Happy New Year

Wishing our family, friends, and readers around the world

a healthy, joyous 2016.

Wir wollen glauben
an ein langes Jahr,
das uns gegeben ist,
neu, unberührt, 

voll nie gewesener Dinge...

Rainer Maria Rilke

Let us believe

in a long year

which is given to us,

new, untouched,

full of things that have never been...

Rainer Maria Rilke

MOJ Bulgaria Referral Information

This information is based on the referrals issued in the last 40 IAC sessions (IAC 299 through IAC 340 with IAC 317 never published). The data does not include the referrals of 8 sibling groups whose ages fell into different categories nor the referrals of identified waiting children whose profiles were published on the MOJ website.  Referral waits are calculated from the month of dossier registration to the month of the referral being issued.

Healthy Children Aged 0-36 Months at the Time of Referral

Total referrals: 19
Average wait time: 53.8 months
Shortest wait time: 50 months
Longest wait time: 59 months
Trend: wait times are generally getting longer

Healthy Children Aged 37-72 Months at the Time of Referral

Total referrals: 22
Average wait time: 52.9 months
Shortest wait time: 45 months
Longest wait time: 61 months
Trend: wait times are generally getting longer

*Based on this data increasing age parameters to 72 months for a healthy child currently does not shorten average referral wait times.

Children with Special Needs Aged 0-36 Months at the Time of Referral

Total referrals: 86
Average wait time: 25.6 months
Shortest wait time: 0 months - referral issued the same month the dossier was registered
Longest wait time: 57 months
Trend: wait times greatly depend on special needs parameters

Children with Special Needs Aged 37-72 Months at the Time of Referral

Total referrals: 27
Average wait time: 34.4 months
Shortest wait time: 4 months
Longest wait time: 56 months
Trend: wait times greatly depend on special needs parameters

*Based on this data, wait times for children with a broad array of special needs vary widely based on a family's parameters in this area.  A child's age only seems to have a minor impact on wait times, shortening them an average of 9 months.

IAC 337, 338, 339, 340 Results

The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 337 which was held on November 5, 2015:

1) Dutch dossier from December 2010 referred a male child aged 2 years and 2 months

2) Spanish dossier from December 2010 referred a male child aged 3 years and 8 months

3) French dossier from March 2012 referred a male child aged 1 year and 4 months with a family history

4) Luxembourg dossier from September 20102 referred a male child aged 2 years and 8 months with features in health status

5) Italian dossier from August 2014 referred a male child aged 8 years and 10 months with features in health status

6) Italian dossier from December 2014 referred a brother and sister aged 10 years and 7 months & 9 years and 5 months

7) US dossier from August 2015 referred a waiting child (#3042) with a profile on the MOJ site

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The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 338 which was held on November 12, 2015:

1) French dossier from July 2010 referred a female child aged 4 years and 2 months

2) Spanish dossier from November 2010 referred a male child aged 3 years and 7 months

3) US dossier from December 2013 referred a male child aged 1 year and 4 months with a family history

4) French dossier from March 2015 referred a female child aged 9 years and 11 months with features in health status and a family history

5) US dossier from November 2015 referred three waiting children (#2919 & #2918 & #2917) with profiles on the MOJ site

6) US dossier from November 2015 referred a waiting child (#2825) with a profile on the MOJ site

7) US dossier from November 2015 referred a waiting child (#2500) with a profile on the MOJ site

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The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 339 which was held on November 19, 2015:

1) US dossier from July 2011 referred a female child aged 1 year and 9 months with features in health status

2) Italian dossier from August 2015 referred two brothers aged 10 years and 2 months & 7 years and 7 months

3) US dossier from November 2015 referred a brother and sister aged 7 years and 2 months & 10 years and 7 months with features in health status

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The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 340 which was held on November 26, 2015:

1) Irish dossier from October 2011 referred a male child aged 1 year and 11 months with features in health status and a family history

2) US dossier from September 2012 referred a female child aged 2 years and 3 months with features in health status

3) French dossier from July 2013 referred a female child aged 1 year and 9 months with features in health status

4) US dossier from September 2013 referred a female child aged 1 year and 10 months with features in health status

5) Italian dossier from October 2013 referred a female child aged 7 years and 2 months with features in health status

6) US dossier from October 2014 referred a male child aged 1 year and 9 months with features in health status

7) Portuguese dossier from May 2015 referred a male child aged 2 years and 1 month with features in health status and a family history

8) US dossier from October 2015 referred a female child aged 1 year and 6 months with features in health status and a family history

Escrow For Eden Update #2

Our local cookie fundraiser to grow Eden's agency adoption grant has closed and we raised $466.  We baked and decorated 54 dozen cookies for families in our community.  We were also able to sell a few more things at consignment stores to bring the total money raised to $522.50.  Eden's grant now stands at $2605.

