Matching Grant Met!

Yay! We met the matching grant! Exceeded it actually, which is awesome!

Now let me tell you where the matching grant came from. Who is this mystery donor??

When I started the process of adopting Silas I joined a lot of facebook groups about adoption. In one of those groups I met a single woman who is from Canada and was just starting the process to adopt a boy with Down Syndrome from Bulgaria! We had so much in common that we ended up friending each other and a beautiful friendship began. Her name is Heather and she brought her adorable son Wyatt home Feb of this year.

Wyatt's first birthday in Canada was in July. He turned 8! Instead of presenting her family and friends with a list of gifts that Wyatt could use Heather told all the invitees to donate money toward MY adoption! How selfless is that! And then she presented it as a matching grant to encourage more donations! Thank you Heather!

I haven't even met Heather in real life yet but that's totally going to happen sometime next year. Even if it means me going all the way to Vancouver Island on my own with two kids! lol

So now that the matching grant has been met (thank you everyone who contributed to that <3 ) my thermometer is over $14000! Less than $2000 to go and we'll be half way there.

There isn't much to share adoption news related. I haven't heard if I've gotten the letter of approval from the province yet but I have heard that as of last Thursday they were working on it so surely it'll happen this week.  I'll keep you updated!

Trials and tribulations of the country bumpkin

Can you believe we're almost half way through August?? Where did summer go? Here's what we've been up to!

Everything Silas

Opening presents at the family birthday party



A book? Yay!

 

The feeding clinic said "I'm" doing a great job with Silas' eating. Here I thought it was Silas that was doing so good and it was me all along! haha Unless he stops progressing they don't think they'll need to see him again.

Cardiology said his heart looks exactly the same as last year. Still a little bit narrow on one valve but they don't want to see us again for three years! Whoot!

He's walking so fast now! I have to hustle to keep up with him sometimes. It's so neat to see him walking around with toys in his hands. He no longer has to have his arms out to balance. He also seems to be understanding more of what we tell him so that's been encouraging. The speech therapist is working on a Picture Exchange Communication system for him. He caught on to that pretty quickly at our last appointment.


All things Corinna



The whole family 

I think I've finally recovered from the plague. It was terrible and I don't recommend it at all. I'm finally getting my energy back bit by bit.

I've had some interesting trials the last couple weeks.  There's a saying in the adoption world, "You know you're adopting when......". It seems like a lot of families are hit with unusual expenses when they start an adoption. I didn't really see that with Silas' adoption but I have been this time.

When I took Silas to his cardiology appointment in the city we were running a bit late so I decided to park on the street. I looked at the signs carefully so I wouldn't be breaking the rules. I didn't want to get a ticket! I paid for my parking and it seemed like I did it all right.....but when I came out of the appointment the van was gone! Vanished into thin air!

I was sure it must have been stolen because I'd been so careful about parking. After a run around with different people on the phone and making a new friend named Suren (Hi Suren if you've found my blog!) and some tears (Oh I fought those tears hard! But some of them leaked out) I was able to find out that I had been towed! What???!! Turns out I hadn't looked at alllll the signs and I'd parked too close to a bus stop. Opps.

So I put my big girl panties on and hailed a taxi for the first time in Canada and took Silas through the city with no car seat or seat belt to where the van was. Did you know even taxi drivers want a tip now? This whole tipping thing has gotten way out of hand. Another rant for another day.

So, $86 for the tow, $35 for the parking ticket and $10 for the taxi (yes I did tip him. lol). Lesson learned by this country bumpkin!

And then exactly one week later my washing machine decided it would be a great time to malfunction and flood the entire basement. I walked around through the water with my hands on my head just stunned. I ended up having to call a flood restoration crew and some friends and family to help clean it up. I don't know what I would have done without them. I have some pretty awesome friends and family!  All my yard sale stuff is in storage now along with all my daycare toys and everything else from the basement. I'll know more about what work needs to be done to get the basement back in order later this week. About the only thing I lost was the rug and dad was able to fix the washing machine.

So these things have been a bit discouraging but I fought back and I didn't stay down for long.

Matching Grant and Fundraising

The yard sale will still happen at some point. I'm temporarily stopping taking donations of things to sell until I know more about what needs done in the basement.



Visiting an old school house at the museum

I made a purple thermometer for our matching grant! Did you see it? I've had $22 donated towards it so far. One of my sweet little daycare girls brought a toonie ($2) the other day.  <3 <3 <3  I also have heard of one cheque coming my way of an undisclosed amount so once I get that the thermometer will get bumped up again. I hope to finish it off by the end of the month.

Adoption Progress

Things are chugging slowly along. I should get provincial approval this week and then my dossier will be off to Bulgaria to be translated. And then I wait (hopefully not too long) to find out who my son is! So I'm almost at the end of the first trimester of this paper pregnancy. ;o)

My next blog post will be about fundraising with teddy bears and baby clothes! Stay tuned!

