In Which Connor Feels Much Better And We Find A Therapist

Connor is feeling so much better today!

His rash looks dramatically better, and he didn't throw up a single time today!  The Benedryl did keep him pretty zonked, but he seemed to be way more comfortable anyway.  Sleep is probably just what he needs to help him recover. 

The plan today was to take down the Christmas lights now that the snow is all melted (yes I know it's over a month after Christmas-- don't judge me) but it rained.  So instead I took a bunch of stuff to Goodwill and Jeremy made another dump run.  Apparently the line for the dump was out of the facility and down the street because everyone was dropping off the tree limbs that had during the ice storm; our dump takes yard waste for free and makes compost and wood chips out of it.  So we're going to hold off taking the one small tree branch that came down in our yard and our Christmas tree (don't judge!!) to the dump until Monday, when hopefully everyone will be at work and I won't have to wait for two hours to drop them off.

Other errands today included a trip to the bookstore-- which sadly takes over half an hour to get to now since the one near us shut down-- and a visit to the post office to restock my supply of boxes for Ellen's care packages.  Ellen's Christmas and birthday letters finally came back from translation, so I can put her care package in the mail first thing tomorrow morning!  I ultimately decided to whittle down and combine the two care packages rather than send her two separate boxes really close together.  We don't want to overwhelm her with stuff, and she'll be getting a February package in a few weeks.  Hopefully our adoption agency will be visiting her orphanage soon as well!

Speaking of Ellen, I made an exciting discovery last week!  I found a marriage and family therapist nearby who specializes in adolescence, has experience with adoptive families, lived in Thailand for a number of years and is fluent in Thai!  Ellen is an extremely resilient, intelligent and brave girl and she wants to be adopted, but any child who is adjusting to a new country, culture, language and family-- especially a teenager-- is likely to have a difficult time (who wouldn't?) and we want to have resources immediately available for her should she need them. 

I called and spoke with the therapist, and not only is she more than happy to see Ellen should she need a listening ear, but she'd also be willing to meet with us before we leave for Thailand to help us figure out the best way to ease our daughter's transition into our family.  I'm really thankful that we've found someone who Ellen wouldn't need a translator to communicate with and who is extremely familiar with Thai culture.

Can't wait to get our daughter home!

~Jess