It was nice and melty and puddly here on Sunday so I dressed Silas up in puddle gear and we went for a walk in the park.
He enjoyed walking in the puddles and checked everything out as we walked.
Even this lamp post got a good examination.
It was such a nice relaxing and bonding time with just mommy and Silas.
Little did I know that life would get really interesting, really fast once we got home!
I was bringing in all the muddy gear and as I opened the door I heard a voice leaving a message on the answering machine. At first I didn't pay much attention to it but after a few seconds my brain kicked in and I realized it was the director of the adoption agency.
I rushed to the phone and picked it up as quickly as I could!
It turns out that I have finally been matched with a little boy in Bulgaria!
And when I say little, I mean really little. 11 lbs at his last measurement in late January when he was 16 mths old.
I got a picture of him on Tuesday and I can't stop looking at it. He's so cute! I'd love to post the picture but that's not allowed. Boo hoo. :(
I've had a cardiologist look at the file and she believes that his heart surgery at 5 mths old was a good repair and he'll just need yearly follow ups for now.
So now I'm just waiting on travel dates so that I can go and see him. Hopefully early April. So what at times felt like something that was never going to happen, has happened!
Before I got the referral I had accumulated a long list of possible names. There was one favourite but I wanted to wait to see what he looked like before I decided for sure. As it turns out from what I can see in the ONE picture I got he looks like a Myles, which was my #1 pick.
So Silas Petar will become a big brother this year to Myles Ivan! I'm excited for them to meet!
The director asked me how I had been managing the "long" 5 mths wait since I was submitted. I said I knew God had a particular boy for me and I trusted that when the time was right I would receive the referral. As much as I wanted to find out who he was months ago I knew God was in control and there's no point in arguing with God to convince Him to speed things up! She thought that was a pretty good attitude to have.
But of course the waiting isn't done. Right now I'm email stalking to get travel dates. Then I'll be waiting for the day to arrive when I can travel. Then I'll be waiting for a court date and then I'll be waiting for more travel dates to bring him home.
I will do my best to not waste my life while waiting. Though I must say I'm doing a terrible job of that this week so far. Ack! My mind is having a very hard time focusing on tasks. I can't imagine why. ;)
If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if I've heard from Bulgaria in the last two weeks I'd have at least $20. lol
Believe me, I'm just as anxious as you are for some sort of update, but I haven't heard anything yet. It could be tomorrow that I find out who my son is or it could be months from now. It's just a matter of the right file coming up that matches my homestudy.
When I finally do hear something everyone will hear about it!
In the meantime we can keep on praying for my yet to be revealed son. Pray for his health and comfort. And for his physical growth and cognitive development. Pray that he gets taken out of his crib and is able to explore. And of course pray that we get matched soon!
I'm finding this wait to be a little easier than the wait was for Silas. I think that's mostly because I was so eagerly waiting to "become a mother". And now I am a mother to a very busy boy so there is little time to sit and pine.
And speaking of that busy boy he did the funniest thing today. Every Tuesday and Thursday a Child Development Worker comes to the house to work with Silas. He really looks forward to her visits. Today she had him sitting at the table playing with playdough. She was leaning over top of him and he twisted his head to look up at her with a big grin on his face and it put him in such a funny looking position that we laughed. He realized that he was being silly and he kept twisting his head/neck like that again and again making us laugh and laugh. Finally we just had to stop our laughter so that he would get back to working. lol I wish I'd caught it on video. That's the first time I can remember him intentionally doing something silly to make other people laugh. Or at least the first time it was so obvious that he was trying to make us laugh. He is often a silly boy but it mostly seems like he's just being silly for his own entertainment.
And the fact that he was looking at the CDW's face is a big deal too. I've seen a huge improvement is his eye contact the last couple weeks. It's still very fleeting but it's improving!
Silas is still enjoying going to the pool about once a week. With his new floaty "puddle jumper" he can now move through the water on his own now just like a big boy. He gets better at it every time we go. I love that I can take him in the deep end and swim around him and be a little more hands off. One day he'll be doing laps with the Special Olympics swim team!
So that's what we've been up to. Keeping busy and patiently waiting! And praying we hear news soon! Tomorrow would be great! ;o)
Well folks, no word yet on who my next son will be. Bulgaria may have matched me and I just haven't heard yet or perhaps I'll have to wait until after Christmas to find out.
Not knowing is hard and waiting is getting old. These last two days were very hard and there have been a few tears shed that's for sure. But I will continue trusting God and having faith that the right son will find me!
In the mean time I've decided to drown my tears in iced tea and Subway. haha Silas and I went out and picked up some subs for supper. I got my usual tuna with bacon and he got the chicken breast one. I loaded them both up with veggies because it was time for Silas to eat raw veggies!!
When I got him 583 days ago (wow!!) I was told not to feed him solids because he can't chew. I threw that advice out the window and since then we've been on a journey towards Silas being able to eat every day regular foods. He's now enjoying almost every type of food (not even pureed anymore!) with the exception of raw fruits and veggies and baked goods that are sweet. Oh and he has trouble with some meat if it has to be chewed a lot.
