molly, is that she has absolutely no idea that she is different from anyone else.  To all others, they recognize it as soon as they see her.  She was born without radial bones in her arms so they are much shorter than typical arms.  Her hands are missing functioning thumbs, and they aren't positioned like most as they are turned and without wrist motion.  She also has severe hearing loss as without her hearing aids she can only hear sounds like the vacuum and sirens.  In fact without her aids, they tell me that she can't hear any speech at all. That means that she is always sporting that hot pink and purple hardware whenever she is awake.  She has never pointed out her hearing aids, made mention of her hands, or fret one bit about doing things differently than every other peer around her.  She is just so happy, so secure, and with everything in me I wish I could just freeze time and keep it that way.  She is absolutely perfect if you ask me, and I tell her that she can do anything that everybody else can every chance I get.  I pray that she continues to keep that truth in her heart as she grows up in a world that doesn't always celebrate differences.  Today, her big sis was working on a Perler bead project.  Perler beads are challenging for me as they are so tiny that it isn't always easy to maneuver them on the form.  It didn't stop my miraculous Molly one bit.  She sat down and went to work on a heart form.  She didn't just fill it once either.  She made three different heart forms.  I am in awe of this girl of mine.  She is amazing!

Molly Writes and Spells Her Name

This amazing girl of mine has been handed her fair share of challenges.  She has only been in our family for 18 months, has no thumbs, is missing radial bones in both of her arms, and has severe hearing loss.  The first time she began to hear sounds at all, with the help of her aids, was not even 12 months ago yet.  She has had many things stacked against her, but she continues to blow us away with how quickly she is learning so much.  She is such a bright, bright girl who has such a strong will to take on this world with all those challenges and conquer it!  I am in awe of her..

 I  made this sensory bag below with hair gel, 

a quart freezer bag, 

some silver duct tape (to seal the seams),

and foam letters that spell her name.

It is small so we can take it with us

to keep us busy squishingly sequencing and spelling 

her name where ever we go.

  

And here she is spelling her name..

For three years old, her cognitive ability is pretty much where it should be!

Though she has only been hearing for 12 months, her receptive language is within average range!

She is amazing!  We are so blessed to call her our daughter!

Mall of America Trip

 Molly Kate had an appointment at Shriner's in the Twin Cities, and it was so fun to make a vacation of it with our entire family.  We hit the MOA the first night as we stayed a few minutes away.  I got a groupon for a diner type restaurant so we got to enjoy chili dogs, burgers, fries, and shakes to kick off our trip.  Anna Mei loves, loves vacations.  She was one happy girl to be on our trip.

 This girl ate like a champ in this crazy, over stimulating environment.  I used our manual chopper to puree a foot long chili dog and she ate it all!  This manual food chopper has greatly improved our quality of life as now Jillian can eat at a restaurant without packing her food from home.

 Notice the toddler harness on this one.  She is CRAZY!  She needed a harness so bad as she just never stops going, but she loved our trip.

 The girls love legos so the lego store was a great stop.  Jilly flings them like she does everything.

The littlest posed by the lego friend.

 We spent the next day at the aquarium at the MOA.  The girls absolutely loved it and we are so grateful for all the perks available to Shriner's patients in this area as the tickets were a great bargain.

 This girl is a lover of water so her aquarium experience was over the top!  She was thrilled with all the sights.

 The touch tanks were enjoyed by everyone.

Just look at this face!  She was truly happy to be here.

 I think Molly would have jumped in.

 The stingray tank was an absolute favorite!

 Jillian spent a good part of the day revisiting the stingray tank.  It was so peaceful in the dark area there watching the movement of these amazing creatures.  She would watch and watch and watch with a smile the whole time.

There were some toddler activities at the mall we enjoyed as not everyone wanted to just take up residence at the stingray tank like Jillian did.  We had a wonderful trip and Molly's appointment was awesome!  She showed herself to be truly amazing with her little hands and no surgery or treatment is recommended right now.  She uses them so well that anything we could do to alter them would put her at a disadvantage so we go back in a year. :)

Visiting Santa

We don't celebrate with Santa at our house, but she got to meet a Santa at the Shriner's patient Christmas party.  She wasn't at all afraid to sit on his lap, but also didn't wait for her presents.  After all, she had no idea what presents were as this is her first Christmas home with us.

