Hard fought victories are the sweetest

Doing a puzzle has always been easy for Sophie. She is just naturally capable of doing most things that are at her age level or above, even though she spent her first 2 1/2 years in an orphanage. Isabelle on the other hand has lagged behind in many areas since the beginning. When we adopted her at 11 months she couldn’t even sit up. She was like a rag doll for the first few days. Her sensory issues combined with her slow start developmentally have made her progress steady, but sometimes painfully slow. But just in the last month or so, she has started to show remarkable progress. She is verbalizing more and more, and will do her best to repeat almost anything we say. She has also started to follow basic commands without any gestures or pointing. The other day Sophie pulled out this puzzle and we all sat down and started on it. I was amazed to see that Isabelle remembered where some of the pieces went. She even recognized it when she put the letter “I” in upside down and, without any help, turned it the correct way. It was one of those moments that make your heart overflow with pride and admiration for a child who has come such a long way. An amazingly long way. I feel most blessed to be enjoying the ride with my precious Isabelle.