Boxes For Big Sister Update #5

Boxes for Big Sister is now in its second week and we have covered 23 out of 100 boxes.  That's nearly one fourth of all of them.  Wow!  We are so thankful to everyone who has donated and helped us spread the word far and wide.  Do you think we can get 30 boxes covered this week?  We only need seven people to step up and make a donation to get there.  Are you one of those seven people changing the life of a child?

When Craig and I started our very first adoption to bring home two children from Bulgaria in 2009, we had been saving for five - yes you read that correctly - five years to be ready for the costs.  Therefore, even when our path took an unexpected turn and we ended up bringing home two children from two different countries in 2011, we were able to cover all of the expenses from our savings and by setting aside additional funds as we were going through the process.

This time around, we're in a different boat.  We're now the parents of two and our funding for the adoption of Big Sis is less than what we had on hand between 2009 and 2011.  Here's an approximate break-down of what we have paid already during this current adoption process which we started in September 2013:

Homestudy and post-placement reporting: 

$3000

Placing agency fee: 

$8000

International fee: 

$10,500

USCIS: 

$890

Trip 1: 

$10,000

Trip 2 (lodging, transportation, translator for over three weeks): 

$4600

What's left to pay now?  The biggest chunk of money still needed is for our airfare to and from Big Sis' country for which we are budgeting around $8000.  There are other miscellaneous costs like the medical exam in-country, the post-placement supervision, and mailing fees.

Our goal from the start was to raise $10,000, approximately 25%, of the total expenditures.  As you may remember, we had two fundraisers earlier in the year and, adding in the yard sale, have been able to raise about $4600 of our $10,000 goal.  We are so grateful to everyone who helped us get to that impressive number, but we're still $5400 from our target.  Therefore, please consider being a part of Big Sis' story via our final fundraiser:

BOXES FOR BIG SISTER

Below is a grid of the numbers 1 through 100.  Each square represents a dollar amount, for example, square 25 equals $25.  We are looking for up to 100 people to sponsor the squares on this grid by making a donation in that amount of money to our Adopt Together account here.  All contributions are tax deductible.

Now, to make it a bit more interesting, there are several random Magic Squares on the grid which are connected to little prizes (one prize has been found and mailed already), including two books signed by their authors, handmade children's gloves, and a dozen homemade cookies.  If you happen to sponsor a Magic Square, you will be mailed the prize as soon as your donation posts at Adopt Together and I have your address.

There are also ten hidden Q&A Squares.  If anyone commits to sponsoring any of those squares, I will answer the corresponding question about Big Sis after the donation posts to our Adopt Together account:

1) How old is Big Sis?
2) What's her favorite color?
3) What's her favorite food? - Big Sister says her favorite foods are apples and grapes.  She'll fit right in.
4) What will Big Sis's initials be after her adoption? - This is still under debate, but her first and last initials will be AM.  We may wait to choose a middle initial until we re-adopt here in our state.
5) How far away does Big Sis live right now from our family?
6) What's Big Sis's eye color? - Brown.
7) How often does Big Sis's special need occur? - The exact version of her special need is estimated to occur in only 1 out of 200,000 births.
8) What's her favorite fairy tale? Little Red Riding Hood.
9) What color dress does Big Sis want to wear when she leaves the orphanage?
10) What's the elevation of Big Sis's city of residence?

If you have any questions or to let me know that you have made a donation sponsoring a square, please email me at viviane 8 at yahoo dot com.  You can also leave a comment here on the blog to let me know that you have sponsored a square.  The grid will be updated regularly.  Thank you.

Sunday Dessert...

... was a feast for our parental hearts.

What's New With Emilia

Before Emilia starts two mornings a week of preschool next week, I thought I would put together a quick update of where she is developmentally now.

Emilia is growing.  She now weighs 30 pounds and is 37 inches tall.  Her growth curve and physical proportions make all of her doctors and therapists very happy even though she is still tiny for her age.  Except for the random piece of clothing that's an odd size, she now wears 4T.  We recently went through pants that fit her at the end of the winter and most of them are too short now.  Then I got out what I thought would definitely still be too big for her to wear and, to my great surprise, most of it is a perfect fit.

Icecream for dessert 

Emilia recently had a check up with her cardiologist, including an echo and a EKG.  Everything looks great and she has no restrictions or medications.  The leak around her heart valve remains trivial which has no negative effect on her health and development.