We Have A Matching Grant!

Fundraising Update

Yesterday while I was working a 35 hr shift at my weekend job, I was contacted by a friend who told me she has a matching grant for me of $150!

A Matching Grant means that once $150 has been donated towards the adoption by awesome people like you, my friend will donate another $150!   When the red thermometer reaches $13775 the match will be met.

The story about where this matching grant came from is amazingly sweet.....but I'm going to keep it a secret until the match is met. hehe

Your donations can be made to the YouCaring account over there >>>>>
Or by mail or in person. Every dollar is a blessing and I so appreciate every person who is moved to help. I'm so worried that I've missed thanking people. If you've been missed I'm sorry and Thank YOU! I wouldn't be a mother without people like you and I really love being a mom!


Yard Sale #2
I've decided that August 21st will be a great day to hold the second yard sale. I'm still accepting donations of things to sell. I can come pick them up if that makes it easier. :)


Silas Update

Silas and I have been having a pretty good summer, with the exception of me being sick most of July!  I'm still not 100% so that's why I've been pretty quiet with fundraising updates.

This past weekend we took in the fair rides and the parade.  What a difference a year makes! He was so much more interested in the parade floats and was able to go on more rides this year.

This week we have Speech Therapy and then two appointments in the city.  Feeding clinic and Cardiology. I'm not worried about the Feeding Clinic appointment. He's been doing great with eating!
As for cardiology....well....I really hope they say he's doing great and to come back in a year.  I think he's doing great but I don't have the fancy machines to see what his heart is doing! lol  ;)

Riding the carousel

 

Watching the parade

On the Ferris wheel

The Day My Heart is Most Conflicted

Happy Birthday to my Special Boy!

You are 4 today!

 

 

 

I know! I can't believe it either! Four!

 

 

You take the cake!

You're such a funny guy!

 

 

Mommy loves you VERY much!

 

 

So let's hold hands and walk....

 

through this big old world together. <3

 

 

 

 

Like the title of this post says, today is a day of conflicted feelings for me.  This is the day that my son entered the world! Yay!

 

But this is also the day that his birth mother found out he was "less than perfect" and made the heart breaking decision to leave him at the hospital. Oh what his little heart must have gone through.

Where was the voice that he heard while he was in the womb? Where were the warm arms to hold him and keep him safe? Thinking of him so alone breaks my heart. 

And yet....
If she hadn't left him behind I wouldn't ever have known the joy of being his mother.  The smiles and giggles. The kisses and (short) snuggles. The laugher as he crawls away from me and I chase him down.

Maybe one day his birthday will be 100% happy feelings but for now there is still a bit of sadness mixed in with the joy.....for me anyways. Looking at the pictures from today it's clear that he's feeling pretty happy with how his life is turning out.

100% J-O-Y

 

Updates on the happenings

So much has happened since I last posted.  The home study is done! Finito! It couldn't have gone any better than it did. I was wondering how I would convince the social worker that I could parent two special needs boys as a single parent. In the end the social worker I was assigned happened to be a single mother who had raised two adopted children! So she understood exactly where I was coming from and she said she had no hesitation in approving me to adopt a second child. :)  She also had some words of wisdom about having men in the boys' lives and about taking care of myself.

With the home study done and signed at the end of May I've been working on gathering all the documents for the dossier. I had to pass a medical exam and go for blood work. The only abnormality that showed up was anemia due to low iron. That seems to be something I've had all my life so I'll go back on the iron pills and see if that helps.

I'm just waiting for one last blood test result and then I can mail everything to the adoption agency. Then it will all be sent to the province for approval and then on to Bulgaria for translation! After that it will be logged in with the Minister of Justice and I'll (try) wait patiently for a referral. Once I get a referral I'll have a bit more of a time line. Until then I have no idea when I'll be bringing my son home.

It's hard not knowing who he is, how old he is, what he looks like and where he is. I think it's going to get a little bit harder every day. When I think about him I can't even conjure up a picture of him in my mind and yet he's a real boy who exists somewhere on the other side of the world! It's a weird feeling for sure.  I went through the same feelings before I got the referral for Silas and I survived so I imagine I will this time too. ;o)

May 8th was Gotcha Day and May 20th marked one year in Canada.
Photo on the left is at the airport last year and the photo on the right was taken at the Ds conference this year.

It is a bit different this time though. I have this wonderfully busy, almost 4 yr old, to keep my mind off things! He's such an amazing kid. In a year he's gone from eating only purees and not being able to sit up to eating only solids and walking! That's right! He's a walker now! He's getting braver and braver with walking the last few days.

We saw an ENT last month and she says he needs tubes in his ears because they are full of fluid. I'm hoping that once he gets those he'll be able to hear more and then maybe he'll start talking or at least start to communicate a bit better. No surgery date yet but I think it could be sometime this summer. It'll be the first time I've had to hand him over to a surgeon so I'm not sure how I'll handle it. Lots of prayer for starters!

