Just to update where things are:
We had Linzi to the pediatric infectious disease doctor yesterday. We
took Tessa to this physician after she first came home too. Dr. Harris
will run her vaccination titers to see if she actually did receive the
immunizations in China as we were told. While we were in the office
Dr. Harris also had Dr. Crouch a pediatrician see Linzi. Linzi does not
like doctors very well. She started screaming and crying when they first
called her name and tried to weigh her. She continued to cry, kick and
wave them off. When Dr. Crouch was visiting with me we both tried to
turn our backs to her so she would think we weren't talking about her and
to try to get her to be quiet. Dr. Harris finally found Dr. Zhao who is
a neurologist and had him come in. Dr. Zhao is from Taiwan and speaks
Chinese. Linzi did kind of talk to him. Since Dr. Zhao had not been in
the room he did not know what was going on. Once Linzi responded to his
Chinese questions he looked at all of us and said "There is something wrong
with her." He says that her responses were not really correct and that
her Chinese is not very good, her speech is kind of slurred. We explained
to him that she had just been adopted from China and that she was in an
orphanage with many Down Syndrome and severely delayed/handicapped
kids. He again tried to talk to her. He asked her something and she told
him no. He said that he had to kind of guess what she was saying to him.
That her responses were just words that didn't totally make sense.
He then again said "Something is wrong" and he mentioned
autism or autistic? The other two doctors said they don't think she is
autistic and that they see hope that she may become able to be a productive individual.
They did see the "self stimulating" behavior I have seen from the get-go.
She is in constant motion...if she is standing she will rock from foot to
foot, if she is sitting down she will rock back and forth. She also will roll
her hands together and in a circle while repeating the same thing over and
over and over and over...to the extent that it drives me crazy, especially
as I have no idea what she is saying!
She is adorable. She is Loud. Has she bonded? I don't know. She calls
me "Ma" and will hug some of us and pat us on the back. She will also
go to strangers and hug them. She loves to "talk" to anyone and everyone.
Well. except for the doctors at first. After she realized that they were not
going to do anything to her she was fine with them. When I drop her off
at school she happily waves to me and says "Bye bye." She did not get
upset when we left the orphanage staff either, just happily waved.
We did start her in Kindergarten for 1/2 days. The teacher says that she
follows around the other kids and kind of does what they do. The teacher
is pleased how she is doing at this point. We plan on
moving her to full days after the first of the year. We are fully planning
on her repeating Kindergarten again next year if she needs too.
She is constantly on the move. She can sit still in the car and occasionally
on the couch, but she does not have the attention span to watch TV, play
video games or DSi games. The girls are all very disappointed that she can not
play with them and they feel like we are just babysitting her. I have heard
them call her "stupid and crazy" and ask "What are we going to do with her?"
We have reminded them that Tessa and Jordis didn't speak English when they
first came home either. It is frustrating for all of us.
She is really rough on everything. I am sure that this is from being in the
orphanage and not learning the proper behavior. She does know when she is
doing something she shouldn't. I have gone to the bedroom and as I come back
into the living room she is shutting the laptop...she knows she is not supposed
to be on it. She went from being scared of the cats and dogs to chasing them
around and being rough with them. We keep working on "Gentle" I was told that
Ching Ching Da means Gentle?
She is very happy most of the time. She will eat anything that we put in front
of her. We do have to be careful that she does not overeat. The orphanage
warned us of that. She is definitely spoiled and gets mad if she doesn't get
her way. She is a total clutz. She can fall over her shadow at times. So
her legs are covered in bruises.
It has been tough, tough, tough. I feel like I brought this on the family as
I was the first one who wanted to adopt again. I also feel like I jinxed the
adoption because I had Linzi tattooed on my arm before we got her....I know
crazy but that is what I think sometimes. Zora has told me that the adoption
was stupid and lame. Honestly we have talked about disrupting her but again
then we feel like we have failed. But, this is not what we were expecting.
We feel that it is possible that we are not meant to be her family, that it was
just our job to get her here so we could help her find the family she was destined
to be in.. A "pay it forward" from our getting Kendalan through a disruption.
It is rough. I feel like we are plodding along, pretending that everything will
be okay and knowing that it will never be the same.
To the mean, negative posters who think they are authorities who have left comments about this...if you REALLY knew what you were talking about you would post with your REAL names! We have NOT said we are going to disrupt..just that we have thought about it. I would have left her in China if we were going to disrupt. This isn't our first adoption. DUH!
This is why people do not post the truth to their blogs because nasty people are very
quick to judge those they do not know. If you want to give helpful suggestions great!
If you want to cuss at someone go find someone else!!
