All about Addie

Wow. So I hardly even know where to begin to catch you up on our new little girl and the past three weeks with her. Three weeks?! ~gasp!~ Has it really been that long? I have been absolutely remiss in not posting an update sooner. My apologies.

Okay, I'll just plunge right in.

At the moment I'm sitting in bed. It's nearly midnight. To my left is Addie's bassinet, and she's sighing contentedly in her sleep. If all goes well she'll sleep until about 3:00, when she'll want to get up and eat. Mark will get up, get the bottle ready, change her diaper, and pass her off to me so that I can feed her. (I know. He's the greatest.) One of the things we have done with our adopted children is that I exclusively get to do all of their bottle feedings. (It's sort of our way of ensuring that they get that bonding time with mama that we would normally get through breastfeeding.) I'm so thankful Mark is supportive and encouraging of that.

I am incredibly grateful for this sweet girl. In so many ways God answered my specific prayers for this child. Just one example: Our foster license was for a child (or two) ages 0-3. We were praying for a baby girl or a sibling set with a baby girl in it. I so much wanted a baby so that the whole attachment/bonding part would be easier. Isaias came home to us at 9 months, and even though he was still a baby, we missed a LOT. For this adoption, I had specifically prayed for a baby girl younger than 6 months. (Mind you, no one else was praying for that. Just me.) Never in my wildest dreams did I even think to pray for a baby less than one month old. And yet- God in His graciousness brought us Addie. And with the exception of those first 26 days of her life, I won't have to miss a thing.
These past few weeks with Addie have been great. The transition of her into our family has been seamless. I am amazed at how Ella, Isaac and Isaias just get it. They understand that Addie is different than Baby, that she is their sister, and that she'll be staying. Just this morning on the way home from church, Isaac was talking about Baby and how we had her but then "we had to give her back. And now we have Addie but we don't have to give her back because we're gonna' adopt her." Yep.

Here's a rundown on the family dynamics with a new baby in the house:
Mark, I've already told you about. He's the best. He gets up for ALL nighttime feedings, dear readers. Every one. He has been extra helpful around the house, he adores his new little girl. It is a joy to see him again with a baby of ours. He's so good at this daddy-to-a-baby thing.

Ella is her wonderful nurturing self. She *loves* having a baby sister in Addie, and is so good with her. She and I are currently in fierce competition to see who can get Addie to smile for us. (She smiles often, and is starting to coo. Which I love.)

Isaac is very sweet with Addie. It always takes him awhile to warm up so he'll be way more into her within the next few weeks. (He was that way with Baby, too. Kind of disinterested at first, but after a few weeks was chatting with her, affectionate with her, and taking special interest in her. It'll come.) He has noticed, however, that my arms are nearly always full. I just need to make an extra effort to pull him into my arms or onto my lap when I'm able to.

Isaias is a very gentle and attentive big brother. It has been fun to watch him in this role. He asks frequently throughout the day, "Mommy, can I kiss Addie on her cheek?" Or, "Mommy, can I hold Addie?" Very sweet.

Some questions keep cropping up in emails, comments, and conversation, so I'm going to take a second to answer the most frequent of those:

Q: Was Adelia her name already or did you name her?
A: We named her. She legally has another name entirely, but we're changing it.

Q: Is she officially adopted yet?
A: No. We are fostering her with the intent to adopt her. Nothing is legal yet. But the courts are already moving towards her being placed permanently with us. There is little to no chance that she will not be ours, simply based on the circumstances of this case.

Q: How is she doing in terms of testing positive for cocaine at birth?
A: She is doing GREAT! Addie was not in withdrawal when she came home to us. She had already gone through withdrawal at the center she was at. For those first few days her feedings were taking a long time, and during much of that time we were really working to keep her awake to eat. But that is no more. She slurps down her bottles happily and is awake for nearly every feeding. She's also gaining weight steadily. (The day we got her she was 7 lbs, 6 oz. Exactly one week later she was up to 8 lbs, 3 oz.) She is most definitely thriving. It's now been a couple of weeks since she's been weighed, but I'm sure she's up past 9 lbs at this point.

There have been no other symptoms of the drug that we can see. She seems like a perfectly average newborn to us. (Just far more adorable than average.)

One of the things we learned about cocaine-affected babies is that the make-up of the drug itself changes from year to year. So a cocaine-affected baby two years ago may have exhibited completely different symptoms than we're seeing (or not seeing) in Addie, because there may be a different component to the drug (ie- they found a cheaper way to make it and are using something else.)

Down the road we may see symptoms of the drug but we're trying not to look for it.

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I am sure there are other questions you have, so... feel free to ask away. I'm an open book and if there's anything you're itching to know, please do ask and I'll answer it in another post! :)

One more thing... I have been overwhelmed at all the packages arriving at our door from none-other-than YOU, my bloggy friends! Thank you so much!... from all of us. Several of you have made something for Addie, too- and those are my favorite kind of gifts. I am so impressed with your handiwork! :) I don't know how many times I've said to Mark, "And, honey. I don't even know this person. They just read my blog. Can you even believe this?" Thank you so very, very much for your kindness.


Blessings to you and yours today!