Happy Birthday to our new tennager.

Happy Birthday Sweet Kara

 What can we say about wonderful Kara, she is a loving, sweet and quiet girl with a silly streak that makes us all giggle. Watching her grow up has been such an amazing journey, as we had no idea about her family genetics or traits, and we see her becoming a beautiful young woman and believe her birth mother must be beautiful as well. I wish her bio mom could see her.

Despite some mobility issues associated with her hip dysplasia, Kara is doing very well. We are grateful for her good health.

She is mastering her communication device and is learning more everyday in school, she is still non-verbal, but she is trying to master talking. We would love for her to tell us what she is thinking beyond wanting something to drink or eat. That is a sadness for us, as she has so much she wants to say.

Everything in time.

Happy Birthday Kara

At her sister Julia's dance performance 10/24

Kara is really growing up, her little girl body changing a little every day, giving us a glimpse into the woman she will be someday.  I think her birth mama must have been very pretty, as Kara is herself. I wonder if she remembers Kara on her birthday?

Kara is in the 5th grade. We recently pulled her and her sisters out of Arizona Virtual Academy and petitioned to homeschool her.  She is doing very well, and is very smart!

She is beginning to enjoy dressing in pretty clothes, and gets a huge smile when she gets new things to wear, often grabbing them off the racks at stores and putting them in our carts. It is harder to give her gifts of toys though, as she rarely reacts with happiness, she just tosses her gifts aside to play with the box or to grab some random article of clothing she is fixating on, I know that is from her orphanage days where her favorite toys were those rough wool socks she often pulled off her feet.  Some behaviors are set!

Kara has very thin hair, it is often frizzy from her lying down a lot, it breaks easily, so it never grows past a certain point.  Her thyroid levels have always been in medium normal ranges, I wish I knew why her hair was like this. That is why her hair style rarely changes.

She continues to have issues with extremely loose joints and joint instability, especially her feet and hips. We have been careful with her weight (not letting her eat junk all day) and that is a good thing.  She has very low energy due to her hypermobility and her hypotonia.  We don't want obesity to add to her mobility issues.

She saw an orthopedic doctor earlier this year, he confirmed via X-rays that she has early stage hip dysplasia.  He said surgery would likely not help Kara's hips and feels she has a 75% chance of the procedure failing, it is not an easy surgery. They can't shorten her ligaments because the extreme elasticity she has would make the shorter ligaments stretch right back out. It is frustrating because I am not certain what can be done for her except muscle strengthening exercises; which we do as much as she can tolerate, but it causes her some pain.  This one of the issues she has that causes me to stay up nights trying to find solutions.

She is pretty low energy at home, but once out of the house, loves exploring. She can move pretty fast.  This year our family won a lottery via SANDS to attend the NDSC convention.  Kara kept me running after her, she wanted to see the entire building, we were proud of her for climbing the stairs, it is not easy for her to do.

She loves Groovy Girls dolls and often plays with them so much their heads,  arms, and legs come off...I have been looking for replacements for those she has worn out over the years.  I can find large lots on eBay, but all of the dolls are sans clothing...I imagine their owners disrobed them like my girls do?

Kara's birthday

Kara continues to be non-verbal, she has received speech therapy since arriving home, and has had numerous evaluations, no one knows why she cannot speak, she performs tasks and tests very well,  so we know she is bright and learning. However she is very frustrated when she cannot say how she feels and will whine and cry to get a point across... She uses minimal sign language, and will be receiving her new iPad with speech program (Proloquo , which she uses with here speech therapist during sessions)  any day, week, or month now. We have waited a LONG time.  As usual, it is a hurry up and wait scenario when government programs provide devices.

Kara and Madeline

Kara is an Auntie to three cuties; Mathias, Desmond and Madeline. She adores babies and is very tender with them.  She likes animals, but insists on pulling their tails whenever possible, which means they don't like her as much.

Kara is a very sweet little girl, she rarely does unkind things to others, she gets upset if voices are raised, even in happiness, she likes peace and quiet above raucous fun.  She adores her siblings. She will climb on the back of any male family member or friend to get a piggy back ride, and now that she is getting taller and heavier, it is becoming harder for them to play that way, it will be an activity we phase out this coming year I am sure.

