Being with Uma: July 2008

By the time this posts, it will be after midnight, and no longer, officially "today," but it was on January 2, 2008 that we picked Uma up, and so it is 6 months today that we are together! In fact, it was July 1, 2006 that Uma was brought to the orphanage, so we are marking two years ago that her life of transition began.

I have lots of pictures to post, and it will be difficult to decide which ones to do and which not to. It will also be difficult to update on all that has happened since my last post. Uma has grown so much!

Well, I will begin with our time with Uma's sister, Ishana. She was here in April, and Adhipen and I spent our 6 year wedding anniversary with our two girls. Uma and Ishana bonded, though Uma was quite jealous of Ishana and had a difficult time sharing her parents with someone else. Ishana was extremely patient and seemed to understand, though I think that Uma will need to grow up more for Ishana to really appreciate her and for her to appreciate her big sister.

Ishana and Uma together

Shortly after Ishana left, Adhipen took a trip to India (he left a day before Mother's day! GRRRR) and so Uma and I spent Mother's Day alone. We took a weekend trip alone together to the Renaissance Faire. Uma really enjoyed herself, and especially the alone time with me, despite the fact that I did not have a stroller for her (I thought they would have them to rent...I was wrong!) and so she did alot of walking, and riding on my shoulders.

Uma and I also took a trip together to Washington, DC in June. We went to visit my dear friend, Neha and her children, also adopted from India. They badly wanted to meet Uma, and so off we went on a holiday! Adhipen stayed home to work, so it was just us girls. We had a wonderful time though the trip was way too short due to my needing to come back to work. Coincidently, my brother Jason and family arrived on one of the days, so we all picked them up at the airport, had dinner together and then took them to their hotel, which was in DC itself.

Uma is speaking alot now. She knows most of the family members who she loves by name, and we are estimating that she has a vocabulary of about 50 words now. She can express herself and seems to understand most everything. She cannot answer open ended questions yet, but she can answer "yes" or "no" verbally when asked in this way. She is an extremely happy child, with a loving smile for everyone who passes by. She often says hello to people as they walk by, and she almost always says, "bye bye" when parting. If she knows the person, she will give them a hug and or blow them a kiss.

She has also been receiving occupational therapy twice a week to help her with sensory integration. This is helping her learn to sit still better and focus on tasks at hand. Everyone is totally enamored with her over there and come running to greet her and get her beautiful smile and warm embraces when she enters. She also loves going and when we exit the freeway, she recognizes the street and starts getting very excited shouting, "Play! Play!" She knows exactly where we are going!

Uma is extremely well behaved, and I really don't have to do too many time outs anymore. She has a remarkable memory and extremely keen powers of observation. She is affectionate and loving, though she still needs alot of reassurance. She is in a mode now where she comes up to me and says, "baby" and points to herself. I will pick her up and rock her, or cradle her in my arms, or give her a bottle. She in turn will act like a little baby and will literally coos like a little infant. Either she has seen it somewhere, or somewhere inside, she remember what it was to be a little baby, and she asks to be that with me more and more as her awareness of who she is , and what she needs.

There are subtle things that she has learned to do such as choose what movie she wants to watch, or what dress she wants to put on. She can lay down quietly for a massage with her arms tucked under her chin, whereas she used to be all over the place and could not even sit still for 10 seconds, let alone lay on her tummy to let me massage her. She will say, "good" when she likes something, and "da dan" ("all done") if she does not want to do an activity anymore, or has has enough to eat She has learned that people and things have names (she used to not know this) and recognizes "Melmo" (Elmo) and "Cookie" (Cookie Monster) if she see them in magazines, or anywhere at all.

At night, Uma loves me to read her stories, though she does not have patience for reading the actual words. I make things up about the pictures on the page that I know that she can relate to and I have her interact with the characters (we will feed them if they are eating, or pick flowers if they are on the page, and we will smell them, or the bee will jump off the page and tickle her). She really looks forward to this part of bedtime, and so I have no trouble at all getting her to end any activity and come right to bed. I will say, "okay, its time for bed." She will look at me and say, "book?" And when I nod my head yes, that's all she needs! She will run and kiss Adhipen goodnight (she says, "night night, Daddy") and then take my hand saying "Mon" ("come on") and pull me into the bedroom! She knows how to brush her teeth (though I get a turn brushing her teeth too, and she gets a turn brushing mine) and recently, she has actually started spitting out to rinse (whereas she used to swallow). After our story, she says, "light off," and either falls asleep cuddling, or will go into her bed (which is still attached to ours) and hold my hand as she falls asleep. Sometimes I have work on the computer or things to do and so I will tell her, "Mommy will come later." She gets disappointed and points to my side of the bed and says firmly, "there, there!" But when I tell her I can't she lets it go and goes to sleep on her own.

We consider ourselves extremely, extremely blessed to have Uma in our lives. She is an extraordinarily sweet soul, very eager to please, very, very bright and remarkably courageous. Everyday Adhipen and I remark on the miracle of how she found us and we found her. What an amazing blessing!