It’s spring.  Spring means birthday season in this household! And Easter is in the middle of the birthdays, which is a great chance for a photo shoot.

Elsie just turned five. She is still as active as ever. Here are a few of the ways she’s growing.

Physically—she’s running all over the place. She takes four to five large two footed jumps when you ask her to, and sometimes without prompting just for fun. She loves to be chased. She has seemingly boundless energy. And she’s “graduated” from outpatient physical therapy. Her PT says it’s not necessary at this point. The jury is still out as to whether or not I can keep up!

Emotionally/socially—she is delightful and charms almost everyone she meets. She’ll ask strangers for a “huggie,” though I think most of them don’t know what she’s asking. She is watching other children more and more and loves to chase them and to be chased. She doesn’t always know how to say hello and get someone’s attention. Most often she does so by hitting, or scratching…yikes!

Spiritually—Elsie will grab my little pinky, usually at meal times and say “inging” asking me to pray. She also loves to sing “hau-oo,” hallelujah.

Cognitively—we are thrilled at how much she’s learned this year. She is paying attention more and more and therefore learning the function of toys and using them appropriately. I recently sat down to update her spoken words and sign language list, and I filled two pages. She tries to communicate with me more often than not. She knows what she wants and is able to tell me. She learns new signs in ten minutes or less, and her spoken words are increasing too.

Elsie, we are so proud of you and love you so dearly. You bring so much fun and laughter into our home. You have such a sweet smile and we are ever grateful God grafted you into our family.

Emma is about to turn six! Even though at times she can act like she’s fifteen with her exasperated roll of the eyes, she’s still our sweet little lady. She too has grown and changed so much this year.

Physically—she reminds us that she’s still bigger than Elsie, though honestly not by much. She’s excited to learn to ride her bike without training wheels this spring/summer.

Emotionally/socially—Emma is almost as extroverted as her mother. She wants friends but hasn’t had many opportunities while being homeschooled this year. Her “bible study” (Awana) and class at church are the highlights of her week. She is extremely articulate and doesn’t filter much of what she says. We’re trying to teach her to wait and say some things only to us and not out loud in front of strangers. She is our drama queen and expresses emotion with gusto.

Spiritually—she loves reading her Bibles. Almost every day she can be found for long stretches of time reading stories of God’s love and faithfulness through the ages. She asks spiritual questions, “how can Jesus come in my heart? Is there like a door?”And she loves to sing songs about Jesus.

Cognitively—she loves to read! I’m not entirely sure how it happened so effortlessly. She asked me to read to her for months on end and I did as much as I could. And I taught her some sight words and how to sound out words. Then once she started reading a little, she began to read more and more and more. Now she reads first to second grade books with inflection. She pulls classic novels off our shelves and reads what she can. She doesn’t love to write, nor to do math, but we’re still working on those. As long as reading is involved, she’s willing to “do school” for multiple hours in a day.

Emma, we love you dearly and we’re so proud of you! You make us beam and make us laugh and we are so grateful for your expressions of love and affection.

Happy birthdays, my sweet little girls!  Mommy loves you like crazy cakes!

No small thing

Tonight I am preparing paperwork for our girls to get official Ohio birth certificates. This is not a big deal in my book. Ohio birth certificates could be helpful down the road. It's one more piece of the huge paperwork puzzle that I had yet to get to. 

But as I pulled out those Chinese documents, I started to read. (A huge benefit of studying the language for so long! I couldn't understand it all, but I can understand enough.) I read Elsie's abandonment article, what was published in the paper in the area where she was found. Infant girl found on this seat on this train about one month old. I read Emma's daily schedule in the orphanage. Wake up, snacks, play times, meals, all so regimented and routine because there were so many children they were caring for. I read a questionnaire we sent to Elsie's orphanage. It was partially filled out and there were lots of 没有, meaning doesn't have. She didn't have favorite toys or something she always slept with. She didn't have favorite foods because at two and a half years old she was still drinking formula. 

Reading these documents and papers we'd received from their orphanages reminds me... these girls used to be orphans. They were both abandoned. They lived for years without a mother and father and sister. 

But now! They belong to us. They are ours. We operate like a typical family with giggles and tears and joys and frustrations. Even though they are distinctly Asian beauties sometimes I forget who they used to be. They're now my girls. They are orphans no longer. They are thriving in our family. And that is No. Small. Thing. 

Better late than never

My 2015 Christmas Cuties!

Christmas Eve tradition--matching PJs

This is how most of the photo shoots go!

"Huggy!"as Elsie says

2015 Reflections

I know it's been a bit quiet around here. (The blog, I mean, not our home!) Our days are full as you might imagine. Also, I guess our lives are settling into more normalcy. So less noteworthy, special happenings means fewer blog posts. But alas, here are some of the more exciting things of 2015!

What we did:

Bought and renovated a 60 year old house

Taught Emma to read

Went to lots of therapies and doctors visits

Spent the summer in CO and hiked up and down mountains with the girls on our backs

Enjoyed lots of time with family and special friends

Got Elsie established in a good school district

Got the news that Elsie's brain waves show normal activity 

What we did not do:

"Paint the bathrooms" Emma

Leave the country (not in 2014 either, wow!)

Go to Florida (maybe because we spent so much time there at the end of 2014)

Provide avenues for Emma to make friends her age

Hopefully the "did not dos" will be on the list for 2016!