Well tonight he ate cucumbers, tomatoes, green pepper and lettuce!! I do believe we're not too far from him being able to sit down and eat a nice salad. It has been so encouraging to see him make progress in this area. The sound of him crunching down on the green pepper was music to my ears tonight.
Yesterday's highlight was going to the pool in the evening. We hadn't been there in ages because the hot tub wasn't open and Silas really needs the hot tub to warm up in. Yesterday the pool announced that the hot tub was working again so off to the pool we went! Silas had a blast and was so well behaved.
He learned to jump off the various benches in the pool into my arms! Jumping is one of his therapy goals. And by the end he was actually pushing off when he jumped and not just leaning towards my arms. I also came up with a little game that he liked, to teach him "Wait". I stood him on the bench in the hot tub and took a couple steps back. I held up one finger and said "Wait.....wait....wait.....GO!" And when I said go he could jump. He caught on really fast and it was so much fun.
A very happy boy after his swim
Part of the reason he was so well behaved at the pool was because he was well rested thanks to a late nap that he gave himself. He was playing in the basement and I realized it was pretty quiet down there. So I checked on him and found him sound asleep on the floor. It was pretty sweet. It felt like a bit of a milestone because he usually has to be in bed in order to fall asleep.
The other reason he was so well behaved is because he really loves the pool! I took a video of his reaction when I took the pool bag down. I have to keep it on a hook on the back of my door or he is constantly bringing it to me and putting it in my lap. lol
So the last two days have been full of joy mixed in with the disappointment of not hearing any news. Whenever Silas meets a milestone I think of all of you who donated and prayed. Without you Silas would be a very different boy. I think I can paint a fairly accurate picture of what his life would be like today had he not been given a family.
When I got him at almost three years of age he was not sitting independently, not walking, not drinking, eating only purees (no lumps even), stimming constantly, he had scars and scabs from self harming and he was very underweight.
I recently learned that the remaining children from his orphanage, which was a temporary set up, were either moved to foster care or to another orphanage in a different town. This particular orphanage is becoming well known for having crib babies that weigh 10 lbs at 5 yrs old or older. They are not doing a great job obviously!
Silas would have been transferred to that orphanage and he would have been a crib baby because there's no way he would have been walking yet if he was still in an institutional setting. In three years they couldn't even convince him that sitting up was a good idea. That's the sort of thing you need a family for.
He never would have gotten the surgery to put tubes in his ears that has improved his development so much these last few months. So he likely would have still been clawing at his fluid filled ears and wearing socks on his hands. He would have continued to be dehydrated because dehydrated kids use less diapers.
He would have likely still been only eating purees. He would be inches shorter and pounds lighter than he is now.
He certainly wouldn't be starting Kindergarten next fall!
He wouldn't know that he can have an opinion on things and make choices.
I don't say all this to bash Bulgarians. (They are a wonderful bunch of people but there are a few who need to be educated on what to expect a child with special needs to be able to do.)
I say this so that you can know that if you donated to help get Silas home you can feel a sense of satisfaction that your dollars made a difference, a HUGE, possibly life saving difference, in one little boy's life. A life with a family is a million times better! And you made that possible whether you gave $2 or $2000, you played a role, so pat yourself on the back, you world changer, you. We love you!
What a month November has been! We have endured the stomach flu twice, Silas went on antibiotics for an infection, I did another auction, we went to the city twice and I had a birthday.
No news yet on who my next little boy will be but I hope to hear something very soon. It could be any day at this point!
The auction was very successful and raised over $3100! When combined with the sales of Brent Keno's awesome signs of $440 I am now down to needing less than $10000! It feels so good to be down to four digits. With a few more commissioned projects to finish up in the next couple weeks and the sale of these 5 felt trees I made, that will put me under $9000. Ahhhhh We're getting closer!
I only have ONE more of these custom made felt trees. They are made for small children to decorate and undecorated as they please. All the embellishments have been sewn on securely! The cost is $50 + $5 shipping and once this last one is sold then that's it for trees! I won't have time before Christmas to make any more.
All this wonderful support has got me thinking thoughts. Thoughts about how important you are to me. About how this would be so much more difficult without you. About how loved and encouraged I'm feeling. About how important it is to me that I am surrounded by people who understand or are trying to understand how to God wants us to love orphans in all sort of different ways.
And I just want to say thank you! And not in a light hearted "Hey Thanks" way, but in a deep, sincere and honest way. Sometimes thank you doesn't seem like enough to me. I'm sure if I was more eloquent I could come up with some other phrase to convey how much I appreciate all your help. But this is probably as good as it will get. So thank you for being my "community" of friends and family. I hope you feel like your donations are going to a worthy cause in helping an orphan become a SON! It is SO worth it and this journey is made so much easier with you coming along side me and supporting me. :)
I hope I can share some exciting news about a referral very soon!
