Haddie’s life update!

I have noticed lately that there has been quite a bit of traffic on our little story!  Yay God!  So I thought I would update you...

When we left off with Haddie’s story she had just come home.  I stopped adding to the blog because things became very, very difficult.  Haddie took over a year to attach to us but held out on attaching to me until a year and a half!!  We experienced biting, spitting, hitting, growling, spiritual warfare, night terrors, waking up punching, permissiveness, inappropriate behaviors, walking off with anyone....basically all the horror stories you hear about adoption, Haddie went through.  But who can blame her she knew nothing else.  She was seven years old, in a two year olds body and her world changed in one minute of court time!

Haddie started life over the day we met.  She has worked through her infant and toddler years in the short time she has been home.  Cognitively she is 6-7 now, which is a huge accomplishment only God could do!!!  She can now smile and express emotions which is HUGE!  Before she would just empty herself out when she was sad, mad, hurt or confused.  She smiles, cries (not often), laughs, gets excited, loves, cares and so much more now.  This again is HUGE!  She has come from an empty shell and is being made into a beautiful, smart, caring, loving, happy girl.  I am seriously in awe of how God is changing her everyday.

Yes we still have our battles and every day another one pops its ugly head up, but the strongholds of her life before are falling to the feet of the cross.  I would love it if our whole last two years were recorded because it has been the most fascinating 2 years of our lives.  To see God’s child grow from hopeless to hopeful is truly wordless! (She now wants 6 kids, a husband and two dogs).  She is up to a 2nd grade level in school now!  Again WOW God!

I am sharing all of this to have something for Haddie to read later on in life and see how hard God works on her and loves her.  Also I hope it encourages others to adopt and to keep faith and hope alive when things get hard.  Nothing is easy it will never be!  But living your life and loving the way God has called us all it so worth it!

So on to the pictures I will post them chronologically to give you a picture into the process of her growth.  By the way she has grown over 6 inches, 10 pounds and her hair....well that speaks for itself!
Also if you would like check this song and video out. Andrew and I wrote Grafted In soon after she came home.  https://youtu.be/c7vHASNao7Y

The Strongholds are dropping like flies....

We have had our moments but for the most part Haddie has been growing and opening up to us in the past few weeks.  Every day is progress and everyday she lets the wall down a little at a time.   She has given us glimpses into her life of strongholds or places in what she has learned to fear until she doesn't have any control over her responses.   One of these is her fear of reptiles; toy or real her response consisted of crying, running, screaming, heart rate went up, pure uncontrollable fear.  This breaks my heart to see such fear of something that seems so simple to me.  But she had a pure, true fear.  I say had because each day we took one step, one touch, and one experience closer until she got to a point where she ended up playing with them and enjoying it.  She also greatly feared our family dog.  This one took a few more weeks to work through again one touch, one step, and one experience to the point where she can now touch him and stand there with less fear and even enjoys his kisses.

Her fear of things reminds me of the promise from the Lord that we do not have to fear because He has us.  She has yet to truly learn about Jesus because of the language barrier but we pray over her and sing to her about His love, mercy and protection so that she can grow in her knowledge and walk towards Him.  

We had our first complete family pictures taken a couple weeks ago.  This was such a wonderful experience and Haddie loves pictures!  The new things she has learned are cutting, showering, playing, controlling herself in bed, going to sleep on her own, English words like love, please, thank you, stop,  names of her siblings, and many others.  Her favorite things to do are spending time with daddy, soccer, running, eating, anything with her siblings, cuddling and sleeping in the same room as Sarai.  

Your continued prayers are so appricated and needed.  She has yet to gain weight and we found out she has asthma and is very allergic to milk.  She is however very happy and overall very healthy!  Praise the Lord!

Adjusting...

We have hit the month point since Haddie has been home, over a month since she has been our daughter legally.  It has been quite the month full of adjustments, tears, smiles, laughes, firsts, sleepless nights, full hearts and so much joy!  Honestly no book could prepare us for this experience it is full of surprises and twists.  Haddie is adjusting very well as long as her siblings are around she is a happy little girl.  She is learning how to play, how to sit and look at a book, how to eat by herself, how to dress herself, how to bathe herself, and how to love.  We tell her all the time in Telegu how we love her but she has never responded to the words we say.  I honestly don't think she has ever heard it before.  So we now tell her we love her and she will randomly tells us "Mama I luv boo".  She goes through the line of siblings and daddy of course.  But she is learning love as she starts to blossom into a happy little girl instead of the scared, sad little girl we met the first day.

She gets scared and very sad when Noah, Eli, Gideon and Sarai are at practices and she is left home with me.  She misses them and part of me wonders if she thinks they will not come back.  So when they do walk in her smile brightens and she runs to daddy's arms and jumps right in.  She is adjusting well outside the house and in public places.  She no longer walks up to strangers and stays by us instead.  She has learned many english words and understands more then half of what we are saying when we add hand gestures.

Our first post-adoption home study went well Haddie knew our social worker was there about her so she stuck close and tried to impress her.  Can't wait till Haddie feels safe and secure enough to not feel like that.  God is so good to us and has supplied us with what we need in the past month patience, love, rest, friends, encouragement and understanding throughout the time.

                                              One of our weekly dance parties 😜

Thank you for your continued prayers and encouragement we need it.

Been awhile...

