More Holiday Happenings

Despite being under the weather off and on throughout the month, we have enjoyed our holiday season so far.

A couple of weeks ago we attended the Christmas Party at South Park, where Nikolas goes to therapy.  They had lots of fun activities lead by all of his favorite therapists.  It was a little crazy, but the kids seemed to have a good time.  Nikolas made a Christmas ornament and a couple of art projects, played games, listened to a story, visited with Santa and enjoyed some holiday goodies. 

Nikolas also put his OT skills to work by making some cool Christmas cards for his therapists and preschool teacher.  He's doing well with the scissors and is starting to tolerate coloring a bit more.  The cards turned out well and everyone loved them!

On Sunday afternoon we decorated sugar cookies with frosting and sprinkles.  Nikolas had a good time decorating them, but he likes eating them even more.

We were planning to host Christmas at our house and have Jason's family join us, but because all three of us are sick right now, our plans changed. December has been a rough month for us. We've been through three rounds of antibiotics for bacterial infections and now are dealing with a nasty cough/cold/fever.  Even so, Nikolas still had fun opening presents and watching Christmas cartoons.  He got a toy kitchen, a boy baby doll and a CAT bulldozer. 

As long as we are all healthy and my work schedule doesn't mess things up, we are planning to spend this coming weekend with my family.  My aunt and cousins are coming to Indiana this week, so I'm excited to see them.  Nikolas loves seeing his cousins and I can't wait to watch all three little boys open their gifts together.

Merry Christmas!!     

Questions and Answers

We've been asked a lot of questions since making our big announcement, so here are some answers.

Q. Are you using the same agency?
A. Yes, we are using the same two agencies this time around.  We are using Bethany Christian Services as our home study agency and Adoption Ark as our placement agency.  Bethany takes care of our home study and post-placement reports, as well as offers many classes that we can attend to complete our required education hours.  Adoption Ark helps us with our dossier, communicates with and relays information from the partner agency in Bulgaria and helps us get our little one home.  Both agencies are great, otherwise we wouldn't be using them again!

Q. Do you have the same social worker?
A. Not this time.  Our social worker who completed our first home study and all of our post-placement reports is no longer completing home studies for Bethany.  We have a new social worker and are getting along with her very well.

Q. How long will it take?
A. Although there's no way to predict international adoption, our goal is to have him home by the end of next year.  We have completed our home study and will have the final copy shortly.  At that time we can file for Immigration approval and finish our dossier.  Our target date to complete this step is March 1st.  We hope to receive our official referral by May and make our first trip shortly after.  The second trip should occur four to six months after the first trip.

Q. How will this adoption be different from Nikolas' adoption?
A. With Nikolas' adoption we submitted our dossier and waited for the MOJ to match us with a child.  We waited 22 months for his referral.  This time around we identified a little boy on the Waiting Child list and requested to be matched to him.  The Waiting Child list is a list of children who are available for adoption and are waiting for their new parents to find them.  It is published monthly by the Bulgarian government.  Most children on this list are older or have some sort of special needs.  The MOJ has approved our request to be matched to this child, and we have been given six months to submit our dossier.

Q. Does he have special needs?
A. Yes.  He does have some developmental and medical needs, but we feel completely prepared to meet those needs.  Because Nikolas had significant speech and developmental delays, we have a great team of therapists already in place to help him in those areas.  We are also blessed to be so close to Riley Hospital for Children, and they are nationally ranked in the department that will be treating him.

Q. Can you post pictures?
A. No, we cannot post pictures until he is legally our son, but if you see us in person, we'd be happy to show you a picture.  He's an adorable little guy and we can't wait to meet him.  

Q. Is Nikolas excited about becoming a big brother?
A. We do talk to him about it, but I'm not sure that he really understands what that means.  He loves watching the videos of the little guy online, and he often carries his picture around the house.

Big Brother!!

 

That's right!!  Nikolas is going to be a big brother.  We're going back to Bulgaria to complete our family.  We started the adoption process back in August and hope to bring our new son home by the end of 2013.  We found a handsome little guy on the Waiting Child list in October and the MOJ has approved our request to move forward with the adoption.  We have completed our home study and should have the final copy by the end of the month.  At that point we're going to put together the fastest dossier ever!!  Our target date to have our documents ready to mail is March 1st, and we should be invited to travel to Bulgaria a couple of months later.

