IAC 213 & 214 Results

The following referrals were issued in IAC session 213 which was held on March 7, 2012:

1) Spanish dossier from February 2009 referred a female child aged 6 years and 11 months

2) US dossier from April 2009 referred a female child aged 5 years with features in health status and family history

3) French dossier from February 2011 referred a male child aged 8 years and 8 months

4) French dossier from May 2011 referred a male child aged 7 years and 4 months with a family history

5) Canadian dossier from December 2011 referred a male child aged 1 year and 5 months with features in health status

6) Italian dossier from January 2012 referred a female child aged 9 years and 6 months

7) Italian dossier from February 2012 referred twin sisters aged 9 years and 11 months

8) Italian dossier from February 2012 referred a male child aged 9 years and 1 month

9) US dossier from February 2012 referred three waiting children (#850 & #666 & #183) with profiles on the MOJ site

10) US dossier from February 2012 referred a waiting child (#1552) with a profile on the MOJ site

11) US dossier from February 2012 referred a waiting child (#1734) with a profile on the MOJ site

12) US dossier from February 2012 referred a waiting child (#1463) with a profile on the MOJ site

13) US dossier from February 2012 referred a waiting child (#1363) with a profile on the MOJ site

14) US dossier from March 2012 referred a waiting child (#1157) with a profile on the MOJ site

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The following referrals were issued in IAC session 214 which was held on March 14, 2012:

1) Greek dossier from June 2007 referred a female child aged 5 years

2) Greek dossier from September 2007 referred a female child aged 2 years and 2 months

3) Greek dossier from October 2008 referred a male child aged 1 year and 11 months

4) Norwegian dossier from January 2009 referred a male child aged 1 year and 7 months

5) German dossier from April 2009 referred a male child aged 4 years and 8 months

6) US dossier from January 2010 referred a female child aged 2 years and 1 month

7) US dossier from March 2010 referred a brother and sister aged 3 years and 7 months and 2 years and 1 month with features in health status

8) Italian dossier from September 2010 referred a waiting child (#1700) with a profile on the MOJ site

9) Italian dossier from December 2010 referred a male child aged 2 years with features in health status

10) US dossier from March 2012 referred two waiting children (#199 & #127) with profiles on the MOJ site

11) US dossier from March 2012 referred a waiting child (#1256) with a profile on the MOJ site

50,000 Views - Blog Roll

I recently realized that my blog is quickly approaching 50,000 views, so I started wondering who is reading our story. Therefore, I'd like to call a blog roll. If you wouldn't mind, and especially if you are not signed up as an official follower/member, would you please leave a comment? You don't have to identify yourself, but I would love to know in which state or country you live and anything else you could share.

Thanks and looking forward to "meeting" you!

Picture Of The Day

When I came around the bend into the living room today, I saw a scene that warmed my heart. Emilia was playing with my old baby doll which my mom recently sent me and which I gave to Emilia just this morning. How lovely that she likes it and that I can pass it on to her.

I watched Emilia play for a while before I took this picture. She was holding the doll and looking at it, she stood up and helped the doll jump like we do with her, she carried it around and then she went to examining the eyes which are big and brown like her own.

We will have to decide on a name for the doll soon. I don't remember what I called her as a child because, I think, I changed her name all the time based on my latest fancy. And maybe Emilia will do the same when she starts to speak.

April 18, 2011

One year ago today in Dobrich, Bulgaria, we met a very teeny, very scared little girl. She was 18 months old and could not walk. She spoke no words. We did not hear her laugh and saw no smiles. She only weighed about 12 pounds, was pale with dark circles under her eyes, and her temples were sunken. She did not know how to play with toys, but wanted to be bounced and held up to look out of the window. One year ago today, we met our daughter:

Never in our wildest dreams could we have imagined the spunky yet sweet girl that was hiding inside this tiny treasure:

We're so thankful we found you, Emilia girl. You're blossoming right before our eyes and it makes us so happy to see.

Emilia - Twenty-One Weeks Home

As of Saturday, Emilia has been home with us for twenty-one weeks.