Emilia has been working hard this summer to acquire new skills.  She can now ride a tricycle and steer it completely independently.  She recognizes and names 18 of the lower case letters (remember she already knows all upper case ones) and the ones that still give her a little trouble include b/d/p and m/n.  I can see why.  And we have begun introducing the letter sounds which seems to be quite fascinating to our little girl as she has fairly quickly picked up about a dozen of them.  Emilia still struggles with pre-writing skills, but can now hold writing utensils correctly.  For the most part she only produces scribbles, but she tells us what they are supposed to be.  She definitely wants to write letters, but it's still impossible for her to do so without hand over hand help.  However, she is very creative and always finds ways to produce letter shapes.  For example, she uses a pool noodle to make a U or L or X and recently used the coil of a reading light to make a J and an O.  She gets the concept.

Riding a plasma car all by herself

Emilia effortlessly counts to ten and tries to go up to 14, but often leaves out the 11.  She likes to count her own jumps on the trampoline.  We have been trying to teach her quantities and for some reason, she understands 2.  She can always tell us when she sees or has two of something, but so far she hasn't gotten any other quantity yet.  Emilia has also expanded her knowledge of colors and shapes.  I love it when she correctly uses words like octagon.

Speaking of words, Emilia is adding new vocabulary to her repertoire daily.  Some of her recent acquisitions include hummus, yogurt, Kroger, thunder, ring, haircut, octopus, underwear, tambourine, and bathroom. She is also speaking little sentences like watch Kindle, all gone, not now, bye-bye daddy, hi Rex.  She does a lot of combining I with a noun or verb to express her wishes: I eat, I hop, I book, I outside, I turn.  She is also making strides in following more complex instructions, such as push the green button to start the toy or take the toothbrushes back upstairs and put them in the holder.  And the most wonderful thing is her singing.  She knows dozens of songs by heart, even if she cannot pronounce all the words.  That said, Emilia's language delays are finally causing her to feel frustrated as she knows and wants to express more than she is able to say.  This has led to a rather annoying habit of her screaming or screeching to inform us of her disagreement or stress. If anyone has any ideas for how to overcome this particular issue until her language catches up to her brain, please let me know.

Rounding her lips around a whistle

and blowing air forcefully and purposefully -

a major feat against apraxia

As far as self-help skills and fine motor skills, Emilia is making an effort.  She feeds herself very well now and can pour liquids from one container into another without much spilling.  She helps with putting lotion on her surgical scar. She can pull up her own underwear and pants/skirts as well as unbuckle/buckle her shoes.  Emilia also enjoys being a helper for Rex, handing him bites of food and combing his hair.  In terms of potty-training, Emilia has the concept down.  If we don't have to go anywhere in any given 24 hour period, she only needs two diapers, one for nap and one for night time. She is very consistent in letting me know when she has to pee, but refuses to do a #2 on the toilet.  She has basically trained herself to hold BMs until she is in a diaper which I hear is not uncommon.  The main problem is that Emilia rarely notifies us of her toileting needs when we are away from home, so we typically still need to use diapers for any outings.  We were thrilled when she told her therapist mid-session last week, "I pee-pee", signing bathroom to reinforce the request and then actually going.  Slowly, but surely.

Driving Miss Emilia

Our main concern at the moment is with attachment.  We do believe that Emilia is attached to us and recognizes us her family, but still shows some mild signs, from time to time, of an insecure attachment.  She is still friendly with almost all strangers and likes to give hugs to just about anyone if we don't intervene.  We are telling her that hugs are for family and friends and that she can say hi or a give a high five to everyone else.  We are also working on improving her eye contact.  Emilia makes amazing eye contact on her terms, to the point of moving our faces to get us to look at her.  But when she is supposed to look at us, especially when she is being reprimanded or instructed on something she does not want to do, it is difficult for her.  There also continues to be a certain level of non-compliance with what she is told to do or not to do.  This may only be a function of her developmental age, but could also be anchored in insecure attachment.

Feeding her baby

The other area of concern is Emilia's continuing struggle with sensory integration and motor planning across all of her systems which affects her ability to learn.  The problems with motor planning could be related to the non-compliance we sometimes see from Emilia: it may be that she wants to follow through, but is physically unable to do so.  In conjunction with some of her more forward-thinking therapists, we have come to believe that Emilia missed some key experiences and opportunities in her first few years which have left holes in the brain and body connection/foundation she needs for higher learning.  Therefore, Emilia will be starting a weekly hour of private occupational therapy next month, focusing solely on sensory integration and re-capturing the moments she has missed in her earliest childhood via a program called Brain Gym.  We are very excited about this plan and hope to see great improvements for Emilia.