She still loves watching Barney and Signing Time, Barney is still her favorite. Her favorite movies are Frozen, High School Musical 1,2 and 3, Les Miserables. Rent; actually she adores any movie if there singing and dancing in it.   She enjoys old school slapstick humor and often laughs if people hit each other on TV shows, whether in anger or not, so at times it seems inappropriate, but I don't think she believes TV shows or movies are real (and she is correct).  She enjoys live theater and going to the movies. She enjoys going for long car rides and going shopping.

My wish for her this year is to get her own voice, whether it is speaking with a device, signing, or being able to talk.

Happy Birthday to Kara

Sweet and gentle Kara is 10 today. She has grown so much this year, entering into the realm of being a young lady. It does not seem possible that 7 years have passed since we met her for the first time.

Happy Birthday Kara!!

Happy 9TH Birthday to Kara!!

Happy Birthday Kara

Our beautiful sweetheart, Kara turned 6 today!

OK, I give up, why does Kara love Coffee?

Kara attacks coffee cups with gusto, as soon as someone puts coffee down (Tom or Brian, I do not drink it) she is there is a flash, tipping the cup to her eager mouth, only to be thwarted by mom and dad. Kara and coffee does not seem like the best idea, we do not let them drink caffeinated beverages.

When we adopted Kara she was three, did they give toddlers coffee? Anyone know? It seems odd to me that an orphanage would give babies coffee, and the coffee Tom drank in Ukraine was STRONG!

She called me Mama

When Kara and I came home from Ukraine, she would often call me Mama, and then we adopted Amanda, and she seemed to get really depressed-sad, and she stopped making sounds altogether. The only time she vocalized was in the swimming pool, just babbling.

She has seemed so lost, and we have been frantically trying to figure out what happened. You know, that constant thought in your head "What is wrong with Kara?" "Is she OK?" Not that she is always sad, she isn't, but I think having a sister so soon after she came home was hard on her adjustment, though I do not regret adopting Amanda so soon afterwards, in hindsight I think parents should wait a year between adoption if at all possible.

Two days ago we were playing and she looked up at me and said Mama with a big smile. Those are the moments you just never forget, is Kara coming back?

I know with our girls that linear progression rarely occurs, so I do not believe she will begin speaking her mind anytime soon, but I do think that using sign language more and more and saying Mama does indicate that Kara is now ready to attempt expressive communication again.

Please pray that Kara can continue to improve in this area of her development, I know she has many things to say to us!

Kara and Meghan

Kara and Meghan have come a long way in their sisterly relationship. At first Meghan was a little jealous of all the attention Kara received, then Kara was jealous. I find it curious when I read blogs saying that kids with Trisomy 21 do not have these feelings, because they are just children, and children do get jealous, they also get angry, throw fits, and act like stinkers, like any other child does.

We have had our share of hair pulling (Kara to Meghan) or Kara being pushed to the floor by Meghan when she was an unsteady new walker. So when I see them holding hands and walking together, or playing sweetly with one another, it shows me that they are learning to be more gentle with one another, and that they love each other.

The last day of December I found the house grew suddenly quiet, this is never a good sign with small children, I glanced over and saw these two sweet girls napping together. I see them cuddling like this more and more, not so much with Amanda, who does not like to be cuddled, but they do allow her to play with them now, so that is a good sign!

My girls love each other, and they find comfort in each others company. When I see images like this I know that everything we went through to get Kara (and Amanda) home was worth it, she is loved here, she has a family here. If she were still in Ukraine, her new home would be the mental institution, I believe the one she would have been transferred to is a better one, but I also saw the effect it had on a very special boy who had to live there before his forever family adopted him. The sparkle left his eyes, and I barely recognized him when I saw pictures of him, it is coming back, I see it in his pictures with his new family, but he changed so much in that institution.

I think God wanted Kara here, in our crazy and imperfect family, we may not be perfect, but we do love one another deeply.

There are thousands of children like Kara and Amanda waiting for forever families, if adoption is in your heart, please go to http://www.reecesrainbow.com/newsite/waitingchildgallery.html and see where your heart leads you.

Kara lost her first tooth

Can you see the space on the bottom, we went to The down Syndrome Connection's holiday party and yesterday and had the girls dressed in their cuter clothes, for pictures with Santa! When we parked I went over to get Kara out of her car seat and her tights were spotted with blood, she had it on her fingers and face too. My heart skipped a beat, I immediately began to look for reasons and saw the missing tooth. We had no idea it was loose, I figured she would be 6 before the first baby tooth would be replaced, seems really early!

