To My Daughters On International Women's Day

Be strong, but not rude. 

Be kind, but not weak. 

Be bold, but not bully. 

Be thoughtful, but not lazy. 

Be humble, but not timid. 

Be proud, but not arrogant. 

Have humor, but without folly.

- Jim Rohn

by Erin Hull Photography

Rex Ist Sechs

*The formatting on this entry is all messed up and I don't know how to fix it.

We recently celebrated Rex's sixth birthday.  I can hardly believe how quickly my little boy is growing up.  The first time I saw his face he had just turned one and I knew instantly he was mine.

This year, we decided to gather our family and friends at a local gym for some gross motor and sensory fun in honor of the birthday boy.  After a bit of a rough start which was my fault (balloons - enough said), Rex enjoyed himself and explored the equipment and activities.

Ella showing off some mad skills

After all the fun in the gym, we enjoyed a few refreshments in the party room.  Among other treats, I had made these gluten and dairy free cupcakes which turned out quite yummy.  We had a couple of adults with gluten intolerance in the crowd and they agreed, too.

Rex also celebrated with his friends at school.  I made a gluten, dairy and nut free chocolate raspberry cake with "buttercream" icing.

Rex had a great birthday at school.

Relaxing

Thinking

And playing.

Rex, you are and will forever be 
our favorite boy in the whole wide world.

We love you beyond measure and we think you know it.

You are brave and curious, funny and affectionate.

You fight hard every day to learn and to live in a busy world.

We are immensely proud of you, son,

And marvel daily at your resilience and amazing spirit.

You are our greatest teacher

And a blessing beyond our wildest dreams.

Picture Of The Day

Ella's class is doing a Dr. Seuss week and each child created an "All About Me" book.  Ella's teacher wrote her answers for her and Ella still has some coloring to do, but this is my favorite page in the entire book.  I have no doubt that this is exactly the answer Ella gave and I love it.

This page is also great, 100% Ella.

International Adoptions From Bulgaria in 2014

My friend Katie translated this info and passed it on.

In 2014, MOJ in Sofia gave consent for a total of 392 adoptions of 472 children.  Of those, 128 adoptions were of 173 waiting children with profiles on the MOJ website. 

Here is the breakdown for 2014:  

USA  - 40% of all IA from BG in 2014; 155 adoptions (107 of waiting children)

ITALY - 20% of all IA from BG in 2014;  88 adoptions (12 of waiting children) 

FRANCE - 10% of all IA from BG in 2014; 38 adoptions ( 4 of waiting children)

SPAIN - 7% of all IA from BG in 2014;  29 adoptions

NETHERLANDS - 6% of all IA from BG in 2014;  24 adoptions

GERMANY - 6% of all IA from BG in 2014;  23 adoptions

CANADA - 2% of all IA from BG in 2014; 8 adoptions (1 of waiting child/children)

SWEDEN - 2% of all IA from BG in 2014; 7 adoptions (2 of waiting children)

GREECE - 1% of all IA from BG in 2014; 5 adoptions (1 of waiting child/children)

IRELAND -1% of all IA from BG in 2014; 5 adoptions

LUXEMBOURG - 1% of all IA from BG in 2014; 2 adoptions (1 of waiting child/children)

GREAT BRITAIN - 1% of all IA from BG in 2014; 2 adoptions

DENMARK - 1% of all IA from BG in 2014; 2 adoptions

AUSTRIA -  0% of all IA from BG; 1 adoption

CYPRUS - 0% of all IA from BG; 1 adoption

NORWAY - 0% of all IA from BG; 1 adoption

PORTUGAL - 0% of all IA from BG; 1 adoption

Once again, the total number of international adoptions from Bulgaria has increased from last year's count.  It is interesting to note that about 37% of all children adopted were waiting children with identified special needs.  In addition, we do not know how many of the children referred through the main procedure also had special needs, but I would venture to say that more than 50% of all children placed from Bulgaria in 2014 had some sort of special need.

Also, adoptions of Bulgarian children to the United States were comprised of 70% identified waiting children and only 30% main procedure referrals.

Six Hours

With our current schedule, I have six hours a week, three on Mondays and three on Tuesdays, where I am home alone.  I always have a huge to do list for this undisturbed, productive time.

Here's my list for this week:

*Schedule eval Emilia
*Clean kitchen, kitchen floors, and hall floors
*Laundry (four loads were washed, dried, folded and put away)
*Assemble tax paperwork
*Make and freeze lentil burgers for Emilia's bedtime snack
*Make individual quinoa-oatmeal packs for Emilia's bedtime snack
*Cook dinner
*Clean three bathrooms - no floors (At the old house, it took me 90 minutes just to do the master bath from top to bottom.  At the new house, all three bathrooms without the floors took 30 minutes - which goes to show you how tiny our bathrooms are now.)
*Sort through toys to donate
*Appointment with drywall repair guy
*File insurance claims
*Run dishwasher (it took three loads in two days to get the job done)
*Answer emails
*Return phone calls

I did well this week and completed everything but the tax paperwork and the toy sorting.  Moving that over to next week's list now.

Sardinas, Anyone?

My mom sent us a package that was supposed to be full of gluten and dairy-free treats for Rex that we can't get here in the US.  Today, the package arrived and along with some of what I expected, I also found this assortment of goods.  

I am pretty sure our package was opened and inspected and then its contents was mixed up with a box from Spain undergoing the same procedures.  Somewhere in the US, a recipient is missing cocoa, tea and sardines and scratching his/her head about some homeopathics and gluten-free spreads.

Meanwhile, I am doing a little wondering here myself.  Does anyone know what might be in the tins, the San Lorenzo package (jam?) and what the mystery dough could be?  And what's the right thing to do here?  Just enjoy the surprising bounty or should I inform the postal service?  I doubt they'd be able to trace anything back, but I am open to suggestions.

Sunday Selfie

We love snuggling with the wee Martinis on Sunday mornings.  They trickled into our bed one by one over the course of an hour.

And if you're wondering why my lamp doesn't have a shade, let's just say lampshades are one of Rex's favorite "toys."