The News!!!

OMG! OMG! OMG! And by that I mean OH MY GOD THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS MIRACLE!

We just got about the best news they could give us on our little girl. The email came in early this morning, but to not to my inbox. I stayed up and checked it as long as I could keep my eyes open and then woke up twice in the middle of the night. Nothing. I woke up finally around 9am and again nothing. Then my friend Ellie texted me. She got it! She would forward! (Jeff found later he had it in his inbox, too.) I rushed to the computer and open Ellie's email as Jeff runs up the stairs to join me. So here is the big news...

The orphanage told Anna SHE NO LONGER NEEDS HEARING AIDS AND IS TALKING!!! I stared at the screen in front of me in disbelief. Until the screen was blurry from my tearing over. I am baffled as to how and why, but, who cares! Anna said she was talking, can count to ten and much more!!! They told us she needed speech therapy and really wasn't talking back in April??? Again, I don't know how it is possible but she is doing much better and that is AMAZING!!!! We were just practicing our Thai words last night in bed and counting. Now we can do that with HER! 

I have spent countless days and nights worrying about her hearing and speech. Praying for her to be okay. Praying for the right doctors and therapists and for my own wisdom to please come so I can do the absolute best for her. Even if she still has some hearing loss and problems it will not be as bad as we thought and I bet she will hear most things. I am so happy for her and I am soooo thankful! And this next thing I'm about to say is just so dumb, but here it goes anyway...I can sing her to sleep! It's not about me or my voice or anything like that, but about bonding and soothing her (hopefully) and sharing one of the things I love so much which is music. Oh, and she can hear the ocean... and the wind... and the sweet song birds in the morning! And oh my...I'm gonna cry again!

Okay, so back to the email. We got pictures from Anna's visit last week. Two darling little pictures of her sleeping with a bottle. It's kind of bittersweet cause I love that she is still gonna need to be babied by Momma (and Daddy too, of course) and I can hold her and rock her to sleep with a bottle. But then my heart tugs and is sad that she still needs to be babied at 27 months cause we are not there yet. Both feelings happen simultaneously in this joyful, but sentimental and longing sort of way. I know some of you know what I mean.

Anyway, then wonderful sweet Anna went to the orphanage again yesterday. She took the kids toys and took several pics of Ruby and Lily together (our dear friend Ellie's little girl) as they are in the same room now. The girls are sleepy and obviously not thrilled about being woken. As Anna put it, "not feeling too social". Still they are sooo cute. Just precious shots!

My heart is filled to overflowing right now. So grateful for the miracle of Ruby's hearing and speech. Forever grateful to Anna for being so incredibly kind and loving to our girls and giving us so much joy today. There is no way I could ever repay or thank her enough for what she has done for us and our daughter. And so grateful that Ellie and I have become friends and that our daughters will have the opportunity to be friends, too. 

Jeff got some great work news today, too - hooray! - but for both of us, the news and new pics of Ruby is better than anything on this planet! So much joy for one day! We will probably spend a lot of time looking at those new photos over and over this weekend!

And PS - we both survived our Hep A & B vaccination shots this morning! The first round is over and it wasn't fun, but it's another step done for our pending trip!