 

We'll be starting a Tastefully Simple fundraiser after the first of the year, so check back for details to see how you can help us bring this little one home to his forever family. 

Holiday Happenings

We are in holiday mode at our house and are having so much fun.  Last weekend we kicked off the Christmas season by going to Christmas at the Zoo.  The weather was amazing!!  Since Nikolas loves the zoo so much, we try to go as often as possible, espcecially when they have special events.  The lights were beautiful and the atmosphere was just perfect.  If this nice weather keeps up, we might just have to make another trip this month.  After all, the new baby walrus in on display now, so we'll have to stop by to greet him soon.

 

We put up our tree this past week.  Nikolas was so excited about it.  He loved putting the ornaments on the tree and is fascinated with the lights.  The first thing he does when he gets up from his nap is turn on the lights and admire his work.  We also made some candy canes together out of glittery holiday pipe cleaners.  Last year he helped decorate the tree, but this year he enjoyed it so much more.  It was hard to get him to sit still long enough for a picture!

I've also been trying incorporate fun holiday activities into our schedule that will help Nikolas with his development.  We have a snowman countdown calendar that we update every evening.  Not only does he have to place the cotton ball on the correct circle, it gives him a visual way to see how many more days we have until Christmas. 

Today we decorated a big gingerbread man with stickers.  Peeling the stickers off of the sheets helps develop his fine motor skills, and placing them on the gingerbread man allows him to be creative.  Next weekend we're going to decorate cookies with frosting and sprinkles.  Should be fun!!  On Monday evening we'll be going to his therapy holiday party at Community.  He loves his therapists and is so excited about it.  There will be story time, snacks and a visit with Santa.

 

We will be celebrating Christmas at home with the three of us on Christmas Eve and will be hosting Christmas at our house on Christmas Day with Jason's parents, brother and sister-in-law.  The weekend after Christmas we'll be heading to Vermillion County to celebrate with my family.  Nikolas is so excited and we love seeing the holidays through his eyes!!   

 

Preschool Fun

Nikolas started developmental preschool two weeks ago and is absolutely loving it.  He goes to school every weekday from 8:50am - 11:30am.  He rides the bus to and from school, and I think that might just be his favorite part of the day.  He also qualified for extra OT, PT and speech/language therapy, so he gets that each week in addition to his private therapy.  (He has one hour of OT, one hour of PT and 45 minutes of speech/language therapy at Community each week.)  

His teacher is great!  She keeps the day very structured and uses picture schedules for each child.  She also sends home a report every day so we know what he did that day.  There are eight students in his class with three adults watching over them.  I'm so glad we went this route instead of placing him in a regular preschool setting.

Fall Fun

We've had a very busy fall full of lots of fun activities.  The weather has been amazing so we've been taking full advantage of it.  Nikolas had full casts on both legs at this time last year, so he's getting to do a lot of these things for the first time. 

Jason's parents and brother visited a couple of weeks ago and we were able to take a trip to the apple orchard to pick some apples.  We picked apples, played in the straw and brought home a nice, big pumpkin.  We turned many of those apples into tasty apple bread and apple muffins.

We carved our pumpkin last weekend.  Of course Nikolas wouldn't pull out the seeds since he hates getting his hands dirty, but he loved watching.  He's very proud of his little jack-o-lantern.

We went to the Indianapolis Zoo for the annual ZooBoo.  Nikolas wore his monkey costume and enjoyed trick-or-treating at the treat stations.  Of course we always enjoy seeing the animals.  This year's theme was "The Wonderful World of ZooBoo".  The decorations were so much fun!!  He took his first merry-go-round ride and fed the birds.  He gets so excited when we take him to the zoo.  We'll definitely have a zoo membership as long as he continues to love going.

He's excited to go trick-or-treating on Halloween for the first time.

Nikolas added weekly OT and PT sessions to his scheduled in late September and we're seeing some good progress.  He's not too fond of OT right now, but he loves going to PT.  His speech progression isn't going as quickly as we had hoped, so his therapist has been trying some different techniques to see if we can find something that will work for him. 

