As I reflect
on the year of 2014, I can think of so many of God’s blessings. Joyah Mi Ni was promised to us on January 14th
and last Christmas we celebrated with her in mind but not yet home. This year, she has been home 10 months and
celebrated Christmas as a McNutt. It
didn’t take long for her to figure out that presents and Christmas lights were
pretty fun. She calls all lights, even
police car lights “pretty” now.
Looking back
on last January we were excited to announce Joyah’s future arrival and anxious
to receive travel approval which eventually happened in March. We had so much to try to prepare for but God
provided the expenses and needs as they came up. Wow, so much has changed in one year!
Since
arriving home, Joyah has gone from a crawler (only on a bed) to a walking,
bouncy 2 year old little girl. Her hair
has grown; she wears “pretty” bows and adores the glasses that she now
wears. She is able to drink independent
from a straw, eat with a fork/spoon and say “Love you”. All of this seems so simple, but for
Joyah it’s not simple as the doctors were unsure if any of this would ever
happen. She has overcome a lot and test
results would say, she shouldn’t be able to do the things she can do.
Joyah
recently moved into the “2 year old” classroom at the daycare she attends twice
per week and has been a little jabber box about it. The stimulation of older peers seems to be
great for her and has encouraged her will to try to talk and properly
annunciate words a little more. It also
forces her to use the “bad” left eye more when we are patching her “good” right
eye for the morning hours.
In December
we revisited the Ophthalmologists’ for a check up on Joyah’s vision. Her left eye that previously could see
basically nothing when the right eye was patched, is now seeing out of the left
corner. Her left eye will point toward
her nose but she is able to see objects on her left side. She is avoiding walls and obstacles much more
and can even poke food with her fork when she wants to while patched. We are so thankful that the Lord is allowing
her eye to improve.
Joyah also
began to receive therapy services from CCVI (Children’s Center for Visually
Impaired) in December. These therapists
are able to provide physical, occupational and speech therapy services with her
visual impairment in mind. She has
already received many educational materials and visual aids that will help her
improve in all areas of development.
The biggest
challenge that we as parents face is Joyah’s lack of will to try hard to
succeed. It is hard work to constantly
push a 2 year old to work on therapeutic activities that require her effort
when she would rather not do anything at all.
She was babied so much prior to her adoption that she would rather be
held all day and never walk or climb a stair.
Simple tasks can be a big challenge for her, such as using her right
hand to pick up a puzzle piece but for a child who has lack of control in that
hand and has a strong will against trying to get better at things, you can
begin to understand the parent/child battles that occur.
Even in the
midst of the challenges that God has given to us, it’s hard not to reflect on
the blessings that occurred as well. God
is always ready to help us with our challenges and I know that through it all
he will be there for us and will make us stronger. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power
is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Cor.
12:9