It really is hard to notice the progress sometimes when you're in the trenches of special needs parenting, but we know that Emilia learns something new every single day.  She often surprises us with her skills or knowledge or determination to reach a certain goal.  She is an overcomer who is giving it her all to live life to the fullest with laughter and tears, courage and fear, two steps forward and one step back, love and unsuppressed joy.

Picture Of The Day

Emilia and I during her special brunch date
with Craig and me

IAC Results 289 - 292

The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 289 which was held on July 2, 2014:

1) Spanish dossier from December 2009 referred a male child aged 1 year and 8 months

2) Italian dossier from November 2010 referred a male child aged 5 years and 7 months

3) Italian dossier from December 2010 referred a male child aged 5 years and 11 months

4) French dossier from April 2011 referred a female child aged 7 years and 1 month with features in health status

5) Italian dossier from October 2011 referred a male child aged 7 years and 3 months

6) Italian dossier from March 2012 referred a female child aged 8 years and 6 months

7) Italian dossier from June 2014 referred a female child aged 10 years and 10 months

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The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 290 which was held on July 9, 2014:

1) German dossier from August 2010 referred a female child aged 3 years and 10 months

2) Irish dossier from August 2010 referred a male child aged 2 years

3) US dossier from August 2010 referred a female child aged 3 years and 9 months with features in health status

4) US dossier from September 2010 referred a female child aged 1 year and 6 months with features in health status and a family history

5)  German dossier from September 2010 referred a male child aged 1 year and 8 months with features in health status

6) Spanish dosser from September 2010 referred a male child aged 2 years and 1 month

7) French dossier from January 2011 referred aged 2 years and 6 months with a family history

8) French dossier from August 2011 referred a female child aged 2 years and 9 months with a family history

9) Italian dossier from May 2012 referred two brothers aged 1 year and 10 months & 2 years and 10 months with features in health status

10) US dossier from October 2013 referred a waiting child (#2395) with a profile on the MOJ site

11) US dossier from March 2014 referred a female child aged 2 years with features in health status

12) US dossier from July 2014 referred three waiting children (#801 & #2260 & #2267) with profiles on the MOJ site

13) US dossier from July 2014 referred a waiting child (#184) with a profile on the MOJ site

14) French dossier from July 2014 referred a waiting child (#2468) with a profile on the MOJ site

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The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 291 which was held on July 16, 2014:

1) Spanish dossier from November 2010 referred a female child aged 6 years and 1 month

2) Spanish dossier from April 2011 referred twin sisters, aged 3 years and 4 months with features in health status

3) Italian dossier from September 2011 referred a male child aged 4 years and 9 months with features in health status and a family history

4) Italian dossier from February 2012 referred a female child aged 6 years with a family history

5) German dossier from may 2012 referred a male child aged 1 year and 5 months with a family history

6) French dossier from June 2012 referred aged 8 years and 3 months

7) Italian dossier from February 2013 referred two sisters, aged 6 years and 10 months & 8 years and 2 months

8) French dossier from March 2013 referred a waiting child (#2534) with a profile on the MOJ site

9) Swiss dossier from June 2013 referred a female child aged 9 years

10) US dossier from July 2014 referred a waiting child (#2287) with a profile on the MO site

11) US dossier from July 2014 referred a waiting child (#2262) with a profile on the MO site

12) US dossier from July 2014 referred a waiting child (#2274) with a profile on the MO site

13) US dossier from July 2014 referred a waiting child (#1437) with a profile on the MO site

14) US dossier from July 2014 referred a waiting child (#2517) with a profile on the MO site

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The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 292 which was held on July 23, 2014:

1) German dossier from February 2011 referred a female child aged 3 years and 3 months with features in health status

2) Norwegian dossier from August 2012 referred a male child aged 1 year and 5 months with features in health status

3) US dossier from September 2013 referred a waiting child (#2530) with a profile on the MOJ site

4) Italian dossier from November 2013 referred a male child aged 4 years and 5 months with features in health status

5) US dossier from December 2013 referred a male child aged 1 year and 8 months with features in health status

6) Canadian dossier from January 2014 referred a female child aged 2 years and 9 months with features in health status

Boxes For Big Sister Update #4

Thanks to everyone who has already spread the word and donated.
Your support and generosity are truly appreciated.

