Joy

Joy will be 4 years old in May. She came to us at 15 months old and quite delayed. She exhibited many disturbing things that caused concern for us. Mike, Jordan, and I all thought to ourselves that Joy had Down's Syndrome. After a few days of anguish, we voiced those fears among us. Despite our concerns, Joy progressed quite well, and was walking before we left China. She also learned to eat food while we were in China. We believe she only had bottles before she became our daughter.

Once we were home, I took Joy for a check at the doctor's office. He could see the same things in Joy that caused us to believe she had Down's Syndrome. We had her tested genetically for this condition. During the 2 weeks it took to get the results, we just loved her up, fed her healthy foods 3 times a day, and let her play all day long. Obviously, her results came back negative, but during that time, we knew that she was our daughter and we could handle it.

Although Joy is only 8 months younger than Eva, she does not have the same abilities as Eva. Before Eva was 2, she could do puzzles on her own, speak long sentences, and reason quite well. Joy has come a long way, and can now do many things. Some things she can accomplish that Eva cannot. One thing I noticed last year, was Joy could not answer me when I would ask "why" questions. If she was crying and I asked her why she was crying, her response would be, "I crying." She could answer me if I asked if she was hurt or needed to go potty, but never "why?". I realized that she never asked me "why?".  Eva is the Queen of Why, and she understood and asked that question all the time. Just recently Joy started asking me "why" to some of my statements. And, just recently, she has started to understand when I ask her "Why?".

So, here is a picture of Joy with her first completed puzzle. She was so proud that she did this on her own, and so am I!