Tears At Dinner

Last night as we were eating dinner, Rex, for the first time, attempted to load his own fork.  He didn't have a perfect success rate, but he was able to get several bites into his mouth without any assistance.  After weeks of working with him on this skill, watching his efforts and triumph brought tears to Craig's and my eyes.

This morning, when our Ms. Rie arrived I told her not to let Rex be lazy, but insist that he try to eat his pancakes with very little help. And here's what happened:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU96GbMY2qQ

Our baby boy is growing up and we're so proud.

IAC 219 Results

The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 219 which was held on April 25, 2012:

1) Greek dossier from June 2008 referred a female child, aged 2 years and 8 months

2) U.S. dossier from December 2008 referred a female child, aged 1 year and 3 months with features in health status and a family history

3) German dossier from April 2009 referred a female child, aged 2 years and 1 months

4) Dutch dossier from May 2009 referred a male child, aged 2 years and 3 months with features in health status

5) Italian dossier from June 2009 referred a female child, aged 3 years and 7 months

6) Dutch dossier from July 2009 referred twins, male and female, aged 4 years

7) Italian dossier from July 2009 referred a female child, aged 5 years and 2 months

8) Italian dossier from August 2009 referred sisters, aged 5 years and 10 months and 3 years

9) Italian dossier from April 2011 referred a male child, aged 8 years and 10 months with features in health status

10) Italian dossier from June 2011 referred a brother and sister, aged 6 years and 3 months and 8 years and 7 months

11) US dossier from September 2011 referred brothers, aged 4 years and 3 months and 7 years and 3 months with features in health status and a family history

12) US dossier from April 2012 referred a waiting child (#1479) with a profile on the MOJ site

13) US dossier from April 2012 referred two waiting children (#829 & #830) with profiles on the MOJ site

14) US dossier from April 2012 referred two waiting children (#436 & #1335) with profiles on the MOJ site

15) US dossier from April 2012 referred two waiting children (#1064 & #1680) with profiles on the MOJ site

16) US dossier from April 2012 referred two waiting children (#1695 & #1759) with profiles on the MOJ site

17) US dossier from April 2012 referred a waiting child (#1392) with a profile on the MOJ site

Rex Restored

Right around this time last year, we received our final update on Rex.  It included some photos and video and a few sentences about how he was doing.  I can’t tell you how very low I was feeling then.  I was reaching my tearful breaking point and just going through the motions of what daily life entailed.  It had been over six months since our first trip to Armenia.  I knew my son needed me, but I could not be there for him.

Meanwhile in Yerevan, a sad and lonely little boy was about to give up as well.  Rex did not know that we were coming back for him.  He did not understand that a better life was just a few months ahead.  He was a child with little hope.  Seeing him in these photos breaks my heart.

But the magnificent resilience of the human spirit!  

In less than one year as our cherished son, Rex has found his joy for life again.  He lives his days to the fullest and revels even in the simple pleasures, like the free balloon we get every week on our grocery trip.  He loves and is beloved.  His gusto for exploration, communication, adventure, mischief, learning, and connection to others is restored.  He is curious and happy.  He is blossoming into the child he was always meant to be.

 My heart sings with pride and joy over being Rex's mother.  I, too, am restored.

First Family Road Trip

Earlier this month, Craig had to take a business trip to Pennsylvania to audit a manufacturing plant.  He asked us to go along because it was the only way that he and I could spend our twelfth wedding anniversary together.  So, with a good bit of trepidation, I prepared for two 11 hour car rides with toddlers and two days and three nights in a cabin with the same toddlers.

The trip to PA was quite uneventful.  We had plenty of snacks, a box of toys, and a new CD with over 100 kids' songs, so yes, we were as ready as possible.  We took a lot of nice breaks at rest areas to let the kids run which worked well.  About two hours away from home, I realized that I didn't pack any shoes for the kids, so we made an emergency stop at a Walmart.  The kids did so well and really only started getting fussy during the last 90 minutes of the ride.