Tom found the little rootless tooth on the seat of the car, we put it in a plastic bag. The tooth next to it is loose too, pretty soon she will have a huge window LOL. I could see her tongue playing with the area most of the day today, she is getting used to the feeling.

She fell asleep after we ate yesterday and did not see Santa, the party was during her nap time. The party was well attended but the room was packed, so we waited until everyone else had seen Santa before Tom and Terry (big brother) took Meghan and Amanda up there. Amanda accosted Santa; grabbing his beard and planting a smooch on him. Tom said she scratched him a little too, whoops. She does that when she gets scared.

I was in charge of the craft table yesterday, I prefer to be busy at a party, and I love crafting. Next year I hope to get something different for everyone to do, it has to be easy to make, and it is a challenge to find fun and inexpensive things.

Some new pictures-approaching our Gotcha Day anniversary!

Eating her blueberry walnut gluten free pancakes. She makes me laugh, she gets so mad when the food falls off the fork, she is a perfectionist! When we brought her home she put her hands behind her back and did not know how to chew solid foods, now look at her, she has come a long way!

She managed to get her piggie tail out in less than 10 minutes. Her hair is just awful, it gets so tangled, even with spray on conditioner.I try to put it in ponytails and she tugs on them until they come out, then walks around later on looking like a Rastafarian.

Today, 2 years ago, Tom and Meghan returned home from Ukraine, I was there alone for another 3 weeks without them. Seems so incredible that two years have gone by since then. I can vividly recall that walk to the dining hall, walking with my head down to find the patches of ground not covered in ice, the cold breeze on my face. Walking into the dining hall alone for the first time and seeing three place settings for us on the table and suddenly feeling very sad. The servers were wondering where Tom and Meghan had gone, asking me questions, I tried in my very bad Russian to tell them they went home to America. They did not understand me at all.

They served fried eggs that morning and when I saw them tears began to escape from my eyes; Tom longed for eggs the entire time we were there and the day he could not enjoy them, they served them. More than anything I was sad that I would have no one to talk to during the long days and nights. I did not feel very brave or strong that morning.

However, I could not wait to visit sweet Kara. I was reading through my adoption journal today and found this entry below: She lay with her head on my shoulder and her thumb in her mouth and I rocked her to sleep, she began to snore, and I lay my cheek on her soft hair and listened to her breath. My baby, my new daughter, thank you God, I have a new daughter. I did not want to put her down, but I knew I needed to leave, it was noon. So reluctantly I gave her to the staff and I left with tears in my eyes again. Sad and disappointed that once more I had to walk away from the orphanage without her."

That was written after our 10 day wait was over, each day I awoke thinking it would be the day she would leave the orphanage forever and each day there was another reason why she had to stay there.

Kara has changed in so many ways, just seeing her little face from two years ago, her little body, hips so tiny her pants, even leggings, slid off of her, her ribs sticking out. She was well cared for, in a good orphanage with good and plentiful food, but it was not a home with a mommy and daddy. Children need that contact, love and one on one affection to grow well.

I sent a picture of Kara with another family adopting from Vorzel (thank you Frank and Renee), wishing I could send the letter that was translated, but it was 8 months old and did not apply to who Kara is now. I want to tell her grandmother; she is loved here too. I will never forget seeing Kara's grandmother crying in the arms of the caregivers. It had to be so hard to let Kara go knowing she would never see her again. I wish she would have spoken to us, to me, so many PAP's have met the family of the children they adopted.

So many days I long to return to Vorzel, to see those familiar roads and to let Kara see them too, will she remember anything about her life there? I do not think so, since she was barely 3 when we brought her home. I would like to think she has some memories of her life before she came home with us, but how many of us remember anything about our first 3 years if our lives? I have pictures, and when she is older and wants to know, we can look at them together.

Our adoption anniversary approaches

Walking to the internet cafe in Kyiv, November 10, 2007

Two years ago we were waiting in Kyiv for news about where we would be staying, we knew we were going to Vorzel, but had no idea where that was. We were excited about meeting Kara, but so sad about losing the angel we came to Ukraine to adopt. While Tom and Meghan slept off jet lag, I wandered about the apartment holding Eva's picture and simultaneously praying that she would be OK and crying in pain and sorrow. Feeling terrible because I knew our doubts had contributed to us losing her. I did revisit our adoption last year, if you go to the November-December posts from 2008, you can read everything.

