It's been almost six years since we adopted Keilani and she was 9.5 months old when we got her. There were things looking back that she didn't/couldn't do due to being delayed. They say for every three months a child is in an orphanage, they are one month developmentally delayed. Keilani could not crawl or feed herself. After love and attention, she caught up quickly. Some orphanages have as many as 20 or more kids per nanny, that doesn't leave much time, love, or attention per child.
Mak is two years old. His fine motor skills need some work, but he is doing very well. Mak is from a Half the Sky (www.halfthesky.org) orphanage, which means the great people of Half the Sky have gone into his orphanage and helped train their nannies and make the living conditions better.
The one thing that absoloutely breaks our hearts is when he goes to sleep and/or cries, he rocks himself. Most institutionalized children do this to comfort themselves since there is nobody to do it for them. HEARTBREAKING as a parent to watch. We pray that he knows quickly that we are here to soothe him.
On a positive note, today has brought lots of smiles, laughs, touching, and mimicing. He will look at you and wave and say "hiiiiii"! This is the first thing that he has said that we understand =) We think he's babbling, but he's probably speaking Chinese...LOL!
We will post about today's experiences in a bit, there is a playroom sponsored by Mattel toys that is calling Keilani and she is bored so we need to go.
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