Belle's first time to the beach! Prayer Request

We spent a wonderful week of Thanksgiving in Naples, Fl. Belle felt the sand for the first time and loved it. She also loved the pool and getting beat by the waves in the ocean-salt water did not bother her one bit! She is developing so well except for her speech. Please be praying for her surgery this coming Friday, Dec. 16 at Vanderbilt. They will be doing tubes (and can hopefully get one in her small ear) and doing an ABR test to see if she can hear. Right now-the fluid is blocking her from hearing thus delaying her speech. We are hopeful that this is all that it is but there is also a chance she could be partially deaf. I hate that I have waited so long to update the blog! I hope to capture her first steps soon on here-she just started last week and she is a busy busy girl around the house AND eating like a horse these days!

The Pereira clan soaking in the rays!

Luke is an amazing older brother-he truly loves her!

Meeting Aunt Maggie and Uncle Carl for the first time!

Mama with her 2 baby girls! She loves the water!

All girl-accesorizing already!

The lifesize gingerbread house at the Ritz!

Belle's Crab Crawl

Wednesday, Aug. 17-Summer winding down!

Wow-lots has happened in the last 10 days! We went to see her plastic surgeon for the first time on Aug. 10. She has microtia-a term meaning small ear. About 1 in 5,000 children at born with this condition. He suggested we wait until about 5 years of age before we do the surgery. That way-she will have grown more into her ears and it is a good time before they start school. It is a 4 part surgery. The first two are more painful because they have to take cartilage from her chest. The last 2 surgeries are out patient. Dr. Kelly would put the final touches on her ears and pin the larger ear back. Thankfully-we wont have to worry about that for several more years. We go next month to the inner ear doctor. We will see how her inner ear and bones are formed and check her hearing. We are praying that her small ear is fully formed internally but if it is not-we have the best doctors that will help us navigate hearing issues. So far she seems to follow noise and sounds very well.
Belle has also been a part of helping us celebrate Anna Caroline turning 5 and Luke turning 8! She loves watching us eat dinner at night as a family from her bouncy seat. She continues to love the pool as you will see from the photos that follow. She loves watching her brothers ride a bike or play basketball from her stroller chair we keep out by the garage. Belle is just now starting to get the sensation of putting weight on her feet. She is getting so strong and is starting to hold herself in a seated position for longer periods. She is also breaking a third tooth! I continue to marvel at how much the kids truly enjoy playing with her and trying to get her to laugh. I am most thankful that she has attached well to both of us so far. She reaches for me often and my heart just fills up because she knows I am her mama! Thank you friends for helping us "make it over the hump" of being home a month now-your food, e-mails, prayers, and dropping in on us has made us feel very loved. Luke, Meyer, and Anna Caroline start school tomm so we are off for a big drop-off in the morning. The kids have asked if they can bring their new pride and joy for "show and tell!"

enjoying the last few days of summer as a family! 

Luke is smitten with his sister!

Belle likes watching all the activity outside!

Aunt Rebecca comes for a visit

Huths get to meet her for the first time

Hannah Huth has the touch! She loves those babies! 

Belle is flourishing and getting strong!

We have started Belle on a 90 day low strength dose of antibiotics for her kidneys. She has put on close to 2 pounds in the month we have had her! Our gotcha day was July 4 so we are celebrating having her one month now! She is slowly learning how to sit up on her own-she will sit up for several seconds and then start to topple over. She is getting her top two teeth in full bloom and her hair is growing out quickly. She is starting to get very attached to mommy and loves to be in my arms. Michael has been so sweet to her which is an answer to prayer-we knew it could go either way-being very jealous or very loving-they are only 15 months apart. Luke, Meyer, and Anna Caroline are really enjoying her as well. Anna Caroline brings her dolls all day long that she wants her to learn to hold. She will bring piles of blankets and lovies and put them beside the bouncy seat. It is amazing to see the built in nuturer that she has become! One very big highlight this past week has been having our cousins Tatum and Chloe from Tampa in town for almost a week! We took them to the lakehouse and had fun playing around the house and in the pool with Belle. They were a welcomed set of extra hands to help with all the kiddos!

Her shirt says "southern Belle"

Belle with Livy-a precious girl who was adopted from china

Working with siblings on trying to sit up

Meyer and his baby sister-we love her smiles!

She loved the boat and being at Rock Island!

daddy and his first mate!

Chloe and Anna Caroline on dock with Belle

Tatum and Chloe in pool with Belle-she loved it!

Belle in her pink tutu suit! 

All the girls-with the Jeansonne girls! 

Piling on the trampoline with cousins!

