The Cannon Chronicles

We ♥ antibiotics

2012-01-27T14:44:00.000-06:00

It is amazing how good you feel after a couple days worth of antibiotics and everyone in the house sleeping through the night (especially after a week of someone being up for hours)!

The girls were happy to be back to school today.

Thankfully, Dariya's face is clearing up nicely from her rash.

Jason and I are off to our DSG conference tomorrow all day.

Can't wait for the 3 hour reading workshop and meeting up with some of our buddies we don't see too often.

Hope you have a great weekend.

Strep³

2012-01-25T14:41:00.000-06:00

Yep, you read that title correctly strep to the 3rd power.

All us girls have it! Oh the joys of sharing ;)

Plus, we are sure Dariya (and probably Alayna) have sinus infections as well.

Snot crusted and NOT happy with it!

Today, Dariya is covered from head to toe in rash but the one on her face made me concerned that she had hand, foot and mouth too. But, thankfully they are just strep rash. Her poor little skin under her nose is raw from all the drainage so hopefully when these antibiotics kick in that will all be cleared up and we will be happy, healthy girls soon.

Off to nap, again...

Super Dariya

2012-01-23T09:06:00.000-06:00

Who can don their super power cape in seconds and dust the plant stand in a single bound?

Or wipe down the table in a millisecond?

Why it's Super Dariya....our sweet Cinderella!

Who can run a fever and be snot crusted?

Not so Super Dariya.

Praying our little dumpling's cold stays a cold and nothing more!

She wasn't too happy to find out she has to miss school today.

The parenting gig

2012-01-20T01:25:00.002-06:00

Who said parenting is easy?

I am grateful that after 6 months of Dariya being home that I haven't had to write this post sooner. However, this week was incredibly hard.

Just because I am cute doesn't mean I don't have an attitude some days...

The girls have been at each other nearly every minute of the day. ALL.WEEK. LONG! They BOTH have been irritable, hitting, biting, taking toys from one another, and the list could go on. Ms. Juanita even called to say that Dariya hit Alayna at school.

Until this week Dariya had hardly ever laid a finger on Alayna.

Dariya bit Alayna on the tummy

Now I can understand getting irritated at each other once in a while or one day but, I have spent much of the week putting the girls in the naughty chair (which for our girls is highly effective).

For example, Dariya was in the naughty chair and once I brought her out she went to apologize to Alayna and Alayna slapped her in the face.

Seriously? What the heck is going on?

Dariya hasn't been sleeping at nap time and is getting more and more grumpy and hasn't been eating (ok something is up when Dariya doesn't eat!) But, no signs of illness. I have checked her ears a hundred times to see if I am missing something. But, as of yet nothing.

Then I stopped dead in my tracks and was reminded of a reading from 1 Thessalonians that we talked about in Bible study where it says can't we all just get along and lift each other up?

I realized I was trying to go at this alone. Humbled again. I sat in prayer and asked God to forgive me for my pride, to give me peace, to give us peace, to help me be the mom he is wanting me to be and to lift each of my children up.

Guess what? I woke up the next day and the girls were back to their normal sweetness. I am not kidding you. They played together all morning without so much as a grumble, no fighting, no hitting, no taking toys, no naughty chair. It was so peaceful. It was a joy to see them crawling under the table to sing songs and play nicely with one another again.

Don't think for a minute that I didn't stop and praise our Father in heaven for providing me with such an amazing respite and answer to my prayers. I so needed it.

This parenting gig isn't easy but, it is so worth it.

Happy weekend to you all!

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Pretty princesses

2012-01-17T14:17:00.000-06:00

Oh no! Did you hear? Alayna can't find her hands and is really sad!

Sad, sad, sad. I can't go out like this! Darn you short arms!!!

Only kidding they were just hiding!

No stopping these pretty princesses!

Special thanks to Leslie for making us so beautiful!
Love, Alayna & Dariya

Half a year...

2012-01-13T02:44:00.003-06:00

Dariya has been home with us for 6 months today.

She continues to love, learn, grow and develop well.

If you have followed our journey you know how well she has melted into our family and into our hearts.

Friday night fun with dad!

Don't get me wrong there are moments that aren't so easy but, I wouldn't trade my life or my wonderful family for anything.

I am blessed.

New things lately are calling me "Mommy" instead of mama (however she still sometimes refers to Jason as such but it is improving).

She calls herself Dariya, can correctly verbally label everyone in our family even the dogs and point to them, she is using lots of signs but adding spoken words by the minute,

can sort by colors, beginning to learn shapes and correctly identifying them by name,
starting to add letters when we sing the Alphabet song,
her favorite game is playing "Where's Dariya as she hides behind my back" when I find her she laughs hysterically, can dress herself,
and it never gets old to hear her say, "Boo" when she pops her head out of her shirt every time she gets dressed.

The list could go on and on...

Oh, how we love you Dariya, thankful you are home.

Joy, joy, joy

2012-01-10T01:02:00.004-06:00

In 2011 - $1.75 MILLION in grants were dispersed to RR families and 196 children came home forever with the help of Reece's Rainbow and you!
As we celebrate Dariya being home 6 months this week we thank you for all your support of us in bringing her home and thank you for helping all these other children find their families too.

Special thanks to Sarah White for the numerous hours it took her to put this fabulous collage together!

Shoe shopping isn't for everyone

2012-01-07T19:11:00.001-06:00

The girls both needed some new shoes so we headed out to Stride Rite this morning in hopes of making a quick purchase and moving on to some Saturday family fun. Unfortunately, we didn't make it past step one.

Total mommy failure today.

Dariya does not like her feet being messed with AT.ALL and I know this. I didn't think before going out about how stressful this would be for her. I forget that she hasn't been with us forever and that some new things (even though it is few and far between these days) still are hard for her to handle.

The clerk measured both girl's feet and Dariya's stress level started to rise. Without thinking I then tried shoes on Alayna first and walked down the aisle with Alayna and Dariya lost it. She completely went berserk! We saw her Tasmanian devil come out like we hadn't seen since she first arrived home. Within minutes she was having a major.melt.down, crying uncontrollably.

The store clerk disappeared, never really to be seen again. Aidan asked if he could go outside and Jason was getting frustrated. Oh, we were making quite a scene.

I should have known that Dariya would have done much better had I measured her foot and not let someone she doesn't know do it. Why didn't I think?

Thankfully, we pulled it together long enough to stop crying, get a couple pairs of shoes and get the heck out of dodge.

We still had to buy Dariya a new pair of shoes for church so we tried another shop. Being the parents who try to learn from their mistakes (at least the ones we JUST made) we decided the split and conquer technique was needed.

I went into the store and scoped out the shoes I wanted Dariya to try on while Jason entertained the troops with signing time in the van. I politely explained to this clerk that I was ok to run on my own without any help.
Those college years selling Naturalizers comes in handy every now and then.

I went and got Dariya out of the car and just she and I went in and found her a perfect pair of black mary janes. No fussing, no fighting, no melt downs.

Now if I was only so well prepared all the time.

Sorry baby girl, you just fit in so darn well 99.9% of the time we forget that your life hasn't been the same as what Aidan and Alayna are used to. We forget that we can't just forge ahead with our own plans all the time.

Thanks for making us slow down and think.

We will do better next time.

The break is OVER?

2012-01-05T01:24:00.002-06:00

As Aidan journeys back to school today and the girls tomorrow and all the Christmas decorations packed away for another year I have to say that I am a little sad for the long break to be over.

We have completely enjoyed our time off together, have completed lots of crafts, had several play dates and played lots of games. Aidan even said he would rather stay home from school until Monday because he has had such a good time. =)

However, all three kids are excited to see their friends at school again. Alayna has been looking at her classmates and teacher's pictures all week longingly as we keep counting down the days until she sees them again.

So what did we do with our three weeks off school?

We painted a little...

Even if it was on ourselves....

We had lots of extra jammie time and extra snuggle time.

We made pottery, well ok if truth be known we spent HOURS creating pottery only to have one mother (who shall remain nameless) put her thumbnail through the side of Aidan's creation. Oops...we gave up and will try again another day. Thankful for my son being so forgiving!

We did lots of puzzles and fine motor activities to keep the girls in practice for school.

We love this new Melissa & Doug puzzle as it really works out those fingers

We played with our doll house and new toys

And some of us couldn't STOP playing with our old toys...she is seriously addicted to this ball popper which Alayna had stopped playing with long before Dariya arrived. Thankful we didn't garage sale it.

I am one happy and blessed mama! Hope your holidays were as blessed.

Happy New Year

2011-12-31T13:17:00.006-06:00

We hope you swing in the New Year in style...

We pray you have a safe, happy, healthy,

prosperous and blessed 2012!

If you are seeking a last minute tax deduction the orphans on Reece's Rainbow would be glad to help you out!

We are thankful for our sweet Dariya being home and safe but, there are many others who don't have families yet.

Please pray and donate.

I made a friend take 2!

2011-12-30T13:38:00.000-06:00

Back when Dariya started preschool at IDC I posted this post about a typical little girl (A) who was a peer model in Dariya's class that adored her. Well, 2 1/2 months later we get a call this week from "A's" mommy asking if we can come over for a play date that "A" talks about Dariya all the time STILL. "A" even sings songs like "where oh where is Dariya?" How sweet is that? Be still my momma's heart!

This morning we loaded up the crew and had a couple hour play date with "A" and her older sibs (Aidan was quite happy to have kids his age to play with also).

This little sweet 3 year old truly loves Dariya. Anytime Dariya wandered out of her sight she would be quick to locate her. While we were playing outside (it is a beautifully sunny, winter day) Dariya tripped and fell down. "A" ran over to make sure she was ok. But, the very best was when Dariya told me she needed to go potty of course, "A" followed right along, followed by Alayna. When Dariya went the crowd went crazy clapping and cheering and "A" said, "Dariya, good job I am so proud of you." What a sweet encourager.

As a mother I couldn't be more blessed to have witnessed this little girl's love for our Dariya. I pray as the years go on these two remain friends and that both our girls experience true friends like this often.

Christmas is overwhelming

2011-12-27T13:54:00.004-06:00

For our little Ukrainian princess Christmas was a little overwhelming. Nothing major. No melt downs or freak out moments but, we could tell she was overwhelmed. At Christmas Eve service she lasted about 20 minutes, due to her nap rebellion that day so she and I spent the rest of the time in the lobby.

