Adoption Thoughts

Why are we adopting?

We are adopting because we want Evan! 

God has placed him in our hearts, and we can not deny it!  I am reminded of a sermon my pastor gave in which he was talking about the gift of prophecy (ie. during a church worship service), and he knew of an individual who had a very specific word to tell the congregation.  Well, they got timid, scard and questioned if the word was from God, and did not speak it out.  Well shortly thereafter, someone else spoke out the EXACT same word to the congregation.  The other person was blessed as the word edified the church. 

So I know we could have simply not persued adoption, and someone else would have likely, eventually adopted Evan.  But they are the ones that will be blessed for following God's prompting, and it wouldn't be us.  Not only would we not know if Evan was ok, we would have never known where our lives together could have been led.  We know that it is God's will for orphans to be adopted- His word tells us to look after the orphans, so why would we not pursue something that is 100% God's will?  There's no question about it- He will bless us for taking this step of faith, undoubtedly.  :-) 

So in short, we are all-or-nothing type of family, and we are ALL IN FOR EVAN! We are done being so "comforable" with our lives are are waiting eagerly to see what God's has in store for us.  And of course, we'll keep you posted along our journey...

This last week!

It's been a little while since I've last posted, so I'll just catch up on a few things that has happened and that we're going to do!

-On Sunday, David woke up gasping for air and could not breath very well.  He has had a stuffy/runny nose, and it was bad that morning.  I could also feel the vibration of fluid in the lungs as he breathed... so I took him to the Children's Hospital, and of course while we are in transit and as we arrived David seemed so much better!  All they did was suction his nose out by inserting a small tube, and verified that he's fine!  I'm very glad he's much better now; my thought was maybe he might need a breathing treatment of some sort- but that was not needed.  Since Sunday I have been offering more fluids, I have slightly inclined the head of David's mattress to help him breath (though he's starting to move more and is ending up backwards at the foot of the bed by the time he wakes up!), and I'm still continuing to suction out his nose with the nasal aspirator and hand suction bolus thing!  I also think that maybe it's allergies, since he doesn't seem sick and I'm experiencing the same symptoms myself and found that by taking an antihistamine really helped the symptoms. I just bought some allergy medicine yesterday, so I will see if this also helps David today.

-So I have not been very good at finishing up the homestudy paperwork.  I have a good start, and know I can finish up probably in a week if I were given a deadline.  I still have 1 client's video left to edit (I just got another client's videos mailed out yesterday- yay!! So 1 to go), and I'm taking an online class as well and have a huge upcoming paper that is due.  Busy, busy!

-I am meeting with my fundraising team on Friday!  We are going to get a raffle going starting next week!  It will be a VISA giftcard- we will determine the amount on Friday.  But I know the raffle tickets are going to be $1.00 each.  I will have an official blog post for the raffle with the start and end dates and where I can announce the winner as well.

-Also- this is too cute to not mention... David is now starting to clap his hands when I sing "if you're happy and you know it!"  So proud of the big boy!

No hospital bake sale!

Unfortunately, we did not get the hospital approval to do a bake sale; I just got the word yesterday.  I know a lot of people who are willing to set up a mini bake stand at their work lunch rooms, at their children's schools- I would just need to get a box of some sort with a lock on it.  Has anyone had success with an idea such as this?  Any tips on setting this up?

For now my focus is the "Park Sale" during summer- and we can certainly have a bake sale there!  Yesterday I had a flier get e-mailed out to all the employees in my department (Over 100 people!).  That is so wonderful that hopefully I can get my co-workers on board for dontaing their good will items, especially since I am willing to pick up at their homes!  I am adding my e-mail to my profile to make it more convienent for people to contact me to pick up their items!

David's 14-month Milestones

Today little David is 14 months old!  He is growing so much, and is so big!
He's over 24 lbs, and wears size 5 diapers and 24 months clothes.  At his last doctor's visit, he is over 50 percentile for all boys for height and weight, and over 95 percentile for Down syndrome boys for height and weight.  YAY!  He hasn't been to play group in over 2 weeks because of being sick- and when he came back he was already taller.  He could stand and reach play with the water and water toys in the sensory table station!  He couldn't do this before.

Gross Motor Development:
-Holding on to him, he can take steps well.  He is very wobbly and all over the place still.   But he can physically lift his legs and put them down in front of him to move forward.
-On the floor:  He rolls too much.  I'm going to have to now be a more active paricipant on getting him to tolerate: being on his tummy more, going up on hands and knees, and pushing off with each foot against my hand to move forward.
So far a good practice place has been in the tub with 2 inches of water!  I will be right there to help him.  But the narrowness of the tub prevents him from rolling, and he loves to push off the sides to move.  I've even seen him try to climb out of the tub!  He doesn't do this "on land" so this is encouraging!  I just think he's super-motivated in the tub at that point to get out to something warmer!
-David can now push foward/"walk" on the walker (the kind with the seat)

Fine Motor Development:

-David can hold a spoon and feed himself, if I "load" the spoon with food.
-According to the physical therapist, David is playing with toys at an 8-month old baby.  He shakes and bangs simple toys together for the most part.  BUT sometimes he'll surprise me:
Toy piano- I will push a certain color to play a note, and he will go for the same color to copy me!
Ring stacker- I will show him how to put the large ring on first, and he will copy me!  But if I add to it and show him the next ring, instead of stacking it- he will take the large one off and bang the two rings together...
Drum- Yesterday the physical therapist had a toy drum and worked with David to bang the drum with up and down movements, instead of side swinging movements.  It took SEVERAL attempts, but he got it!  This is teaching me how long it takes him to learn something new.  I just need to be more creative and have a little more patience, but I'm sure David will be doing a lot more things with this new mindset!
-David is starting to wave now.  It is not consistant though.
-David does the sign for "daddy" and "milk"- but I just don't know think it's done with meaning.
-David says "da da" and "ma ma" but with a little more meaning than before.