BOXES FOR BIG SISTER

Below is a grid of the numbers 1 through 100.  Each square represents a dollar amount, for example, square 25 equals $25.  We are looking for up to 100 people to sponsor the squares on this grid by making a donation in that amount of money to our Adopt Together account here.  All contributions are tax deductible.

Now, to make it a bit more interesting, there are several random Magic Squares on the grid which are connected to little prizes, including two books signed by their authors, handmade children's gloves, and a dozen homemade cookies.  If you happen to sponsor a Magic Square, you will be mailed the prize as soon as your donation posts at Adopt Together and I have your address.

There are also ten hidden Q&A Squares.  If anyone commits to sponsoring any of those squares, I will answer the corresponding question about Big Sis after the donation posts to our Adopt Together account:

1) How old is Big Sis?
2) What's her favorite color?
3) What's her favorite food? - Big Sister says her favorite foods are apples and grapes.  She'll fit right in.
4) What will Big Sis's initials be after her adoption? - This is still under debate, but her first and last initials will be AM.  We may wait to choose a middle initial until we re-adopt here in our state.
5) How far away does Big Sis live right now from our family?
6) What's Big Sis's eye color? - Brown.
7) How often does Big Sis's special need occur? - The exact version of her special need is estimated to occur in only 1 out of 200,000 births.
8) What's her favorite fairy tale? Little Red Riding Hood.
9) What color dress does Big Sis want to wear when she leaves the orphanage?
10) What's the elevation of Big Sis's city of residence?

If you have any questions or to let me know that you have made a donation sponsoring a square, please email me at viviane 8 at yahoo dot com.  You can also leave a comment here on the blog to let me know that you have sponsored a square.  The grid will be updated regularly.  Thank you.

The Cost Of Big Sister's Adoption & Final Fundraiser

When Craig and I started our very first adoption to bring home two children from Bulgaria in 2009, we had been saving for five - yes you read that correctly - five years to be ready for the costs.  Therefore, even when our path took an unexpected turn and we ended up bringing home two children from two different countries in 2011, we were able to cover all of the expenses from our savings and by setting aside additional funds as we were going through the process.

This time around, we're in a different boat.  We're now the parents of two and our funding for the adoption of Big Sis is less than what we had on hand between 2009 and 2011.  Here's an approximate break-down of what we have paid already during this current adoption process which we started in September 2013:

Homestudy and post-placement reporting: 

$3000

Placing agency fee: 

$8000

International fee: 

$10,500

USCIS: 

$890

Trip 1: 

$10,000

Trip 2 (lodging, transportation, translator for over three weeks): 

$4600

What's left to pay now?  The biggest chunk of money still needed is for our airfare to and from Big Sis' country for which we are budgeting around $8000.  There are other miscellaneous costs like the medical exam in-country, the post-placement supervision, and mailing fees.

Our goal from the start was to raise $10,000, approximately 25%, of the total expenditures.  As you may remember, we had two fundraisers earlier in the year and, adding in the yard sale, have been able to raise about $4600 of our $10,000 goal.  We are so grateful to everyone who helped us get to that impressive number, but we're still $5400 from our target.  Therefore, please consider being a part of Big Sis' story via our final fundraiser:

BOXES FOR BIG SISTER

Below is a grid of the numbers 1 through 100.  Each square represents a dollar amount, for example, square 25 equals $25.  We are looking for up to 100 people to sponsor the squares on this grid by making a donation in that amount of money to our Adopt Together account here.  All contributions are tax deductible.

Now, to make it a bit more interesting, there are several random Magic Squares on the grid which are connected to little prizes, including two books signed by their authors, handmade children's gloves, and a dozen homemade cookies.  If you happen to sponsor a Magic Square, you will be mailed the prize as soon as your donation posts at Adopt Together and I have your address.

There are also ten hidden Q&A Squares.  If anyone commits to sponsoring any of those squares, I will answer the corresponding question about Big Sis after the donation posts to our Adopt Together account:

1) How old is Big Sis?
2) What's her favorite color?
3) What's her favorite food?
4) What will Big Sis's initials be after her adoption?
5) How far away does Big Sis live right now from our family?
6) What's Big Sis's eye color?
7) How often does Big Sis's special need occur?
8) What's her favorite fairy tale?
9) What color dress does Big Sis want to wear when she leaves the orphanage?
10) What's the elevation of Big Sis's city of residence?

If you have any questions or to let me know that you have made a donation sponsoring a square, please email me at viviane 8 at yahoo dot com.  You can also leave a comment here on the blog to let me know that you have sponsored a square.  The grid will be updated regularly.  Thank you.