On Christmas morning, we could quickly tell that Dariya had never opened a present nor understood what the heck we were doing. We sang Happy birthday to Jesus and read the Christmas story. She hung in there for about 15 minutes opening a present or two then quickly was ready to climb into my lap to escape the chaos of her siblings. When I got up to take more pictures she quietly went into the other room and lay down next to the dogs and read a book while Aidan and Alayna finished unwrapping their gifts.

Thankful that she liked all her gifts and has enjoyed playing with them the last couple days.

The look of wonder before we started opening

We love our books from Ms. Laura and Ms. Juanita

Aidan loves his new electric scooter

The girls have played non stop with their new doll house

One of Dariya's favorite gifts - a doll head to groom! She has been carrying it around like a caveman! But, hey it saves Alayna from being her victim!

Aidan made Jason a MCFC football pitch with players for Christmas

Aidan and Alayna had a blast opening everything and loved all they received. We had a nice quiet Christmas morning then had an enjoyable evening at my brother's house celebrating with family.

Christmas night opening her present with help from Uncle Ed

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T19:31:00.003-06:00

Merry Christmas...
We couldn't be happier and more blessed to be celebrating and sharing the true meaning of Christmas with Dariya for the first time. We are grateful for the army of people who helped us bring her home. Our lives are forever blessed.

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests. Luke 2:11-14

We hope your Christmas is filled with the blessings of food, fun, family and focusing on celebrating Jesus' birth.

Blessings to you,
Jason, Rochelle, Aidan, Dariya and Alayna

My little helpers

2011-12-21T02:08:00.000-06:00

The girls are great helpers around the house, they love to vacuum (sorry no pics for fear the dogs might get sucked up while my hand wasn't on the machine), clean the windows, do laundry (even if it is unfolding all the folded ones) and generally just help me do whatever I am doing. Here are a few pics from this week to show you what I mean...

~~Feeding the dog~~ Checking to make sure there aren't left overs!

Making up your own games...

Helping yourself to a goldfish snack - if the pantry isn't locked it is goldfish ANYTIME!

Redecorating the tree - Alayna has moved this one particular ornament almost daily

I am sure they are working on that "perfect" Christmas picture because they have requested me to take pics of them in front of the tree hundreds of times. Who can refuse?

Helping add "lotion" (Desitin) to your sister while she uses the toilet and mom has gone to get her clothes.

See I told you they were helpful! ;) I wouldn't have it any other way.

Not too late to shop the Angel tree for Christmas!

Sleep Study

2011-12-19T13:21:00.000-06:00

At our down syndrome visit earlier this fall we learned that the guidelines for kids with down syndrome now includes a sleep study before they are 4 years old.

Today was our appointment at the sleep clinic. Pretty simple and painless and in and out in about an hour and a half. Thankful for Aidan who helped entertain the girls while I answered all the questions.

The doctor doesn't have any red flags with either girl but, does want to go ahead and have sleep studies completed on them in the spring (so we can avoid the hospital during the winter months, thank you God for intelligent and thoughtful doctors today).

In April the girls will each have a separate night to stay over. As one parent has to stay the night with them, I thought I would keep myself from going crazy and schedule them a week apart instead of trying to kill two birds with one stone this time! =) Prayerfully no obstructed sleep apnea is found in either one of them.

Not at the sleep clinic but as soon as they got home they took care of their babies!

If you have a child with ds I highly recommend talking to your doctor about a sleep study.

Operation Underpants take 2

2011-12-17T01:41:00.001-06:00

Last Christmas break we held operation underpants using the opportunity of being home for several weeks to transition Alayna from diapers into panties and she has been diaper free (during waking hours) ever since.

With Dariya waking me up at 3 am this week to use the potty and the girls having a 3 week break before heading back to preschool I have again taken up the operation in hopes of getting Dariya transitioned as well.

Dariya will let us know most of the time when she needs to use the toilet but, isn't always consistent about it. She stays dry most mornings at home and at preschool when taken to the toilet a couple times. So I think it is time to try big girl panties....

However, she is much more unpredictable than Alayna when toileting. She can go and then I think we are good for a while and 20 minutes later she has an accident.

Alayna was thrilled with her big girl panties, hated to be put on the potty on a schedule and had very few accidents. Dariya didn't seem to be overly thrilled with panties at first but I think she is getting the big girl idea. She doesn't mind a schedule as long as it isn't too frequently and will attempt to go when you put her on. She is able to go about an hour without an accident. So far so good only 1 accident in a couple days.

Wish us luck and feel free to say a potty training prayer for Miss Dariya (and for me)!

5 months....

2011-12-14T01:35:00.010-06:00

Dariya has been home for 5 months. I know some adoption stories aren't as easy as ours has been and for that we are truly grateful.

She just fits into our family. She isn't a square peg that we are trying to shove into a round hole. I forget that she has only been here a few months, seems like forever. She just fits perfectly, just as God had planned.

Don't get me wrong life with two preschoolers and an 8 year old (going on 30) isn't always easy. For example, the GI Joe Dariya dropped in the bathtub the other night and tried to help us scoop it out or that both girls are starting to run so how come I am always the one who is tired at nap time?
Having all three kids is a huge blessing.

We have been told that about 6 months is the time when adoptive children lose their native language. This obviously causes some language barriers, stress on the adopted child and therefore some unwanted behaviors.

As we get closer to 6 months home, we have noticed that Dariya has lost almost all of her Russian already. When I spoke a phrase in Russian to her the other night she just looked at me blankly as if to say, "what are you speaking?" Then Jason tried another few words and she didn't even stop what she was doing to look up or take notice.

Her sign language is well over 100+ (sorry I haven't counted lately) and her verbal language continues to rise almost daily. She loves learning and going to school and is doing very well.

We have also seen another rise in her self soothing, rocking behavior during the night which was almost completely gone. Thankful we haven't seen it during the day since the first few months home.

About a month ago I was thrilled that she could actually say mama and know that was me. She has been saying mama since we met her but, she never really equated it to me.

However, we have also seen a slight set back in that she started calling Jason, the bus aide, and even a 9 year old girl from church "mama" and probably all her teachers as well. We quickly redirect her and she moves on but, to say that this isn't a process in our journey would be a lie.

The other week at church she walked up to a complete stranger and wanted her to pick her up. This is not a good thing in adoption bonding. I had to politely ask the woman not to pick her up and explained why. Thankfully this woman works with children with special needs and had some understanding of adoption and bonding so wasn't offended by my request. Yes, some people are offended when adoptive parents have asked them not to feed, cater to, pick up or show affection to their adopted child. We have been blessed with a great group of people around us who "get it" and have asked before picking her up and have been thoughtful in not hindering our family bonding but, we know many families that this hasn't been the case.

We continue to work on the bonding and family relationship. She understands we are her family and would probably choose me over anyone (unless you had food) but she really doesn't understand what a "family" is yet. We know that time will help her understand and give her the connection to us and help her to feel stable and secure in where God has placed her.

Overall, our months together have been wonderful. The bond between Aidan, Alayna and Dariya brings my heart joy each day. To hear the giggles that come from the girls when Aidan plays with them is truly priceless. To watch the girls pretend play is nothing short of fabulous.

Looking forward to watching the bonds grow, seeing her experience and learn new things and enjoying our blessings along this beautiful journey.

DSG Christmas Party: Meeting Santa

2011-12-10T12:58:00.001-06:00

This morning the DSG held their annual Christmas party. As always they put on a fabulous party with breakfast, presents, Santa and plenty of time to catch up with all our friends we don't get to see often enough.

As the line for Santa wasn't too long when we arrived we thought we would ~~traumatize our children~~ get good pictures before eating (don't worry we had already fed the troops at home before leaving, we don't miss that step at our house!)

As we were in line for Santa, Dariya spied the buffet line and starting signing and saying eat! It all went downhill from there folks...and I have photos to prove it.

I love Aidan's "Oh this is fantastic" look

Now WHO did you say you were???

Thankful for Aidan's everlasting smile!

Dariya was happy as a clam to get off Santa's lap, didn't care a thing for the present (princess backpack) or opening it and was joyous when we headed for the buffet line. Show me the bacon! Hey a girl's gotta eat right?

Alayna loved opening her present (Dora dollhouse accessories which will go perfect with the dollhouse the girls are getting for Christmas shhh don't tell them) and was excited to find her friends.

Thanks DSG for all you do for our family!

Look out truffles

2011-12-08T02:03:00.003-06:00

I love baking especially around Christmastime. Two of my favorites sweet treats are fudge and Oreo truffles. The rest of my family fight over the truffles (while I sneak away and eat the fudge). We just knew this year that Dariya wouldn't be joining in the fight because she does not enjoy sweets (except an occasional ice cream) But, I think we were wrong....

I told the kids I had made treats while they were at school so they ~~prayed~~ begged for some after dinner.

First bite I think she was hooked....

Alayna quickly remembered truffles and how to pronounce that word!

There are MORE?????? Sugar overload......

I think I will wait right here until dessert tomorrow night...

Can't think of a sweeter way to celebrate 5 months since we broke her out of that orphanage than with loads of chocolate! Love you Dariya!

Oral motor update

2011-12-02T21:31:00.000-06:00

We began really focusing on oral motor improvement on Dariya about 3 weeks ago. Using Sara Rosenfeld Johnson's straw therapy, chewy tubes for jaw strengthening and cheek and lip massage to stimulate those muscles (this was something I learned from Alayna's previous speech therapist).

Dariya has done fantastically well. She has been able to go from needing jaw support to drink with straw #1 to being able to do it on her own without bringing her tongue outside her mouth. She also loves the cheek massage and reminds me to do it daily.

She is beginning to smile for pictures!

At breakfast this morning she picked up her cup and drank all by herself using the proper technique. Jason immediately noticed and praised her on how well she is doing. She has come so far in such a short time. I am truly thankful I went to this workshop.

At first Jason was pretty skeptical of the price of the straws but, we have found it to be worth it. I look forward to the girls moving up to the next straw and seeing how this has an impact on their speech development.

