Lovey Girl

I hope you aren't sick of these stories because I have LOTS to tell!!!  Ths is my lovey girl.  She was the first child we meet here.  She was not afraid of us like so many of the other younger children.  (Seriously, I'm thrilled now when I walk into a room of little ones and just 1-2 burst into tears and not the whole group!)

Lovey has not been in many of the organized activities but our paths have crossed in many ways.  She's my assigned "baby" to feed at baby feeding times twice a day.  She lives in a room of about 6-8 other young children and she's clearly the oldest in the room.  She's not quite 4 and I believe she'll move to a new room when she turns 4.  

She didn't participate in the show that some of the children put on for us the first day but she was in the back watching.  Such sad eyes.  

But those sad eyes can quickly turn into a bright smile! 

And she reappeared in the therapy room with other children who appeared to all have CP.  That's her smiling at the bottom of the picture.  It was very unclear why she was there as she could easily do all the movements meant to stretch out the other childrens's tight muscles.

Here's what I learned.  She's 3.5.  She's been at this welfare house for a year but lived at another one for 2 years before that.  She was transferred to welfare house because the first one noticed she was behind developmentally.  One staff member told she had a problem with her brain but that's a common way to describe a host of issues.  I tried to find out what type of tests they had done but it appears the diagnosis is on the basis of observation only. 

This is one spitfire little girl!  She walks, runs, potties all by herself.  She is verbal and appears to hold appropriately aged conversations with the staff and nannies.  She is pretty independent and well loved.  She is still fed in the baby room by a nanny spoon feeding her but I think that may be just due to her living in a baby room.  She has serious spunk!

I will miss our feeding times when we leave.  She comes running into the room and holds her hands up to me for a giant hug!  She's playful and silly while eating (which may also explain why they still spoon feed her!)

Lovey Girl needs a family to love on her.  She has so much to give and appears to have everything she needs to catch up developmentally.  She's lived a lifetime in her short 3.5 years and deserves to grow up in a loving family.