Pin Wheel Pic! 

Belle is loving the action! 

Most Results are In!

I am up late tonight (thursday night) just rejoicing in the many prayers we have had answered.
This morning we saw a pediatric urologist for her enlarged kidney. He was able to show us on the ultrasound where the fluid was building up. He seemed to feel fairly confident that her condition-this hydro nephrosis-will go away eventually on its own. They do want to keep an eye on it every 3 months so we will repeat the ultrasound and see if she is better or worse. In the meantime-he wants to preventatively get her on some low dosages of antibiotics to help prevent a bad kidney infection possibly. Surgery is an option down the line but it is not necessary right now. Next-we went to the pediatric cardiologist and found that her heart is perfectly normal and healthy! We are so thankful! We will go to the inner ear specialists and plastic surgeon next month but as far as we can tell-she is hearing really well and responding to us! Our pediatrician called yesterday and said that all of her bloodwork can back normal...we are super grateful for that as well! TEIS (tennessee early intervention service) came out today and did an evaluation for us. It is a free service offered to those kids who are "delayed" and they help with all kinds of therapy-several people have told us they are great people who do their work well. She will have a customized plan for her in the coming months BUT I think main therapy will be engaging with all her siblings around the house! It will be good for me to learn some of their therapy techniques so I am eager to learn. She is already doing better trying to sit up on her own and she is holding toys on her own now. She has put on a full pound in the 3 weeks we have had her and we can tell that she is changing so much from the nourishment. She just seems stronger to us overall even though she is still so small.

Meeting cousins on Pereira side! Her second week home!

Its the second week home now! She seems to be getting settled into her own crib now and is starting to sleep through the night. We are seeing small strides in her gaining strength. She is grabbing for our fingers and toys now. She is beginning to like bouncy seat some and eggersaucer. She is actually eating some baby food for the first time-she only likes the all natural home made kind that Lilian makes so we are glad. We are thankful she is learning to use her tongue and experience some textures. It may be awhile before we begin introducing anything harder since she only has a speck of a tooth showing! She likes vanilla and chocolate pediasure only-not berry or banana! She is like her daddy-loves that chocolate flavor!
We are still awaiting her blood test results which we should get back any day. We went to vanderbilt last week and had all her bloodwork done-she hated it! Thankfully-a sweet friend went with me so i did not have to be the one pinning her down. We also got an ultrasound. The pictures revealed that she has an inflamed kidney-the condition is called hydro nephrosis. We will go in this thursday and meet with one of the best pediatric urologists at vandy about this condition and any other findings. Hopefully-we can gain a much better understanding of what this means at her appt. Then-we go have her echocardiogram after that appt. Our prayer is that her heart would be perfect! Please pray as we continue to get her little body examined and determine what health needs we may be facing. We feel really at peace knowing that our great God "has formed her innermost parts and knows them well." It is such a huge relief knowing that the Lord already knows every little detail about her formation.

One of the highlights this past weekend was having all of Tim's family together and all the cousins getting to love on her for the first time! I must say-this little Belle was one loved on little gal all weekend! Belle has 11 cousins and counting so far!

Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Rudi from Ohio

The girls all sewed Belle pillows!

We are thankful for Emma who just had a heart repair!
She enjoyed holding her new cousin!

Pool Time!

Lizzy and Luke with Belle!

Aunt Rudi with ballerina girl at RCC for first time!

So smitten!

We are working on trying to learn to sit up!

First Doctor Appointment!

Today we went to see our pediatrician who has been wonderful with all of our kids. He sees a lot of adopted kids so he is experienced and knows what to expect. Thankful he has walked this road with us and helped us make an informed decision-even though there are always lots of unknowns based on the limited into/photos you get in a referral sometimes. She totally feels like ours! Cant imagine her not being a Pereira.
We spent a good 2 hours there and got her looked over from head to toe. He answered a lot of my questions I had about her-from what to feed her, to constipation, to her joints popping, and her sweating!
She is like a 6 month old on growth chart in an 18 month old body. She has"severe delays"in development but I know we can catch up! We will be going to therapists for occupational therapy, speech therapy, and physical therapy and thankfully there are lots of good resources out there and suggestions he had! We had 5 vaccines yesterday and attempted to get 6 viles of blood (but only were able to get 2). Her veins are super small and you cant see them at all-nurses were so sweet. We will go down to Vanderbilt Children's today and try and get all her blood we need so he can run all the tests he wants to run. Pray for mama-whew! So hard to see them screaming so loud and getting poked and prodded! They sometimes go into their head vein-i am not a needles person either! Her kidney ultrasound is scheduled for Friday am. Dr. White had already lined up appts with specialists. We will have an echocardiogram, see the ear specialist, plastic surgeon, etc, We will know more about her overall health once we get all the data back. I look forward to learning exactly how to work with her on her gaining strength. She is already holding her head up better. She has extreme "laxity of the joints" so hopefully wtih the vitamins we are starting and pediasure we are pumping her with/exercises we are doing with her she will gain strength quickly. We continue to covet your prayers and we are thankful for all the amazing medical professionals here in our backyard!

