Well, we've completed three full days at home with Jillian. So far, so good. We definitely have a long road ahead of us, but there are a lot of good signs.
Jillian seems comfortable at home and has made a good connection with her brothers, especially Jordan maybe. There's a lot that is new for her, obviously, from sinks that are too high to reach to lasagna for dinner, from grey rainy weather to the whole concept of roughhousing. I feel so bad for her, because she simply can't communicate well with us. Sure, it's hard for us, too, but it's definitely not the same. There's no one in this house she can talk to. Fortunately, she doesn't seem anxious and she's remarkably capable of figuring out what we're saying. We're making good use of Google Translate from time to time as well!
This morning we took her to visit her new school (Ben Franklin Elementary) and, man, was that a blessing. The principal, Mrs. Dilley, once again struck me as being totally student-centered and having a big heart for Jillian. Jillian's special needs didn't throw her off at all. We met the school psychologist, who seems great, and then got to take Jillian down to her classroom to meet Miss Hu, her teacher. Fortunately, the class was out for PE so Miss Hu was able to take five or even ten minutes to really focus on Jillian. She showed her the entire classroom, asked her questions, told her about how things work . . . all in Chinese. It brought tears to my eyes to think about how comforting it must be to Jillian to see this fantastic facility and know that she has a caring teacher who can communicate with her in her own language. She starts school on Monday.
Jeannette and I are still struggling a bit to get on a good sleep schedule. We fall asleep during the day and can get to sleep right away at night but then have long periods of time in the night when we can't sleep. Melody has not been feeling well so that's been an issue, too, as she's been dealing with a fever. We're hoping she's over it now, though.
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