Now You Know

I CANNOT believe that Jordyn has been home for 6 months. I am just in awe sometimes that she is here and so so so grateful to all that helped bring her home!! We are very grateful for everyone's support along the way!! It seriously takes a village :)

When she first came home (November 1st), it was starting to get colder outside. This winter was INSANELY cold and snowy and it is just now getting warm and we are breaking out of the house and playing outside. I love it and so do the kids. :)

What I have learned about Jordyn since my last update:

1. She LOVES her brothers. (ok, we already knew that!) When she hears them in the morning, she just about jumps out of her crib to go see them.

2. She is a bit of a drama queen if Dan doesn't say "HI" and pick her up the MINUTE he walks in the door from work. (Like palm facing out, hand over forehead, pouty lip type of drama). Is this girls?!

3. She loves shoes. She will bring me her shoes and insists on wearing them all day long.

4. She sings...A LOT. It is the first thing I hear in the morning and the last thing I hear at night.

5. She will do anything to be outside. If there is an opportunity to escape with her brothers out the back door, she will attempt it! It is a good thing that she takes about 3 minutes to get down the 2 inch step down onto the patio...otherwise she would be a free girl! ;)

6. Hide the batteries! If Jordyn sees one...right into the mouth it goes! She will even throw the remote on the floor to get the batteries out.

7. She loves to blow kisses. :)

8. She does not like getting her hair done each morning, but she loves headbands and bows being put in.

HIGHTLIGHTS from the past few months:

Jordyn started walking!!! (at 16 months)
She says a handful of words: shoes, Nana, Hi, Hot, "Shh," uh oh.
She can feed herself with a fork or spoon (kind of)
Warming up to "men." They often get the VERY cold shoulder from her and sometimes some tears.
Eating more of a variety of foods and textures.
Using a straw to drink.
Getting more teeth!!!
Growing two shoe sizes since coming home!!! Jordyn was an itty bitty size 2 when she came home and now she is rocking size 4. (I even had her feet measured when we got home. I was convinced that the size 3 shoes I had ran big.....but nope, she was just tiny).

Ups and Downs in the last 3 months:

Good ol' attachment. If you are in the "adoption world" this is a word that you hear often. Jordyn had to adapt to new caretakers a few times before coming home to us, so she knows how to go with the flow very well. Even though she was only 1 year old, she still needed to learn that we were mom and dad and that we aren't going anywhere.

I really believed that Jordyn was "doing well" in this department during the first three months. But then something changed and she seemed to be "detaching" from me...and only me. We had some big changes in our routine for about 2 weeks and I think that was one factor that triggered this change. (But I am not an expert...so it could have been a million things.) After a great 3 and a half months home, she wanted nothing to do with me and everything to do with ANYONE else.

I took this rejection personal at first and didn't even want to acknowledge it. However, it was obvious to my husband that his two girls were very sad. I didn't understand and it hurt to love her SO MUCH, show her affection, take care of her needs, and still experience her leaping out of my arms and into strangers' arms and then swatting at me when I took her back. I kept getting sick and I really think it was from the stress of trying to "fix" this with my own strength. This was something that we had prepared for before she came home, but now that we were in the middle of it, I didn't know what to do. :) Thankfully, I have an amazing husband that was willing to help in any way possible, friends who had been through this already, and more friends and family supporting us in prayer. Most of all, I have an awesome God that wasn't going to call us to this and then leave us high and dry.

After a month+ of hibernating (again) with Jordyn, I started to see positive changes. I am still careful not to push her beyond her comfort zone at this point, but we are definitely on the upswing right now. During that time of hibernation, I was trying to be at home as much as possible. I was also rocking her to sleep again each night and visiting her in the middle of the night when she would just spend hours hanging out. Most importantly, I was praying over her while she slept. We spent many mornings listening to Hillsong United's song ,Oceans. It was one of the few ways (at the time) that I could get her to relax in my arms. She would just lay her head on my shoulder and I would rock and hit repeat on the song....too many times in a row. And cry. And pray. And cry. And pray.

