OUR SWEET ELIZABETH

Since we arrived home from Ethiopia, we've had many people ask how Elizabeth is handling all of the change. I have been meaning to blog about it and kept forgetting, until a week or so ago when someone posted a comment asking about her.

Today is a good day for me to blog about it since we're heading to attachment therapy this morning! :)

For those that are fairly new to following our blog, Elizabeth has been officially diagnosed with "attachment disorder"...though I HATE the stigma that carries. I've talked with countless people -some adoptive parents themselves and some just associated with adoption ~and they talk about "those kids" who have RAD and how they could never handle a kid with RAD.... it makes me...I don't know...sad. angry. frustrated. It's kinda funny to then say "yeah -Elizabeth has attachment disorder"...and they are shocked and surprised.

When you hear "attachment issues" you automatically assume rage, anger, a child who cannot connect with you.

Certainly there are children whose RAD manifests in that manner.

But then there are MANY children whose issues manifests as Elizabeth's....as insecurities.

I actually prefer to refer to her attachment issues as "security issues". Because that is what they are and that is what triggers her.

Elizabeth has always had great eye contact and given and received love ~which is how we missed her attachment/security issues for about a year.

On the right, under "labels", you can click on "attachment" and find a few posts I've done in the past about the behaviors that were symptoms of her attachment/security issues....like forgetfulness, indiscriminate affection, manipulation, etc.

Soooooooooooo -back to how she is doing. :)

I won't lie, the first 2 months after Ethiopia were a bit rough and we knew it would be. We ALL had a lot going on those first few months and so Elizabeth struggled...but not as much as we had anticipated. She was definitely a bit more clingy and needing attention and even gave us a bit of trouble in the food arena...but nothing terribly exhausting.

I'm not sure what changed, but the last month has been AMAZING with her.

Seriously.

John and I had a date night last Saturday and we both commented on how we are experiencing the absolute best time in nearly 3 years with Elizabeth.

She is "normal".

She is SECURE for the longest time we've seen since coming home in November 2007.



1 HUGE benefit of her being secure is "school time" is going wonderfully for her. Things are finally "clicking" with school stuff.....things we've been working on for MONTHS she is now repeating and recalling ~like sight words. I've been patiently trying to teach her "the" "and" "a" and "of" for months now and she just couldn't remember them.

In the last few weeks, she's not only learned these words but is ready for new ones AND is starting to sound out easy words.

This is HUGE HUGE HUGE for us and Elizabeth!!

and just so you can see how well she is doing, here is a video of her reading.....this is the 3rd time she's read the book so she had it a bit memorized by the time I video'd it...but still, you get the picture of how well she's doing. :)

We are praising God for the healing on her heart that we are experiencing. It's truly amazing to see her doing so well ~and an answer to prayer.