New photo - Josh and Grace

Papa with Gracie on a canoe on the Liberian shore.

The child LOVES the water!

We're all exhausted after too many long days and two few naps! Gracie is making great progress already with lots of TLC, although she's also developping her personality more and pushing limits! It's good to see her exploring and even challenging a little as she clearly is comfortable that we are her parents. It's clear that she will need every form of therapy available and we are excited to see how she grows and develops over the next year - surely in leaps and bounds!

She fortunately eats everything and is at the point where her meals only take an hour as we figure out what textures of foods are easiest on her. I'm still not sure if we're feeding her enough and hydrating her enough! But we'll come into it!

I am giving seminars to the nannies at the orphanage on various health topics and that is quite enjoyable, although a challenge to switch from the mode of giving talks to colleagues in the medical field to individuals in a different country who speak a different English from mine who have no medical training at all!

We are otherwise enjoying the heat, the surprise holiday yesterday (former President Tubman's birthday) and trip up country a bit to an old mine turned into a lake (one of the hottest days of our lives!!), and time with friends here. We are blessed with fantastic hosts in the guesthouse who love the Lord and provide us with many challenging spiritual conversations.

Comments

Anonymous said…

So I guess she is feeling better, thats good. Any word on the visa? We are planning to be at the airport when you come home! I cant wait! My friends at work that runs the pool was giving me some ideas. She would love to come one day and work with us! She has had a lot of experience with this, so it will be very helpfull.

8:42 AM

Check out this progress!

A year ago, my friend Rachel http://josiecomehome.blogspot.com/ emailed a photo of her beautiful son standing on his own... I've since dreamed of having a photo to post of Gracie doing the same thing. It was always one of those wild-don't-think-it'll-ever-happen kind of dreams, a romantic, fairy tale type of dream. But this week, Gracie made another leap in development and muscle tone. It started when I leaned her up against the wall and planted her feet a shoulder-width apart. For the first time, she didn't lunge for the safety of my arms or hands, but rather, she allowed herself to stand steadily on her own two feet and she kept her center of gravity centered over her feet instead of wildly in front of her or to one side or the other. She even quickly figured out that she couldn't lurch around in excitement while standing on her own two feet with no support but a wall behind her back, but rather had to express her excitement over this new development with a gentl

Family of Three!

We are in Liberia - the electricity goes in and out because the generator is having trouble keeping up these days! So hopefully it will stay on long enough to post and the internet connection will allow me this luxury! We were united with precious Gracie on Thanksgiving day - I will write more about this later. But, oh! is Gracie a joy! She is so beautiful, so joyfilled, and a bit mischievious. Her physical limitations do not permit her to accomplish much mischief, but we can tell that she is trying to push some limits already. If we were not in love with her already, she is irresitable and such a treasure and blessing from God. In our two days together, she has not cried once. She spends most of her days smiling, she loves to snuggle (good match for us!), and has the most contagious laugh! Life takes more effort for her - her cerebral palsy is moderate and every activity is a challenge and is clearly tiring for her. Meal times (which she loves) take a long time and much patience and d

Amazing girls!

Gracie and Ana have taken to walking around the church together - Ana pushes Gracie's gait trainer as Gracie walks along. Between the two of them, they make a pretty efficient team (except for the steering part!). They love it and could do it for hours! Gracie has made amazing strides (no pun intended) in standing up - we'll get some video up soon of her standing, supporting herself ONLY with her right hand (her otherwise useless hand) - it's amazing! We didn't dream that we'd see her looking this strong and steady. Plus, now she's smiling and her little heart isn't pounding out of her chest with stress at the thought of standing up without human contact - God is SO good! Gracie went to music camp this summer at the Y which was somewhat fun for her, but definitely good to have her around other kids.

Rattins living Coram Deo

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