He had his evaluation for developmental preschool earlier this month and has qualified for their daily preschool program along with extra OT, PT and speech/language therapy.  We're hoping to be able to back off on some of the private therapy once he gets comfortable with school.  Our case conference is on Monday, and he'll be starting school on the 29th.  He'll go to school five days a week for 2.5 hours a day.  I think it will be good for him to be around other little ones in his own age group.

We're keeping busy and enjoying life and are very excited to see what the future brings. :)  

Our Bahamas Cruise

Last week the three of us headed to Florida and took a Bahamas cruise.  Nikolas loved everything about it and did great.  He always gets excited when he hears/sees an airplane flying overhead, so he was thrilled to see them up close at the airport.  He was great on all four flights.  We packed him a travel suitcase with fun little toys, but he barely touched them due to the excitement around him.

We arrived in Miami on Monday morning and took a shuttle to the port.  Because we had booked a Jr. Suite, we got to bypass the long line of people and check right in.  That was a definite perk.  We enjoyed lunch at the Compass Deli, explored the ship a bit and then headed to our cabin.  We chose a Jr. Suite because it had a bathtub instead of just a shower.  At the time we booked the cruise, Nikolas was terrified of showers and would scream if he got near one.  (Thankfully he is now passed that and loves water being sprayed on his head!!)  We also wanted a balcony so we could sit outside for a while after Nikolas went to bed.  That worked out well, except our neighbors were almost always out there smoking which took away from the enjoyment of being outside.

We gave the dining room a try on the first night, but a two-hour dinner wasn't really fun for Nikolas.  The food in the dining room has really went down in quality since our last cruise.  We chose to have dinner at Johnny Rockets for the rest of the cruise.  The atmosphere was upbeat and the food and sevice were both wonderful.  Nikolas became buddies with a couple of the servers, and they brought him extra treats all week.

We spent Tuesday in Nassau where we took a horse and carriage ride through town and then visited the Straw Market to pick up a few souvenirs.  After lunch we decided to take Nikolas to the pool.  It didn't take him long to get comfortable with the water.  He loved it!!  We had a session with one of the photographers to have him shoot some family photos.  They turned out great. :)

We were scheduled to visit CocoCay on Wednesday, but due to rough seas, we were unable to stop.  Nikolas went to the Fisher Price playgroup and enjoyed playing with the kids.  We all had a relaxing day on the ship.

Thursday was spent in Key West.  It was pretty rainy, but we had purchased tickets for the City View Trolley Tour.  It was a great way to see the island without getting too wet.  The rain let up for a while in the afternoon, so we headed back to the pool for some more swimming.

After disembarking on Friday morning we went to the Holiday Inn on Miami Beach.  We were looking for a family hotel that was right on the beach, and this was a great choice.  After enjoying lunch in their restaurant we spent some time at the beach and then the pool.  Nikolas loved the sand and the waves, and he would have stayed in the pool all day if we would have let him.  We had pizza delivered to our room that night since we were all so tired.

The following afternoon we headed back home.  We all had a wonderful, relaxing time and can't wait until our next family vacation!!

Welcome to Toddlerhood...

We've started to experience some toddler-like behavior from Nikolas over the past few weeks.  He's starting to show his naughty streak, which is actually a good thing.  He's watered our plants with floor cleaner, covered himself with lotion while fully dressed, pulled his wipes out of the container one by one and has developed quite an attitude.  We even had our first mini-tantrum... right in the middle of Old Navy.  While it's not pleasant to deal with, it's great seeing him become more like a typical child his age and less robotic.  We hope he continues to explore his surroundings.

Nikolas has been going to private speech therapy for three months now.  We are seeing some improvement, but he's not progressing as quickly as he should be.  We love his speech therapist and she's going to try some different methods to see if he responds any better.  When we started speech therapy he refused to imitate any sounds.  Now he'll attempt almost anything, but his sounds are very inconsistent.  He's started using about 8 words regularly, so hopefully his vocabulary will continue to expand with some of these new methods.  He knows quite a few other words, too, and he'll use them with prompting.  For example, he just brought me a container of Play-Doh because he wanted me to open it for him.  When I asked him what he wanted, he replied with "pa", which is his word for open.