Alayna has better oral motor skills and can easily drink from straw 1, 2, and 3 already (possibly higher but, I haven't tried them yet). The benefits of this therapy for tongue retraction, jaw stability, and speech production are numerous and we look forward to hearing Dariya produce more sounds and Alayna being more intelligible in her speech in the near future.

As Christmas nears Jason has been working later and later (9:45 on Tuesday) so thankfully Aidan has been super helpful entertaining the girls during the transition times before and after dinner so we don't experience melt down city too often (on the girls part anyway). Here is a little clip of the antics.

Look what I found under the tree

2011-11-28T13:38:00.000-06:00

One year ago, Jason came home and spent hours on the computer specifically on the Reece's Rainbow website. We had donated and prayed for these children but, after looking through the children's faces he knew God was calling us to adopt. It was then that we began praying for which child that God was leading us to bring home.

After decorating the tree on Thanksgiving my sweet little orphan no more posed for some photos. I am amazed and have been so blessed by the journey God has led us on this past year and now to have our girl home for almost 6 months is an amazing feeling. God so knew she would fit in perfectly.

I was looking over the faces on the Reece's Rainbow Angel tree this weekend and Jason asked me why I kept looking at them. I think he had a little fear in his heart that I was going to beg for another one.

But, right now I think our family is perfect the way God wants it. However, that doesn't mean that we are to forget what we have seen in Ukraine or to stop donating or advocating for these beautiful children who need to have their forever families. As I was reading in Hebrews today, God wants us to diligently continue to help others which in turn shows Him love.

As this week is cyber shopping week, I ask you make a real difference in someone's life? Go over to Reece's Rainbow and make a child's dream come true, donate and help bring them one step closer to finding their forever family.
If you can't figure out which one(s) you want to help choose Charity! We love her and long to see her home.

Thankful hearts

2011-11-23T13:47:00.000-06:00

Thankful for sisterly love that has flourished

We are so thankful for the many blessings we have been given this year. Adding Dariya to our family has been such a huge joy. Seeing her perfectly fit into our family is beyond words. God so knows what he is doing.

We will celebrate Thanksgiving just the 5 of us. In keeping with our yearly tradition, we bought a gigantic turkey so we can take our leftovers and go out and feed the homeless on Thanksgiving night.

We have so many reasons to be grateful. I pray that my gratefulness is a daily occurrence instead of a once a year thing.

Happy Thanksgiving! May your holiday weekend be joyful and filled with His love.

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” Psalm 100:4-5

Email surprise

2011-11-21T10:45:00.001-06:00

We continue to have open communication with Dariya's birth father, Sasha. He is always so gracious and thankful for all the pictures and information we send him about Dariya.

When we met him his one request was that we would send a picture of Dariya each year around her birthday. Of course, I asked our translator to ask him if he would mind if we sent more, like on a monthly basis. He was so happy but, didn't want to impose on us. He truly loves this girl and that makes our hearts so happy. Every few weeks I email him a load of pictures and information about how she is doing health wise, transitioning to our family and at school. He is so thankful each time and always responds with kind, appreciative words.

I still believe that if Ukraine had services and supports for parents when their child was born with down syndrome that Sasha would have kept Dariya. I know many other adoptive families from EE don't have the opportunity to meet or be in relation with their child's birth parents so we are truly thankful for this blessing.

We never met Olga, Dariya's birth mother. I wanted to ask why Olga never came to meet us any of the times Sasha came to visit with us and Dariya but, didn't feel like that was an appropriate question at the time. Olga did call him while he was with us on Gotcha Day, she was at work but, obviously knew what was going on and that Dariya was leaving Cherkasy with us that day.

Sasha passes the pictures and information we email him to Olga. We learned while visiting with him that they divorced after Dariya was born. Sasha brought pictures of Olga to the orphanage to show us what she looked like and what Dariya looked like as a baby.

This week we were happily surprised to open our email to find pictures and video from when Dariya was a baby and a toddler.

Sept 2008 - Dariya is 7 months old

The director of the orphanage gave us Dariya's baby picture before we came home. It is so nice to have more pictures of her from different ages even though I don't have exact dates on all of the pictures.
A true blessing, thank you Sasha!

The Reece's Rainbow Angel Tree raised over $3000 for Dariya's adoption. This was a huge start to our fundraising when we committed to her. Please visit the Angel tree this year and help another orphan find their forever family.

ENT follow up

2011-11-18T14:06:00.000-06:00

This morning Dariya had her 2 week follow up at the ENT's office to check her tube placement and to do another hearing screening.

We have noticed a dramatic change in Dariya's hearing. She can hear at a whisper level which prior to surgery she wouldn't have responded. So, I was so ready for the "all clear" and her hearing is great news but, didn't really get that.

She wasn't particularly a happy patient this morning as we left for the doctor's office at the same time Alayna was boarding the bus for preschool. Oh my, Tasmanian devil came out for sure. But, once on the road she was ok. However, she wouldn't sit still and allow the audiologist to do all the testing that needed to be done so we aren't super sure of the validity of today's testing.

We got good readings from her right ear but, her left ear is still showing some hearing loss (hmm maybe all those years with fluid sitting behind her eardrums, you think?) They checked her tubes and they look clear. I was so hoping for a large amount of wax to be the problem but, it doesn't appear to be.

We will follow up again in 3 months to hopefully get accurate readings then we will go from there as to what to do next.

If you have a child with down syndrome, I can't stress enough to have their hearing checked regularly (at least every 6 months). Alayna's ears were fine and she had no fluid behind her ear drums for the first 18 months then all of a sudden fluid appeared and stayed which limited her hearing tremendously. Once she had tubes placed her hearing was back to normal and her language was again on the increase.

Oral Motor stuff

2011-11-15T13:33:00.000-06:00

School pictures from the LeeAnn Britain Center taken in October

When Alayna was little I was instructed to do oral motor exercises on her to help her with feeding and to get her mouth get ready for speech. In being honest I did some but, I wasn't as great at doing these on a routine basis. When you have a child with down syndrome you get thrown a ton of information in those first few months. It took me a little while to sort through all the emotions, information and make a plan for what we were going to do with our little peanut.

Alayna could drink from a straw cup with only using her lips at an early age. However, she would sometimes let milk drool out. This showed me that she needed some extra strengthening in her mouth muscles. Before meals I would have her bite on a teething toy that when she bit down it vibrated (a couple bucks at Walmart) for 30 seconds (or longer if she would) then I would massage her cheeks and lips. After a month I could see the total difference that oral motor exercises made for her. She no longer took in too much liquid, or let any drool back out.

When I learned that our Down Syndrome Guild was bringing in Sara Rosenfeld Johnson, a speech therapist and oral motor specialist. I was thrilled to spend the morning soaking in more information that will help the girls.

Rosenfeld-Johnson said that her oral placement therapy is an exercise, PT program, for the mouth.

I learned loads about what I can be doing with the girls to improve their oral motor production which will improve the clarity of their speech in the long run. The goal is for everyone to understand everything the girls say. This is one HUGE goal I have for both girls.

Dariya still suckles even when drinking out of a cup or a straw (her tongue is wrapped around the straw or on the bottom of the cup). This is due to lack of jaw strength. She also grinds her teeth during waking hours, some not a lot. But, this is also a sign of jaw weakness. I have begun working on jaw strengthening exercises with Dariya. Examples are chewing on a chewy tube or anything that is hard to chew like licorice that has been left out to harden. I have also begun supporting her while she is only drinking out of a straw. Within the past week she has already begun to be able to use her lips only to suck up the liquid.

I will be doing the straw hierarchy with both girls as Alayna drinks and eats fine however, she sometimes still has her mouth open in a resting position especially when tired causing her to drool some. This open mouth will cause her to not be as clear when she is speaking.

One easy way & cheap therapy tool that I am using with Alayna is a tongue depressor. I have her put a tongue depressor in between her lips and hold it there, not using her teeth. Try it, it is a lip workout. We have been humming songs with our tongue depressors in our mouth and she thinks it is a blast. Cheap, fun and working on getting her to keep her lips closed all at the same time. Bonus!

Our materials are on their way and we look forward to using them and seeing how the girls progress in the next few months.

We will keep you updated as to our progress.

What are you doing with your child for oral motor exercises?

*As a disclaimer I am not soliciting this program nor the therapy tools we are purchasing. There are many ways to work on oral motor skills this is just one program I think will be effective for our girls.

Family Picture Friday

2011-11-11T07:26:00.009-06:00

Photos taken by Sophia Theodore http://somaphotographystudio.com/index.html

Have a wonderful weekend!

Heavy Metal

2011-11-08T07:29:00.001-06:00

Who says metal isn't cool?

For the next year Aidan will be sporting a little more metal. He had his palate expander and top braces placed yesterday. He did really well as the orthodontist placed all the appliances. Thankfully he isn't in too much pain (yet). We will give him a few days to get used to the palate expander before beginning our daily turning of the key to open it up. Oh won't that be fun?

Super proud of you big brother!

Orphan Sunday

2011-11-06T14:18:00.000-06:00

Over the last year our hearts have been forever changed for the plight of orphans. After working so hard to bring Dariya home and traveling to Ukraine this summer and seeing the sights we saw we will never forget all the children in this world that don't have a family to call their own.

We pray that everyone who walked along with us during our adoption of Dariya has been moved as well.

We are so thankful to have our Ukrainian princess in our family and are thankful to the multitude of people who donated, prayed and helped us bring her home in a matter of a few months.

I could sit back and say we have done our part. We have rescued our orphan, we have donated to other families adopting, our job is done. But, truthfully you know as well as I do that the story can't end there. If it did it would be a colossal fail on our part. We have to keep praying, fighting, advocating and donating to help these children find families.

I prayed for God to break my heart for what breaks his and he did in a big way. Jason and I continue to pray for where God is leading us to help orphans. We know that we will continue to support Reece's Rainbow and the orphans that they list on their website and we ~~encourage~~ beg you to do the same.

From November 1 through December 31st each year Reece's Rainbow holds their biggest fundraiser, the Angel Tree. The goal is to raise $1000 for each child during the holiday season. You can sponsor any child with down syndrome and help them get to their forever families sooner. With any $35 tax deductible donation you will receive a Christmas ornament with your sponsored child's picture to place on your tree.