When we got to the campground where we had booked a cabin, I was not happy to see all the roads very muddy.  Apparently they'd had a lot of rain.  I could foresee a really messy next day, but it turned out to be so cold that I only took the kids out of the cabin for two 30 minute walks in the stroller.  I was glad I had decided to pack them some long pants and jackets, too.  We made it through the cooped up day with no major mishaps (okay, so Rex did dip a colander into the toilet bowl) and Craig and I were able to be together for our anniversary after he returned from the plant.

There's always a question of how the kids will do in an unfamiliar environment, but we had no problems worth mentioning.  Rex hated the stand in shower for his bath, but handled everything else well.  Look at this picture of my little ones cuddled up, asleep.  Love seeing the sibling comfort in a strange place.

Day two at the campground was sunny and warm, so the kids and I were able to take advantage of the playground and big bounce pillow.  We also took walks again.  The roads had dried up and it was pleasant to mosey along the creek under some big trees.  When Craig returned from work, we had our first family campfire.  This is when Rex blew us away by generalizing his sign for light.  We had smores, too.  Yum.

The 11 hour trip back to Ohio wasn't quite as easy as the way to PA because Rex refused to sleep.  By early afternoon he was in a crabby mood from sheer exhaustion, but he just wouldn't close his eyes.  So, I had to find all kinds of ways to entertain him.  The children's songs CD was a real life-saver, but it really is something I don't need to hear again until our trip to Missouri in July.  By the time we reached home, all of us had had more than enough road trip and were happy to be under our own roof again.  Nonetheless, it was our first family adventure of this kind and it was worth it.

Emilia - Twenty-Seven Weeks Home

Today marks twenty-seven weeks home for Emilia.  It’s hard to believe that half a year has passed since she joined our family.  It really feels like she has always been here.

Emilia continues to make great progress with her eating.  I have stopped taking note of all the new solid foods she’s trying, but I was especially happy that she ate diced pear, feta, and cucumber (not at once).  She also enjoys fresh herbs from the garden mixed into her food and happily ventured into the cold food arena with some raspberry sorbetto.  Emilia has also learned to drink juice mixed with water.  I no longer have to thicken her drinks with fruit purees.  She’s even trying to hold her own cup.  And we’re practicing hand over hand finger-feeding and spoon-feeding, much to her dismay.  We have even been able to eat out as a family at a restaurant once and it was so pleasant and enjoyable.  The kids shared crepes… no more baby jar foods needed in my diaper bag.

She loves to swing HIGH.

As a sign of growth, Emilia graduated into a size 4 diaper this week.  We took size 3 to Bulgaria which worked okay, but then we went with size 2 for a while after we came home because her waist was just so tiny.  And now she’s comfortable in a size four.  My hope is that this will be the last size diaper she wears as I intend to start potty-training her when Rex goes to preschool in late August.

I am pushing Emilia now a little bit more than before to work on skills.  We are practicing her pincer grasp by putting items into containers, working on large inset puzzles and stacking, as well as pointing to body parts (she knows where her nose is and those of others, too) and other objects.  Another area of focus is verbal imitation.  Oh yes, she can do it (she imitates the most adorable OOO), but she is like Bartleby, the Scrivener, she’d prefer not to.  Emilia is overcoming more sensory issues, too.  She now walks barefoot on grass and concrete and asphalt, for example.

She can propel herself forward and backward 

on this worn-out little toy.

Keep moving and shaking, little sweet pea. You're doing great and we love you to pieces.

Rex - Forty-One Weeks Home

Today marks forty-one weeks home and forty-three weeks out of the orphanage for Rex.  I really can’t believe how quickly that one year mark since his adoption is approaching.  It seems so long ago.

Developmentally, Rex just keeps going forward.  He is learning so fast.  His newest sign is cracker which we use for any salty, crunchy snack like tortilla chips, pretzels, popcorn, or cheese puffs.  Since he likes these things, he learned the sign quite quickly.  We have been working on the sign for finished since Rex came home and just in the last week, he is suddenly using it.  He actually signed a clear finished in the car for me one day when I was giving him some Pirate’s Booty (possibly his favorite snack) which surprised me because I would not have imagined that he would be finished with Pirate’s Booty ever if allowed.  Rex has also learned to sign light for flashlights and the room lights and then he blew us away when, on a recent camping trip, he observed the campfire and suddenly, spontaneously signed light.  What a connection.  Rex’s therapists have started working with a shape sorter again and he seems more ready for it this time around.  He’s getting it.  He’s also now following the command “let’s go” and learning to catch and kick balls.  Rex can also bring me his shoes and is beginning to understand the concept of clean-up and helps a little.