Adoption is a wonderful gift to the parents and children, but it is also full of stress, sometimes grief, and it teaches us, sometimes brutally, that nothing is certain until you are on that plane with your new child. From losing the little girl we first committed to adopting, to losing our second would be daughter in Ukraine, there is such heartache for some of us.

I know the first daughter of our hearts is loved by her new family, I know nothing else about her, the family made their blog private long ago. They suffered their own terrible losses before deciding to adopt, and I pray the family is finally happy and little Sanna is healthy.

I did not know when the SDA pulled our referral for Eva that she would get her family just a couple of months later, nor that they would be the perfect family for her. I will be forever grateful that circumstances led them to her, though they suffered heartbreak during their own adoption journey. It all seems so long ago, and we have moved past the pain for the most part, but this time of the year renews it a bit, as anniversaries of traumatic times often do.

Thankfully adoptions are seamless for most forever families, or as much as they can be, but for some of us, the road to bringing our children home is bumpy, winding, with blind turns and many forks in the road. Where there is grief and pain along the way, there is also tremendous joy and fulfillment when in the end you bring your new child home with you.



How is Kara today? She is a stinker, into everything, toddling around in her wide-stanced way, playing with dollies, loving to watch Disney movies, fond of thumb sucking and hugs. Nothing makes her happier than rough-housing with her brothers. She is not talking yet, but her communication device will help her get her thoughts and needs across. She loves playing with Meghan and pushing Amanda around. She is at her tyrannical three's stage, it seemingly lasts forever with kids who have that extra special chromosome, so we may have a few years of pouting, whining and temper tantrums. They are few and far between thank goodness. Most of the time she is giggling, playing and happy, very happy. Were she not home with us, she would be in the institution now, and who knows how long she would have had there.

I will never lose the wonder I feel that we get to be her parents, we love and cherish her dearly.

You never know who you will find surfing the net

http://www.ukraineorphans.net/id67.html I found Kara at this website, what a surprise, and for a good cause, please visit the site, maybe think about helping them with their mission.

Kara has been growing again, I don't know when, but she grew out of her size 3's and into 4's. Of course she is turning 5 really soon, so she should be a bigger girl right? :o)

We are getting very close to the day that we travelled to Ukraine to adopt, two years ago we left here November 7th to get to ur SDA appointment on the 9th. Seems like it was such a short time ago, I am in disbelief and I still long to return, some days I wish we could adopt from Ukraine again. Then we have those days where all three little gals are cranky, bickering, whining, and we are tripping over each other and I tell myself it could never happen again.

I know having Kara and Amanda is a bit of a miracle for us, I love them so much, but there are so many more children waiting for forever families, I suppose I am not alone in thinking one more would not be a hardship...but today I received a phone call from a person asking about homes for an adult woman with Down syndrome, her elderly parent's knew their days here were running short and they are worried about where she will go after they are gone. Though I am aware of group homes here for adults with developmental disabilities, I could not help for the valley (Phoenix area) and had to send the caller to someone who may know more than I.

It got me to thinking about our girls and their futures, of course what we want for all of them is to be as independent as possible. Marriage is not out of the question either, I save articles about couples with Down syndrome getting married, going to college, getting jobs, and living lives that are fulfilling, happy. It made me a little sad to hear of this adult woman who never left her parents home. Sadder still that her only sibling was unable to take her in once their parents were gone.

We have to be careful about living in the now and not thinking about the future when we adopt kids with developmental delays and special needs, sure we could adopt over and over again, but we will not be here forever. Our older children know we are counting on them to help their sisters in 30-40 years, but as this person that called said to me, you do not even know if your older children will still be alive when you pass, or if they will be physically, emotionally, or financially able to care for their sisters.

It gives me a lot to think about, plan for, pray for. My heart still longs to adopt again, but it will likely not happen.

Guess who has a birthday coming up

Oh yes, Kara is almost 5, I still think of her as 3, I know nearly two years have gone by since we saw her that first time in Vorzel, but it seems like only yesterday!

