Monday, August 4, 2008

The adoption process

I have a question for anyone reading this blog that has a child from Uganda- what is the process of going about actually adopting them? Is there a specific waiting time that immigration requires or do you just follow the adoption laws of your state? I tried calling immigration but could never speak to a real person no matter how many prompts I followed. Love those automated phone systems :)
Everything at home is good but hard. Both girls have had some adjustment issues. They are equally jealous of eachother. Not sure if that's good but balanced at least. Kaya who is 3 is much more clingy now and wants Mom to do everything for her. Masseh sees this and then wants me even more. Not very much fun for dad or mom either for that matter. Both girls have very strong personalities. Masseh's first English words other than mom and dad were "no, mine and get". Usually no is followed by yelling Kaya's name at the top of her lungs. On the positive side though, they both really seem to like eachother and are very sweet to one another as long as the other one doesn't have a toy they want. They love to hug and kiss eachother and always want to know where the other one is at. I think as Masseh's knee heals they will have even more fun together. I think a lot of Masseh's frustration stems from not being as mobile as she would like. She still isn't able to walk. Her surgeon had hoped she would be by this point. We go back next week for a check-up. She is standing though and can limp along if you are holding her hand or if she is standing next to something. We did find out that she tested negative for all blood diseases so it looks like her anemia was from her illnesses. Her levels have been fine since her 2nd blood transfusion. She will be retested in a few months. Health wise she actually would have been fine if she hadn't contracted malaria. Malaria and the treatment weaken your immune system making you more susceptible to secondary infections. It turns out she had typhoid fever that was a salmonella bacteria that went to her blood stream and settled in her knee. We are very lucky that she survived.
Also, to any other Uganda moms, do your children have problems taking naps.? Masseh didn't take regular naps in Uganda and now will only sleep for 20-30 minutes a day. That is not enough for a 1 year old or her mom :) She also hates to not have someone in the room with her when she is falls asleep. She now sleeps fairly well at night which is a huge blessing. So overall things are going well just getting use to one more adorable little girl!