This and That

I have several updates, so instead of a few small blogs, I'll just write one long one!

Our puzzle fundraiser is off to a good start.  We've sold 234 pieces of our 1000 piece puzzle, so that means 766 pieces are still available.  The pieces cost $1 each and your name will be written on the back of the pieces that you purchase.  Your name will also be entered into a drawing for a $50 Amazon gift card for each piece purchased (20 pieces = 20 entries).  We will draw for the card once all 1000 pieces have been taken.  To donate to this fundraiser, please use the Paypal link to the right of this post.  If you do not use Paypal, you may also mail a check to our home address.  All proceeds from this fundraiser will go towards our first trip to Bulgaria, which should be coming up in a few months.

We've had some delays, but our adoption plans seem to moving in the right direction now.  We were able to successfully transition to our new agency without too much extra work.  We were fingerprinted for our USCIS approval in late February.  We had filed our I-800a form on a Saturday and received word that our agency was going out of business on Monday, so we had to send our officer an updated home study reflecting the agency change once we had been fingerprinted.  We got pink slipped because our officer didn't like the way one sentence of the approval section of our home study was phrased, so after a quick fix by our social worker, an addendum was notarized and sent to back to him.  We anticipate receiving our approval this week.

I took all of our other Indiana dossier documents to the Secretary of State's office this past week to be apostilled.  Since my birth certificate was issued by the county and not the state, they wouldn't accept it.  I ordered a new one online through the state and hope that it comes quickly.  The website says 4-6 weeks, but the lady at the Secretary of State's office said it typically takes about 10 days.  If' that's the case, it should arrive by the end of the week.  So for those of you in Indiana, be sure to order a birth certificate through the state and not through the county where you were born!  We also had to redo our medical letters due to a notary error, but we already have the new ones in our hands. 

Once our I-800a approval and my birth certificate arrive, I'll head downtown again to have the last four documents apostilled.  Then our completed dossier will be off to Bulgaria after a quick stop at our agency in Washington.  Once in Bulgaria it will be translated and registered, and then we'll wait for the official referral of the the little guy we requested back in November followed by travel dates to go meet him for the first time.

We've been working to get things ready for our new arrival.  His new dresser has already been assembled.  Jason and Nikolas put together little brother's bed this afternoon.  We're hoping that adding a second bed to his room will help Nikolas understand that he's about to have a roommate.  We know his English comprehension is great, but the concept of a little brother might be hard to grasp.  In his most recent receptive language evaluation, Nikolas scored only three points below average for a child his age.  That might not even be entirely accurate since several of things things he refused to do were things he knows and just didn't want to do.  His verbal speech is continuing to develop but is still very delayed for his age.  He now has over 50 words that he uses regularly and adds words daily.  He is also starting to put together two-word phrases. He talks more at home than he does out in public, but we're hoping that will change soon.

His gross motor skills have also been improving nicely.  He met all of his PT goals for the year at school and did an amazing job on his most recent PT skills test.  In the past three months, he has gone from a 21-month level to a 37-month level in one area and from a 25-month level to a 31-month level in another area.  Nikolas loves his physical therapist and works well with her most of the time.  We will repeat the test again in three more months so we can monitor his progress.  His fine motor skills also continue to improve just as quickly.

He's starting to enjoy playing games (like Memory) and likes to color and do art projects.  He likes to play with his cars and toy kitchen, and he loves to read books.  He's very smart and his memory is incredible.  He doesn't seem to forget anything, except for the fact that he's not allowed in my office!!  He is beginning to count and can sometimes name the colors.  Once we master colors and numbers we'll start working on letters.  We see him starting to do more age-appropriate activities all the time.  He's fully potty-trained during the day and is excited to wear big boy underwear.  He normally stays dry all night, but we're not completely there yet.

He's starting to get a little too bossy these days and doesn't like to be told what to do.  We're working hard to control his negative behavior and teaching him to be respectful.  We're going through a phase when he thinks he's in control of every situation, so that's been a little challenging.

Overall he is doing well and continues to grow and learn new things all of the time!



 

Puzzle Fundraiser

Our dossier is one document away from being completed, and we anticipate receiving that document very soon (hopefully this week!!).  After a quick trip downtown to have everything apostilled, our dossier will be ready to go to Bulgaria.  The dossier will be translated and presented to the MOJ, and then we will wait for the official referral of the little boy to whom we committed back in November. 

 

When we submit our dossier, we also have a pretty big payment due.  In order to raise some of that money, we have purchased a cute 1000 piece puzzle that we will frame and hang in the boys' playroom.  We are selling the pieces for $1 each.  Your name will be written on the back of each puzzle piece that you purchase.  It will be framed with glass covering the back so the names will all be exposed when the puzzle is turned over showing everyone who helped bring him home.

Each $1 donation also gets you an entry in our drawing for a $50 Amazon gift card.  We will draw for the gift card once all 1000 pieces have been purchased.

Donations can be made through Paypal by using the link below.  Please choose Personal and Gift so that no fees are taken out from your payment.  If you don't use Paypal, you may also send us a personal check.  Contact me if you need the mailing address.  Thank you so much for helping us bring our handsome little boy home!!

Fine Motor Fun

On the days that Nikolas doesn't have therapy I try to throw some structured playtime into our routine.  We include activies that help with his speech, gross motor skills and fine motor skills.  He just sees it as playtime and doesn't realize that we're actually working.  For this post I'll focus on some of the fine motor activities that we've done over the past couple of weeks.