While my cousin Maria and I were hard at work for Eden, many other things were happening on her behalf as well.  First, SOAR has set up a Go Fund Me page to help bring Eden to the US for the spinal surgery she needs.  We are thrilled at the possibility of her receiving this life-saving treatment finally at 8 years old.  I will keep you posted on these plans as they unfold.

Secondly, a family committed to adopting Eden, but they are not using Hopscotch as their placing agency, so the grant money is not available to them.

Due to these developments, I am now putting my fundraising for Eden on hold until the dust settles and we can see what the future has in store for her.  If she is, indeed, adopted by the family who has committed or if the surgery opens other doors for her in Armenia, the money that has been donated toward her grant fund will be transferred into one or more agency grants for other friends of Ella's.  Stay tuned.

Christmas Eve Picnic

The Nutcracker

Today Craig and I took the girls to see The Nutcracker at our city's performing arts center.  The event was sensory-friendly and, therefore, perfect for our little Emilia.  Plus, Ella studied The Nutcracker in her music class at school this month and showed great interest in it.

After running into several old friends in the lobby, I was moved to tears when I sat down among an audience of so many special people and families.  We were surrounded by kids with noise-canceling headphones and face masks, kids navigating their way with blind canes, children and adults in wheelchairs, people holding fidgets and wearing hearing aids.  It warmed my heart to see many elderly folks with developmental special needs attending this event, too.

During the performance, people cheered and clapped, whistled and commented, danced and jumped.  It was lovely to behold the joy and the wonder in so many eyes, including those of my own daughter who pirouetted and otherwise moved her way through a performance that mesmerized her.  She animatedly expressed her observations and thoughts ("Bye-bye, chicken.  I want chicken") and during intermission emphatically and repeatedly declared, "Ballerina right back.  Hurry up, ballerina."

We are so thankful to the Cincinnati Ballet and its partners and donors for providing our children with the opportunity to experience music, dance and visual arts in a welcoming and supportive environment.  This was the first of its kind performance for our ballet and I hope that there will be many more.

P.S. The girls chose their own outfits yesterday and once I saw their selections, I decided to make their ensembles complete with sparkles in their hair and a dab of perfume on their wrists.

Picture Of The Day

Eggnog coffeecakes with streusel...

Don't they look scrumptious?

... one for Craig's Christmas lunch at work tomorrow

... and one for the Christmas lunch for the teachers and therapists at Rex's school

What's New With Ella?

Ella is doing very well.  Behaviorally we have seen improvements across the board and in all settings. Ella was even chosen as All Star Student for December - an honor bestowed for good behavior and effort, not academics - and her excitement over having a pizza lunch with the principal could not have been greater.  Attachment is going well and Ella now more verbally expresses her positive emotions for us as her family.  Here's what she told me recently about her plans for the future:

“When we grow up, Emilia and I will live together.  We will make campfires and I’ll tell her to be careful.  We will live next door to you and daddy and Rex.  You will have an outdoor pool and we will have an indoor pool, so we can swim all the time.  Emilia and I will work on the computer.  We will come to visit you and sometimes take Rex to something fun.  We will bring him a sandwich and chips.  When you die, Rex will live with us.  We will take care of him.  We will do everything he asks and buy him an i-pad.”

In early November Craig and I began to realize that the pressure and strain of academic demands were taking a toll on Ella’s continued attachment, happiness, language development and social-emotional progress.  We were in agreement that these areas of growth, for the time being, are more important to us and to Ella than her academic work, so we decided to take the scholastic stress off at home.  We also agreed that if this decision would lead to her needing to repeat first grade, it would be an acceptable outcome to us.  In conjunction with recommendations from Ella’s teacher, we cut homework to about 30 minutes a day, including weekends, covering spelling, math, reading and special projects.  

I think it is easy for adoptive parents and educators to overlook the tremendous effort children (along with their brains) have to make to learn a new language and how that process complicates their academic achievement.  If you talk to Ella conversationally at this point, you will hardly think that just over a year ago, she didn’t know any English.  She gabs away happily, she uses idioms, tells jokes, etc. However, when placed into the classroom where she has to cope with increasingly complicated scholastic terminology that refers to complex tasks (alphabetize, sequential order, Venn diagram, etc.), with spelling, with reading comprehension and so on, she is at a disadvantage in comparison to her peers who have lived their entire lives in our English-speaking country. Ella has to double up her efforts to keep her head above the water academically.  It’s not that she is not cognitively capable of doing the work.  She absolutely is.  But tasks take her longer to complete, she has to ask more questions for clarification, decreasing her independence and feeling of success.  I can always tell when worksheets come home for which instructions were clear to Ella and when the opposite was the case.  Based on extensive research with English Language Learners, we know it will take Ella at least seven years until we can expect her to reach grade level norms in English language literacy.  Hopefully she will be on par with her peers by the time she starts high school, especially since her wonderful ESOL teacher told us that she's a sponge for her new language.