October 26th is turning out to be a pretty fantastic day. Not only is it my nephews 7th birthday but today I also found out that my dossier has been submitted to the Minister of Justice!
My nephew
So what does that mean you ask? Well, basically it means that my dossier is out of the hands of my agency and is being prepared to be matched with a child. It's a pretty HUGE step that gets me even closer to my boy. My heart leaped when I read the email this afternoon!
I was hoping to travel for the first trip yet this year but it's not looking too great for that. But that's okay! It'll all happen in God's time and that will give me a bit more time to raise the remaining less than $14000! My expenses for this month were low and my income was higher so I was able to add a great amount of my paycheck to my savings and that gave the thermometer another boost last Friday.
I know you all were expecting my auction to start today. It's going to be a fantastic auction but it won't happen for a couple more weeks.
Instead, for two weeks, I'll be doing an Uppercase Living fundraiser! Jensen Bardwell is the consultant and she's donating all 30-35% of her commission towards the adoption!
How cute is that Alphagator??! Just click on the picture and that should take you to the website where you can place your order. You'll need to let me know if you ordered so that I can tell Jensen to add your order to the calculations at the end of the fundraiser. There are SO many decals, you may have a hard time narrowing it down! This fundraiser will end on November 9th.
The auction will still happen and I'm still accepting donations if you'd like to help out with auction items. I've got some great stuff in it that you won't want to miss! I'm thinking it will start on November 12th.
And lastly Jamberry! There is still time to place an order. It will end on Wednesday. We had a glitchy weekend thanks to facebook being silly but the website is back up and running now so you can check out the catalogue online here:
If you want free shipping just message me on facebook with your order or email me at cwspider at mymts.net
I do believe with the news I got today I've officially entered the second trimester of this "paper pregnancy" !
My Jamberry fundraiser is going very well. If you'd like to order please get your order in soon! If you're local and you want free shipping just let me know what your order is and I'll be doing a bulk order.
If you're not local and you want reduced shipping ($2 vs $10) you can also let me know your order and I'll mail it out to you when it comes.
Click the picture to go to the event page.
The last day to order is the end of the month but you can order any time you want.
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And now it's time to gear up for the next fundraiser. I'll be holding another auction on facebook from Oct 26th to Nov 5th. I've been busily making things and I've had friends mail me things to auction off but I still need more! This will be a great auction for you to find some Christmas gifts for friends and family. :o)
Click the picture to go to the auction site. I'll be adding items in the following weeks and bidding starts on Oct 26th. Bring on the bidding wars! It's going to be exciting!
By the end of this week all my documents will be in Bulgaria. I had to redo two of them but as far as I know the rest are translated and everything should be on the Minister of Justice's desk by the end of the month. After that I'll just wait patiently for a referral. Once the referral comes I'll hop on an airplane (or three) and fly to meet my new little man! I will try to pack years worth of loving in just 5 days and then I'll come back home. Once I pass court I'll get back on a plane and bring him home with me where he will meet the rest of his family. He'll be grand child #9!
I was thinking recently about the titles a person has to describe them. Right now my little man has one title only. "Orphan". How sad! But once the judge signs the papers to make him mine he will instantly become: Grandson! Great grandson! Cousin! Nephew! Brother! Son! What a wonderful day that will be!
If you'd like to play a part in that miraculous transformation from orphan to son please consider making a donation to my YouCaring site on the right of this page. Every donation is like one more person joining hands to reach from Canada to Bulgaria from me to my son!
The rummage sale and bake sale was held this past Saturday down at the museum. I'd say it was a smashing success! Hundreds of people came through the door and the baking was totally gone by 2.
The reporter from the paper stopped by and took some photos and then the local radio station came by for a radio interview, not live thankfully!
We even had the Liberal party stop by and donate! They were out campaigning and heard what was going on and were excited to meet me.
Many people told us to keep the change when they paid and quite a few people happily added bills to the donation jar.
I had so many great helpers. I think there was 15 different people that lent a had where they could, including mom who was on Silas duty for over 24 hrs thanks to my night shift at the weekend job.
I lost track of the number of people who donated things to sell. We even had people bringing stuff DURING the sale! lol
Things went very smoothly and I'd say it was my least stressful sale to date.
Anyways, the reason you're reading this is to see how much was raised right???
The grand total, after paying for the museum rental, was.........$2203! Praise the Lord! That puts me over the half way mark now! Less than $15000 to raise!
Seeing as there's a very good chance that I'll be traveling on trip one yet this year, and I'll have all the expenses for reaching that stage plus travel, I'd like to keep this momentum going.
So my friend Litia Maclean is running a Jamberry fundraiser for me. This is quite the departure for me and a little out of my comfort zone but I'm willing to do nearly anything to get my little man home! I'm not fancy! Like at all. But at some point this week I'm going to put Jamberry nail wraps on for the very first time. Gulp. There I said it and it's on the internet so it must be true! lol
If you'd like to see my attempt at fancy then click the picture below and join the party. 20% of each order goes towards the adoption! Go check it out. Litia is going to be posting all sorts of fun things this week.