My sweet Maria (Charlotte as she will be called) is getting to meet her forever family tomorrow morning! I love that I have her ornament on my tree from last year and I love the connection I have with her family.

Or there are awesome Angel tree dollars available for the first time this year. You buy the angel tree dollars and print out the certificate and give it to whomever and they go on the RR website and chose which child they want the money to go towards. What a great stocking stuffer, teacher gift, therapist gift,or just an awesome way to spread the love and advocacy about Reece's Rainbow.

Click HERE to go to the Angel Tree page and pray over which child you would like to help this season. (Charity is still top of our list, just sayin')

Dariya says, "What are you waiting for go help one of my friends find their forever family"

Ear tubes are done

2011-11-04T11:27:00.002-05:00

Dariya had ear tubes placed this morning and was home within 45 minutes of the surgery. The doctor looked at her adenoids but, didn't think they were enlarged enough to warrant removal.
I can definitely tell Dariya is hearing better as every door creaking or quiet voice in the recovery room woke her up.
They whisked her away and back so quickly I didn't even have time to snap a picture. They let her drive back to surgery in a little tykes car and she was happily waving goodbye.
She is really tired and sleeping now. Praying that after she sleeps off the anesthetic she will be good as new!
Thanks for the prayers! Sorry for no pics of Dariya, but stay tuned the amazing Sophia from Soma photography is taking family pics of us tomorrow so I will post those asap!

Thankful Dariya isn't a sweets eater otherwise she would be SUPER jealous of what her sister enjoyed today at preschool! (Thanks Ms. Juanita for the great pic of our girl!) Alayna is finally starting to talk at preschool! YAY!

Cupcakes are the BOMB!

Have a great weekend.

Just in time for her IEP

2011-11-03T01:13:00.015-05:00

As Dariya's IEP is next week I have been thinking about what strengths and weaknesses she has and what goals we would like addressed at school. I was thrilled (she says sarcastically) that she has chosen instead of napping to show off her fine motor skills. For weeks I have gone in and found her asleep with her shirt off. But, this week when I walked in I found this....

My chunky little butterball buck naked!

I dressed her but, she undressed herself 3 times. After two hours of no napping and dressing games I gave up. I think that skill is mastered. CHECK!

Then I began to think of vocational goals for her...You know it is never too early to start thinking about that transitioning. So we have decided that since anytime Dariya sees a hairbrush she goes into beauty shop mode. Complete with a heavy hand. Don't even try to move before she is done. She also includes with her services some great babble about how she can make you look beautiful in 3 easy steps.

She usually comes to brush my hair but, this week she ~~held down~~ talked Alayna into being her victim.

Maybe we could include some post school esthetician training in her preschool IEP. Or maybe just when to STOP when your client says all done.

What do you think Juanita? =)

On a serious note, Dariya is having ear tubes placed and an adenoidectomy on Friday morning. We appreciate all prayers for a great surgery and uneventful recovery. Thanks.

Slow start to Halloween

2011-11-01T13:07:00.000-05:00

I have to admit that Halloween is my least favorite "holiday" and I do use that term loosely. Never really enjoyed it even as a kid. My husband on the other hand is my antithesis. He would dress up in a costume daily if UPS would allow.
So when we spent the days before in the hospital and came home Saturday I thought that we could possibly pull Halloween together still. We hadn't carved pumpkins, decorated or gotten all the costumes together yet.

Middle of the night Saturday Jason woke up with some kind of stomach bug that knocked him down until late Monday afternoon. We missed church on Sunday because I didn't want to take Alayna.

Alayna woke up on Monday and didn't have the energy to go to preschool, missing their parade and party. So she and daddy hung out on the couch while I went and watched Dariya march around. Poor girl had that look like, "what in the world have you people done to me?" As soon as the parade was over and she hit the classroom door her costume was off and she was ready for snack time.

Dariya chose pretzels while all the other kids enjoyed mounds of sugary sweets.

Alayna had a nap and was much better, not coughing during the day or night at all just first thing in the morning when she wakes up.

After Aidan got home, Jason was feeling better so they carved pumpkins and we had a bit of dinner before heading out. We took the girls to 10 houses and Aidan went out with a couple of friends and their mothers.
On the first house Dariya was going to walk on in when they opened the door. Haha. Thankfully Janette had her camera ready and took a cute pic for us.
The next house Dariya put the candy back our neighbor's bowl. Even funnier.
But, by the third neighbors house she figured it out that they were giving her something and she readily chose one treat from the rest of the houses and was happy. By the 10th house she was tired as she decided to skip her nap so we went home. She went straight to sleep but, Alayna stayed up another 30 minutes helping daddy hand out candy. She would see kids coming and start dancing around at the front door. Super cute.

Thanks Janette for the great pic!

Overall, I would say our Halloween was a success. The kids had fun and we had a blast watching them enjoy the evening.

LOVE Aidan's smile as he squeezes both sisters.

Discharged

2011-10-29T10:28:00.000-05:00

We have just seen the doctor and she was pleased that Alayna went all night without oxygen and didn't need suctioning except for me and my friendly bulb syringe so we are Out.Of.Here! Yahoo thank you for the prayers.
Jason, Dariya &Aidan are enjoying the Step Up so hopefully by the time we do paperwork and get home they will meet us there.

Another day...

2011-10-28T10:06:00.000-05:00

Alayna had a good night last night but, her oxygen levels started dropping again just before 7am. The nurse suctioned her out but she still sounds junky in her chest. The doctor has just been in and we are unfortunately staying another Night. Please keep praying for her that we can go home tomorrow. Thanks.

Alayna and the hospital

2011-10-27T10:46:00.000-05:00

Last weekend Alayna had a wet cough that kept she and I up for several nights. She missed preschool on Monday because she was so tired but was fine once she slept in. Tuesday night she slept much better and hardly coughed so we thought we were on the upswing.
But, after preschool on Wednesday she didn't want to eat lunch and went to bed pretty quickly.

When she woke up from her nap she was running a fever, lethargic, wheezing and gasping for breath. Off to urgent care we went. After an hour and a half there the doctor felt like we needed to come to the local children's hospital. After 5 more hours, two deep suctioning treatments, chest xrays and four breathing treatments Alayna still could not keep her oxygen sats up so she was admitted.

It was first thought she had pneumonia but, instead it's a virus. Bad news because antibiotics don't help a virus so we have to ride it out. They won't release her until she can keep her oxygen levels up consistently on her own. So looks like we are here at least until Friday.

Her fever is gone and she is resting comfortably now so we are prayerful that when she gets up she will be much better.

Please keep her in your prayers so we may go home quickly. As we were both already way behind on sleep we are worn out.

We are sad that she will miss the Step Up for Down Syndrome and celebrating with all our friends but, we will keep our germs to ourselves.

Thanks for the prayers and support.

Dariya

2011-10-26T01:32:00.006-05:00

In celebration of down syndrome awareness month here are 21 facts about Dariya.

1. She is happy every time she wakes up and is ready to jump out of bed as soon as you go into her room.
2. She scrunches her face up when she smiles really big which is super cute. (One of Aidan's favorite things she does).

3. She loves food, any kind, you name it she eats it! (Hence her 32#)
4. She is addicted to bananas. She never had them until we brought them to the orphanage daily so not sure if it is just comfort food or she really enjoys them that much.
5. She is doing well with potty training and usually stays dry during the day.
6. When we were in Ukraine with her she didn't know how to open a book, now she requests them all the time.
7. She doesn't mind wearing her glasses during the morning hours but doesn't want to wear them much after nap
8. LOVES taking baths, she will flip, flop, splash, swim for hours if you let her.
9. When she doesn't get her own way she can flop down on her bum and sob a good one (drama, drama).
10. She loves to be tickled and has a contagious laugh.
11. She is a mama's girl.
12. She is independent but, loves being taken care of too.
13. She purposely seeks me out especially when Alayna is sitting on my lap. Jealousy anyone?
14. She has arms like Stretch Armstrong, if she wants something she WILL reach it.
15. She still tidys up around the house like Cinderella.
16. She crosses her pointer and middle fingers on both hands when she is really stretching for something.
17. She loves any kind of motion. Swinging is her favorite. She giggles at bumps in the road. She will be our roller coaster thrill ride seeker!
18. She is a sponge and has learned more than 75+ signs and 20+ spoken words.
19. She loves riding the bus and going to preschool.
20. She is an affection monster, we are covered in kisses and hugs all day long.
21. She is fabulously wonderful, we couldn't be more blessed and are thankful God chose us to be her family!

Alayna...

2011-10-24T01:13:00.021-05:00

In celebration of down syndrome awareness month here are 21 facts about Alayna.

1. She LOVES books. I can't tell you the number of times I hear "Mommy, read book please" in one day. Although sometimes she has a paper addiction and likes to eat them.
2. At home she has dropped sign language for speaking and speaks in 2-5 word sentences. However, we haven't seen that at school or even at church she is pretty quiet in other settings.
3. She is a social butterfly. She loves knowing people's names and thrives on being able to call people by their name.
4. She knows her colors, ABC's and the phonetic sound with them, can rote count to 10 and loves counting one to one correspondence.
5. Even though she weighs 28# she must have bird bones, because she feels light as a feather.
6. She is daytime potty trained.
7. She loves playing hide and seek. (must run in the genes, Aidan used to ask us to play for hours)
8. She enjoys music and will sing, play, dance her heart away.
9. She loves eating fruits but is more finicky when it comes to veggies (she will avoid the green ones at all costs, don't tell her I hide them in her food)
10. She is definitely a daddy's girl, unless she is sick then she seeks mommy out.

11. She loves her siblings. She is one happy girl on weekends or days when school is out. Aidan hung the moon in her eyes.
12. She enjoys preschool and talks about her teachers and friends all the time. Too bad she doesn't talk to them while she is there....
13. She will try to get out of fine motor tasks, usually opting to smile at you or try to talk you into something else.
14. She loves bouncing on our trampoline, even though she can't jump yet.
15. She is pretty easy going and rarely gets upset.
16. She enjoys having her picture taken.
17. She is shy.
18. She is a princess, she likes to dress up and be told how pretty she is.
19. She loves to watch signing time and requests it every time we get in the van.
20. Goldfish is her favorite snack. Ice cream is her favorite dessert!
21. She is delightfully sweet and we are blessed to have her!