 See their feet touching?  Love it!

We had an ophthalmology follow up last week and the doctor thinks, accurately so in my opinion, that Rex favors his right eye and may have better vision in it.  His left eye tends to wander toward his nose, so the doctor would like to see if we can strengthen and straighten it, getting it to be more active.  Since patching, the most effective method, is not an option for Rex (he rips, cries or fights it off), we are using drops twice a week to blur the vision in Rex’s right eye in hopes that the left will pick up the slack.  We shall see.  So far I am not noticing a difference, but keep your fingers crossed, everyone.

I don't know why

he always sits for a head shot

when he wears his Christmas pajamas. 

Auto-aggression at the moment seems to be waning… whew!  We have been trying a new method of block, but ignore for about a week.  When Rex was first home, this approach had been suggested to us, but we did not feel it was the right thing then because we wanted him to bond.  Now that Rex is fully attached to both of us, we are giving it a go.  If a tantrum involves any hitting or head banging, we block it with our hands, but we do not give Rex any other attention.  We don’t touch/hold him, we don’t speak outside of “calm down,” we reduce eye contact, and most importantly we try to stay completely detached with neutral faces and low voices.  Since starting this method, in the last week, we have only had four tantrums, the last of which only went on for a few minutes.  What’s interesting, too, is that after these outbreaks are over, Rex wants to be very close (lots of sitting and cuddling with us) and he behaves very well.

I have scheduled a developmental re-assessment for Rex for mid-July using the same two tests that were administered when he had his first visit to the International Adoption Clinic in mid-August of last year.  I am really excited and anxious to see how much progress Rex has made in the 11 months since then.  I am also getting ready to order some things for preschool: a lunchbox, a backpack, special blanket and pillow.  I can’t believe I am not going to have my baby here with me all day anymore.  Nap time is going to be the pits without having my little guy curled up to me when I fall asleep.  I have a feeling I’ll be a weepy mess for a while.

My little thinker.

I guess this is all the news on Rex.  He’s a superstar in our book, the hardest working kid on the block, and we love him so.

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Gardening season.

Every January I start itching to get back out into my little suburban garden, but since planting is months away, I bide my time with ordering seeds. Here's what I got this year. I even put something special into the mix for Rex. Can you spot it?

Since we had a very mild winter, many things came right back in the spring and we were able to harvest parsley, oregano, chives, green onions and rosemary very early in the season and continue to do so.  Then it was finally time to put in the early crops.  And a few weeks ago I added tomatoes, cucumbers and squash.

I enjoyed these beautiful radishes in a salad made with chopped parsley, salt, pepper and sour cream.  It's a childhood favorite.

 We've had several salads made with the mixed lettuces I grew:

And here are the shallots I just harvested today.  Yum, so many ways to enjoy these...

It's been a great season so far for my little garden.  I love working in it on mild evenings.  It relaxes me.  And I so enjoy the fruits of my labor, too.

IAC 218 Results

The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 218 which was held on April 11, 2012:

1) Dutch dossier from May 2009 referred a female child aged 5 years

2) French dossier from May 2009 referred a male child aged 3 years and 1 month

3) Spanish dossier from July 2009 referred a female child aged 5 years and 3 months

4) French dossier from August 2009 referred a male child aged 6 years and 4 months

5) French dossier from February 2010 referred a male child aged 7 years and 4 months

6) Italian dossier from June 2011 referred a male child aged 8 years

7) US dossier from April 2012 referred a waiting child (#1461) with a profile on the MOJ site

8)  French dossier from April 2012 referred a waiting child (#1767) with a profile on the MOJ site

Of the 50 dossiers still registered with MOJ from October 2006 until June 2009 (data published in March 2012), 19 have now received referrals.

What Difference Does It Make?

Yesterday, May 19, marked six months home for our little Emilia.  While she's still got a long way to go, she has come so far in this time.  When we picked her up from Dobrich, she was quite resigned from life, frail and fearful. Slowly but surely, even without words thus far, she is turning into an unstoppable, spunky lovebug.