You could read a million books, get you bachelors and masters in counseling, prepare for over four years and still be so unprepared to bring home a sweet, innocent little seven year old girl.  This has been the most humbling, heartbreaking, honoring, and happy experience of our lives.  No one could ever prepare you enough to bring a little child into your family one who can't trust, speak your language, understand your habits and ways, who doesn't understand love, who has survived seven years with coping habits, and so much more.  No one could!  Only God!  And still we are not doing this on our own every second of the day we have to remind ourselves about our calling.  We are called to our girl. Jesus made her for us.

Please remind me of this Lord when I don't get any sleep, when I have to lovingly disapline a child who has been physically and emotionally scarred throughout her young life,  when I get so frusterated with myself for my own stubbornness and selfishness, when all I can do is hold her even though she is mad and rebelling against me, and when all I can do is stare at her face and wonder what she has seen.

Haddie girl you are loved, have been by our God since birth and by us for over 5 years now.  You are worth the sleepless nights, the humbling on our own parts, and change that happens with a new child. You are worth it all and so much more.  Thank you for being so brave.

Non-stop...Amazing Race over for the Moore Family

So it has seriously been non-stop since the passport.  Once we got to Delhi we made our appointments and Monday we got done early at her medical check so we thought hey lets try for the visa.  Well God blessed that and in a couple hours we had the visa in our hands so we thought why don't we just begin the FRRO process.  So over to that office after picking up her Visa paperwork.  So the Visa was a miracle they had it within a couple hours and it usually takes 24 hours.  God moved yet another mountain for this!!  So at the FRRO office (this is the office to get an exit permit for Andrew and I) we began the process that usually takes a few days.  This was the one hurdle I was not looking forward to the FRRO is my nemesis.

That is part of the Cara office in Delhi, just another spot we had to drop by on our race to get the FRRO.  Well with everything going so fast we decided we would change our flights and get home the next day.  The FRRO was not happy about this but instead of getting mad I prayed and God gave me peace that it would all work out, and right before they closed we had our exit permits in had and were taking off the next morning to come home.

We left at 4 am Wednesday morning for Arizona.  This was a surprise trip so we didn't tell anyone but my mom of course because she was watching the four back home.  So 30 hours later we landed in Arizona; totally worth all the change fees to be home two days earlier then scheduled.  OH and I Love the USA!!!!  Haddie knew all the kids from our twice a day facetime sessions.  She couldn't stop laughing and giggling and shaking from pure joy until jet lag hit.  She is amazingly adjusted to the family and happy to be home.  She has blossomed it's truly amazing!!

Haddie Bharathi Moore is home, happy, loved, and oh so wonderful.  Thank you Lord for your never ending faithfulness and the amazing mountains you have moved the last month.  You alone are unfailing and awesome!!!

Passport Miracle!!!

Yesterday started off a little rough. Haddie decided she was going to wake up grumpy. We had to roll with it and get this girl an Indian passport and we have had plenty of grumpy kids on our hands before so we were all in!  Our international uber skills have finally kicked in and we made it to the passport office at our appointed time of 11am. We tried to get in to wait because we were meeting a very kind government employee, Vinod at the passport office, but language differences and a very strange security guard prevented our entry, so we just stood outside and waited.  Until out of nowhere, our buddy Kumar shows up on his motor bike, and with a few smooth words to the guard we were granted immediate access to the subterrainian parking garage waiting room. Imagine a dark, dirty, basement level parking garage, wet with water dripping through the ceiling, rows of chairs within a caged area, and the lights literally flickering on and off. I promise I am not making this up! Wish we had pictures but we were strongly advised that pictures were not allowed. Hmmm I wonder why? As soon as Vinod showed up we were allowed up to the actual passport office. Haddie was initially processed around 12:30 and instead of leaving like everyone else we just sat back down and waited and prayed, and waited and prayed. By 3 the entire very large waiting room was completely empty except for the three of us. By 4 the government employees thought we were crazy and continued to inform us that passports never get issued on the same day and we should leave and wait for them to call us in a few days. By 4:30 the employees started to trickle out for the day, the janitors were mopping the floors around us and out of despair we asked if we could speak to an official. They sent someone down who stared at us from behind a glass wall for a few minutes. By 5 o'clock Vinod showed back up and with a smile mentioned that the official had decided to post Haddie's passport that day. We quickly learned that this meant we still would not actually receive the passport for around 3-4 more days. The story of course does not end there. We asked Vinod what else can be done, and after a few minutes he mentioned that we could try to request an immediate issuance directly to the director. The request was made and by 6:30 Haddie's freshly printed passport was in our hands! With tears in our eyes we thanked everyone still in the building but knew in our hearts we had truly just witnessed a small miracle.  Nobody reading this should ever doubt what God can do.

 

Us waiting at the passport office as they all went to lunch

 

Our friend Kumar helping us out yet again. 

Next day we picked up the rest of her paperwork from Vinod's office and said good bye to the wonderful people at the Courtyard Marriott in Hyderabad and went to the airport to fly to Delhi.  We loved everyone at the hotel they so kind and they loved Haddie!  They will be missed for sure by us .  So on to the flight,  which means first flight for the little miss Haddie Bharathi.  She did awesome no  tears or fears.  Although the she hated the seat belt, does not like being strapped down.

On to our Friday,  but homes Thursday night.  Woke up in Delhi and got Haddie's Max Med appointment done which was quite easy things get easier in Delhi, thank the Lord.  Then back to the much to nice for us hotel and out to the pool.  Haddie's first pool experience was so amazing to see.  If only we could hear her thoughts at the time.

   Please continue praying for the exit visa.  God you are so marvelous, and amazing thank you for each of these experiences with Haddie.