Next up facts about Dariya....

No more doctors...

2011-10-21T01:06:00.002-05:00

I inadvertently scheduled 3 days worth of doctor's appointments this week for the kids without realizing it. While it is true that some people with down syndrome have more health issues we have been blessed that our two little cherubs are both healthy.

Tuesday was Dariya's follow up opthamalogy appointment to check her eyes with her glasses. All looks great. She is seeing across the room very well, which she couldn't do at all before glasses. Her one eye that was wandering a bit before glasses has lined up nicely. No patching needed. She will go back in the spring for a follow up and to check her prescription then just yearly visits will be necessary.

Wednesday Alayna had her 3 year check up and her flu mist. Dariya received the flu shot (we were told she has an egg allergy so we avoided the "live" version). She wasn't thrilled with the shot but only cried for about 3 seconds and when the nurse said, "all done" Dariya popped up and signed all done and said done and was happily heading for the door.

In the past year Alayna has gained 6 pounds (28# total) and 3½ inches (34 inches)! Yahoo for Alayna~ Please don't burst her big girl bubble by telling her that her sister has gained 2 pounds since being home (32# total).

This one is for you Stephanie & Emmie!
I ate my first WHOLE apple this week...

Thursday was Aidan's final fitting for his palate expander. On November 7th he will have his palate expander and top braces placed for the next year. After all the sizing they did in his mouth at the appointment he isn't too thrilled to go back.

On a more fun note, the girls are loving playing make believe together. My mom caught them under the kitchen table playing school. They were taking turns being the teacher and singing all their songs from school. When school first started Dariya did not like a backpack at all. Now she LOVES to wear her backpack around and help Alayna put hers on then they pretend they are heading off to school. Always a good time when these two are around.

Driving Miss Daisy (Dariya) take 2!

2011-10-18T14:04:00.000-05:00

About a month ago, Jason spotted a Barbie jeep at a garage sale down the street. He couldn't resist the urge to buy the jeep for the girls, full well knowing that their short little legs could barely reach the pedals.

Thankfully the really sweet neighbors nearly gave us the car, so how could he resist?

The girls have been having a blast playing in it and have finally figured out or have grown enough that they can successfully push the pedal and make it go by themselves.

Funniest part is Alayna is always the driver and Dariya is always the chauffeured, waving princess. These two crack me up!
I had a great song picked out but You tube was taking forever to upload it so I gave up to get my post finished! So feel free to turn up your own music and drown out the audio.

Dariya had her follow up opthamologist appointment today and her doctor was thrilled with how well her eyes are already adjusting to the glasses. She was really pleased and will see us again in the spring to make sure her prescription doesn't need to be adjusted. If all is well we will then only have to go in yearly.

That was good news to this mama who is about DONE with doctors appointments. Next up, pediatrician tomorrow for Alayna's 3 year check up and Dariya's follow up shots. Then Thursday Aidan gets his brackets placed for his palate expander and braces. Nothing like 3 days of doctors appointments in one week. Ugh!

Celebrating 3 months home

2011-10-13T05:33:00.003-05:00

Three months ago we landed home from Ukraine with Dariya. Our adoption was an amazing journey and I am so thankful that Jason stepped up after hearing God's call and we brought Dariya home. Our family is ~~perfect~~ whole with this little cherub in it.

When we first arrived home Alayna wasn't too sure what to think of this new person being here all the time, but within a day or so that quickly faded into absolute joy that she had someone her age to play with all the time. We laughed at the girls constantly hugging and kissing each other. Dariya was not that way with any of the kids in the orphanage. In fact, we never saw her touch another child besides to shake hands when they passed us and said good afternoon.

Dariya has transitioned very well. She is like a little sponge and just soaks up new things every minute it seems. She is signing and saying lots of words and just today said a two word sentence. She is very loving and enjoys family life. She could live in the bath tub, swimming away if we would let her. She enjoys going to school and riding the bus. She loves books (Hallelujah) she requests them all the time (Very Hungry Caterpillar is her FAVORITE), she loves playing outside and is especially enjoying crunching leaves (her orphanage didn't let the kids play outside much or at all after Sept 1st), she is doing very well with potty training and has begun sleeping at night in her big girl bed, and she is by far my least picky eater! She still rocks herself to sleep sometimes but, it has diminished tons since leaving Ukraine.

What are these things???

A few weeks ago, I began to notice that the glamour had started to dull a little bit around the sisterly love. Not in a terrible way but, I definitely think we are over the sisterly honeymoon period. They love each other and enjoy each other's company but, they get tired of one another, jealous of whoever is closest to mommy or Aidan, sometimes want undivided attention and get mad when they don't get it, share well sometimes and not so well other times and are misbehaving on purpose to see if they will get the same punishment as the other one.

Sounds like any other family with 3 year olds to me, well, of course unless your family is a lot more put together than us and if it is please email us because we can use all the tips we can get.

We know that God knit our family together long before any of us were born and I am so glad that He did. I am humbled that he chose us to be parents of these three.

Some days I don't feel overly confident that I made a positive impact on my kids life or that I didn't scar them beyond what counseling will require later but, I know when God calls you to do something he always equips you. So I continue to pray for wisdom and discernment to be the best parent to these three and to fully enjoy the journey we are on together. We love you Dariya and are so glad you are home.

Only the best for my girls....BOX SEATS to the best show in town! They do both SO love their big brother!

When you come to a Y in the road...you have to say goodbye

2011-10-11T13:20:00.000-05:00

As Alayna turned 3 over the weekend we have come to a Y in the road. As parents we always want what is best for our children. Sometimes making those decisions is so hard to know if you are doing the right thing.

Alayna and her PT, Erin

We are finished with early intervention and leaving the Lee Ann Britain Infant development center, where Alayna has had classes and therapies since she was 3 months old. The girls could stay at IDC up until kindergarten but, since we have such a fantastic school district and equally fabulous preschool included that is minutes from our house we made the decision to move the girls just to the school district.

Dariya with her OT, Angie

As we come upon this "Y" in our journey I would be lying if I told you that is was an easy decision to leave this great program that we have taken part in for the past 3 years. Just looking at Alayna with her PT Erin for their last session brought tears to my eyes remembering how just a few years ago my little girl couldn't even hold her head up on her own.

The staff at IDC has walked with us on our journey of understanding how we can help Alayna (& now Dariya) reach their fullest potential. They have provided us with friendship, love, support, education, advocacy, and given our girls a great start. Many of the staff were there to greet us when we arrived home from Ukraine with Dariya which again was another huge blessing.

Alayna with her ST, Amy

We know many places around the country and especially around the world don't have a fantastic facility like this close to them so we count ourselves blessed to have been able to take part in this program.

We celebrated our last day with our IDC friends in style, at the pumpkin patch. We had a blast! We bounced, rode the train, rode the horse swings, played in the corn crib, tried the slides, rode in the wagon, picked our pumpkins and had a final snack with our friends and hugged them goodbye.

Seriously the BEST out of all the shots. UGH!

Weeeeeeeee, I love that her eyes are closed!

Dariya is asking, "Are you sure you want to go get a pumpkin instead of a snack?" This sweet little boy is George, he was Alayna's teeter totter buddy everyday at recess.

Alayna hopped off the wagon and spots her pumpkin right away. Dariya didn't want to have much to do with pumpkin picking. She was heading for the wagon to go to the snack table...

Enjoying one final snack with our buddies

Ms. Ann will forever be etched in our hearts.
We ♥ you Ms. Ann!
Alayna loves Ann so much that she let go of my hand and said, "No! Ann" and ran off to hold Ann's hand.

With sadness we say goodbye to the girl's teachers, therapists, friends and staff at IDC. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for loving our girls and teaching them so much. We will miss you.

We are super thrilled with the staff and services the girls are getting at the school district. Alayna had her IEP last week and is beginning to adjust to the school's preschool. If you are new to following us, the girl's sped teacher, Ms. Juanita has a son of her own that has ds and my girls are like rocks stars to their family. How awesome is that? God always knows what is best.

Another HUGE bonus is today was the first time in 6 weeks (besides weekends) where I had my girls for a morning! We played our hearts silly and Dariya even sported big girl undies all mornings with NO accidents. Ah, it is good to have preschool only 3 days a week. For us this is the best schedule for now.

Happy 3rd birthday Alayna Faith!

2011-10-09T00:12:00.019-05:00

Life doesn't get much sweeter than celebrating your special day. You continue to amaze us with all you have accomplished in 3 years and amuse us with your silly antics.

Alayna Faith you are a true blessing.

You are a shining star. You have streched us and taught us so many life lessons. You have opened our eyes and hearts to orphans, especially with down syndrome, around the world and without you there would have been no Dariya in our lives...

To watch you grow and blossom makes me happy and sad all at the same time. My baby girl isn't a baby anymore but instead a big girl (even if you do let me hold you like a baby sometimes just so you can giggle at me).

We pray that today and everyday you celebrate life to the fullest, follow God's path and serve Him and that you continue to soar!

Happy birthday sweet girl!

All our love,
Mommy, Daddy, Aidan & Dariya (yep you are a big girl no more mama or dada)

Abandoned and rejected STILL!

2011-10-07T13:08:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I introduced you to the Fristoes, another Reece's Rainbow family from Kansas City in my abandoned and rejected post. They have been running their iPad2 & iPod touch giveaway for WEEKS and WEEKS now and have only made $1500 (take away the cost of the iPad and that is less than $1ooo). They are still in desperate need of prayer and funds ($16,000).

Suzanne was born outside the United States as her father was on active duty with the US military. As she wasn't born on a base (there wasn't a base in Turkey) US immigration is holding up their paperwork to search for her "alien" record. Are you kidding me? Please pray that they get this final clearance from immigration so they can file their paperwork with China to go get Clare!

I have had over 600 hits to that one blog post. If only half of the people donated the $10 to their fundraiser they would be over $3000 now. I know some of you donated and I am truly thankful and appreciate your support for this family.

If you haven't taken the time to read their story here is a clip from their blog, Our Chinese Butterfly
In Suzanne's words...
We still need $16,000 to pay the ransom on our daughter's life.