This photo is from Together Forever Day.  The dress I had chosen for Emilia's glorious exit from the orphanage was obviously too big.  I took this photo after a seven hour car ride and long day.  I think Emilia was in a state of shock and unable to understand anything that was happening to her.

This photo shows Emilia this morning, enjoying the last hours of our camping trip.  She wanted to explore almost constantly, undeterred by heat or cars or dogs or strangers (like I said, she has a ways to go), and it was hard to corral her.  She is so active now and curious on her own terms and so brave.

          

This is Emilia on her first morning in our family.  When I looked in on her, I couldn't believe how tiny she was in that pack 'n play.  I picked her up and she was shaking like a leaf, completely disoriented and scared out of her mind.                      

And here's Emilia waking up a few weeks ago.  She's almost too big for the pack 'n play she likes for sleeping and she's clearly very relaxed.  Now when she sees my face leaning in to greet her in the morning, there's a twinkle in her eyes and a smile on her lips.

We can't wait for what the next six months will bring.  It surely won't be dull and we know for certain that we'll be showered with the sweetest hugs and kisses, adorable smiles and laughter from our little Bulgarian blessing.

Picture Of The Day

I have a new stylist:

And by the concerned look on his face, my hair needs a lot of work:

Mothering Something More

Someone sent a copy of this column to me for Mother’s Day. It spoke to me because you know what, I didn’t desire or knowingly choose to parent a child with major special needs.  I marked big fat no’s on anything that asked if we were open to a complex syndrome or to permanent developmental disabilities.  These conditions scared me more than anything else in adoption.  And yet here I am now with a son who has both, a son we adopted thinking he was cleft-affected and hearing impaired, nothing more.  I do feel sorry for myself in moments of weakness, disappointment, sadness, and frustration, sorry for having to give up dreams and being made to dream new ones, but generally I don’t have much time or use for such self-pity.  It's because I have a little boy who needs me to be the woman in this column, so I try every single day.

Some Mothers Get Babies With Something More
Lori Borgman | Monday, May 12, 2002

My friend is expecting her first child. People keep asking what she wants. She smiles demurely, shakes her head and gives the answer mothers have given throughout the ages of time. She says it doesn't matter whether it's a boy or a girl. She just wants it to have ten fingers and ten toes. Of course, that's what she says. That's what mothers have always said. Mothers lie.

Truth be told, every mother wants a whole lot more. Every mother wants a perfectly healthy baby with a round head, rosebud lips, button nose, beautiful eyes and satin skin.

Every mother wants a baby so gorgeous that people will pity the Gerber baby for being flat-out ugly.

Every mother wants a baby that will roll over, sit up and take those first steps right on schedule (according to the baby development chart on page 57, column two).

Every mother wants a baby that can see, hear, run, jump and fire neurons by the billions. She wants a kid that can smack the ball out of the park and do toe points that are the envy of the entire ballet class.

Call it greed if you want, but we mothers want what we want. Some mothers get babies with something more.

Some mothers get babies with conditions they can't pronounce, a spine that didn't fuse, a missing chromosome or a palette that didn't close.

Most of those mothers can remember the time, the place, the shoes they were wearing and the color of the walls in the small, suffocating room where the doctor uttered the words that took their breath away. It felt like recess in the fourth grade when you didn't see the kick ball coming and it knocked the wind clean out of you.

Some mothers leave the hospital with a healthy bundle, then, months, even years later, take him in for a routine visit, or schedule her for a well check, and crash head first into a brick wall as they bear the brunt of devastating news. It can't be possible! That doesn't run in our family. Can this really be happening in our lifetime? I am a woman who watches the Olympics for the sheer thrill of seeing finely sculpted bodies. It's not a lust thing; it's a wondrous thing. The athletes appear as specimens without flaw - rippling muscles with nary an ounce of flab or fat, virtual powerhouses of strength with lungs and limbs working in perfect harmony. Then the athlete walks over to a tote bag, rustles through the contents and pulls out an inhaler.

As I've told my own kids, be it on the way to physical therapy after a third knee surgery, or on a trip home from an echo cardiogram, there's no such thing as a perfect body.