We met with his Developmental Pediatrician at Riley last month, and she is sending us to a Behavioral-Developmental Pediatrician to see if we can get to the bottom of the cause of his speech delays.  This new doctor specializes in Early Childhood Mental Health and International Adoption, so hopefully we'll get some answers.  They want to rule out any medical concerns based on his background so we can be sure to treat him correctly.  I spoke with his speech therapist about all of this, and she let me know she wasn't worried about him and thinks he'll eventually get where he needs to be.  We will be starting both weekly OT and PT sessions in addition to his speech therapy later this month to help with his developmental delays.  We're also waiting on the school system to schedule his preschool evaluation and then get him started in their developmental preschool program.  I'm struggling to keep up with everything in addition to working 30 hours each week, but I do my best!

We do see many good things.  He loves being read to and will sit through an entire story.  We're seeing small signs of imaginative play, and I think more of that will come as his vocabulary expands.  I've been trying to spend more time doing those types of activities with him to see if he'll do more on his own.  We're getting there, but we have so much farther to go.

We're looking forward to taking a break from everything soon and heading south for a week.  We'll be flying down to Miami, cruising to the Bahamas and Key West, and then spending some more time in Miami before flying home.  This will be Nikolas' first flight since coming home from Bulgaria.  I've been gathering small items to put in his travel backpack that I pray will him busy and pleasant during the flights.  We'll post a trip update when we return!

One Year Ago Today...

One year ago today we landed in Sofia and were reunited with our son after being apart for almost six months.  I can't believe it's been a year already.  He has brought so much joy to our lives, and he is loved by so many.  We've watched Nikolas transform from a scared, infant-like child to an outgoing and confident little boy.  He went from a tiny, malnourished little guy who could barely chew semi-solid foods to a healthy child who loves to eat anything.  When we brought him home he weighed 19 pounds and was 31 inches tall.  Today he weighs 29 pounds and is 38 inches tall.  One year ago he was wearing 6-9 months clothing.  Now he's in a 2T/3T.  He hated baths and screamed the entire time.  Now he loves splashing in the water and pouring water on his face and head.  He is happy, well-adjusted and very attached to both us.  He's gone from shaking a baby rattle to playing with age-appropriate toys.  He's had his club feet surgically corrected and is able to walk and run with ease now.  He's started speech therapy and is starting to talk.  The progress that he's made in the past year is absolutely amazing.

Before and After Photos

The pictures on the left were taken on July 25, 2011.  The top two were taken the morning he left the orphanage, and the bottom photo was taken that evening at the hotel in Sofia.  The photos on the right were taken within the past couple of weeks.  He's wearing the same outfit in most of the photos.  That just shows how far off we were when packing his clothes.

Watching his personality come out over the past year has been so much fun.  I love watching him grow and learn new things.  Seeing his smile when he experiences something new is amazing.  Hearing his laugh when he's happy is the best sound in the world.

So what's next for us?  I've been asked a few times if Nikolas will ever be a big brother.  We have talked about it, and while we would both LOVE to go back to Bulgaria to bring home another little one, unless we stumble upon a very large amount of money, it probably won't be possible.  We do know that God is in control and we need to have faith that if it's meant to be, He will make it happen.

11 Months Home

Dinner at Steak 'n Shake

Last weekend marked eleven months home for Nikolas.  We've been very busy, so the blog update is a little late.

The biggest change we've seen this month is with his speech.  He started speech therapy about a month ago.  Right now he goes twice a week and really enjoys it.  His speech therapist lets him pick out the toys before each session and they spend the next 45 minutes playing while I watch.  Before we started therapy he refused to even attempt to repeat any words or sounds.  Now he almost always attempts to repeat a word when we say it.  Some sounds are better than others, but he is most definitely making impressive progress.  We plan to continue going twice a week until school starts, and then we'll most likely reduce his visits since he'll also have speech therapy at school each day.