Molly stole the hearts of everyone.  She was darling in her red corduroy dress! Like I said, she didn't wait around for Mrs. Claus to pass off her gifts as she had no clue gifts were coming.

After receiving her gifts, we showed her how to tear them open.  When she discovered there were toys inside that were for her, she was all in.

There were three gifts for her to open so she became quite good at it by the end of the party.

She was so good at it at the party that she decided to begin tearing into a few gifts under the tree when we got home.  I heard Anna Mei shouting from downstairs..Momma!  Molly is opening the presents right now!

She was pretty happy with her gifts!

A wagon with blocks was a perfect choice for her at this stage!

Anna Mei accompanied us and she loved the party!  We had a cookie activity, craft, lunch, and juice boxes.  My littlest girls were thrilled with the fun clowns and balloon animals too!  We are grateful for the care we receive at the hospital and this party was so thoughtful too!

Determined and Adorable

This baby girl doesn't let anything stop her!  She can completely dress herself independently.  On a daily basis, I don't even think about her hands being different from ours.

She is adorable and I am completely smitten with this precious new treasure!

Seeing Her and Fear

Two weeks ago now, we attended a Ch*nese New Year event with other families in our area who have adopted treasures from China.  We were hooked into a group like this back home, but since moving here we just hadn't connected with this one until now.  It was a sweet time of fellowship and one this momma so desperately needed during this wait because we weren't there five minutes when she walked in.   She was about nine years old and, as she approached the craft table where Anna Mei and I were crafting, I noticed her immediately.  Standing there, right next to me, was a precious girl whose hands matched those of my Molly Kate who is waiting in China. Here, right before me, was a precious, young girl with radial club hands.   Instantly, I started to tear up and I tried with all my might not stare at her because I just wanted to drink in her beauty.  She stood at the table next to us and cut out her craft like an expert while talking to her older sister the entire time about the beautiful dresses everyone was wearing. I did my best to make small talk with her and act normally because seeing her literally took my breath away.  It was as if God was giving me a precious glimpse into the future.  This young woman could manipulate those beautiful hands of hers to perform just about every task that anyone else could and watching it made my heart soar!  Sadly though, it was about time to find a table and sit down for dinner.  The room was large with tables in the middle.  There were nearly fifty tables and no assigned seats.  Daddy had already taken Jillian and settled into a table at the edge so she would be comfortable.  Anna Mei and I completed our craft near our new friend and were headed to sit down.  As we parted, I was praising God for that small glimpse of her and assumed that we would be parting ways as there was a large crowd with lots of seating options.  I settled in, whispering to Sean about all that I had seen this young woman do, and then I went to fill plates for the girls.  Imagine my surprise when I returned to our table and found her sitting down right across from us.  God is so good!  I talked with her more, watched her write, color, use chopsticks, and I felt God's presence so strongly whispering..trust me in this!  Eventually, her father asked if our newest waiting treasure was a special needs referral.  We answered yes.  Then, the moment I had been waiting for...he opened the door by asking what her special need was.  Well, actually, I answered, she has radial club hands!  We visited some more and he told me that radial club hands didn't stop N from accomplishing much.  In fact, it rarely slowed her down.  They had adopted her nearly seven years ago when she was two and look at her now!    I left so filled!  I needed that little moment because, as is common during these months of waiting, I have been battling some fear.  I have been letting the what ifs invade my truths and haven't been clinging to Him near enough.   There are many, many unknowns in this journey.  There are many unknowns as we walk this road and just about every road the Lord will lead us down, but what I do know is the Lord has us here so whatever the outcome..WE ARE IN HIS WILL.  He is good.  He loves us.  He has a plan to use this to bring Glory to Him.  I don't know what that will look like or how this will all be, but I trust that I am right where He wants me to be!  There are days that this seems crazy!  There are days that I obsessively look up syndromes and club hands and second guess all of this.  There are moments that I wonder where another little one will fit on my lap...how my arms will hold three, but there is one thing I know for certain 100% of the time..God is in this.  He loves me.  He will never leave me.  He desires that the orphan be cared for.  And one of my favorite verses..Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.  Proverbs 3:5-6  I cling to His promises in scripture during this wait and this night, this vision of this precious, amazing young girl, was like an extra balm for my waiting heart!