I am praying you will continue to Pray, share and donate. Every little amount, no matter how small is getting us closer to Clare.

DO YOU THINK YOU CAN HELP US???? It is easy, we are in great need of prayer. Prayer doesn't cost you much, just a little bit of time and will be greatly appreciated!! He will listen to our prayers! Please pray that the funds will come in, that my "Alien" file will be located and our I 797 will be approved and mailed to us soon, for patience and grace during all of this. Thank you

Spread the word. I have over 1000 friends on facebook, if everyone could spread the word, I would forever be grateful!! Blog about it, tweet about it, email your friends about it, and please facebook about it. Please ask your friends to spread the word or send them here to read and decide on their own. There is great power in masses.

Donate. Every penny counts towards saving our little girl. Every penny we raise gets her closer to her forever family, to her momma and daddy, that can't wait to hug and kiss her, her new friends, and a new life of freedom. She will be educated and she will receive the medical care she needs.

Look at this beautiful face, isn't she worth the effort??

end post from Suzanne.

This little girl and family have my heart. I didn't lose sleep over our adoption of Dariya but, I find myself up for hours praying on this family's behalf. They are working tirelessly completing grant applications, seeking donors daily and waiting for immigration to grant them that one final piece of paper to file their dossier to China.

PLEASE, I am begging you to go over and donate $10 (or more) it's tax deductible, pray for this family, blog, twitter, FB about them whatever you can do to help get the word out.

Satan will not win, Clare will be rescued, Won't you be a tiny pebble that makes ripples in her adoption fund?

Visit their blog here: Our Chinese Butterfly Hurry their Ipad2 giveaway ends tomorrow night (Sat, Oct 8th) at midnight! As October is Down Syndrome Awareness month and Sunday the 9th is Alayna's 3rd birthday she would be THRILLED if you made a donation to Clare in celebration!

Thankful Thursday: Pumpkin, Chocolate chip cookies

2011-10-06T02:57:00.003-05:00

Nothing says fall like pumpkins. We love pumpkin anything: pies, muffins, seeds, cookies, coffee creamer you name it we love it.

Thankful for friends who drop in and bring fabulous cookies that the littles devour in a matter of minutes!

What is so "down" about down syndrome?

2011-10-04T08:55:00.009-05:00

If you have been following our family you know we think there is absolutely nothing "down" about down syndrome.

So what is up with the name? Seriously couldn't they have called it... Cool syndrome? Rock Star syndrome, Or maybe we are more alike than different syndrome?

Dariya really wanted to know where the name down syndrome came from so we did some research.

John Langdon Down was born in Cornwall England in 1828. At 25 he entered medical school, and after graduation he became an early advocate for humane treatment and therapy for the mentally handicapped.

He served as medical superintendent at the Royal Earlswood Asylum in Surrey, England, where he wrote the first paper identifying common traits among patients afflicted with what came to be called "Mongoloidism".

Dariya signs "more"

In 1958, French geneticist , Jérôme Lejeune discovered that Down syndrome was caused by an extra chromosome on the 21st pair. The French Academy of Sciences published his scientific work on January 26, 1959. For the first time in world history, his discovery established a link between an intellectual disability and a chromosomal abnormality.

In 1961 the editor of the British medical journal The Lancet proposed that the condition be renamed Down's Syndrome. In 1965 the World Health Organization redesignated the name to Down Syndrome.

After studying all the research materials Dariya wanted to let you know that we aren't "down" because we have 3, 21st chromosomes, we are just extra cute!

Don't forget about the Fristoe's iPad2 & iPod touch giveaway it ends this SATURDAY October 8th at midnight and they are still needing over $16,000 to bring Clare home. Please, please, please go over and donate $10 and beg your friends to do the same.

It really is ok!

2011-10-01T14:17:00.003-05:00

Three years ago Jason knew absolutely nothing about down syndrome. What little information I had about it was outdated from my bachelors degree in special education.

All that changed on October 9, 2008 when Alayna entered our lives. We were forever changed at her delivery. Not in a negative way as most people would think. Don't get me wrong it took Jason several days to get over the shock of her diagnosis and to stop worrying about her future.

Our lives are blessed.

Our lives are so much fuller, so much brighter and so much more connected to God and each other than they ever would have been if Alayna had been born without an extra chromosome.

That little extra bit of genetic material is only one part of who Alayna is, it in no way defines her. She is beautiful, loving, silly, smart, playful, bubbly, stubborn, feisty, cuddly, empathetic and the list could go on and on.

But, you see if God hadn't blessed us with this sweet girl....

Our eyes would NEVER have been open to searching Reece's Rainbow and God leading us to adopt this sweet, beautiful angel.

You see blessings sometimes come in small, unexpected packages. Alayna only weighed 4 pounds 13 ½ oz. But, the impact she has had and continues to have on our lives is enormous.

October is Down Syndrome Awareness month. It is also Alayna's birthday month. We will celebrate next week with cake and ice cream and family just like almost every other family does for their child's birthday. See here at our house, our girls aren't any different than Aidan who only has 46 chromosomes.

I am not a great blogger, or even a very frequent blogger these days (can't imagine why). Some of our bloggy friends (on our blog roll) will be blogging daily about ds. Hope you pop in and learn great stuff this month as I will.

Hopefully through our daily lives we have shown and continue to show the world that life with an extra chromosome is really ok.

I made a friend

2011-09-30T03:17:00.020-05:00

I was volunteering in Dariya's preschool class on Tuesday and a parent of one of the typical little girls in D's class stopped me and asked if I was Dariya's mom.

This parent went on to tell me that her daughter LOVES Dariya and talks about her everyday and is excited to go to school to see and play with Dariya.

Now mind you Dariya plays well with kids just as she did at the orphanage but, she doesn't seek kids out to interact or play with like Alayna does.

I witnessed this sweet little girl talking to Dariya and getting Dariya to participate in dancing during music class. "Come on Dariya, let's Dance" Oh be still my mama heart! My girl who has only been here in the country for 2 1/2 months is liked and has a friend.

You can't imagine my joy in watching this interaction and hearing this news. I was so thankful that this parent shared this with me.

We all want our kids to have friends and be a good friend but as a parent of children with special needs, Jason and I pray that our girls fit in well, make friends easily and use their God given talents and strengths to reach their highest potential.

Now to transfer this friend making skill to the school district and get her interacting with her classmates there.

Oh, how I love her!

REMINDER:
If you are joining us for the Step Up for Down Syndrome on Oct 29th and want a T shirt with our team name on it - "All for one 21 for all...the Cannon and Heigele families "you must register by TODAY (Sept 30th). Click the link above to be taken to our page! See you at the walk.

Wordless Wednesday: Just call my name and I'll be there

2011-09-28T12:21:00.000-05:00

Stinker!

2011-09-23T13:40:00.009-05:00

Juanita, do you know this look????? Picture is from May 2010

Last week, Juanita (the girl's preschool teacher at the school district) called to tell me that Alayna wasn't participating in their class. Not during story time, music time, craft time or playing on the playground! Every time she saw Juanita Alayna would cover up her eyes.

Juanita was concerned that Alayna's goals would be way under where she is performing due to her not showing them anything. As Alayna is excelling at her preschool class at the LeeAnn Britain IDC center I requested that Juanita observe her there to get an accurate place to start with her IEP goals.

Juanita sweetly obliged and came to visit the girls yesterday at IDC. Alayna was in circle time participating UNTIL she saw me then she double took and saw Juanita and immediately her hands went over her eyes. Stinker! We are trying to dispel the myth that people with down syndrome are always happy and totally compliant. LOL

One of the therapist did her best to keep Alayna from noticing Juanita but, she definitely shut down and did not participate like she usually does. When it was time for music Juanita and I watched from the observation window and Alayna popped back to her normal self, singing, dancing and participating with ease.

We are going to try to outsmart Alayna and video tape her in class at IDC next week so that the school staff has an accurate view of who she is and what she can do.

We are prayerful that in a couple weeks when Alayna turns 3 and is only at the school district that she will be comfortable and blossom like she has at IDC.

Don't forget if you are joining us for the Step Up for DS this year to have a tshirt with our team name on it you must register by next Friday Sept 30th.

Also, please visit the Fristoe's and pray, donate & share just $10 to their iPad2 & iPod touch giveaway. They are still needing about $15,000 to bring her home.

You are pretty sure you are potty training if...

2011-09-19T08:00:00.000-05:00

~You have half naked preschoolers roaming around your house carrying their toilet seats.

~While in speech therapy your preschooler is playing with a dollhouse and when asked by the therapist, "what do you see?" preschooler proudly announces, "potty" then of course has to make every little person in the family set pretend to use the potty and wash their hands. (Alayna)

~If you added up the minutes that you spend in the bathroom in one day (while said preschoolers are using the toilet) you are sure the total would be more than 23 ½ hours worth. Yes, running down the hall back and forth between bathrooms while said preschoolers are on their own toilets counts.

~The sound of anyone using the toilet elicits maniacal clapping and hoorays from the preschoolers in your home.

~The sound of the flush elicits shouts of "bye bye" (Dariya)

~You are overcome with bursts of crazy laughter, shouts and happy dancing that you don't have to change dirty diapers. (Please tell me this is normal or am I the only one?)

Potty time is going well at our house. At the orphanage Dariya was placed on the toilet 4 times a day. She would not let them know when she needed to use the toilet. Dariya did not enjoy sitting on the potty for them and would cry. We witnessed this the first day we met her and her crying fit broke my heart. We think she had to sit there until she produced something (saving on diapers remember?). At that point she didn't know how to push and control the event.

When we first arrived home I put her on the potty a few times but didn't have a schedule as she was rather traumatized by the potty experience from Ukraine. I just let her watch Alayna and help cheer lead for Alayna. Well what do you know. Peer pressure really does work.

In the two months Dariya has been home she has gone from not wanting to try to use the toilet to understanding the process and being able to control when she goes. She lets us know the majority of the time when she needs to go. She will put her potty seat on the toilet and pull her pants down when she needs to go. She will sign all done and say done when she is finished. She knows how to push and control the event now and will sign more when she is not finished. She is keeping her pull up dry each morning while in preschool and uses the potty for her teachers appropriately.
At preschool and in the preschool room at church Dariya has been telling them when she needs to use the toilet too! YAHOO go Dariya go!