Handsome Boy

He is also making progress in his development.  The other day he put on his tennis shoes all by himself, and he even put them on the right feet.  He's getting better with his fork and spoon, and we're working to transition him to a regular cup.

Waiting for the Parade

We took him on his first long car ride this past week and he did better than we ever could have imagined.  We left for Iowa on Tuesday morning and returned home on Thursday night.  It's about 6 hours each way, but he did great.  Although we were there for a funeral, we did enjoy spending time with the family.  Nikolas got to attend his first parade for the 4th of July and absolutely loved it.  He waved at everyone and collected lots of candy.  He was okay with the firetrucks, but he wasn't a fan of the semis.  He had fun riding on the tractor with Grandpa and talking to the neighbor's cows.  The trip wore him out, and he's spent the past couple of days catching up on his sleep.  He took a five hour nap yesterday and has been asleep for four hours already this afternoon.

It's hard to imagine that last year at this time we were booking airfare and hotels and preparing to return to Bulgaria to bring him home.  He has come so far and continues to amaze us every single day.  He's a wonderful little boy and we're so lucky to be his parents!

2012 Bulgaria Adoptive Families Reunion

The Kids

We attended the annual Bulgaria Adoptive Families Reunion on 6/22, 6/23 and 6/24 at Winton Woods Campground in Cincinnati.  We had an amazing time connecting with other families with little ones from Bulgaria.  We have been in touch with many of these families through our blog and FaceBook for quite some time, so it was neat to meet in person.

Tired Boy!!

We left home on Friday morning and made stops at Red Robin, IKEA and Jungle Jim's International Market.  We arrived at the campground around 4:00pm and checked in to our Deluxe Cabin.  Those who know us well know that we are not campers, so we were thankful to stay in a cabin that had a real bed, a full bathroom, kitchen, television with cable, internet and air conditioning.  We forgot the pack-n-play at home, but Nikolas did just fine sleeping on the pull-out sofa bed.  I guess it's a sign he's almost ready for a big boy bed of his own. 

Alexander, Calvin and Nikolas
The Dobrich Boys

After we got settled we went outside to get acquainted with everyone.  Nikolas immediately connected with Alexander, who is the same age and also from Dobrich.  We know they were around each other in the orphanage, and I think they just might have remembered each other.  We spent the evening visiting with everyone and had a wonderful time.  Bathtime and bedtime were a little rough for Nikolas, but he eventually got to sleep and only woke up once in the middle of the night.

At the Splash Park

Saturday was a great day.  We had breakfast at the campground and visited with friends while Nikolas played with his new friends.  We took a break for lunch and a little nap before meeting up with friends and heading to the Splash Park on the other side of the campground.  Nikolas doesn't like getting sprayed from above, but he was okay with the small fountains.  They also put in some new playground equipment recently that was very nice.  He spent a lot of time playing with his friends in that area.  After some ice cream, we headed back to the cabin to get cleaned up for dinner.  We had a great potluck dinner followed by a campfire.  There was a lot of good food, Bulgarian music, and dancing.  Some of the local Bulgarians were able to join us for the evening.  Bedtime went so much better that night.


On Sunday morning we had breakfast with our friends and said our goodbyes and headed home.  We all had a wonderful time and have already reserved a cabin for next year!!

10 Month Update

This week marked ten weeks home for Nikolas. I don't have a lot to say about this month, so this update will be mostly pictures of our adorable little Bulgarian boy.  He is now weighing in at 27 pounds and is 37 inches tall.  He continues to be a good eater.  We've been pushing him to eat more independently, and his fork and spoon skills have improved so much over the past couple of weeks.  He's not the neatest eater, but he's definitely getting the food from his plate to his mouth.  His speech isn't progressing much.  He will mimic sounds (especially if they are on television), but he still refuses to repeat words.  He starts speech therapy on Tuesday, so hopefully his speech therapist will be able to pull some words out of him.  We have noticed that he seeks us out for comfort more often when he falls down.  He wants a kiss (usually on his forearm), and then he's on his way.  He's been going to Kids Club at the gym for a couple of months, and I'm finally starting to see him interacting with the other children.  The other day when I went to pick him up he was building a Lincoln Log house with a few other little ones, and he seemed to be enjoying himself.  He likes the ladies that work there and is comfortable staying with them while I go to my Aqua Fit class.  Here are some pictures:






    
For those of you who are attending the reunion, we look forward to seeing you all in a few weeks!!

