Victoria 6-30-11

I got to snuggle Victoria on Wednesday night, as planned.



She is a precious girl. She is truly soaking up the love and stimulation that is now (finally!) being offered to her. In the orphanage, she was in a laying room. These rooms are so called because the children lay there alone, often sedated, with virtually no interaction at all.

The caretakers in the orphanage told her mother that "she was like a plant". That she was not intelligent and would never be.

I am here to tell you, confidently, that she has A LOT going on behind those beautiful blue/gray eyes of hers. She played a very quiet game of peek-a-boo with me on Thursday morning. No smile, but her eyes got brighter and brighter with every repetition. She is also a very observant player. She watches everything like a hawk, turning the toys offered to her over and over, looking at everything.

She tucks into your neck listening to your heart, sucking your love from you. I swear you can hear her heart growing with hope if you listen hard enough.

She looks like she will be getting to go home sooner than was originally expected. They put in an NG tube while I was there and it settled well and they are confident that it will help her gain the needed weight. Although, after 8 hours after I got there, she finally decided to drink a bottle of Boost. I have NEVER seen a bottle go empty so fast in my life. EVER. (And lest you think I do not have experience, I have babysat, worked childcare, and I have 4 kids of my own!) It seriously looked like a cartoon or a special effect on a movie. *Zhoooomp! GONE!!* If she decides something, she doesn't do it by halves!!

Catherine, Victoria's mother, said that after they go home, meals and a little care-taking support would be wonderful.

I will post up links to a care-taking page and a meal sign-up page on Facebook this weekend, I am still setting them up. They have had people sign up enough to take care of them through the 5th, when I talked to Kelly last night. Lots of thanks, if this was you!!

Don't forget to be praying for Victoria and her sister Francesca and their family. They will both have a lot of adjustments and physical battles ahead...but after meeting these tiny girls, I can assure you, they are fighters!! And now that they have hope? Look out world!!