Next step - Panties while we are at home!

Hope your potty training adventures are going well! We would love to hear how it is going at your house and any tips or secrets you have learned.

Abandoned and rejected: We need your help

2011-09-14T20:39:00.002-05:00

Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, "Give them up!" and to the south, "Do not hold them back." Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth" Isaiah 43:5-6
This is Clare, she is 4 years old. She was found abandoned and rejected in 2007 in a public area in China because she has down syndrome, cleft palate and other health issues.   She was placed in an orphanage, while a search for her parents was done. Her parents were never found so she was admitted as a resident. She was then sent to China Little Flower, a healing home--run by a church in Nebraska, for hospice care.

A g-tube was placed for feeding and instead of dying, she got stronger.  She has had 4 very close battles with death from pneumonia. She is now on "palliative care", which means she is not allowed to see a doctor.
Her oxygen levels are in the upper 70'-80's (normal should be 97-99%) and 40-50% when she is sick. Little Flower does a great job of keeping her alive. She is the oldest child there.    She has down syndrome, cleft lip, cleft palate, CHD, VSD, PFO, PH, tricuspid valve cleft cusp, tricuspid valve back flow, g-tube.

Clare has never eaten food, instead has only received pediasure through her g-tube. Clare doesn't speak or walk, but has started trying to.  This girl needs to get to the US asap to get the much needed medical care that China is unwilling to give her.

Fast forward to today, Clare has a forever family, Dewey & Suzanne Fristoe right here in Kansas City are working desperately to bring her home.    They aren't newcomers to the ds and medical complication world either. Their youngest daughter was born with that extra chromosome and multiple heart defects.

If you were at the airport for Dariya's homecoming you probably met Suzanne. She was one of the first people to email me and volunteer to be at the airport to video or take pictures or whatever we needed. She has a servant's heart.

They have completed all their paperwork and are awaiting their immigration clearance from the United States. China has already agreed to expedite Clare's case due to her immediate health concerns and need for surgery.

Only thing stopping them from bringing Clare home...you guessed it MONEY! They are still needing to raise around $16,000. They have done bake sales, garage sales, benefit concerts and have applied for grants. This family is looking to travel before or around Christmas.    They have bought an iPad2 but only have $250 worth of donations to their fundraiser!

I am pleading with you to pray for this family, visit their blog, Our Chinese Butterfly and support their iPad2, (32 gb wifi) & iPod Touch, (8gb 4th generation giveaway). Just a $10 tax deductible donation via Reece's Rainbow. You can also donate other prizes, blog/FB/Twitter their giveaway and help them get the word out.    They desperately need help.

If we stand alone we can do nothing but, together as the body of Christ can do amazing things.

Clare knows her family is coming. Here she is opening her care package from them.
Do you think she is thrilled to be getting a family or what?

Won't you stop by and help be part of Clare's homecoming story? Our Chinese Butterfly

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves…defend the rights of the needy. Proverbs 31:8,9

Break my heart, big girls ride the bus

2011-09-12T09:15:00.000-05:00

Today was the girls' first morning to ride the bus to preschool. They LOVE watching the bus, talking about the bus and I was sure they would be thrilled with riding it too.

Well, our morning was one of those mornings that you just want to crawl back into bed and start it over about 2 hours later...or maybe 2 days later.

About 15 minutes before the bus arrived Dariya was all ready and I was trying to get Alayna finished up. Alayna fell on her bum (not getting hurt) but was still crying when the bus arrived. So needless to say when I had to put her on the bus and let the aide Grandma Mary (she seriously was a sweet grandma) strap her into her car seat she was crying for me.

How that broke my heart to have to leave her and walk away. Alayna is usually very happy and excited to go to school so that made it even harder.

I let Ms. Juanita know that Alayna was having a moment and haven't gotten a call from her yet so prayerfully Alayna is happy as a clam now and is doing just fine.

Say a prayer for my heart and for Alayna to have a great day! Thanks. Hopefully when they ride the bus again on Friday they will both be HAPPY!

Smile!

2011-09-07T02:44:00.009-05:00

Aidan was out of school for teacher inservices so we took the opportunity to have him evaluated by an orthodontist.

Last month at Aidan's regular dental appointment Dr. David noticed that as Aidan's adult teeth are coming in his bite is really off. He has some top teeth in font of his back teeth and some behind them. He has 2, possibly 4 teeth that have fused together. Also, as his teeth grow in they don't have room so he will have a palate expander for the next year to increase the space for his teeth.

In the upcoming weeks he will have 3 ~~yippee more doctor's~~ appointments to take pictures, place expander bands and make casts for a palate expander, on the final appointment they will place the palate expander and a partial row of top braces to get his teeth in line. Once his teeth are straightened he will wear a retainer only at night to keep them in line until he looses all his baby teeth at around age 13 at which time he will have a full set of braces.

As the girls were in preschool, I took the opportunity to have a date with my sweet 8 year old after his appointment. He chose our county museum for the morning then to walk around a park with a nice lake. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed some Mom and Aidan time.

Hopefully this time next year all those teeth will be lined up all nicely! Even with an overbite I think he is the most handsome 8 year old on the planet.

Calling all Steppers...

2011-09-04T13:19:00.000-05:00

The weather is getting cooler and fall is in the air. That means more outdoor fun, football and of course the Step Up for Down Syndrome.

Click on the picture to join or donate to our team

The Kansas City Step Up Walk!

We are amazed at how God continues to bless us. First with Alayna & LC being NICU buddies, born one day apart and the amazing friends He placed in our lives in Courtney & Justin. Last year Jace was added to the mix now Dariya has come along to add to the party.

We hope you are able to join us for this awesomely fun day in which we celebrate all our sweeties with that extra 21st chromosome! You can join our team and/or donate up until the walk day but if you want a cool tshirt with our team name on it make sure you register by September 30th!

100% of the proceeds stay in Kansas City to benefit the Down Syndrome Guild of Greater Kansas City. The DSG serves over 1100 families and partners with 22 hospitals, 45 school districts and countless service providers in Kansas and Missouri.
Every dollar raised helps the DSG continue to provide vital programs and services offering educational and social support to people with Down syndrome, their families and the professionals who serve them. Important work waits to be done to enhance research, education and advocacy programs. Your support is critical in making these programs a reality.

We have many great family fun activites planned- inflatables for all ages, rocking climbing wall with NEW this year, -bungie pods. Pony rides, crafts, carnival games, clowns and so much more..

Get ready for some family fun- Radio Disney will be on stage, along with the BEST Network's Star Performers!
9am-11am: Registration
9am-1pm: Family festivities & Radio Disney on stage
10am-Noon: Lunch- Hamburger/Hot dogs
10:45am: Awards & Announcements
11am-11:20am: BEST Network Performance
11:30am: Kids Dash (age 5 and under)
11:40am: Color Guard/National Anthem
11:45am: Walk begins with KC Wolf
1:00pm: Event concludes

We are finally back online

2011-08-31T08:34:00.002-05:00

After a week and a half of no internet we are happy to be back online. Although I must admit the fasting from blogging, FB, email etc was kind of nice. It gave us plenty of time to spend together as a family.

Life is chugging along well.

The girls are doing well at the school district preschool. Dariya only acted like “Taz” one time during last Friday’s class. They did a theme on dinosaurs and Alayna immediately showed me her teeth and growled (which is her sign for dinosaur) when I picked her up.

They also started preschool at IDC on Tuesday. Alayna LOVES her teacher Ms. Ann, whom she has had since she was a wee one and was super excited to see all her friends at big kid school.

I know we are blessed beyond measure to have two great schools and such caring, Christian teachers helping our girls soar.

Dariya's teacher, Ms. Janie commented that "she has a lot of energy" Haha. I guess she kept them on the go. She did well also and separated from me with no hesitation and was really happy to see me when I returned.

The girls also had their first dentist appointments which went really well. Their dentist looked at their teeth and did some fun stuff like counting their teeth and showing them what all the instruments do. Dariya was cracking up at the water spray in her mouth and the “mister slurpy” suction straw. Overall, they both have good looking teeth with no signs of cavities. This is a relief because Dariya’s teeth were pretty stained when we were in Ukraine, I am assuming from all the juice they allowed her. Her breath also always had a vinegar scent but, since we have been home and she loves brushing all that is gone.

Aidan is doing great in 3^rd grade. He continues to be a book worm. Everywhere we go he has a book with him. He started the Harry Potter series and is fascinated. He is also excited to start piano back next week too.

Here are some pictures of what we have been up to while we were offline.

We have several fabulous nature centers within minutes of our house. Saturday morning was overcast and cool so we took the opportunity to get out and enjoy the outdoors. We nearly had the whole place to ourselves. We arrived just in time for the caretaker to be taking the birds of prey and the owls out on walks and to their enclosures.
He was super knowledgeable about the birds and taught us tons about these animals.

Dariya catches her first ride (sit) on the bike with Uncle Ed

We scored a sand/water table for $2 at a garage sale and the kids LOVE it!

Dariya's new glasses

2011-08-30T14:18:00.001-05:00

Thanks to everyone who commented and shared information with us about glasses for Dariya. We found a great pair for her from Specs4US, which is a company that specifically makes frames for people with down syndrome. The nose piece is down further so they fit well on her flat nasal bridge.

We have already been to have them adjusted twice since last Thursday. Hahaha. The sweet lady that Jason delivers to at Wal-Mart put a different kind of nose piece on for us, the continuous kind. It seems to work much better. She also showed us another frame that works perfectly for Dariya’s lack of nose bridge for only $50 (Nick Kids Jr for all you ds mamas that might need the info). I know where the next pair of glasses will be coming from…

I think I need to invent a GPS for toddler glasses though. She seems to be good at wearing them for a while then takes them off and sets them down. They are immediately camouflaged into my carpet. Ugh!

So without further ado... Here is her new look! What do you think?

Ok, just kidding these are the rock star sunglasses they got for having their eyes dilated. Scroll down to see her real new look!

Cardiology update

2011-08-24T12:12:00.000-05:00

We have no home internet and won't until next Tuesday so sorry for the lack of updates or checking in on others' blogs. I am going crosseyed trying to read emails on my phone.