Happy Birthday Nikolas!!

Three years ago (May 5, 2009) in the small town of Dobrich, Bulgaria, a woman gave birth to a tiny baby boy.  I'll most likely never meet her, but I do think of her often, especially on days like today.  I wonder if she's thinking about the son she never got to know.  I wish I could let her know that he's doing well and that he is surrounded by so many people who love him dearly.

We had a wonderful party on Saturday to celebrate his third birthday (and his first birthday at home with a family).  I don't think he understood what we were celebrating, but he clearly knew that the party was all about him.  Thirteen of his family members helped him celebrate this special day with a cookout, presents and cake.  He was excited from the moment he woke up and saw the balloons to the time he went to bed that night.

It was a warm, sunny day that was perfect for grilling.  Jason grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, and we also had chips, macaroni salad, an Elmo fruit tray and an Oscar veggie tray for lunch.  Putting together the fruit and veggies trays was so much fun.  I enjoyed having the opportunity to be creative with food.  My friend Valerie made an adorable (and tasty!) Elmo cake.  He also opened many great gifts that included a remote control car, a lawnmower that blows bubbles, a bowling set, a golf set, a dump truck, an ABC Dino, a water table, a small table and chair set, a Mickey Mouse piano, a DVD, glow in the dark bubbles, and some new clothes.  We're having a great time playing together with his new toys.

Last year at this time we were waiting on signatures at the MOJ while our baby boy was in an orphanage on the other side of the world.  Now he's been home with us for a little over nine months.  I enjoyed being able to celebrate this very special day and look forward to celebrating many more birthdays together.

Nine Months Home

This week marks the nine month anniversary of Nikolas' homecoming.  The last month has been a busy one for us.  We received our report from the therapists who evaluated Nikolas through the First Steps program.  The results were as we expected.  He scored below average in almost every area of development.  Since he was over 2.5 at the time of his evaluation, he does not qualify for services through the First Steps program, but he should qualify for services through the school system.  We had a meeting with a representative from the school system to talk about the developmental preschool program.  Although we won't know for sure if he qualifies until after their evaluation, the representative thinks he should based on his First Steps evaluation and the fact that he's still not talking.  He babbles non-stop and is capable of saying words, but he refuses to say anything other than hi and bye.  (He was speaking a little before his surgery last fall, but he stopped at that point and never started again.)  If all goes as planned, he will start in their developmental preschool program this fall.  He will go five days a week for a few hours each morning.  During school he'll also work one-on-one with a speech therapist.  They offer a bus service that will pick him up and drop him off in our driveway.  It sounds like it will be a great program for him.

His Developmental Pediatrician at Riley recommended some private speech therapy over the summer, so we're working on getting that set up.  We also scheduled a hearing test at her request to rule out any hearing problems.  We'll be heading back to Riley in a couple of weeks for that.

We saw his Orthopedic Specialist at Riley a couple of weeks ago.  She was very pleased with the way his feet have responded to the surgery, and he no longer has to wear his AFO's during the day.  He does still wear his brace at night when he sleeps and will continue to do that for at least another year.  He walks so much better now that he wears shoes that actually fit his feet instead of the larger shoes to accommodate his AFO's.  He doesn't fall down as much and he's getting even faster!!  We will see her again in six months for a follow-up appointment.

Nikolas celebrated his first Easter this month.  We visited my family on Easter weekend, and we went to Cincinnati the following weekend (Orthodox Easter) to celebrate with the Bulgarian community.  I love being able to expose Nikolas to Bulgarian people, music, language and culture.  They are such a friendly group of people.  Nikolas enjoyed being able to spend time with his friend Emilia.  They came from the same orphanage in Dobrich and most likely knew each other long before they came to the United States.  It didn't take him long to figure out how to hunt for eggs.  He still plays with his Elmo basket and plastic eggs every single day.