 

One problem that is causing Nikolas to have both fine and gross motor delays is his low muscle tone.  Having him prop himself up with his arms while he colors helps to increase his upper body strength.  We also work on our colors during this time, both recognizing them and pronouncing them.  He does fairly well with this task.

We are also working on improving his hand and finger strength.  As he gets stronger, it will be easier for him to do things like snap his fingers and button his shirt.  He understands a lot of concepts, but his lack of strength holds him back.  For hand strength he uses his claw toy to pick up little rubber balls.  Right now he has to use both hands to work the toy, but eventually he'll be strong enough to do it with one hand at a time.

We also use therapy putty to work on his hand strength.  The putty is great because we can use it in different ways.  Right now we make "spaghetti" by pulling it apart.  We have one container of putty that has 10 buttons hidden in it.  He has to pull it apart to find the buttons and then use his fingers to pull them out.  He loves using the therapy putty and often requests to "play" with it.  The only downside to the putty is that it's really hard to get out of clothes, carpet and furniture!

Another thing we use to work on his finger strength is a set of magnetic fridge clips.  I bought a set of six of them at the dollar store.  He clips them onto cardboard and then takes them off again.  Clothespins also work well for this activity. 

Most of the things we use for therapy are very cheap.  The dollar section at Target always has great finds, and the Dollar Tree is full of fun things.  I also picked up a few things in the Easter Basket area at Meijer the other day.  His OT has taught me how to keep my eyes open for inexpensive things that we can use for our therapy playtime sessions.

Adoption Update

The past month has been an eventful one as far as our adoption is concerned.  Since our agency announced that they were closing, we have successfully had our case transferred to our new agency and are making some progress.  Our home study has been updated to reflect the agency change.  We have completed the majority of our dossier documents and are waiting for USCIS approval.  We were fingerprinted last week and hope to receive our approval soon.  Once we receive that last form, we'll be able to send everything to Bulgaria.  Since we've already requested a specific child, we hope to receive our offical referral and travel dates shortly after our dossier is accepted by the Bulgarian government.

Unfortunately there may be some delays on the Bulgarian side.  On Wednesday, February 20th, the Bulgarian government resigned.  Elections will be held on May 12th to elect a new Parliament.  We don't know how this will affect our adoption process, but we should know more later.  For now, all we can do is work to get our documents ready to mail.

We have two more rounds of payments coming up.  We owe $4500 when we submit our dossier and another $6900 when we travel to Bulgaria.  We'll also have travel fees (airfare/hotel/meals) coming up.  The closer to summer we end up travelling, the more expensive airfare will be.  We're looking at grant and loan applications, but we still need a lot of help.  We are so thankful for all of our friends and family members who have helped us out so far, and we pray that God will help us come up with the rest of the money that we need to bring our little boy home.  If you would like to contribute to our adoption fund, please feel free to use the "Donate" link in the top righthand corner of our blog to make a donation through Paypal.  We also ask for your prayers.  Please pray for us, for our adoption process, and for the little guy we're hoping to bring into our family. 

An Emotional Week

This week has been so full of emotions... fear, sadness, confusion, anger, relief, hope and many more. 

Receiving an e-mail that your agency is going out of business and not having a way to get immediate answers is a very scary thing, especially when your future child is involved.  For nearly 24 hours after receiving that e-mail on Monday evening, we were confused and worried about what was going to happen.  On Tuesday evening we received an e-mail letting us know which agency had agreed to take our case.  Friends on the Buglaria adoption board on FaceBook who had used the agency were very supportive and had many good things to say about the agency, so we felt very comfortable with the change.  We filled out the transfer form and sent it over on Wednesday morning, and we heard from the new agency later that same day. 

On Thursday morning I woke up to an e-mail from our travel coordinator in Bulgaria.  Although she was contacting me about something else, hearing from her was still comforting.  We're so happy that we'll still be working with the same NGO in Bulgaria because I really can't imagine anyone else greeting us when we arrive in Sofia.  On Thursday afternoon I received an unexpected phone call from our former caseworker.  I hate having to use the word "former" when talking about that relationship.  We've been working together for almost five years.  She helped us bring our first son home and has done so much to help with our second adoption.  For that, we are so grateful and I'm so glad I got that chance to talk to her one last time.

I was also able to speak with our new caseworker on Thursday evening.  She's very personable and gave me such a positive feeling.  We aren't going to lose any money (from this adoption) and are able to keep the same fee schedule.  The new agency does a lot of waiting children adoptions, so it sounds like we'll fit right in.  I've been working my way through the new contract and other paperwork and hope to finish it up this weekend.

I've also been in touch with my social worker at our home study agency.  She'll be printing us a batch of new home studies with the new agency's name in place of the old one and also taking care of the inter-agency paperwork that needs to be filed. 

I still need to figure out a few details about dossier and immigration paperwork, but it sounds like this transition shouldn't be too difficult.  Although it's very sad that the agency had to close due to the ban on adoptions from Russia, everyone has come together to make this transition as smooth as possible.  We will most likely lose our last post-placement deposit, but at least we have Nikolas.  Some parents lost their future children, Russian orphans lost their chance to have a family and a great group of people lost their jobs.  Compared to their losses, we don't have anything to complain about.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers this week.  Now it's time to move forward...