This time last year...

http://ukieadoptmom.blogspot.com/2007/11/flights-are-arranged.html We were preparing to leave for Ukraine.

November is Adopion Month

Adoption month? I saw this on the adoption newsletter I get, and I felt sad, not because it is adoption month, but because all of our adoption paperwork expired, our AZ certification, our home study (it would have to be updated anyway), both I-171-H for Ukraine and Estonia (because we already adopted) and I realized, if we wanted to adopt again, we had to start completely over again. I could have renewed the AZ certification, but I lost heart and decided not to. Why?

Well we found a dear little girl in Central America whom we just loved, but even though we were given the OK, the agency stopped returning emails, so we took it as a sign that it was not time to commit to another little girl. Honestly I was more excited than DH, I saw her video and fell in love with her, she looked like my SIL's baby pictures, so sweet. I wondered why the call to adopt was still so strong in me, we just brought two little ones home in less than a year, surely God must know we are still adjusting to Amanda being home? Nevertheless, the call is strong; when I saw L, I thought she was the ONE, the little one meant for us. She had to be? why else would we have found out about her? She was also 3, and we knew having 3 three year old with Down syndrome may be a little difficult to manage. I suppose the agency agreed, we were asking for too much to have 4 daughters all with a little extra something!

She is now featured (#1) on the Christmas Angel Tree on Reece's Rainbow. She is walking and feeding herself, and just gorgeous. She would be such a precious addition to any family, please consider adopting her, or at the very least donate towards her grant fund.

Kara Mia the clown

Kind of fitting for my little goofy girl

Kara's 4th birthday video

I wish the quality was better, but I wanted to share Kara walking, she wore her orthotics already, so her feet were resting from them. The dress is a present from Melonie! Melonie, doesn't Kara look sweet in her dress?

She still crawls and walks, we are hoping she will walk more and more as she gets her balance down with the support of the SMO's

Both little girls fell right to sleep, Meghan is still fighting it.

I can hardly believe Kara is home and we just celebrated her first birthday as a Levario, this time last year we were packing and getting ready to go to Ukraine.

As all of you know who adopted from Ukraine; this is a significant birthday for Kara. At age 4 she would be moved to the mental institution for the rest of her life. In her small town the director tried to keep the kids a little longer, so she may have had until spring to find a family had we not adopted her, but no one knew who she was, no family had seen her as far as we know, so her chances of finding a forever family were slim. It was providence that we found our little girl, we now know that things happened along the road to adopt her that led us straight to her. God knew where we were going all along.

Kara was a blind referral, the way most adoptions are done in Ukraine. I am beyond thrilled that we accepted our referral for Kara, it was scary going into the unknown with her adoption, but we were rewarded for our faith with an amazing little girl to love and raise.

Thank you to everyone who had a part in helping us bring Kara Irina home.

It is Kara's 4th birthday today

We are all excited about Kara's 4th birthday, she keeps looking at us like we are insane when we sing to her. LOL

More pictures to come, kind of busy today. :o)

Failed our hearing test

Not so much because Kara can't hear, but her cold obviously has given her an ear infection and fluid on her ears. So she tested with a mild hearing deficit. She will be seeing her pediatrician on Thursday.

Both Kara and Amanda go back in two months for another test.

Kara has her SMO's

Kara's was the last appointment today. We were all so tired, neither little girl got their naps, note to self, no more busy days like this one. She was fitted for her SMO's weeks ago, but we had to wait for insurance approval. I suppose a orthopedic doctor saying she needed them, and her walking on her medial malleolus meant nothing...so more than 7 weeks later, Kara got her SMO's. Aren't they sweet? I got them blue with a sunflower print, it reminded me of Ukraine.

I thought she was getting a differnt orthotic, but this one allows for her to point and flex her foot (dorsiflexion-plantar-flexion)

A description from this webpage: http://www.ptproductsonline.com/issues/articles/2006-10_04.asp
The supramalleolar orthosis (SMO) controls severe pronation and supination, and it is good for toddlers moving from floor activities to standing and walking. SMOs can be used with more straps for further stability and control, or elastic or fewer straps to progress the child. A common strategy is to get a child a taller brace with more straps and then remove the straps and cut the brace down as the child gains stability and strength.

Martin1 published a study looking at the effects of SMOs on postural stability in children with DS. This study explored the effects of a flexible SMO, indicated to decrease pronation associated with hypotonia, on postural stability in children with DS. Seventeen children, ranging in age from 3 years 6 months to 8 years, were tested three times in a 10-week period (weeks 1, 3, and 10) using the Standing and the Walking, Running, and Jumping dimensions of the Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM), and the Balance subtest of the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOTMP). Range-of-motion measurements were used to explore the influence of joint laxity.

Significant improvement was found with SMOs compared with shoes only in the Standing dimension (p=0.001) and the Walking, Running, and Jumping dimension (p=0.0001) of the GMFM, both at the time of fitting (week 3) and after 7 weeks of wearing SMOs (week 10). For the BOTMP Balance subtest, significant improvement (p=0.027) was seen only at the end of the 7-week study period. The amount of joint laxity did not influence response to orthotic intervention. This study showed that young children with DS showed immediate and longer-term (after 7 weeks of use) improvement in postural stability with the use of flexible SMOs.

