The conversations at home the last couple of weeks have been about names....specifically little sister's name. With Maria's name I just knew she would want to keep her first name. I just came up with a new middle name for her. With little sister, her birth name is not uncommon here....which is nice, but it is not a name I prefer. I have had two names picked out for years (before I decided to adopt Maria). Maria and I have talked about these names....added other names to the pool....asked friends, asked FB (wow, some interesting suggestions there). In the end I kept coming back to the two names I originally picked out. Over the weekend I was planning to talk with my mom about names. It was quite funny she just looked at me before I said anything and said "I'm calling little sister _____. You can change it later if you want." Funny enough it is the name I have been leaning towards for weeks. So, little sister has a name.
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Posted with Blogsy
Wrapping up the month
This month has flown by. It seems harder and harder to blog at times. Our week days are filled with school and work....only to come home to homework, a little down time, dinner and our nightly routine. Happily I can say Maria is doing well with school. Things continue to click for her the longer she is here. She is also doing wonderful with her PT. She is walking still with help, but doing most of the work on her own. She is also doing some good transfers with no help at home. I am anxious for the day when she doesn't need my assistance for things and is able to be back to where she once was. It is coming....at times it feels really slow, but I know that it takes a long time to build back muscles.
We had the Walk n Roll for Spina Bifida last weekend. It is always a great time to see friends from all over the state. Hang out, talk, have fun and just support each other. We also had to make a quick stop at our homestudy social worker's home. She accidently sent me the homestudy without the signature first. So, we got that worked out. Yes, we have our homestudy for little sister finished! I mailed it off with the USCIS form this past week. Hopefully by the first week in November we will be assigned an officer and I will have a date to get my biometrics done (I will end up doing a walkin early to get them done sooner). I have the rest of the dossier ready to be notarized and apostolized ASAP. I'm hoping to get this done and sent to little sister's country soon so it can be translated while I wait for the USCIS approval. Hopefully by doing this I will be able to get my dossier registered sooner and get travel dates for January. Since there will be two trips for little sister's country, it is important to get trip one in sometime before the end of January, so I can hopefully be bringing her home in June.
Other than that we still have several raffle spaces open for the American Girl doll. Would love for her to make a little girl's Christmas very special.
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Crazy busy life
Seriously, that has been the past month. First my friend passed away. She was with her family when she passed. I was sad I didn't get to see her one last time and say goodbye, but I was also happy she was no longer in pain. A few days after that my great aunt also passed away from cancer. That brought on other issues which my family has been dealing with.
We celebrated little sister's 2nd birthday with a small cake and talked about her. Maria has lots of questions about little sister and what she is like. It is funny because many are similar to what I thought and felt while adopting Maria. We have started getting a few little things for little sister in anticipation for visiting her, which is still several months away.
Maria had her 6 month post surgery follow up with her Ortho surgeon. Everything looks great and her restrictions are lifted...well except no skydiving, bungee jumping or roller coasters without shoulder harnesses. We also learned that her Ortho surgeon is leaving....taking a position in Orlando Florida. He is amazing and we will greatly miss him. So, if you live in FL and need a good Peds Ortho surgeon try to see Dr. Ilgenfritz (he will be there in December). We are being left in really good hands.
Maria also got to see the dentist. She has come so far since that first dentist appointment. She did great, doesn't like seeing the dentist, but handled it. She has great teeth....still will need braces for straightening them, but no cavities.
On the adoption front, all the deaths pushed our last SW visit out till tomorrow. With this we should have almost everything ready for our homestudy to be completed. Working hard to have it ready to send to USCIS before the end of October (hoping by the middle of the month). All other paperwork is ready to be signed, notarized and apostolized.