When Love takes you In-Everything Changes!

morning snuggle time with Meyer and friend Eric

Fresh out of bath-I smell better now! I sweat a lot! 

 Kissable lips! 

bath time last night! 

 2 sweet cousins almost the same age!

All 5 with daddy-she loves water now!

papaw loving on belle!

my new magargee friends

We are back home safe and sound!

We arrived back safely at 8:30 pm on wednesday Night. We could not believe her Homecoming at the airport. Our hearts were overjoyed at the family and friends who took time out of their night to greet us and meet Belle.

Tim and I were afraid to take ambien on the way home because we wanted to be fully aware/awake for her so we were exhausted for thursday and friday. She did amazing for all three legs (about 20 hours total). She fussed maybe for 30 minutes on the really long 13 hour leg. That was just a huge answer to prayer for us. We smelled like sweat and were so ready for a shower. We never had much time between connections and customs so we were hungry and I was running low on diapers and formula-BUT WE MADE IT!

Thank you Lord for your protection over us and that there were no hitches and delays on our return! Thank you friends for reaching out to us over these past few days and making Belle feel so very loved and special.

There is no doubt in our minds that she was hand picked for our family. She seems to be adjusting well so far. The kids completely smothered her all day Thursday. My parents left that day so we were all sad to see them go but I know they must have been exhausted and tired themselves. They never once complained and they got a chance to really know our kids personalities over the past 2 weeks. They took them to doctors appointments, fireworks, to and  from camps, Radnor, shopping, out to dinner, pool time, bedtime-you name it! Thankfully-Tim did not have to go to work thursday and friday so we could spend time teaching our children how to attach to their new sister. We have spent hours getting unpacked, laundry, mail, e-mails, grocery-we are finally coming up for air! Finally got a nap in today! Belle is learning to adjust to her own room/crib and all the toys she has never seen. We are slowly letting her experience the eggsersaucer, bouncy seat, swings, etc. She seems to really follow noises well and likes to see what action is going on amongst her siblings. It has been fun to have friends stop by and want to meet her. Today was her first big outing. We went to a pool party. Again-Luke and Meyer and Anna Caroline are just in awe of her and want to introduce her to their friends. Michael is a total toddler-likes her but in his own little world. We are just trying to keep a close watch on him since he likes to swing things and find markers and write on things these days!

Tonight is Saturday night and we hung out by our pool together and she really loved to be in the water and watching the others swim. She also ate a tiny bit of the rice we were having for dinner-a yummy dish that Grandma Ellie had made for us. She ate a tiny bit of baby food yesterday. She loves her bottle best and she took some whole milk for the first time this morning! We are just slowly introducing it all to her. She is also barely cutting a tooth-yipee! Tonight when I was laying her down she actually had enough muscle control to pick her arms up and wrap them softly around my neck-made me tear up a little. Her great grandmother Nannie also left her a message today on the answering machine. I get emotional about all of this because it is such a gift for her to even have a great grandmother and she has been sooooo warmly welcomed into both of our families with grace, love, and hope-A picture of Christ's love for us. He comes to us with open arms and without judgement.

I better go to sleep now! We are going to attempt church in the morning with all 5! Love to all and hope you can see her precious ways from the photos. Please be praying for her doctors check-up this Tuesday if Belle comes to your mind.

All the little kids who came-such a treat for us! Will post some clearer ones later 

from those who got better photos! 

Meeting Cece for the first time!

Meeting uncle and Papaw for first time

Meeting Grandma Ellie for first time!

A priceless Homecoming for baby belle! Her new family!

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First night at home! Boys cannot wait to snuggle!

Anna Caroline shows off her Matching outfits she found with cece! She wants to dress up her sister 

like her! Guess Belle will have to wait on all the "accessories!

Mommy Time at Night!

 Luke in his new silk chinese pajamas! 

Thank you friends for the posters! She will know one

day how loved she is! We loved y'all greeting us with a warm welcome!

First bath ever! She took a baby one at the hotel but this was first "real one" last night!

Meyer is in heaven holding her-she loved it and did not cry! 

Luke giving his first bottle to her!

Luke is in his element!