Everybody will bear something at some time or another. Maybe the affliction will be apparent to curious eyes, or maybe it will be unseen, quietly treated with trips to the doctor, medication or surgery. The health problems our children have experienced have been minimal and manageable, so I watch with keen interest and great admiration the mothers of children with serious disabilities, and wonder how they do it. Frankly, sometimes you mothers scare me. How you lift that child in and out of a wheelchair 20 times a day.

How you monitor tests, track medications, regulate diet and serve as the gatekeeper to a hundred specialists hammering in your ear.

I wonder how you endure the clichés and the platitudes, well-intentioned souls explaining how God is at work when you've occasionally questioned if God is on strike.

I even wonder how you endure schmaltzy pieces like this one -- saluting you, painting you as hero and saint, when you know you're ordinary. You snap, you bark, you bite. You didn't volunteer for this. You didn't jump up and down in the motherhood line yelling, "Choose me, God! Choose me! I've got what it takes." You're a woman who doesn't have time to step back and put things in perspective, so, please, let me do it for you.

From where I sit, you're way ahead of the pack. You've developed the strength of a draft horse while holding onto the delicacy of a daffodil. You have a heart that melts like chocolate in a glove box in July, carefully counter-balanced against the stubbornness of an Ozark mule.

You can be warm and tender one minute, and when circumstances require intense and aggressive the next. You are the mother, advocate and protector of a child with a disability.

You're a neighbor, a friend, a stranger I pass at the mall. You're the woman I sit next to at church, my cousin and my sister-in-law.

You're a woman who wanted ten fingers and ten toes, and got something more. You're a wonder.

IAC 217 Results

The following referrals were issued in IAC session 217 held on April 4, 2012:

1) French dossier from February 2009 referred a male child aged 3 years and 8 months

2) Norwegian dossier from April 2009 referred a male child aged 2 years and 6 months

3) Italian dossier from June 2009 referred a male child aged 4 years and 11 months

4) US dossier from August 2009 referred a male child aged 7 years

5) Italian dossier from April 2011 referred a female child aged 8 years and 1 month

6) Italian dossier from November 2011 referred a female child aged 8 years and 6 months with features in health status

7) US dossier from April 2012 referred a waiting child (#1451) with a profile on the MOJ site

8) Italian dossier from April 2012 referred a male child aged 10 years and 9 months

Of the 50 dossiers still registered with MOJ from October 2006 until June 2009 (data published in March 2012), 17 have now received referrals.

Emilia - Twenty-Five Weeks Home

As of Saturday, Emilia has been home with us for twenty-five weeks.  Her biggest accomplishment this month so far has been eating solids.  She started with some very tiny bits of donuts on April 28 and since then has tried out quite a few new textures and flavors: diced bananas, fish fillet, baby puffs, pancakes, soaked toast (not a favorite), chicken noodle soup, diced sweet potato, lobster bisque, and graham crackers. We also had our first two family meals together where everyone ate the same dish: French toast for lunch one day and potato cakes for dinner another.  I attempted to give Emilia small pieces of strawberry and mango, but it was a no go.  I think I need to try canned peaches next since she loves peach puree.  She still will not fingerfeed, but I am not worried.  Her fine motor skills are quite delayed and she is still disinclined to work on them.

 In case you are wondering

why we don't have vent covers...

let's just say

Rex has been working really hard on inset puzzles.

We are still (impatiently) awaiting new language to emerge from Emilia. Sometimes she shows us that she can imitate sounds very easily, so I think her reluctance to utter additional words is a personal choice by our stubborn little girl.  She can be the most easy-going kid one minute and insist on her own terms the next.  I suppose that’s part of being a toddler.

These sibs love to get soaked at the water table.

We did an informal weigh-in at home and Emilia now weighs around 22 pounds which means she has gained six pounds in six months.  We also measured her and she appears to have grown about an inch and a half.  Pretty good for a little girl who just didn’t seem to be able to get bigger at her orphanage.  Another sign of her improving health is that I have had to cut Emilia’s nails for the first time.  Previously, they were so brittle that they would just break off before they ever needed a trim.