David's Favorite Foods:
David is enjoying all sorts of foods now- even without teeth! Here are some foods we've been trying in addition to the foods mentioned in his 13-month milestone post:
-Egg omelette
-French toast
-McDonalds cheese burger- hold the pickles
-Pudding/Tapioca/Yogurt
-Grilled cheese sandwhich
-Peanut butter and jelly sandwhich
-Diced peaches, mandrain orange sections, diced pears
-Cooked yam slices
-French fries, sweet potato fries
-Soft cookie (just tiny "tastes")
(Most of the above I have to cut into tiny pieces and hand feed him- because he will not take a bite out of the bigger piece, or feed himself yet.)  I'm trying to be more adventerous and let David enjoy all types of foods- that are still basically soft-textured.  Any other ideas?
So that's about it for milestones, I'll add to the list if I think of anything I forgot.  I have some video I'd like to put on here as well of David doing these things.  I just need to find the mini firewire-type cord to do this. We recently moved, so it's a little tricky finding things these days...  More to come!  :-)

My Mom's Dream

When I stopped by my mom's house tonight to pick up David after work, my mom sat me down and told me about a dream she had.  She said it was the most vivid, real-life dream she ever had.  And the kicker is- she woke up 4 times and went back to sleep all to continue the same dream.

In her dream she met Evan who was holding on to her.  My mom was trying to explain to Evan how he has a family now and she is his Grandma.  And Evan was saying how he never had a family and was surprised that he now has one.  And my mom would take his hand and introduce him to other family members...

The dream does continue and go on, (I have asked my mom to e-mail me the details of her dream so I can post it here.)  Then we started taking about my mom's plans to help out watching David while we would travel to the Ukraine, whenever that happens.  Then someone in the conversation I brought up how a co-worker of James brought up how we should adopt a little girl in addition to Evan.

Then my mom stopped short and said, "Well there's something I left out of the dream... There was a little girl there too.  I was focused more on Evan, but there was a little girl about 2 years older with short hair who was with us and wanted to be held too."  She completely forgot to tell me about this little girl initially!

Now, that's all I'm going to post about my mom's dream.  I don't want to read into anything... (like a confirmation from God to adopt a second child!) BUT if we happened to raise enough for 2 children, then who knows? I'd be super-open to anything once we get the the orphanage.  That would be a LOT of money to raise though... (I think around 35k?)

Matthew 19:26 "...With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible."

David- almost 14 month photo shoot!

Here is David's pictures from today's photo shoot!  :-) 

A Thought Towards My Distant Future

As some of you know, I work at a hospital as a surgery scheduler.  Well just the other night, I was talking OR nurse, Alberto who was telling me about his care home.  He owns 2 adult family care homes, and he says a lot of his clients are adults with Down syndrome.  He was encouraging me to start my own for my future sons...  He was explaining to have a home built with a central living kitchen area and have a hallway of extra rooms- they could be like mini apartments or just rooms.  But this would be a way to bring in extra income in the future.

Now I've thought about my distant future with David and Evan... I have ideas of what might happen.  Both or just 1 of them may be capable enough to work and live on their own, or maybe get married, or live in an adult home, or live with us...  I know they will always have each other and will be best friends/brothers and will have a bond to last them into eternity.  But, there is sense to be made to be planning for our future if we want to have a couple extra rooms available for more amazing individuals of the Down syndrome community.

In case I haven't mentioned, James and I are the most biggest dreamers ever.  We have HUGE expectations for our lives.  We literally see our future with limitless possiblilities.  We dream big, pray hard, and live in the present thanking our God who is perhaps putting these dreams in our head for a reason.... Other big dreams we've had include: missionary work/opening up orphanages, for James to write books, for James to be a pastor/leader for teenagers or for a community center, for him to go get his Masters, or for me to start investing futures and commodities, for me to operate a website to benefit Down syndrome, do video work for Down syndrome/orphanages (I used to do video work)!  I'm excited for our future because we can do anything we want (God willing)... but the most important thing to us is making sure whatever decision we make will mesh well for David and Evan and will also bless them. 

I have a picture session to go to today for David, and I look forward to posting them later!  He such a beautiful boy with the biggest, brightest, almond-shaped eyes... and he has the biggest smile- all gums and no teeth!  :-)  **Proud Mama**

Sick Days...

Hello! This week we haven't boon too productive with the adoption paperwork as David and mommy are sick. David has bronchiolitis, and the Dr. says he should get over it in a week or so.  (David is already a week into being sick!)  I knew before even going to the doctor today that what David had was viral and there is nothing a doctor could do but confirm it.  I've already been doing the "home treatment" so far...  Anyways, I hope we both can get over our colds soon! 

Also I wanted to mention that I love reading all the comments I've been getting from others who are in the process of adopting an orphan or who have been praying all along for little Evan to find his forever family.  It really seems like reading comments that are from family members, even though they're not!  The adoption/orphan/Reeces Rainbow community is so awesome and I appreciate every one of you!  Blessings to you all, and stay well during the remaining 18 days of winter we have left!