"NORMAL"

We took Amelia for a follow up hearing test on Friday last week. She had one done a few months ago as part of her post adoption work up from Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital in Orlando. In our referral for her it was stated that she had some hearing loss but the home that she was in reported to us that they did not see it and had her tested. They reported that everything was OK . When we got her home and had her tested there was "mild" loss of hearing in he left ear but the doctor felt it was because of fluid that was settled in that ear. He recommended and we followed through with getting tubes put in her ears. She has never had an ear infection but 100% of children with Cleft Lip and Cleft Palate will have tubes at some point because of fluid and or ear infections. Friday's appointment was the follow up post Tubes. We are Very happy to report that Amelia's hearing is 100% "NORMAL"!

This is such a big deal for us and more for her and her future. We know now that there are no issues related to hearing and that her speech delay is because of her anatomical issues and because for the first year of life Amelia was fed with a cleft bottle. With a Cleft bottle the milk/formula is dripped into the child's mouth from a bottle with what looks like spoon attached. This is because cleft babies can not suck a traditional bottle in the same way a non-cleft child can. That sucking action is such a big part of speech development and something Amelia never had. Once she had her cleft palate repaired she was eating soft foods and never took a nippled bottle until she became our daughter. We decided to let he regress and know it was OK to be a baby at 19 months old I started her on a bottle with a slow flow nipple and kept her on it until just recently. The benefit for attachment and bonding along with the speech issues out weighed any issue of her being to old for a bottle in my eyes.

All of this makes us very happy and grateful beyond measure that we took a leap of faith in regards to Amelia''s referral and the hearing issues that were reported. What if we had turned down her referral because we were to scared of the hearing loss? Oh My! I can't even go there to think she would not be our daughter is more then I can handle. We wonder how many children are out there on the Special needs list in China with miss diagnosis. If you are considering a Special needs child from China. My advice is read, do you home work, talk to each other and decide what you can handle and then take a leap of faith and know that whatever is supposed to be will be.

We know this because our

"Normal" girl proves it everyday.