IAC 314, 315 & 316 Results

The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 314 which was held on April 2, 2015:

1) Italian dossier from September 2014 referred a brother and sister aged 7 years and 10 months & 6 years and 1 month

2) Canadian dossier from December 2011 referred female twins aged 2 years and 1 months with features in health status

3) German dossier from March 2012 referred a male child aged 1 year and 2 months with features in health status

4) Italian dossier from May 2012 referred a male child aged 7 years and 8 months with features in health status

5) US dossier from October 2012 referred a female child aged 8 years and 8 months

6) Italian dossier from June 2013 referred a male child aged 8 years and 6 months

7) Italian dossier from October 2013 referred a male child aged 1 year and 9 months with features in health status and a family history

8) US dossier from October 2014 referred female child aged 9 years and 9 months with features in health status and a family history

9)  US dossier from March 2015 referred two waiting children (#2508 & #2509) with profiles on the MOJ site

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The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 315 which was held on April 16, 2015:

1) Belgian dossier from April 2015 referred a waiting child (#2898) with a profile on the MOJ site

2) US dossier from April 2015 referred two waiting children (#2224 & #2225) with profiles on the MOJ site

3) US dossier from April 2015 referred two waiting children (#1155 & #1701) with profiles on the MOJ site

4)  US dossier from April 2015 referred a waiting child (#2555) with a profile on the MOJ site

5) US dossier from April 2015 referred two waiting children (#2816 & #2817) with profiles on the MOJ site

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The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 316 which was held on April 23, 2015:

1) Italian dossier from March 2011 referred a female child aged 7 years and 10 months

2) US dossier from January 2013 referred a waiting child (#2238) with a profile on the MOJ site

3) US dossier from April 2015  referred a waiting child (#2594) with a profile on the MOJ site

Manic Monday & Tuesday

Oh my goodness, folks, we had a serious Code Red Level 10 Mess Emergency in this house on Monday morning.  After a busy three days (more on that soon), having a broken washer for a week (replacement arrived on Tuesday), and the master bath out of commission due to plumbing issues for a month (finally finished the drywall and painted on Sunday), I needed to dig myself out of quite a mountain of house and yard work.

My bathroom for the last few weeks

After putting the girls on the bus on Monday, I got going:

1) Cleaned all downstairs floors (including stain removal on the rug)
2) Cleaned girls' bath
3) Made GFDF pizza for Rex and Emilia
4) Picked up EVERYWHERE
5) Loaded, ran and unloaded dishwasher
6) Collected all the dirty clothes for the 247 loads of laundry I will be doing in my new washer  after it's delivered
7) Pulled weeds and trimmed shrubs in front yard
8) Emailed kids' therapy providers and teachers
9) Weeded and swept rock path in the back yard part 1

That was half the mountain down followed by Tuesday's accomplishments:

1) Did 247 loads of laundry in my new beast of a washer
2) Baked these addictive, totally unhealthy cookies
3) Weeded and swept rock path part 2
5) Cleaned kitchen
6) Worked on assembling Ella's June homeschool curriculum (only 12 days of school left)
7) Started first draft of letter to Emilia's birth family
8) Watched final episode of Mad Men - I will miss you!

And now I am back to just the regular medium hill of daily tasks necessary to keeping a busy home and family running.  I am sure many of you can relate.

Emilia's New IEP

Emilia will start half-day kindergarten in August.  She will be in class five days a week with Ella's current, wonderful teacher.  Last week, I sat in a room with a dozen people to discuss her development and progress and to decide on goals for the coming school year.

I am extremely pleased with the IEP our new school district proposed and will implement for Emilia.  She will be in school three hours per day and have a 1:1 aide to assist her for that entire span of time.  I wouldn't have asked for this service, the team offered it from their end to allow Emilia to participate fully in all classroom activities.  Additionally, in the coming year, Emilia will work 1:1 with a special education teacher in the resource room for 30 minutes every single day.  She will also have 45 minutes of speech therapy per week and 30 minutes each of occupational and physical therapy per week.

Emilia's academic goals have been adjusted to reflect her current level of development and to accommodate her sensory needs.  Frankly, I am thrilled with some of the creativity and thoughtfulness that went into these very appropriate and useful goals.

I think we will see great things from our beautiful girl in the next 12 months.

Happy Anniversary

Recently, Craig and I celebrated a milestone anniversary.  Miraculously, we were able to arrange a sitter for the girls and a respite caregiver for Rex in our home for the same night and go out on a date.  We hadn't been on a date, sans kids, since November 2011 when Emilia came home.  So, we were fairly giddy with the prospect.

After some discussion and realizing we really couldn't go wrong, Craig and I decided to go to dinner, then head to a local park to rent a boat and get out for some quiet time on the lake.  We snapped these selfies there:

Then we sent this photo to our sitter to show to the girls.  Ella was quite indignant that we were doing something fun without her and had some choice words for us via a text from our sitter.  We were cracking up when we read it.

Happy anniversary, my love.  Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.

Nappies For Nork Delivery #1

As you may remember, the Nappies for Nork Fundraiser earlier this year collected $11,000 to purchase diapers for Rex's former orphanage.  After the fundraiser closed, another $1000 donation arrived, making the total $12,000.  At that point George Yacoubian from SOAR and I decided to deliver $1000 worth of diapers for the next 12 months to the Children's Home of Yerevan in Nork Marash district.

A few days ago, the first monthly delivery was dropped off: 2740 Pampers. I am so happy for the children and want to thank again all who contributed to the fundraiser.

Ella's First Mother's Day

Today was Ella's first time experiencing Mother's Day.  She had learned about it at school and worked very hard on some gifts which she was excited to present to me. I'll admit it, I cried.

The last word is make-up
which is the height of coolness in Ella's book

Again, her teacher helped her write the answers, but I can tell by the choices for the fill in the blanks that they were all Ella's ideas and thoughts.  I think she likes me.

This morning, Craig told Ella to greet me by saying "Happy Mother's Day" which she did.  She gave me a big hug and followed up with this statement, "I woke up in my bed and I thought about Mother's Day and I cried a little because I was happy."

As I've mentioned before, Craig and I aren't big into holidays, so we kept things pretty low key here today, like any other Sunday.  I don't need to be showered with gifts (though I did receive a nice large tote for travel) or fancy meals (not having to cook because of leftovers was a great break, however) or  exuberant expressions of love (because my family shows me love and appreciation every day).  I am just happy and privileged to be the mother of these three treasures.

May 8, 2014

One year ago today, Rex reunited with his birth family.  I wrote about it here.  That day is forever edged in my memory and heart with so many strong emotions intermingling as two families loving the same little boy reached across multiple barriers to connect.  We decided together that our relationship need not be a secret, so I am not hesitant to share these photos.

Talking about hard things with Rex's first mom and grandma

Siblings

Brothers

One of my favorite photos:
a birth father and son connection

Rex and his Armenian family