Selby-Silverstein, Hillstrom, and Palisano2 studied the effect of foot orthoses on standing foot posture and gait of young children with DS. The gait of children with DS wearing sneakers was compared to those with and without FOs, and also was compared to the gait of children without disabilities. During gait, the transverse-plane foot angle decreased, indicating more internal rotation with FOs. Trial-to-trial variability of the pronation-supination index, foot-length contact, transverse-plane foot angle, and walking speed all decreased with FO use. Trial-to-trial variability of normalized peak ankle movement, and of phase of peak ankle movement, increased when the children wore FOs. Her she is waiting for her appointment, both little girls are in the stroller Lori let us borrow. It sure has been a life-saver for us.

I know our Kara is a beautiful little girl, you can tell she is Ukrainian, but she also looks like her new brothers and sisters. I always hope her family in Ukraine looks at her blog so they know she is doing OK.

Checking out her little high top shoes, she will wear her SMO's 2 hours a day for now, so she will still need her little shoes, I think I will send her to school with the SMO's on, she gets PT there. She needs PT more often, what she gets at school is inadequate.

Meeting with the orthotic specialist, she was very sweet with Kara. Meghan and Amanda were out in the waiting room with Daddy.

Kara adores mirrors, she never misses a chance to look at herself. We are hoping this new orthotic will help her foot bones align correctly, it is essential for her to walk correctly and to walk pain free.

Pictures

Throwing everything? and finally, orthotics are in

Well, mommy is likely weary from wiping snotty noses and not getting any sleep, but this week the girls behaviors are driving me batty. Kara is still fighting her cold, likely turning into a sinus infection. Both girls are blowing greenish snots, but that does not always mean infection. They do not have the "A mouse died in my sinuses" smell. (That is my description, LOL)

Kara is 90% self-feeding; I say 90 because she sometimes refuses to feed herself and sits at the table and cries. The worse part of this though is her throwing her bowls full of food across the room, splattering yogurt and mashed potatoes, or anything she is eating, all over the kitchen, often into the family room. I spent the morning with a hot pail of water and a rag, cleaning it up from the underside of the kitchen table, off of the floor, and re-washing a load of laundry which I stupidly left sitting next to the table.

I think that Kara is upset that I feed Amanda and she has to feed herself, so for a couple of weeks I fed her breakfast while I fed Amanda, it was hard for Amanda because I was making her wait and she gets really upset and shakes. (this is a weird thing she does, she also has facial tics if she gets upset) If I feed Amanda her spoonful, Kara whines. None of us is happy when we are done...

Therefore, the last few days I have sat Kara down in her booster seat, it has a try, while I feed Amanda, who sits on a stool (this makes her sit straight instead of hunching over as she does in the booster seat). We do not have room for two large highchairs. We have a pretty small home. OK, so I guess I need to get to my point, having a cold and not having enough sleep makes me ramble. If Kara sits right next to Amanda and I, while I feed Amanda, she will feed herself, and minimal things are thrown across the room. She threw her empty juice box today. I can't seem to get her to stop throwing things, she throws remotes, toys, clothing, food, and anything sitting on a table. Yesterday I took her off of her seat and she missed eating most of her breakfast, she did the same thing at lunch, I pureed her chicken soup and she tossed it, and of course it landed face-down on the floor, so again, she did not eat most of her lunch, and she went to bed for her nap. She was starving for dinner, and ate that happily, but it was finger food, a grilled cheese and then an applesauce. She threw the applesauce down before she was done with it.

After she throws things, she celebrates, throwing her hands up in the air and laughing her head off. She knocks things like laptops on the floor, throws her leg in the air, and giggles. Obviously, we do not think it is funny. She has had time outs, she has had her hand tapped and been verbally scolded, she even got a swat on her rump when she shoved Amanda off the couch; Amanda hit her head on the table, Kara laughed about that too.

I thought, well sure, she does not think objects or other people matter. Though she loves being cuddled and sits next to us when we sit down on the sofa. She also sits behind us and cuddles against our backs, a strange thing for her to do, it puzzles us. We know she never owned toys of her own, and she does not realize she can break things or hurt people. So does she love negative attention?It sure seems like that is the case, we do not want to perpetuate that. She does cherish three toys; her Christmas bear, the bunny we took to Ukraine for her and also the travel pillow I took to Ukraine. She happily goes to sleep if she has those three things.

I would love to hear what other adoptive parents have done about behaviors like this, I am a mom to eight children, but none of my bio children ever did this after infancy.

We pick up Kara's orthotics Friday, I hope they fit, it took over a month to get them.

Our first cold

Well, Kara has her first illness since being home (besides tummy stuff) She has a cold, I should have known when her cheeks went red and dry that it meant something. She has a runny nose and cough, Amanda is sick too, she is so miserable. Looks like Tylenol for a few days for us, yes, Julia, Tom, and I are all fighting the same thing. Meghan is fine so far.