I can not believe it has almost been two and a half months since we first met Lyla face to face.
Sometimes it seems like we have known her forever, because she fits right in with the Parkison Family. But I also realize we are still getting to know her and all that makes her who she is.
I can not say enough how pleased I have been with our transition here at home. We have had a few not so great moments, but nothing we weren’t ready for or could not handle.
Lets just go ahead and start with the struggles…
Most of them have to do with seeing how far she can push her boundaries, and it seems to be a power struggle. I know and have read how orphans struggle with the power of being able to control their circumstances. But honestly, her power struggles with me are really no different then power struggles we experience with our BIOS too. All of that to say…. she acts just like any other child I have raised. 🙂
Her potty training has gone well. We are still working on some things, but she is officially going potty by herself. She is still too small to get up on the toilet herself and to wash her hands, but she has two stools in there that she uses.
Her English is coming along. It feels slow to me, but others say she is really improving. I think when you are around someone all of the time you can’t see the progress like “outsiders” can. She can definitely identify and address all of her basic needs saying things like Eat, Milk, Water, Potty, Paper (Toilet paper), Night Night, diaper, change clothes, and bath. She calls all of her siblings by their name, but it is funny she actually confuses Mommy and Daddy a lot; calling me Daddy and Scott Mama.
I have a funny story about our names to share that I have been meaning to blog about for some time now, but keep forgetting….so hear it goes. 🙂
When we first picked up Lyla, we were so quickly amazed thinking Lyla was already calling Scott Daddy. But in reality she was actually saying Didi, which means big sister in Hindi. She was calling both Scott and I Didi. We are assuming that she referred to her caretakers as Didi in the orphanage and that carried over to us. We did not learn this until we returned to Ahmedabad for the 2nd time to get our passport and the friends we stayed with informed us of what she was saying. So for a little over a week, we thought she was calling us both Daddy.
Obviously, we started correcting that right away, but it was still confusing for her. She was seeing the families we were staying with and their children were calling their Mom, Mommy, so she was calling them Mommy too. I felt pretty confident when we arrived home, it would all make sense to her when she heard her siblings calling me Mommy.
Well, she seemed to grasp this at first, but for about two weeks now I have been Daddy and Scott has been Mama. 🙂
Back to Lyla’s English… she says finished, get down, get up, look, watch, thank you, bless you, Jesus, outside, upstairs, snack, cookie, cracker, banana, book, apple, cheese (for smiling for pics), no, yes, yes ma’am, sorry, please, come here and stop.
She has been a joy and I love her so very much!