I was browsing through some websites and found a link to our blog here:

http://www.ukraineorphans.net/id67.html I am happy we are linked for something good and not bad. I firmly believe that international adoption gives everyone a chance for happiness, both the family the little one is coming into and the child. We have been blessed by 6 children born to us, and adopton was no less miraculous to me! I am so grateful we took that first step despite all the fears we had. It was not easy task, we had to struggle a few times, but everytime I look at Kara (and Amanda) I afeel so grateful their countries allowed them to become our daughters.

There is another little girl waiting for a forever family in Eastern Europe. This is Paula. This year we have agreed to serve as her Christmas Warriors, our goal is two-fold, to help raise money for her grant fund and to help people see her beautiful little face and ask about her; we want her to find her forever family.

We hope you will look for her Chip-in and donate towards her fund, our goal is $1,000.

Her information:

Born April 19, 2006

Many folks have been waiting for a beautiful, young Caucasian girl from a country where the cost is lower and the travel is easy. Here she is! Paula has sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. Main diagnosis: Down Syndrome. Inborn Cardiac Malformation - atrioventricular septum defect - cardiac insufficiency - condition after surgical treatment. Lagging behind in her development. Esotrohpia. Hypermetropia. Strabismus - condition after surgery.

2 trips, 5 days each
Approx cost only $19k!
NO UPPER AGE LIMIT
Single mothers may apply
Multiple children can be adopted together
Full medical info prior to official referral
Easy dossier, very few restrictions

Paula, has had some heart issues, but please do not let that stop you from considering her, so many of our angels come home after adoption and flourish.

Please add Paula to your prayers as well, that she stays healthy and finds her family very soon.

Do I complain too much?

Kara is driving me crazy, she does this wrong, and that wrong, and blah blah blah. I think I complain too much about my little girl. She is a terrible two dynamo and all I do is chase her all day from one precarious situation to another. So I vent about it, but I feel like in all that venting I rarely tell people how wonderful and funny she is too.

Homesick?

I finally realized I have been avoiding reading adoption blogs from Ukraine because they cause unbearable homesickness for me. I long to return to Vorzel, to walk the streets I walked for 6 weeks. I cannot explain it to myself, I am home this is my home here, but I miss Ukraine so much. I see the faces of the children in the orphanages when I visit the blogs and I want to hold them again, they crave the love and attention of a parent so much.

Will we ever get back there, how will we go? Does anyone else feel the same way about where they adopted their children from, that connection? I also loved Estonia, but was only there a short time, Ukraine is different.

Kara is learning to use sign language!

For almost two years Kara has struggled to communicate with us, she does not talk, and we have tried very hard to get her to embrace sign language, these past few weeks she has embraced it more. I am relieved, as her inability to let us know her wants and needs was causing temper tantrums.

Have I mentioned lately how much I adore her? She is such a sweet and cuddly little girl, has definite impulse control issues, but we are working on that. I have not reached a point where I feel like she has been our daughter forever, I still have very vivid images of her in my my mind being brought out to visit in the orphanage in Vorzel. I still marvel at the miracle of us finding her.

Here are some more new pictures of our beautiful little girl.

Kara thinks there is nothing better than a chair in the pool and a sock to play with...She has a fascination with socks, carries them around, holds them and rocks, I believe they may have been her only plaything during her long days in bed at the orphanage. She loved them the first day I brought her back to the Peremoga and she continues to 1 1/2 years later.

Kara raided the sock bag for this sock. LOL She can be found going through their daily. It is a Christmas sock! I don't suppose the match will be found, since it has been missing since Christmas, the sock fairy struck again.

Yepper, she is a thumb sucker. :o) My third of 8 children to do so.

Taken two days ago, Meghan insisted Kara wear that top LOL. Kara loves to see pictures of herself. She thinks this one is the best.

Kara loved her new dress, now if I can figure out a way to get her to wear shoes...

I have this in the other girls blogs, but it shows how sweet Kara can be.

We are still here

As our lives settle in to a routine and we are occupied with therapy visits and family life, I forget to post, or even come to Blogger. I suppose that is normal. Then I realised the last time I talked about Kara, she was not feeling well. She has been feeling good for a few weeks now, whoops.

Kara is now receiving speech therapy at home, I am hoping that the skills she is picking up will help her learn to communicate expressively, she does not do much of it. We know she is bright, so the huge speech delay is confusing. It also makes her act out, as she is frustrated that she cannot make her needs known.

