In April, our vivacious Ruth turned six years old.
There is so much I can say about Ruth. She is the definition of her names: A Loyal Friend who Brings Victory (Ruth Veronica) and We Hope You Always Have More Than You Need (Xia GuYu -Xia is summer, Gu is a type of grain such as rice or barley, Yu means abundant - so the feeling behind her Chinese name is that when the harvest comes in, we hope you will have more than you need). Ruth is a consistent friend to her sisters.
She has made victory after victory medically and academically. Since coming home to us, she has always had everything in abundance - love, medical care, family, friends, books, home, etc.
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| Ruth someday hopes to own a mini-cow |
Ruth has a deep love and curiosity about her Chinese heritage. While I often don't have the answers to her questions, we try to always be open and honest with her at the level which she understands. Recently the older girls were asking what foods I craved when I was pregnant with them to see if they are foods they like (it all started with a discussion on belly buttons and why we have them and what their purpose was). Since we obviously don't know what food Ruth's birth mom ate, we had a great chat on what Ruth loves most (coffee, fruits, rice) and what she can't stand (peanut butter, all nuts). She often asks deep and hard questions or makes difficult statements. When I don't know the answers I tell her what I do know. I wanted her. I chose her. She is loved. She is cherished. And it's okay to ask hard questions and wonder about her China family.
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| Coffee Lover |
A therapist recently suggested that we try role playing when she was a baby. I got out a baby blanket, laid her down and swaddled her like a newborn. I told her the whole time things like: If I had you when you were born, I would have laid you down like this. I would have wrapped you up nice a snug like this. I would have picked you gently up like this. I would have cradled your head like this. I would have rubbed your little head like this. I would have rocked you like this. We did this back maybe in February. Interestingly, as we got closer to her birthday she did this with one of her dolls. Wrapped her up, rocked her, held her. And while it doesn't replace what she has lost, it did seem to fill an emotional void in her life. I gave her clothes (preemie) for her birthday and told her this is the outfit I would have dressed you in to bring you home from the hospital. This is how tiny you were. She has loved finding the right size doll to fit the clothes and is so fascinated by this.
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| Ruth & Baby Ruthie all wrapped up |
Despite her big and deep feelings, Ruth is also still very much a six year old girl. She loves movies. Since she has older sisters she watches things that I wouldn't have let the other kids watch, but she's kind of obsessed with "Baby Yoda" [Grogu]. She likes to play pretend and make believe with her older sisters. She and Caroline continue to be best friends (although if one of them is having a bad day, they DO fight on occasion). Ruth and Caroline still sleep in the same bed and it's a punishment to be separated. Ruth is a remarkable tree climber. She's so tiny but can shimmy up a tree like nobody's business.
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| These two are always up a tree |
Ruth loves the hobby farm life. If I'm working in my lavender beds, she's right there with me. She is always helping Trent water in the vegetable garden. She's great at picking strawberries. When I harvested my lavender last summer she was the only kid who stuck it out with me the whole time. Honeysuckle is ripe now and she helped pick a full bucket for me. We watch a show on YouTube called LiZiQi about a Chinese woman who grows, harvests, and creates traditional Chinese dishes, so I'm always calling her my little LiZiQi. She loves it.
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| She LOVES to drive the mower like a wild woman! |
Ruth is really, really smart. She finished Kindergarten this year and did really well. She had a Science worksheet about parts of the body and their functions. Of the brain, lungs, intestines, stomach, heart and liver, the only one she didn't know without reading the book was the liver. And she can tell you now! [It cleans your blood]. She's excellent and quick minded in math as well. The one area she struggled with is reading. At the beginning of the school year she knew the alphabet, but couldn't rhyme. When putting words together she could sound them out mmmmaaaaap, but then would say "Pam". We did lots of starts and stops; taking about a whole month to work on rhyming. Taking breaks for her sanity (and mine). Part of the complication was her difficulty in speech. There were so many sounds she wasn't capable of producing that it caused so much frustration in trying to read aloud. She would use hand signals to show me the sound she wanted to say. Obviously, this is complicated and makes for choppy reading. We plan to have her do Pre-1st this year and are confident this extra year will be just what she needs to gain strength and confidence as a reader. We just purchased the All About Reading program and she's actually very excited about it. It has lots of "activities" and if you know anything about Ruth, she's into everything crafty so I think the hands-on learning will benefit her greatly.
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| At one of her many ENT appointments |
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| At a Cleft Clinic appointment |
She had a palate surgery in Sept. 2020 to lengthen her palate. We noticed drastic improvements in her speech after this (with lots and lots of therapy). We also noticed improvements in her reading as well. She picked up a new speech therapist around that same time who has been fantastic. We still work with our awesome speech therapist (Rachel) from IU13 and are thrilled to have added Brittany to Ruth's team. Brittany also has cleft lip and palate so has been through the emotional/surgery side of cleft in addition to going through the Speech and Language Pathology program and has specialized in working with children with cleft lip and palate.
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| Ruth working with Brittany at the Cleft Clinic |
Not to brag, but as awesome as the therapists are, we only see them once per week and every/other week. It's Ruth who does all the hard homework at home with me. It's Ruth who is (almost always) gracious when she's corrected in conversation 100s of times a day. It's Ruth who puts in the effort to be intelligible. It's Ruth's tenacious spirit that tries again and again and again to say words which are difficult. She has taught me so much.
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| Ruth working with Rachel at our home. |
Ruth has had so many exciting things happen this year! She lost her first (and second) tooth!
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| The toothless wonders |
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| First tooth out! |
She celebrated her 4 year adoption day!
She's constantly looking like a teenager.
She got her ears pierced and didn't even flinch!
She is starting ballet in the fall and loves practicing to the videos her teacher put on YouTube.
She has had SO many picnics.
She is rocking hopscotch.
Ruth is an amazing big sister to Heidi. When Heidi starts to get into one of her meltdown modes, Ruth jumps right in to give her a hug, rub her back, and sing her a song. Ruth isn't super happy about the fact that Heidi is almost as tall as her and weighs almost as much as her.
Happy 6th birthday Ruthie V. We love you to China and back.