He is doing so much better with playing with toys.  He prefers trucks, balls and his little laptop computer.  He's also getting better at puzzles.  Yesterday I asked him to pick up his toys and came back to find both of the puzzles completed with the pieces all in the right spots.  He's struggled with puzzles, so it's great to see him finally figure them out.  His new favorite television programs are Go, Diego, Go! and Blue's Clues.  He also likes Elmo.  Nikolas turns three on May 7th, and he'll be celebrating with his family with an Elmo-themed party next weekend.  He continues to be an active, happy little boy who is thriving in his new environment.   
  

Passport Time

We decided it was time to get Nikolas a US Passport. He's changed so much since July. The picture on the left (Bulgarian passport photo) was taken after a rough 7 hour car ride through the Balkan Mountains. The picture on the right (US passport photo) was taken last week. He truly is a different little boy.

Eight Month Update

Nikolas has been with us for almost eight months. He continues to grow and become more comfortable with his surroundings every day. He is learning to feed himself with a fork and spoon, starting to use the potty like a big boy, and becoming quite the problem solver.

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We had him evaluated through the First Steps program, but unfortunately because of his age, he won't be able to take advantage of their services. The therapists who evaluated him said that while he does have global developmental delays, it is obvious that he is very smart. They were surprised that he has only been home for such a short period of time. They will help us transition him to the school system's program where he will have another evaluation to see what services he qualifies for. We're hoping that he qualifies for their special needs preschool and can start that program in the fall.

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We met with his developmental pediatrician at the International Adoption Clinic at Riley this week and she was very pleased with his progress. His height and weight look great on the charts and he is developing nicely. His receptive language is great, but he still isn't speaking much. She gave us an "official" speech delay diagnosis so we can get started with some private speech therapy. We have a couple of options, so we're going to see which one works best with our insurance. Both the First Steps therapists and the developmental pediatrician think he'll really take off once he starts speaking.

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I also started putting him in the Kids Club at the gym this week while I go to my aqua fit class. He'll be in there three times a week for 1.5 hours. I'm hoping that being around other kids his age will help with his speech. It's also good for him to be able to run and play with other kids. He did great when I left him earlier this week, but he cried a little this morning. I guess that's a good sign of attachment. One of the employees said he was fine as soon as I left the room. He was running around playing with another little guy when I went to pick him up and didn't even notice that I was waiting for him.

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Last weekend he had his first night away from home since he's been in the US. Jason went to Iowa for the weekend, so Nikolas and I went to Dana to spend a couple of days with my family. We went out for lunch at the restaurant in town, went shopping, had dinner and played at my brother and sister-in-law's house, went to church and visited with my grandparents. He did well and only fussed a little at bedtime and naptime. It took him a couple of days to get back on track when we got home, but we expected that to happen. He does okay in the car for about 1.5-2 hours, but after that point he starts getting a little grumpy. Short trips are fine, but I don't think we'll be taking a long trip anytime soon.

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We've been enjoying the beautiful weather by playing outside almost every evening. He loves playing on his swing set, throwing his ball and going for walks to the pond. He's doing great and continues to learn new things every week. I can't wait to see what happens once he starts working with the speech therapist.

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Then and Now

Nikolas has been home with us for six months now. He is weighing in at 26.5 pounds (up 6.5 pounds) and is 36 inches tall (up 5 inches). The photo on the left was taken before bed on July 25th at the Radisson in Sofia, Bulgaria. Nikolas had been with us for only a few hours. The picture on the right was taken last week in our living room before bed one evening.

He's come so far in the past six months and we're so proud of all that he's accomplished. Six months ago he couldn't focus on one activity for more than a couple of minutes (unless it involved food). He didn't know how to play with his toys and had no interest in television. All he wanted to do was eat. Now he has a much better attention span, loves playing with his toys and gets excited while watching his favorite television shows. He's a happy little boy who laughs often. He enjoys cuddling with us and with his cat. He gives lots of hugs and kisses every day. He continues to sleep well and enjoys a wide variety of foods. He has bonded to us very well and we're so thankful for that. He still struggles with his speech, but he will be evaluated for speech therapy as soon as our doctor finishes the paperwork. We love having Nikolas as part of our family and are so excited to see him become the little boy he was always meant to be.