She is a rascal, no doubt about it, into the terrible two stage with a vengeance and oh boy does she get into trouble. Her newest thing is to push her chair up to the counter and climb on it to get at the peanut butter. I caught her eating it with a huge spoon, peanut butter all over her hair and face. She will also eat butter, fruit, and anything she can get her hands on up there.

She is into hair pulling, pushing, and bullying Amanda, but for all that she is small; Amanda is no pushover, she lets Kara know she cannot be bullied. LOL

We have decided that neither Kara or Amanda will go to pre-school next year, it is too confusing to them, and there is no real need for it at this time. Bonding and learning to be part of a family is more important right now.

Kara is doing well despite some typical behavior issues. We did not expect her to be an angel, and she isn't. We do love her and she is a real and forever part of our family, and even after 1 1/2 years, we still cannot believe she is part of our family. We are so lucky!

Been a while

I realized I had not post to Kara's blog for a while, things have been busy and Kara is doing very well despite runny noses, rashes, and such. She and I are just having a rough spring, our entire family has been sick with flu's and strep. This too shall pass, I hope soon.

Kara was seen by a PT the end of March, FINALLY, after nearly a year of waiting for one to become available, The PT was an older woman, what we call old school (hey I am OLD too) and somewhat brusque though very professional. She believesKara will need weekly PT, and was surprised that she was not receiving it already. We are waiting for approval, not certain what is happening there, we have asked for a new SC, and are still waiting.

She had her IEP review last Monday; the IEP was uneventful with the exception of the PT and his attitude. I hear he is an amiable man, so it is me he does not like, how sad he made a judgement about me and found me lacking. :o(

I was not happy to be going because Kara has not been in school for two months, yes, you read it correctly, we have been so sick here that one illness is on the heels of another, and since Kara has a runny nose most of the time, they will not let her attend school. I truly believe Kara needs a tonsillectomy; none of my other kids has ever been a sickly as she. I want her to feel better, poor baby.

When I walked into the room for her IEP, I overheard the ST discussing Kara’s absences with the PT, a frown of disapproval on her usually contented face. They both looked sheepish when they saw me, I felt chagrined and it put me on the defensive, I took a deep breath and said a little prayer, this was for Kara, I needed to stay calm. Even when everyone on the IEP is amiable, it is rather stressful, but this one was not, the PT had issues with me for following doctor’s orders for Kara (against his advice). He also was very condescending explaining to me what the purpose ligaments and using scare tactics telling me Kara would be crippled if I did not heed what he was saying. At that point, I snapped at him for trying to scare me and overstating the risks. I trust her orthopedic doctor, and the PT who saw Kara last week for and evaluation did not believe the SMO’s were crucial at this point either. (I also asked the orthotistKara saw last week about her SMO's, they agreed, if the doctor feels she needs to walk without them FOR NOW, then that is what we should be doing) The PT inferred I was lying about the doctor telling me to put the SMO's away and to let Kara walk without shoes on. He quickly said “Not that I think you are lying….so he knew he had overstepped. He left before we were done, needing to attend another IEP. I was stewing about our conversation and needed to talk it through with DH Tom, I knew it would calm me down, and give a different perspective. I could not believe the PT thought I was lying about the SMO's, why in the world would I? It upsets me to think about it even now.

While we were wrapping up the IEP meeting, Tom called, the bike Eric made for him (bought all the pieces separately on EBay and in the bike shops in town) was stolen from his van while he was at work. It was a Quintana Roo, a very nice bike, and one he needed desperately, his old bike was a mess. Tom tries to ride to work when he can, it has been a challenge lately, but he kept the bike in his van because he thought it would be safe in there. Apparently anyone with a crowbar can break off the handle of our old Voyager and get in the van. It is an old van, insurance will not pay to fix the broken door, but our homeowners insurance should pay for a replacement of his bike. (minus the $250 deductible) that violation you feel when someone has broken in and taken something of yours, like a sucker punch, so cowardly. Even though the van was parked in the school parking lot, they will do nothing to compensate him for his loss; it is against their policy, period, it is not the first thing that has been stolen from him the 18 years he has been a teacher. I am grateful he was nowhere near when they broke in; I believe that someone who is heedless of the risk of discovery enough to steal something in the middle of the day would not hesitate to hurt my husband. He feels pretty badly that the gift our son made for him was taken though, I think that bothers him the most. Our homeowners insurance will cover most of the loss, thank goodness.

