Maggie says:
“uh-oh”
“all done!” (“ah dah)
and
“thank you” (ta ya)
But she doesn’t have very many sounds (other than yells, which she loves) and usually refuses to try and say Mama or Papa. She is our ray of sunshine, despite her not talkiness!
Commitment Process!!!
We are in the commitment process to adopt a specific little boy! He is 99% ‘ours’ but we shouldn’t share his photo or information until our commitment paperwork is filed! If you are one of the lucky close friends and family members, you’ve gotten an email from me! If you think you should have gotten an email, but didn’t, please email me… I am especially prone to mistakes when super excited!
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Big Anna and Maggie’s teeth
I thought Maggie finally cut her fifth tooth the other day. I was wrong. She’s still a four-toofer. She is 15 months old and working on her next four teeth, but none through yet.
Anna did something silly and says to me:
“Did you see that mom? I learned that when I was in high school.”
“When I was this big!” She reaches her arms to the sky.
“Like Goliath.”
“I bumped my head on the ceiling.”
She looks at me now to make sure I’m getting this.
“I got smaller.”
“Then I stood on a chair and bumped my head.”
“Then I got even more smaller.”
“But it was fun in high school learning things.”
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A Fun Way to Help our Adoption
(Idea for friends and family, not any readers just stopping by to learn more about international adoption!)
I was sitting here tonight happily thinking about all the little things that I either need or want to purchase and prepare before we adopt. I am trying and needing to be frugal and not spend as much money as I would easily do if I bought everything new. One of the things that I have been “shopping” for and thinking about are the toys and activities that we will need to pack to bring with us on our first and second trips. Our first trip may be as early as April (but probably later, we’ll let you know).
When we are in Eastern Europe, we will likely have two visits per day for 4-5 days with our new little one. Each visit is about 2 hours long. That’s a long time to sit in a room with a little person who doesn’t know you and may have never learned how to play. The solution, for adoptive families is to bring toys and things to do to each visit. If you pull one toy out at a time, hopefully you can have an extended period of play. Finding toys that will travel well, be age appropriate and be stimulating… and even be therapeutic is quite the task!
I am learning that websites and stores designed specifically for therapeutic toys have a price tag attached to them that is especially high. So I’ve been on a hunt for toys that are both affordable or free, compact and interesting. If you’d like to look around your house or even do a little shopping (new or used!) to help us prepare for our first trip, here are some suggestions for toys you could collect for us!
Sequined or other interesting fabric that folds up small.
Small containers that bang nice and loud and can be opened and closed
Toys that are small and compact and have an interesting texture
Ribbons of different color and texture
Textured balls (like a dryer ball)
Noisemaker/instruments
Bells, bells on ribbon
Very small dolls
Bubbles
Crayons and Coloring books
Play makeup
Things that make sounds
Color Wonder markers and paper
Things with mirrors
Even though these places usually have things costing too much, they can be good inspiration:
Website that rates toys for their therapeutic or special needs useability: http://www.ableplay.org/
Toys R Us has a Differently Abled section.
Another resource for finding therapeutic/special needs toys: http://www.lekotek.org/default.asp
Things we already have:
Googly balls (you know, those soft, squishy balls with tentacle like “spikes)
Indestructible photo album
Singing sleep dog (Thank you Grandma H. for Maggie’s – we liked it so much we bought one to take with us!)
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Latest and Greatest
First, the pictures:
Maggie is SOOO happy when she gets to do what Anna does:
She thought dot painting was a little boring and not nearly messy enough:
Anna and I like dot painting though! (Thank you Grammy!)
Here’s a napkin picture for you dad! Somebody should tell her that they are for wiping her mouth during lunch instead of wearing. Ok, I did, but she didn’t care. 🙂
We made a “Fun Box” with fun special things to do written on slips of paper inside. Anna gets to choose one every day. We’ll see how it goes!
I love my new apron! Anna helped take a picture for me after I unwrapped it. Thank you Hollye!
Maggie woke up sooooo groggy today. She came over to me and just wanted to sit on my lap and sit, sit, sit and snuggle. This is not very usual for our wiggle bug. She IS a cuddly girl and needs her mommy time, but staying still for that long is not normal. Anna joined us and Papa snapped a picture, since he was working from home today.
On adoption:
Our attorney in Eastern Europe (EE for short) should be receiving files on a number of children late this month. Four-seven of them will fit within our adoption parameters (under three years old, has Down Syndrome). Once she has the files, we can read through them and see if two of them seem like a good fit together and also see whether they are in the same area of the country or not. If they are NOT, then we would have to decide if we wanted to lengthen the first trip (don’t want to do) or adopt one child instead of two. We are VERY eager, yet at peace and patient to wait to see who our child(ren) will be.
Our paperwork is in process with USCIS still (US immigration) and the next piece of paper we will get from them is a biometrics appointment, or an appointment to get fingerprinted. We plan on walking in before our appointment to get printed. After we get printed, we wait to:
a. Get a request for more information before we can be approved
b. Be approved
We are getting closer to having a complete dossier to send overseas! Yippee! We could travel on our first trip as soon as April, although May/June is more likely. Then 4-5 month wait and we should have a bigger, crazier family sometime between August and November! I am trying to remain 100% flexible on the timeline and not be frustrated if it is longer than anticipated…. but I need to be ready in case it only takes this long. Yay!
Filed under Everyday Stuff