The time that Ella gained back between coming home from school around 4:15 and going to bed at 8:00 is now spent hanging out with her neighborhood friends, relaxing, doing crafts, reading for fun, playing with her sister, completing puzzles, helping me cook, etc.  We have cut her tech time to 30 minutes a day which she usually spends watching Wild Kratts.  Surprisingly, as we have taken off the academic pressure at home, we have seen significant improvements in Ella's reading skills (up several levels in just the last two months), penmanship and cooperation in practicing it, spelling and willingness to tackle new academic challenges.  Maybe sometimes less is more indeed.

Picture Of The Day

While Craig and I were thinking Rex was quietly watching a movie in our bedroom...

Too bad Craig didn't take a photo of Rex covered in shaving cream from top to bottom, too.  He had a blast.

On the upside, our sink is really clean now.

Kids Christmas Shopping 2015

The dreaded task (for me) of Christmas shopping has been finished for over a month.  Yes, you heard that right.  I didn't like driving around last minute last year to get the kids gifts, so I started early in 2015.  Since we only give each child three presents (from us as their parents aka Santa), my preparations were not too difficult.

Gift 1: Something They Need

All three kiddos needed new pajamas - like yesterday.  As you know, St. Nick always brings them a holiday pair on December 6, but I also came across a huge sale at Two Adorable and was able to snag each of my little ones a pair of monogrammed fleece pajamas for $20 each that they will hopefully find on Christmas morning.  The only problem with this gift: I ordered the PJ's in October and they still haven't been delivered though I receive periodic email assurances that they will be here in time for Christmas.  Hmm.

Gift 2: Something They Want

Ella loves board games and puzzles, so she is getting a big floor puzzle of the US 50 states ($13) and two games ($10).  Rex loves to build with heavy items, so we chose these giant EverBlocks for him ($150 - by far the most expensive gift this year and more on these blocks in a separate post) and Emilia likes to pretend she's a doctor, so she is getting a doctor kit ($36).

Gift 3: Something We Want Them To Have

Rex is getting a body sock ($35) and Emilia and Ella are getting three books each which I bought via an adoption fundraiser ($15 per girl).

Total costs: $334.  I did not set a specific budget per child or for the three kids together, but as you know we like to keep things within reason which I think we accomplished while being able to get each of them something we hope they will enjoy.

Gingerbread Houses

I promised Ella that we would decorate gingerbread houses this weekend, so I sat up last night building them from graham crackers and icing.  I made four different structures, keeping in mind everyone's creative and fine motor abilities.  Earlier in the day I had stopped by Party City to get candy.  I bought 100 pieces for $6.70.  You can't beat that price for the gorgeous variety you get.

Soon after waking up this morning, we got started with our creative process.

I am very happy with the finished houses.  They look lovely on our fireplace mantle and reflect everyone's individual style and preferences.

Rex added his decorations by himself,
but kept it simple and down to earth.

Ella's over the top colorful and fun masterpiece
which is decorated on all sides

Emilia's favorite part was spreading the icing.
She spent easily 30 minutes on that task and loved it.
Her house affectionately reminds me of an East German bus stop.

My gingerbread house

We had a lot of fun together this morning and I'm glad we decided to decorate gingerbread houses this year.

Thanksgiving 2015

Last month, we gathered with a small family group to celebrate Thanksgiving.  As always, we were hosting, so I cooked all morning.  Ella helped.

Glazing the carrots

Our table was pretty, but not elegant... though a lot fancier than the usual dining around here.

Our Thanksgiving menu is very non-traditional because of everyone's food preferences.  We always have ham instead of turkey and this year I felt less guilty about it because Ella and I read that the meat at the very first Thanksgiving feast was likely goose and/or duck and/or venison, possibly swan or pigeon, but probably not turkey.  I am the only one who likes cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie, so we never serve them. Don't worry, I had a slice of pumpkin pie at a restaurant. And guess what, the Pilgrims had no wheat flour, so no pumpkin pie in 1621.  Cranberries don't appear to have come into culinary use until about 50 years after the first Thanksgiving.

In my feeble attempt for a bit of authenticity, I made cornbread without wheat flour instead of rolls this year, knowing that maize was a staple of Native American nutrition. Let's just say the cornbread was delicious.  I am holding on to this recipe and skipping the wheat flour from now on.  And we made carrots, white, purple and orange, because the Pilgrims' gardens in 1621 probably included this crop and because carrots used to come in several different colors before they were turned into the quintessential orange vegetable.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, the Thanksgiving meal as we know it today didn't start its popularity until the mid 19th century when women's magazines and cookbooks began printing recipes for the dishes we serve now on this national holiday.

