Introducing Selah and Brianna!

One week ago today our lives were changed for the better.  On January 28, 2015, two special little girls joined our family.

I am so incredibly pleased to introduce to you Selah and Brianna!

You can read the story of how we chose these two specifically in my previous post, Changes.

It has been so interesting to see the way the girls have been adjusting over the past week.  In some ways they have reacted very much like we thought they would.  In others, we have been very surprised.  Here are some thoughts on how they are each adjusting and some things I'm learning about my beautiful new girls.

Selah

Selah was so incredibly timid and fearful at the orphanage.  At first she would cry if we even looked at her and rather than interacting with the other kids, she would just sit against the wall by herself all day, her eyes full of fear.

We thought the transition would be incredibly hard for her and for the first while we'd need to be extra careful and gentle.  While there is still a lot of fear (especially when being introduced to new things), almost all the timidity is gone and we are seeing a sassy side of Selah I never imagined even existed!  She knows what she wants and she isn't afraid to tell you ;)  She is playing well with the other kids and while she has moments when the old Selah comes back, for the most part she is doing really well and is very happy.  She clearly trusts us and feels safe, even when she is afraid which is huge.  Now it's mostly just stubbornness...  She is coming out of her shell so much and it is so exciting to see.  I feel like I'm getting to know her all over again!

While visiting Selah at the orphanage, we only heard her say 2 words: akka (sister), to get our attention and a few times she repeated agoo (wait) when we told other kids to wait their turn.  The past few days we have heard her say many more words in Telugu and I think she will eventually develop fluent speech.  She is frequently going around the house, yelling "hey!" "akka!" or "amma!" (mom) to get our attention and is always babbling and making noise.  She listens well to commands in Telugu and it's making me brush up on what I know of the language as I'm so used to using mostly English with the rest of the kids now!

Selah can not yet walk but is scooting all over the place to keep up with Theo and Louise!  Hoping it won't be long before she's up and around on her feet though.

In the past few days we have started doing some basic school activities with her like color sorting, letter matching, coloring in the lines, drawing lines and circles, puzzles, using the iPad, etc.

 She can match letters but besides that, she hasn't seemed to understand anything else at this point.  I think she'll pick up things very quickly though and it won't be long before she takes off academically!

We have also been doing some fun sensory activities like playing with play dough, finger painting, and playing in shaving cream.  She isn't a huge fan of shaving cream but loves play dough and enjoyed finger painting her arms and legs ;)

Selah has so much potential and I am incredibly excited to see where she will go in week 2 and beyond!

Brianna

Brianna has had a much harder transition than Selah.  Being blind and living in an institution her whole life, Brianna has been exposed to very little sensory input.  Coming here and having so much all the time, in addition to the change of place has been challenging for her as it was for Charlotte too.  She is already beginning to play and smile more and I think it won't be much longer until she is back to her normal self and beginning to make more progress.

Brianna has only been fed warm milk from a bottle her entire life, even though she now has teeth.  That has made things difficult as she refuses to eat even pureed food.  She is drinking Pediasure well now though, so we're going to begin to blend the food to put in her bottle and see how she does with that.  I think we'll just have to keep working up till we get to solids with her.  It may take a little bit of patience and time but she'll get there.

Bri was unable to sit independently when she arrived here with us but today she sat for 15 minutes straight all on her own and did it multiple times!  She was not at all happy about it but we sang lots of songs and that helped a little.  I am so proud of her!  I don't think it will be long till she is sitting up on her own all the time!

One of our ayahs, Prameela, is very attached to Brianna already which has been so great.  She is looking out for her, making sure she is eating, and even this morning started helping me by doing some sensory activities with her.

This week has been a little rocky but I am so looking forward to the girl Brianna is going to become.  She is already getting more settled, sleeping through the night for the most part (which I am quite thrilled about!), and there are moments in the day when I get little glimpses of how she will be once she's adjusted and I am so excited!  I think she'll be one to pick up on things incredibly quickly and make fast progress once she gets over this first bump.  I can't wait!

Isn't she just the cutest?!  I am so incredibly in love with my little Brianna already and couldn't be happier to have a baby in the house!

Taking these beauties into our house was tough as the last 2 (Chloe and Charlotte) still are not fully sponsored and now we have 2 more who are completely unsponsored.  Will you please help us out and come alongside us to give these girls everything they need and deserve?  You can become a monthly sponsor of Selah or Brianna (or both!) by following the links below.  Trust me, you won't regret it.  You'll be making a tangible difference in the life of one of these precious little ones AND you'll also get updates with cute photos and stories of them in your inbox!  It's a win-win!

Selah's Sponsorship Page

Brianna's Sponsorship Page

Please keep these little ones in your prayers as they adjust and also Nikki and me as we try to help them as best we can.

And don't forget to share Selah and Brianna's stories with your friends!