Early morning exercise

As a mom, I find it hard to track her progress because she is so elusive with her skills. I know there are many things that she can do, but she kind of hides it from us. When she thinks no one is watching, I have seen her easily drop balls into the Hide and Seek Octopus, I have seen her take out puzzle pieces and try to put them back into the correct spots, I have seen her sit with a book and study the pages, and she also has been scribbling:

As far as I eating, the last few days have been so exciting because there’s finally some jaw movement that might eventually lead to chewing. Emilia ate cornbread stuffing and a fork mashed fried egg and tomato basil soup (not together) which is progress. I am going to have to get creative now to keep encouraging these chewing attempts without freaking her out. It’s a very fine line with this little princess. When I praise her though for doing a good job with her food, she gets this completely adorable smile of pride on her face and her eyes sparkle… I can’t get enough of that look.

As far as Emilia’s teeth are concerned, the gums where she lost two teeth have healed and many new teeth are coming in all over her mouth. At the moment, she is a drooling machine. She seems to be growing in all directions as almost every morning when I put her into an outfit, one piece or another no longer fits. It’s time for summer to get here because I refuse to buy more long pants and shirts until the fall.

Plum tuckered out

after celebrating Easter with her fellow Bulgarians

We have decided to take Emilia out of OT for the next few months because she is not really cooperative during the sessions which makes them ineffective for everyone involved. Her OT agreed to be available on a consultation basis throughout the summer, so that we could come in for an appointment here or there to track progress and get ideas for honing new skills. When Emilia is more interested and compliant with sensory and fine motor activities, we will return to OT. Furthermore, I have canceled Emilia’s appointment with the feeding team next week because I don’t think anything beneficial would come from it right now. On the contrary, I could see Emilia getting re-traumatized by the experts asking me to do this or that in her mouth while feeding her in front of them. I think I am just going to keep doing what my instincts are telling me is right, building that trust with her over food, offering new flavors and textures slowly, etc. This little girl is obviously on a schedule of her own with everything.

Attachment continues to go well. Emilia loves to sit with us and usually as soon as we are in reach, approaches us to be picked up, bounced, cuddled etc. Emilia is beginning to give more kisses, very wet and slobbery ones at that, but we love them along with her great, tight hugs. I recently bought a rocking chair for Emilia’s bedroom, so now we sit for a few minutes each night, rocking and singing, before I put her down. I am hoping that over time, this will become our special ritual that can last for many years.

I’ll leave you with a short video of our giggly little gal:

Picture Of The Day

I think I am going to ask Rex's therapists to move the developmental objective of scribbling 1-3 marks over onto the mastered list.

Ever since I got him a dry-erase board last week, he has been willingly marking away on it when required and then also transferred his scribbling skills to pen and paper... and apparently crayon and our living room wall. Love that boy!

Великден

As I am sure many of you know today was Easter Sunday in Bulgaria (and elsewhere). This meant that we had the wonderful opportunity to celebrate the day again with the Bulgarian community in our area. Minus the wind gusts, we had perfect weather for our gathering at a local park.

There was a great turn-out and everyone brought a dish for the potluck. The tables were laden, as usual. Being a vegetarian, I am always in seventh heaven with all the delicious salads: couscous, rice, lettuce, potatoes, vegetables, herbs. Yum.

There was also a kozunak contest and I dared enter with only my second attempt at this traditional Easter bread. To my utter surprise, I ended up winning the contest. My bread was voted (and they really had judges) best overall for taste, appearance, etc. I won a t-shirt with the Cyrillic alphabet on it which I will be rocking at the reunion as well as a CD of Bulgarian music. The funny thing is, I didn't even get to taste my kozunak (wish I had a picture because it was prettier than last week's) because it was all gone by the time I made it over to the bread table. Several native Bulgarians sought me out to compliment my baking and asked for the recipe. Who would have thought?

The Easter egg hunt was a lot of fun for the kids and over in a flash. My little ones just watched from the sidelines, but I hope next year they will get the idea and participate.

Of course, no Bulgarian party would be complete without the dancing of the horo.

We also had the great pleasure of meeting the Van Roekel family at this celebration. Nikolas and Emilia started their lives at the same orphanage, so in years to come they will appreciate this special connection. This time around, however, they would hardly sit still for a photo together.

Once again, we had a wonderful time with our friends from around the world and look forward already to next Easter.