Please pray for Alea...

My friend Linny just put up a challenge on her blog called "Crazy Love Challenge #2".  The first one was about a month ago or so and if you scroll down on her blog, you can read about it too.  This challenge was laid down to encourage each of us to pray for the other.  There are amazing things that can happen when God's people pray for each other!  So...here's my prayer request.

We adopted my sweetie girl Alea from Kazakhstan a year and a half ago.  She was born two months premature and struggled getting healthy in the middle of a Kazakh winter.  She went to the orphanage after her first two and a half months of life only to return to the hospital two weeks later with pneumonia.  We met her when she was seven and a half months old.  She was a beautiful baby and we instantly fell in love with her.

While in Kaz, we were acutely aware of her developmental delays, but they all fit within the parameters of what happens to an institutionalized child.  We were also aware that there were many unknowns.  We KNEW that this was our child, and we were going to fight for her.

Since bringing her home, she has brought so much joy and life to our home.  We have definitely had our difficulties and that is what led me to have her tested by a professional.  We saw an occupational therapist last week to have her evaluated.  She was showing some difficulties in processing stimuli and was still behind in her development.  I have to say, we had her evaluated a year ago with our birth to three program in our school district and they said that she didn't qualify.  Now, almost a year later I sought out someone else and they have definitely qualified her for help.

Actually, they are very concerned about  her neurological development.  She scored very low and her motor skills are very behind.  The interesting thing about all of this is that she seems just fine to the normal mom or dad or person walking down the street.  I think that is why it has taken so long to get to this point.  We finally see the "right" person and they see it all.  I knew I wasn't crazy, I just wish I had pushed it earlier.

We were told today that we will need to go through a Neurodevelopmental Screening with a team of Doctors at Children's Hospital.  She is developmentally far enough behind in her fine and gross motor skills that they are concerned that she may have some problems neurologically.  We knew when we adopted her that there was a possibility of learning problems and such because of her prematurity.  But....she hasn't shown anything so terribly off of the scale that has caused us to wonder.

Alea does have some Sensory Integration Issues.  She gets overstimulated quite easily and quickly and will either melt down or shut down.  We never really know which one it will be.  We don't go to very many places with her unless we know we can make a quick escape.  It has been ages since my family has gone out to eat together(I guess that's not such a bad thing) ;O)  We can't go to the boys baseball games together.  One or the other needs to stay home with Alea.  She gets too overwhelmed with all of the visual and auditory stimuli.  She will then go up to any stranger, after rejecting my arms, and ask them to hold her.  It's as if she's saying, mommy you won't fix it so I'm going to ask this person to do it.  The sensory issues affect attachment, so in order to protect my girl and help her to grow, I can't take her into situations like that.

An Occupational Therapist can help us with these issues, and has alot of hope that Alea will be able to overcome these sensitivities.  Alea will also need speech and physical therapy.  The main concern though, is her brain.  That is why we have to go to Children's.  That is why all the hype.  We don't know what happened to my sweet angel baby girl when she was born, or during the time she was in the orphanage without a family to love her.

   She is an absolute blessing to our family and I can't imagine life without her smiling face.  She has grown and blossomed into a spunky, funny, spitfire of an angel!  Will you please pray with us for my daughters physical, neurological and emotional healing?  We know and believe that God has a plan for her life, and it is to prosper her and not to harm her, to give her a hope and a future.(Jer 29:11)  Alea is not a mistake or an accident.  She was placed in our exact family for God's purposes to be fulfilled in her life.  I'm just so thankful that she is my daughter.  I wouldn't choose another one over her for all of the world.

We chose her name on purpose.  It is:  ALEALANI FAITH.   Alealani means...beautiful chosen child from Heaven(God).  And Faith...no explanation necessary:O)  She is truly our beautiful chosen child from God.  Thank you all for all of your prayers!!!!  I can't tell you how much I covet them and thank God for all of you praying.  God Bless You!

My sweet angel                                                                                   My spunky angel