Emilia still loves to suck her thumb and cover up her ears when she is overwhelmed, but her rocking has almost gone away completely.  She used to rock every night in bed, but now when I put her down, she just stays under the blanket and falls asleep.  She also sleeps through the night very well these days.  We rarely hear her wake up at all.

Overall, Emilia is doing fine and we see progress in various areas all the time.  However, with her, I do constantly ask myself how much to push and how much to let her be on her own time.  It seems to be such a fine line with her personality and her history that I sometimes find it difficult to know what’s best.  In some ways, teaching her is more challenging than teaching Rex.  I guess I just have to have faith that it will all be okay in the end.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother’s Day to all moms, mommies, mothers-to-be, mothers-in-waiting, mothers-at-heart, mamas, and mamos who read this blog.

Happy Mother’s Day to those of you who wipe little noses and cover cuts, who cook and clean, who drive to therapy and soccer practice, who give bubble baths and life lessons, who pack snacks and get the groceries, who bake birthday cakes and make heart-shaped grilled cheese, who de-tangle curls and trim nails, who wait up for kids to come home, who build blanket forts and sandcastles, who kiss booboos and know how to get out grass stains, who read bedtime stories and teachers’ notes, who chaperone field trips and help with homework, who encourage, cheer or redirect, who get gum off shoes and splinters out of fingers, who toss, catch or kick balls, who give daily vitamins and attitude adjustments, who schedule appointments and car pools, who tickle toes and cut crusts off sandwiches, who comfort and cuddle, who understand without words, who chase away bad dreams and teach to reach for the stars, who celebrate milestones and small accomplishments, who tour colleges and preschools, who never give up and never lose hope, who expand little minds and mend broken hearts, who plan sleep-overs and vacations, who are not grossed out by boogers or spit-up, who send care packages and set up dorm rooms, who say no when they have to and yes when they can, who love unconditionally and always.

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you doing or dreaming of doing these things and more.  Your love, dedication and patience every day make such a difference in your children’s lives and our world.  Thank you.

Rex - Thirty-Nine Weeks Home

I am so behind due to travel, but Thursday marked forty-one weeks out of the orphanage and thirty nine weeks home for Rex.  The last two weeks have been full of ups and downs with wonderful progress in Rex's development coupled with the resurfacing of some Rex-rage.

So I'll start with all of the good. Rex is learning so much. One day I decided that I wanted him to be able to drink out of an open cup unassisted before he started preschool, so I prepared for a mess and began giving him his cup.  To my great surprise, there wasn't ever really any mess and Rex mastered this skill in about two days.  Now I only have to hand him his cup from the counter and he drinks as much as he wants, then returns the cup into my hands.  He's also working very hard on the sign for drink, so once he's reliable with it, getting a drink may no longer involve pulling a parent to the kitchen and reaching his arms up toward the cup.

Rex has also learned to jump.  He's been getting a lot of practice on the trampoline, but one afternoon, he just started jumping in the middle of the living room, holding on to nothing, which, in turn, made Craig and me jump off the couch with pride.  Now it's so cute to watch him jump when he gets excited, for example when Craig comes home from work.

 I have told him a hundred times

no climbing on the banister.

The child is a magnet for danger.

With Rex, nothing is really safe, even the things you have child-proofed.  Recently Rex figured out that he can open the fridge and freezer doors, so now we need to secure them in some way.  Rex mostly just wants to try to climb into the fridge and inspect everything.  He's not really looking for eats.  But speaking of eats, we have kind of a food snob on our hands who knows what he likes and what not.  Recently Rex enjoyed two legs of smoked duck at our friends' house.  Since Rex otherwise really only eats beef, this very much speaks to their famous smoking skills.

Look at how much confidence he has gained 

in just ten short months with a Daddy & Mama. 

Rex has also learned how to give high fives.  They still need a little oomph, but it's so nice to be able to tell him to give someone a high five as a way to greet each other.  And Rex has been babbling a lot more lately.  We are hearing syllables that had disappeared since the palate repair (such as dada) and syllables we have never heard before (such as yaya).  There has even been a tiny bit of oral motor imitation where Rex has been able to reproduce the sounds we are making.  For children with Rex's syndrome, the first word on average comes at 38 months, Rex's current age, and can occur as late as 60 months.  And of course, this data is for children who are not cleft-affected and did not spend over two years in an orphanage.  So, we are hopeful that Rex is on his way to acquiring a few verbal skills.

