5 months

But first, the peach report:

I have been obsessively checking the peaches, but they are still mostly hard or not quite ripe.  It's hard to gear up for the game and then have to wait and wait.  You need a critical mass to start canning, and we're definitely not there yet.  But I did start freezing some of the windfalls, and there's a crockpot of peach butter going right now.
My goal was to count peaches this year, and although I've already processed a bit, I'll try to keep track.  I always say we have tons of peaches, but the scientist in me wants to quantify.

Okay, 5 months--what's new?

It's feeling more and more like we have an almost two-year-old rather than a newly adopted child.  There's still a lot of toddler issues to deal with, of course, but I feel like they are mostly the ones that come with the territory.  She understands most of what we say to her (where she wants to is another story, of course), and the day-to-day operations seem to be getting a little easier.  For example, instead of coming to me and crying at my feet when it's time for a meal, I can say "if it's time to eat, where do you go?" and she says, "chair" and runs to her chair.  She's getting a bit pickier about eating, which is both encouraging and annoying.  At least she trusts that there will be more food and she can afford to turn up her nose at that delicious chicken shawarma.  Now we're getting into no pushing and trying to share, but like I said, normal toddler stuff.  :)

One potential issue for cleft lip and palate is speech.  It has been a little hard for me to judge Liz's speech, partly because she's learning a new language, partly because it's been a while since I had an almost two-year-old, and partly because our kids were both pretty early talkers.  So we made an appointment for an evaluation with a speech-language pathologist who specializes in CL/CP.  Within a few minutes of arriving, the SLP said she could tell Liz was perfectly fine.  Yay!  By the end of the evaluation, she placed Liz in the 'advanced' category and said just keep doing what we're doing.  I guess that's lots of reading and talking.  We talk a lot in this family.  :)

A friend was reminding me how nice it is to be able to look back on 5 months and see how much progress Liz has made, rather than looking forward and focusing on what is still challenging.  I was reminded again of how gracious God has been in Liz's life.  We (and others) prayed and prayed for all these things, and I know God must have delighted in saying, "Yes!"

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory..."  Eph. 3:20-21a

All done with ear tube surgery!  Bear got a mask and hair cover.  :)

I like to help out