We had such a busy month of May, holding the auction, preparing for the big yard sale, road trip to Edmonton for the Down syndrome conference and then another road trip to Winnipeg to see family and go to the ENT appointment.


Swinging with Uncle on our visit to the city for the ENT appointment.

The auction on facebook had some great items and some fun bidding wars. It raised over $3000! I'm so happy with how that turned out that I'm planning another one for the fall.

The Down syndrome conference was something I signed up to go to in January, before I started the adoption. Once I started the adoption I questioned whether I should have signed up to go. It was going to cost about $1000 to drive there, attend the conference and pay for the hotel. But as usual God always provides! I found out that the Manitoba DS society was reimbursing the conference registration for it's members so that was $370 back. Then I wrote a letter to the board of my weekend job (which has to do with special needs adults) offering to attend a session of their choice in exchange for some monetary support. I wasn't sure if I'd get anything but I thought it would be worth a shot. And it was! The amount from the board covered the hotel and most of the gas for travel. So I was able to attend the conference for almost free.

And what a blessing the conference turned out to be. I was able to meet friends I'd only been in contact with on facebook before. They were as normal in real life as they seemed to be on facebook. Not crazy at all! lol I learned so much from the sessions as well. And I made new friends! There were quite a few adoptive moms there. It was a great experience for both me and Silas. He did great during all the travel and sleeping in new places. I was so proud of him. :)

June hasn't been much slower....well maybe a tad. We had a very big and very successful yard sale the first weekend that raised over $1600! That's almost twice as much as each yard sale raised for Silas' adoption so I was very pleased.  I'm planning another one for later in the summer so I'll be accepting more items to sell again if you have anything you'd like to get rid of!

Oh and the bubble bath fundraiser went really well too! $210 was raised. That's a whole lotta bubble bath! Thanks to everyone who bought and thanks to Mae and Mom who organized that!

So that's about where things stand folks! Over $12000 raised and saved in just over two months! Wow! God has provided for this adoption just like He did for Silas'. I'm so thankful for everyone who has helped with the fundraisers and who has donated.  It's amazing to think that we're already 1/3rd of the way there. :oD

Stay tuned for some more fundraisers in the coming weeks and months!

Keep Calm I'm going to be a big brother!

Super Extravaganza Auction Fundraiser!

My next BIG fundraiser is going to be an online auction on facebook! I'm looking for items to auction off. If you have anything you'd like to donate it would be most appreciated. 

 

Here's the link to the auction

https://www.facebook.com/groups/959029977453957/

 

I'm still working on getting things listed and set up.

 

 

 

Silas and landmark recognition!

Well folks, it finally happened. The weather got warm enough for us to spend hours outside! Silas and I have had quite the active day.

First we went to the pool for a little more than an hour this morning. Silas is really starting to get the hang of moving in the water. He was kicking and trying to go forward. And I had him work on his walking in the kiddie pool.

Then we had lunch and Silas napped.

After nap we pulled out the bike and went for a bike ride then played outside.

Then we ate supper and went back outside for another long bike ride/walk all the way to the post office.

Then we played outside and Silas used his toy walker to walk.

 

And this is where it gets interesting! The whole point of this blog post.

 

As we were walking down the muddy back lane Silas made it clear that he wanted to go to the playground, which he could see from where we were. He tried to make a direct path there but the fence was in the way. He got so excited when he realized that I understood that he wanted to go to the playground and that my redirection to walk further down the lane (to get to the gate) would get us there.

 

Once we got there he wanted to take his walker up the stairs! haha Funny boy.  He was nearly successful too.



 

And now for part 2.

 

Silas and the daycare kids attend a weekly preschool program called Better Beginnings at the school. Silas really seems to enjoy it, especially the time we spend in the gym. We almost always use the same entrance. 

So tonight while we were at the playground I thought we should walk on the cement that is around the school. Nice and dry and no mud, easy to push his walker.

 

Well! We sure didn't get very far! As soon as we started walking Silas made a beeline for the Better Beginnings door. He was insistent that we go in that door and play with the toys. He was trying to open the door himself and was quite upset at my attempts to redirect him to walk some more. I tried explaining that BB was "all done" using words and signs. I showed him how all the lights were off in the room and no one was there. It took a good 5+ mins to convince him that we couldn't go to Better Beginnings. Finally he climbed up into my arms and let me take him home. He rested his tired little head on my shoulder most of the way home. Awwww!  

 So it's neat to see Silas remembering places we've been and wanting to go there again.

Another "first" tonight was keeping a hat/toque on that doesn't have a chin strap! Usually if it doesn't have a chin strap he whips it off and throws it away. I've been trying to get him to wear this toque for a week now. I'm not sure why tonight was different but I'll take it!

 

After a quick snack and a bath Silas went to bed and fell asleep within seconds. Zonked right out! I'm sure we'll have just as much fun playing tomorrow. :)