At "his desk" which is really our TV stand.

And now for the bad:  we're dealing with a bit of toddler rage again, usually around two longer episodes a day.  I know our ABA therapists want us to chart what happens exactly before a tantrum, but I don't need to write it down. It's always the same reason of Rex not getting his way in some form or fashion.  It might be him being told no more outside for the day or to sit at the table for dinner or a toy is broken or realizing that the Lego simply isn't going to fit through the funnel.  I think his getting upset and frustrated is very normal for his developmental age, but the intensity of his reaction is fueled by his past and his current limitations.  I have faith that these behaviors will eventually go away as Rex gains more communication skills and independence.

Our Armenian-American with a sprinkling of German (he does love potato cakes) is definitely moving in the right direction, growing, exploring, learning new skills and working so hard to overcome the things that complicate just about everything he tackles.  We're proud of you, love, you rock!

Picture Of The Day

This weekend we enjoyed some Chinese food and my fortune cookie read, "Only if you dive for pearls shall you find one."  So true:

Rex is so worth the deep dive we've been taking to slowly uncover the amazing pearls inside of him.  Shine on, beautiful boy, and we'll keep diving!

New Rides For Everyone

Thanks to the IRS returning part of our money to us last month (still waiting on the adoption tax credit), everyone in the family was able to get new wheels.

Rex and Emilia got the City Mini Double Stroller: 

And Craig and I got the 2012 Honda Odyssey:

The only difference is that the kids' ride is paid off and ours isn't (yet).

Picture Of The Day

Carefree Spring Afternoon

IAC 216 Results

The following referrals were issued in IAC session 216 which was held on March 28, 2012:

1) Canadian dossier from January 2009 referred a female child aged 1 year and 7 months with features in health status

2) Dutch dossier from March 2009 referred a female child aged 5 years and 4 months

3) Italian dossier from April 2009 referred a male child aged 1 year and 10 months

4) Norwegian dossier from April 2009 referred a male child aged 4 years and 5 months

5) Dutch dossier from May 2009 referred a male child aged 4 years and 10 months

6) US dossier from February 2011 referred three sisters, aged 3 years and 11 months, 5 years and 3 months, and 3 years with features in health status

7) Swedish dossier from March 2011 referred a male child aged 2 years and 11 months with features in health status and family history

8) US dossier from May 2011 referred a female child aged 2 years with features in health status

9) Italian dossier from March 2012 referred a waiting child (#1621) with a profile on the MOJ site

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Of the 50 dossiers still registered with MOJ from October 2006 until June 2009 (data published in March 2012), 14 have now received referrals.

The Good Shepherdess

Craig and I use a lot of nicknames in our home to help each other stay on top of the people that are more connected to just one of us, rather than both.  It’s a mnemonic device that we find really useful.  For example, many years ago Craig had a colleague with a very common first name like Jim (it wasn’t Jim) who was known in our house as “The Source” because he always seemed to have insider information about everything.  Of course, the people in our lives who have been given a moniker do not know it because we never disclose these nicknames or use them in public.  That said, I have decided to make an exception this one time.

Recently I connected with a woman who knew Rex when he was an infant and met him when he was about six months old.  We have been calling this woman “The Good Shepherdess.”  There are a couple of reasons for this choice, but the most important one is that she may have saved Rex’s life or at least greatly improved it.  As you know, Rex was born cleft-affected and was unable to latch on to regular bottle nipples to nurse.  Consequently, for the first few months of his life he was not at all growing and dropped from the 50th percentile in weight at birth to the 2nd.  The Good Shepherdess learned of his need and sent cleft nursers to his orphanage which turned things around for Rex in a big way.  Proper nutrition helped him endure the wait for us and gain the strength to tackle developmental tasks.

When the Good Shepherdess met Rex, she took some photos for which I am so thankful.  Just look at my dreamy baby boy at six months old:

So, Good Shepherdess, if you are reading this, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for loving my little lamb when he was most vulnerable, for giving him a chance and some protection from afar.  You were there for him when he needed you and that can never be erased.  Our lives are forever connected because of one Armenian angel that touched both of us so deeply.