So many lines in this song are encouraging, but I especially love the reminder of, " my feet may fail when fear surrounds me, but You've never failed and you won't start now." God is not going to call us or you to ANYTHING and then just leave you when times get tough. I know that our journey of healing Jordyn's little heart is not over. I am just thankful that we don't have to do any of this in our own strength.

One day, I told Dan that I felt like I was a nerdy girl in high school that was in love with the star quarterback on the football team. The quarterback wanted nothing to do with me and made that known, but I just kept putting myself out there and showing my love for him. ;) Of course, my husband (and friend Amy) both reminded me of the same thing.....this all was a picture of God's unfailing and relentless love for us.
God pours out His love on us, wants to take care of our needs, be our friend, and to be our Father. He keeps loving and loving and loving us. And we keep rejecting, rejecting rejecting. I finally got to feel the hurt that my Father in Heaven feels when His children don't respond to his amazing love. Looking at it with different eyes definitely helped. And Jordyn was not trying to hurt me. She was just expressing the hurt and loss that she had already suffered.

This precious girl and her mama are doing well. :) I am sure that events in life, changes in routine, etc., may cause some more bumps in the road, but it is nothing we can't handle while we are trusting God and His promises.

(If you want to know more about attachment in adoption there are so many great articles and blogs out there. There are 2 that I have in mind right now, but am having a hard time locating them. AHH! :) So I will add those when I find them. But here was one that I did track down. HERE
And if you wanted more information on everything adoption, "CHOSEN" adoption ministry has an amazing Facebook page full of resources, information, and good reads. I encourage you to check it out HERE.

Happy Jordie!

Not a fan of a head scarf.

Everyday life with 3 brothers......

Just got a (Ninja Turtles) tattoo from her brothers :) Lucky girl.

Aaron telling me how he chased a fast squirrel!

Two of my heroes!! (Aaron and Josh)

In case you can't tell, this is a picture of superheroes baking a cake in the oven. Obviously! ;)

Watching their little sister "jumping" on the trampoline.

Josh and Jordyn were waiting patiently for Aaron during his speech therapy. What a lady. ;)

At cousin Grace's 4th birthday party :)

Family hike

In the church nursery :)

Strutting her stuff!

Easter Egg hunt at church

Easter egg hunt at pre-school

Hanging out with her big brothers.

Party of 6.

Love these kiddos and my teammate on the left.

Grancy, Pop, Grandmom (hidden behind Jordyn) and the grandkids!

The Videon Family plus Mudge :) The matching colors were NOT planned...ha. Too funny.

Here is a short video we took for our agency's 6 month post-adoption report.
It is fun to watch how far she has come. :)

Thank you for sharing in our journey.
God is still writing our story
and I am excited to see where He takes us from here!!

3 months home and pretty excited about it!

It is pretty hard to believe that Jordyn has been home for 3 months. Honestly, it feels a lot longer. I am not sure if that is just from being tired ;) or because she fits so well as another member of the "Videon Old Testament Crew." At this point, I would have expected her big brothers to be "over" the newness of having her home. Not even close. She is a celebrity in our house and the boys will run from wherever they are to greet her in the morning. They are totally in love with her and are constantly taking credit for all the new things she learns. :)

Her adjustment so far has been going well. She seems to LOVE the attention from the boys and snuggles from Dan and me. She also loves being held and we try to do it as much as possible knowing that she missed out on lots of holding and snuggling during her first year. She just started crawling (still scooting too) and is now pulling up to a standing position. AMAZING because 3 months ago she could not bear any weight on her legs and would cry when we straightened them. She is also eating much better now. When she first came home, she wasn't eating solids yet (at 1 year old) and would gag on anything we gave her. The first 6 weeks were hard with feedings and she gagged during every meal. She still has some learning to do in the food department, but overall she is making a ton of progress.

Each night when I put her to bed, I still can't believe that we get to be her Mom and Dad forever. We know her so much more than we did when she came home and I am looking forward to living life with this sweet and sassy little gal.