P.S. Since we had a very mild Thanksgiving Day with temps in the low 60s, we decided to break even more with tradition and make a campfire instead of watching football.  Then we went another step further and busted out marshmallows to roast and leftover sparklers and glow necklaces from the Fourth of July.  The kids had a blast.  This might have been my favorite Thanksgiving yet.

Picture Of The Day

Rex loves to build train tracks and always finds new challenges for himself... like building the track vertically up a wall.  I am amazed by the way his mind works.

Escrow For Eden Update

Our family had a very busy weekend with some holiday and swimming fun on Saturday and big fundraisers for Eden on Sunday.

First I'd like to report that Emilia had a huge break-through at our hotel pool.  Other than at the stairs leading in, this pool was too deep for her to stand and we fully expected her to just sit on the steps and play.  However, Emilia decided that she was ready to venture all over the pool and she did so by kicking her legs and paddling her arms.  Once she'd figured it out, she couldn't get enough.  This is really big for our little girl who's always been tentative at best when it comes to water larger than what a tub can hold.

On Sunday, my friend Julane and her church provided us with the opportunity to hold a bake sale and concert to grow Eden's grant.  Both events were extremely successful with the bake sale raising $616 and the concert $666.  In addition, the church's mission committee donated $250 toward the grant fund, making the money raised this weekend for Eden and her future family $1532.  The grant fund total with Hopscotch Adoptions now stands at $2082.

Our family wants to express sincerest thanks to Julane for paying it forward for Eden in such a big way as well as to the congregation of First United Methodist Church of Mooresville, Indiana for its generosity.

Now, someone please see this lovely girl who requires medical treatment and whose losses have made her a little bit cautious and aloof, but who nonetheless needs and deserves the love, care, and stability only a family can provide.

If you're in the Greater Cincinnati area, please remember that we have our homemade sugar cookie fundraiser for Eden going on until 12/21.  This week is the last to place an order.  Last week, Maria and I had fun making lizzard cookies for the birthday party of a special little Ethiopian boy along with a few hundred Christmas cookies.

St. Nick's Day 2015

Due to our busy schedule this weekend, we had to do our St. Nick's Day traditions a day early.  The kids woke up to the decorated tree and treats from St. Nick in their boots.

As you know, keeping a Christmas tree up around here is a little tricky.  Things break a lot.  So this year, I decided to make all of our decorations edible.  I have chocolate covered pretzels, icecream cones filled with jelly beans, and sugar cookies with melted hard candy on the tree right now along with marshmallow and popcorn garlands.  As things get eaten, I will refill the tree with mini candy canes, meringues, gingerbread cookies, etc.  The tree will look continuously different as we move through this season.  Let's see how it goes.

Picture Of The Day II

Today, Rex was allowed to decorate the Christmas tree for his classroom.  He loved it and was gentle and careful.  A few short years ago, we couldn't have let him near an ornament.

Isn't he beautiful?

IAC 336 Results

The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 336 which was held on October 29, 2015:

1) Spanish dossier from December 2010 referred a male child aged 2 years and 10 months

2) Canadian dossier from December 2011 referred a male child aged 3 years and 7 months with features in health status

3) French dossier from April 2014 referred a brother and sister aged 7 years and 6 months & 4 years

4) Canadian dossier from April 2014 referred a female child aged 1 year and 6 months with features in health status

5) German dossier from July 2014 referred a male child aged 1 year and 6 months with features in health status

6) Italian dossier from May 2015 referred a waiting child (#3075) with a profile on the MOJ site

7) US dossier from August 2015 referred a male child aged 7 years and 2 months with features in health status

8) US dossier from October 2015 referred a waiting child (#635) with a profile on the MOJ site

9) French dossier from October 2015 referred a waiting child (#2881) with a profile on the MOJ site

10) US dossier from October 2015 referred a waiting child (#2895) with a profile on the MOJ site

11) US dossier from October 2015 referred four waiting children  (#2775 & #2776 & #2777 & #2778) with profiles on the MOJ site

12) US dossier from October 2015 referred a waiting child (#2903) with a profile on the MOJ site

Picture Of The Day

Ella's got a penpal and she impressed me this morning with her work on a new letter to her friend.

Apraxia - Talking About Her Day

"Emilia, how was school today?"

"Miss Goddard.  Class.  Crisscross applesauce.  Avery.  Brown.  Marker (shows marker traces on her finger).  My Miss T.  Time out.  No yelling."

First Sentence

Today, Rex spoke his first clear sentence understood by all who heard it.  When Craig came to pick him up from school, Rex greeted him and said, "Go car."  Kid, you're a miracle!