Happy New Year from the Fertig four!

Complete healing. Praise the Lord!

Last October, we went into Elsie’s surgeries with conflicting reports from doctors. The ones in Orlando, who knew her case the best, said surgery was the best option. The ones in Ohio advised us to keep her on medications and hope that surgery wasn’t necessary. When we were told about the potential developmental progress after surgery, because the brain is now able to make connections that it couldn’t before with abnormal activity, we decided to go forward with surgery.

Three brain surgeries during 20 days in the hospital is one tough road. But lately we have been seeing the developmental progress we had hoped for last year. Elsie learns new signs in about ten minutes and remembers them.  She now has about 15 spoken words. Our current favorite is “huggy” (so we hug her) followed by “aww”. Her attention span is definitely increasing. She still puts lots of things in her mouth, but she often uses toys as they are intended to be used. She used to just mouth them and throw them. She is learning and developmentally growing rapidly lately. Her therapists see it. “Elsie did such great work today,” they say. Her grandma sees it. “I can’t believe all the progress she’s made since I saw her last May.” And we see it, and we're so grateful.

Emma helps Elsie eat her banana. "Nana" is one of Elsie's words, and she continues to impress us as she learns to eat with a fork and spoon.

She's still always on the go! This is how most of my pictures turn out.

Even though we're seeing this developmental progress, we still didn’t know if the surgeries were truly successful. We haven’t seen any random seizures, which is wonderful. But this summer we saw three seizures when she had high fevers. The first one really scared me. I called the doctors in Orlando at midnight and they reassured me that because she had a high fever, it’s okay. Those seizures are different than epileptic seizures.

Yesterday we got very good news. The EEG Elsie had about ten days ago shows no abnormal activity. Her brain waves are normal, which means new connections are being made. We knew we were seeing the results of that, but it sure is nice to hear that the doctor's technical findings confirm that. Elsie’s surgeries a year ago were truly successful and we made a good choice.

I was baking cookies in the afternoon for the students coming over last night when I got the phone call. I stopped, jumped up and down, couldn't stop saying “thank you, Jesus” and even started crying. I am one thankful momma!

Remembering October's past

October 8, 2013 Emma had spinal surgery. She was in the hospital seven days.
October 1, 9, and 16, 2014 Elsie had brain surgeries. She was in the hospital 21 days.
October 2015 we are playing and learning and growing and trying to enjoy every moment of our hospital-free living!

She's not screaming in pain and tentative to walk because it hurt like she was two years ago. This year, she's counting real  pumpkin seeds.

She's not tethered to a wall by all kinds of wires and struggling to be entertained while losing all her strength from sitting in a hospital bed. This year, she's running through and playing in corn and LOVING it!

This October we are in our own home. We're in Ohio, not Florida, and we're enjoying fall! Emma and I just started reading Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. She loves reading and amazes me with all that she can read. Emma also relishes the opportunity to help me in the kitchen. Elsie squeals in delight when Mark chases her down the hallway and tackles her and kisses her neck. And she asks at least 20 times a day "a-ba", which means "bus". She loves school and loves riding the bus, but she's only there four mornings a week. So most of the time my reply is, "no bus right now, honey." 

When I think of where these sweet little girls were in October's past and where they are now, my heart is filled with overwhelming gratitude. I'm so, SO thankful that right now God has them on a path of healing and learning and growing. And, Lord willing, I'm thankful that this year I get to spend my birthday outside the hospital!

Two full years...for Elsie

Two years ago today, Elsie Grace joined our family and we are celebrating in the midst of school and therapies and returning library books. Celebrating because it's been quite a full two years, and because Elsie has come such a long way. Join us in thanking God for all He's done in her little life the past two years. 

When we first met Elsie she was barely walking. She preferred to crawl really fast. She was still only drinking bottles. She babbled a little bit. She would stare at her hands and move them around and spin on the floor to stimulate herself. She didn't know how to play with toys. She would mouth them and throw them. She didn't want us to hold her chest to chest. She would wiggle and squirm and turn around as quickly as possible. She was two and a half.

Now Elsie is four and a half. She is happy and full of energy. She smiles and laughs easily. 

She eats a variety of foods, and still loves drinking milk. She has just started feeding herself with a fork. She has learned to communicate with us using sign language and recently her spoken words are increasing as well. She says "hi" in a beautiful singing tone every morning I walk into her room. She says, "again," "okay," "up," "help," "on," "gaga," (dada), "egg," and even "aaa-ca" (avocado). She's learned the function of so many toys.  She will bring me her shoes and say, "on." She will grab two blocks, put them together and say "on." She loves to read and I can ask her to go get one of her favorite books and she can locate the one I've asked her to get. She loves to swing and loves finding her sister when playing hide and seek.

She loves to be chased and tickled and hugged and kissed. She really just started cuddling with us this summer. She'll curl up sideways in my lap, with her cheek to my chest. I'll sing "Rock a Bye Baby" and she'll sit contentedly and then say, "again," and sit again and again.  She is learning a lot really quickly right now. It is such a joy to see. 

Elsie Grace, we love you so much and we are so thankful God chose you to be in our family!  You bring us so much delight.  It is our joy and privilege to watch you blossom as you grow and learn and develop.  We can't wait to see what the coming years bring. We love you!