Kara was evaluated by a speech therapist for in home ST Monday morning and it was determined (not surprisingly) that she will need weekly speech in addition to what the school provides (not that she has been in preschool, she is not allowed with a runny nose...rules are rules). I am so excited about the speech therapy as she is not communicating verbally at all. I believe having to unlearn Russian-Ukrainian and learn English has made it very hard for her. She has a few signs, but poor sweetie needs something more.

Please help Amy bring Elijah home

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From another blog:

From Amy (Elijah's Mom): "I am a single mom, with three sons. Two of my children have Ds. My oldest son inspired me to become a Special education teacher and eventually also inspired me to adopt. I adopted Caleb who also has Ds in 2005. Now I am adopting Elijah. I started this adoption a year ago in January. I began adopting from the Ukraine and the day I mailed my dossier to Ukraine was the same day their president signed into law that singles could no longer adopt. That was in April 2008. Then in June I began another adoption from Eastern Europe. I was blessed to finally meet Elijah in October. It has been a long 5 months waiting to go back. He's beautiful, a little hidden angel just waiting....The boys and I can't wait to have him join our family!

Then about 2 weeks ago, my basement flooded and my insurance only covered the clean up. There are repairs that need to be done that have been estimated between $3500-$4800. This happened about a week after I got my court date. So that is how I ended up needing additional funds.:( Any donation, no matter how small would be greatly appreciated. I want to thank everyone for their prayers also. I am very blessed."

From Jody's blog: "Our friend from Reece's Rainbow~ Amy is leaving this week for her second trip to go pick up her son. Elijah just happens to have down syndrome like two of her boys already at home, she also has an older son so that will make 4 boys for this sweet lady. Amy has done these adoptions as a single mom. If that is not hard enough. She has had some major expenses come up. Amy can use all our help,she needs to raise 3,500.00 dollars very quickly to bring home her little boy.

We all can help, maybe you can't adopt a child but would like to donate to help a child come home. Amy is a very sweet lady with a very big heart. Please help her bring her little boy home....." "Lets parter with Amy to bring Elijah home ... Thank you all very much!!!

Even a few dollars goes a long way , to bring home these sweet children..."

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Today was World Down Syndrome Day

I went from blog to blog and read what was in their hearts today. I made me think of being in Ukraine the day Meghan left with Tom, the relief I felt because Meghan made Y nervous, and how happy I was Meghan would not have to feel that rejection anymore. As more time goes by I find I am hurt by the dismissal of my beloved daughter, and for whatever reason there is, I can feel it more now than I did then, perhaps because at the time, I was just trying to prevent any negativity in my thoughts from being known, scared that I was so far from home and no one would be able to help me if anything went wrong, that feeling of helplessness wore me down. So there I go off on a tangent again...back to my topic, I feel so badly that there are so many people who do not see the child in the little ones with Down syndrome. All they see is trisomy 21, and nothing else.

I still dream about Ukraine, in one of my better dreams I can actually talk to people and hear their thoughts about Down syndrome. I can tell them how much I love my daughters and how valuable they are to me and to society. In these very good dreams, people listen and they embrace ALL children, and give them the tender loving care they crave.

Ukraine does have a budding Down Syndrome Society, I pray it will grow and change perceptions there. I fervently hope they never embrace western ideas of abortion of "defective" fetuses and they allow all their precious children to be born, while I am saddened by the children left in orphanages, I am happy that they had a chance to be born. I am hoping more and more families will decide to keep their children with them, and I pray more will travel to Ukraine to adopt those that do not have those families.

Kara today, she is getting over another cold, bronchial issues are nothing new to her, poor sweetie. She is feeling better, but her nose is always runny!

In my minds eye I can imagine people with Down syndrome walking to the Metro, or shopping at the mall, or walking among the many tourists at Independence Square. I can picture their faces beaming with acceptance and happiness as they greet the hoards of people with a smile. I remember walking along those streets too, the people so dour to my American eyes and how I wished and prayed for a friendly face, even a nod of greeting, anything those 3 long weeks I spent without my family. The few smiles I did get were a gift. I think by the time I went home, I looked pretty unhappy myself. :o(

I know change is never easy, I know that long held beliefs are hard to let go of, sometimes there even though we do not know why we have them. Still, my wish at the end of World Down Syndrome Day is for all people born with Down syndrome to be cherished members of their countries, here and abroad.