Dossier not ready yet...

So there were a couple issues with our dossier.
#1- James medical forms needed a diagnosis code in addition to the written diagnosis.  So I will have to retype this up and have the doctor's office just copy this on to their letterhead. I don't have to worry about notary or apostille for this form.

#2- They want me to apostille my homestudy agent's licenses. I originally sent them 1 copy, but now they want a second copy.

#3- On one of the forms the notary wrote "2011" but wrote over the "1" with a "2" to read: "2012". We didn't catch this ahead of time.  James and I will need to redo this first thing tomorrow morning.  I plan on printing out several copies of the paperwork in case the notary messes up again.  This form will need an apostille as well.

Once I get the above issues corrected, and sent back to the Ukraine, then we'll be back in business!  Hopefully the apostille turnover will be quick...

Another Yard Sale Event!

With the dossier submitted, I believe we only have 2 months or so left to come up with $13,000 or so! 
I currently have lots of items on craigslist to sell. I'll continue to try to sell these items, but I've come across enough donated items just today that I'm going to plan to have another adoption fundraiser yard sale event for Evan!

We're now collecting donations- we'll do our last yard sale in a month or so. Maybe April 14-15, or 21-22...?
I know this event will be much smaller than our last one, but even $500 will help us tremendously as we will be preparing to leave for the Ukraine soon!  I'll post more info as I know it! But please email me if you can help in any way for our fundraiser!  Thank you!

David's 26 month milestones!

Sleeping David- he looks like such a big boy!  Cutie pie!

Ok, So I am only one day early with David's milestone post- close enough!  :-)
My little boy is such a delight, my heart absolutely melts for him, and I am so excited that it will only be shortly when I have 2 beautiful sons to love on!

David has been a very busy boy this past month. I've officially pulled out most of his 24 month/2T clothes and switched to our 3T clothes. So now instead of the shirts being short but with the correct size sleeves, now they are long enough- torso wise- but with super long sleeves! Here we go again with the sleeves folding.

We just had a doctor's appointment yesterday, and I would love to share his progress!
Height: 2' 10.5"
Weight: 27 lb 10 oz
Head circumference: 46.7 cm

**For David's height he is over 100th percentile for boys with Down syndrome, and for his weight he is at about 94th percentile.  For all boys David's height and weight are about the 40th percentile.**

(From what I hear from Lindsey who has visited Ukraine for her son, Emory; Evan is also a very tall boy as well.)

Gross Motor: 
-David is now walking all over the place! (With his hands up in the air, like a monkey!) He still crawls as well, but I believe that he now starting to prefer walking over crawling for the most part. With encouragement he will walk across the whole house! So with therapy we are working with him stepping over an elevated flattened ladder, and walking up ramps and stairs. Eventually we will work on walking backwards and walking side to side, like cruising but without holding on to anything.

Fine Motor:
-We are really working on eating with a spoon. The therapy center let us borrow 2 "sassy spoons"- and they are really helping!  They are perfect for learning to eat pudding, oatmeal, applesauce... If your little one with DS is having difficulty learning to use their utensils please check out this product:
http://www.amazon.com/Sassy-Pack-Toddler-Spoon-Colors/dp/B000056W75
(Currently it's out of stock... at amazon)
-We just got started with occupational therapy! I'm very excited about this! To report back later how this is going!

Speech:
-David does sign "mommy" but he does this by knocking on his mouth. It's soo close to eat, but he does that sign with his fingers to his mouth-the correct way.
-We are working on David saying "Up". We do this by building block towers, and before I will set the next block on top of the prior block, I look very expectantly at him anticipating him to say "up". I will cue him, and he will sort of say it very excitingly. He says "ooo-p" for up, spoon, and open. He recognizes that "P" noise, so I'm happy he's starting to try to say words.
-In my Hanan speech class, I am learning about waiting, turn-taking, and taking day-to-day routines, and modifying them to include speech opportunities for David. Since he is not talking I will just give him opportunities to "choose" something, to acknowledge something by his excitement, or letting him try to learn what sign or movement I want to see to continue the routine.  The class really emphasized breaking down the routine into parts and focus on one part at a time and transition to each part with the child acknowledging what comes next. They will be video recording me doing this. I will try to ask to get a copy of the video so I can post online!


That concludes my description of David's 26th month milestones!

About 4 days ago we mailed our dossier, via express mail, to the secretary of state's office for the apostille, and they will forward the apostilled dossier to the adoption agency. I mailed seperately the marraige certificates to the adoption agency directly since I already had a Nevada apostille for them both.
So now we are waiting for the adoption agency to officially submit the paperwork to the Ukraine so we can hear back with an appointment date! I can't believe we are so close to leaving for the Ukraine, there is so much to do!

Well blessings to you, my readers, friends and family!