Dariya was a trooper at her cardiology appointment. They were ontime which made things go much smoother. She had an EKG and an echocardiogram.

She laid still and was happy as a clam during the testing. I am sure the cheerios helped.

Her doctor, Dr. Kaine has been to Ukraine numerous times to help train doctors over there and had a group of Ukrainian doctors come here to learn. How cool is that? He worked in Donesk.

Dr. Kaine looked at all her tests and said Dariya does have a tiny Patent foramen ovale (pfo). This is the opening that is present in everyone in utereo which usually closes very soon after birth however, 15% of the populations never closes. This is not causing her any problems nor will it probably ever need repair. If repair were needed they would do a simple catheter procedure later in life. We come back in two years to make sure all is still ticking away well.

Thanks for all the prayers.

In other news, Dariya's glasses should be in by the end of the week, sorry you will have to wait for next week so I can upload pics.

Dariya is also jumping on the potty bandwagon. She is signing and saying "papa" when she needs to go consistently. She has gone several days in a row with dry/clean pants at waking times. Yahoo one happy mama here(have you seen the price of diapers?)

Take care and more from our house next week!

First day of preschool for the girls

2011-08-19T13:35:00.001-05:00

Today the girls started attending the school district's preschool. They officially won't be enrolled until October when Alayna turns 3 but the girls will go on Mondays and Fridays for evaluation purposes and to get accustomed to the environment. The will still attend the Lee Ann Britain center for preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays and have their individual OT, ST, & PT on Wednesdays until October.

Both preschools they will be attending are developmental preschool that have peer models. Meaning at least half the class is "typical, no special needs". This is awesome for the girls because it will prepare them for kindergarten in a few years in which there will probably be no one else in their school with ds.
I knew Alayna would have no problem heading off without me. Just like Aidan they both are independent and not clingy when it comes to mom leaving them. Dariya on the other hand is another story. She has been going to the preschool room during church service as has done very well but, is very clingy when I drop her off.

I debated keeping her home a bit longer to continue with the great bonding that we have worked on until now. But, at 3 1/2 we also thought she needs to be in the routine and involved with peers her own age that she can learn from. So off to school we go...

Of course you have to have a good night's sleep before school so big brother made sure they were read to, rocked and ready for bed on time.

Then you have to wait as mommy takes about a million pictures trying to get that perfect one (and never succeeding).

Showing off their backpacks. Alayna loves her, Dariya was not too sure about the turtle shell hanging out on her back and was thrilled when I took it off.
Big brother always gets them to look at the camera!

You say a little prayer....

And a BIG Amen (notice Alayna's disapproval)!

Then if you are blessed like us you head off to a wonderful preschool with amazing teachers and paras! We ♥ you Ms. Juanita.

Alayna did very well today, although she was very quiet. Prayerfully she will open up and use her great communication skills once she knows the staff and kids better. Dariya started off ok at drop off, no tears (except from Mommy) but, she quickly turned into the Tasmanian devil for a little while and showed her stubborn side that we haven't seen since our first visit with her in Ukraine. I am sure the stress of the new environment, lack of vision and mommy not staying freaked her out a bit.

I left the girls in good hands and came home and prayed as I cleaned the house the whole 2 1/2 hours they were there. Thanks to those who joined me in prayer! Upon pick up Juanita said they both had really good days. Dariya did get agitated when they put the snack up (surprise, surprise) but overall she did well and was signing along with them while they read Brown Bear, Brown Bear.

I look forward to next week when Dariya's glasses come in and then we can see how much she will ~~keep them on~~ truly blossom!

Where oh where can I find a bridge?

2011-08-17T15:04:00.000-05:00

For Dariya's nose that is!

Please excuse the chapped face, this was a couple weeks ago when she had a sinus infection but, it shows her lack of bridge oh so well!

Bless her cute, little, non existent bridge of a turned up nose. We are having a crazy time trying to find glasses for her. And with her vision so poor (seriously she can't see beyond her arm's length) we need to get them quick. Just for fun we happened into the Target optical to see if we could get anything at any of the discount vision places, ha ha ha no way! Glasses even fit on Alayna's sweet little nose but, not Dariyas.

So after many suggestions via our ophthalmologist, other ds mamas and calling around town to talk to the pediatric vision specialists. I THINK we have a frame that might work on her. Problem is our great insurance (and I do mean great, it truly is outstanding except in this case) isn't taken at ANY of the places that carry these specialty frames. UGH! So with vision insurance that covers frames and lenses for everyone in our family every year we can't use it. Drat!

So please don't worry when you hear the blood curdling screams of sticker shock when I hand over our payment.

In happier news, Dariya had her evaluation and conference for the infant development center where she will start preschool and therapies next week. They were super impressed with her mad OT/PT skills and she even showed off a few words for her speech therapist. Go Dariya go.

We know once we have her seeing well she will blossom even faster!

First day of school for Aidan & opthamology update on the girls

2011-08-15T16:28:00.000-05:00

Aidan began 3rd grade today. He was up at 6:15 to be sure that he wouldn't miss the bus (at 8:30)! Oh yes, he is a worrier. Thankfully he was excited about the day this morning and couldn't wait to get to school to see all his friends and to experience life as a 3rd grader.
The best part of his day was recess even though it was raining and they had to play inside.

The girls and I had his usual, first day back to school chocolate chip cookies prepared when he arrived home.

After we got Aidan off to school, the girls and I headed to the opthamologist for our 9:15am appointments. They both did very well even with the 3½ hour length of the appointment.
They both had their eyes dilated then we waited, and waited and waited. Seriously, the whole waiting room was empty and the check in girl was going to lunch. I asked if she would make sure they hadn't forgotten about us. Thankfully they hadn't and we only had to wait another 30 mintues! Fortunately, I came prepared with our iPad and goldfish (would have packed a lunch had I known). Elmo singing the ABC's is Alayna's favorite thing right now.

Alayna's eyes still have a slight astigmatism and she has a slight nystagmus however, her vision is in the normal range so check up in a year for her.

However, I knew that Dariya had glasses in Ukraine (even though she never wore them) but, what I was unprepared for is how bad her vision really is! Oh my goodness the poor girl's eyes are worse than mine (which my uncorrected vision is really poor). Bless her I felt so bad that she has been functioning without glasses this whole time. Now we are trying to find frames that will fit her ~~non-existant~~ sweet little bridge of her nose.

We have a name of a type of glasses (Erin's world) that are specifically made for kids with ds but, so far nobody in town that carries them is covered by our insurance. Go figure! Will keep trying and hopefully she will be seeing 20/20 in no time! Any ds mamas out there that have any other good frames to try let us know please.

Dariya also has an astigmatism in one eye and that one eye isn't working as hard as the other. We will try the glasses first but if it doesn't self correct she will need some patching.

Dariya will go back in 2 months for a follow up with her new glasses. Prayerful she will gladly wear them.

Next appointment August 24th: Cardiology for Dariya to access her heart status!

Back to school for everyone

2011-08-12T19:28:00.000-05:00

Last night we had back to school night for our big 3rd grader. Aidan was ~~totally nervous~~ super excited to meet his teacher. Once he stepped into Ms. Hale's room though and she had popcorn on the desk for all the kids he knew she was going to be his favorite teacher ever! Popcorn is his all time favorite snack! He seriously was so nervous that when she said, "Bye Aidan, nice to meet you, see you on Monday" he didn't know what to say. Oh dear, does my boy worry or what.

Today after thinking about the evening he is really excited to start on Monday and looking forward to 3rd grade. But, he still keeps reminding me that I won't know what to do without him around here. (You know besides duck whispering he is a pretty good toddler whisperer!)

Today I had the pleasure of welcoming Alayna and Dariya's preschool teacher, Ms. Juanita and the Early childhood facilitator, Mandy to our home to begin the paperwork process to get the girls ready to transition from their current placement at the LeeAnn Britain center to the school district's preschool in October.

Last year when we went to visit the school districts preschool we were blessed with meeting Mandy and Juanita and knew our daughter(s) would be in great hands. Then we learned that Juanita has a 22 year old son who also sports that extra chromosome.
How cool is God that he placed this sweet lady in just the right place that she will be our girls' early childhood special educator? Amazing, we are truly thankful for the blessing of awesome teachers.

The girls will begin the school district's preschool on Monday and Fridays so that the staff can begin the process of testing and evaluating the girls so we can have their IEP's (Individualized Education Plans) ready to go by the time Alayna turns 3 in October when they will transition completely over to the school district and go Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings.

Can't believe all my babies are growing up....time goes SO fast. Tomorrow Dariya will be home with us one month already!

Few words Wednesday: A day at the Farmstead

2011-08-10T01:14:00.009-05:00

As the weather dropped out of the 100's into the 80's and it is Aidan's last week of summer vacation (insert sigh) we thought we would take in the local children's farmstead.

We had taken Dariya to PetsMart the other day and she was NOT at all excited about being there or seeing the animals so I wasn't sure what to expect at the farmstead.

She surprised me and loved the place. She was signing chicken, fish, duck and cow after seeing them! YAHOO!

One lady came up and asked how old the girls were and when I told her she complemented them on how well behaved they were. (obviously she didn't see the toilet paper unrolling contest that the two of them shared yesterday LOL)

Aidan showing the girls how to saddle up in the dairy barn.

Aidan was the duck whisperer and the girls were loving them coming so close as Aidan fed them

But, the best thing we saw at the Farmstead was our favorite UPS guy. Jason (that is hubby and daddy for those of you who are new to our blog) just happened to be on this route today and called to tell us and meet us before we headed home for lunch and naps.

*** Please excuse cell phone pics as I was too lazy to take my good camera along!

Dariya's dedication day

2011-08-07T22:15:00.000-05:00

A beautiful evening on the lake with a slight break in the heat gave us the perfect setting for Dariya's dedication. We were joined by church members, my brother, sister in law and two neices.
We were thrilled that one month after Gotcha day we are able to dedicate Dariya's life and ours to helping her follow Jesus and prayerfully one day she will make that leap of faith to be baptized.

When Aidan was 5 years old he refused to go to this service unless he could be baptized, so by choice has made his leap of faith to walk with God.

Two years ago at this same service we dedicated our sweet Alayna.

Notice the dress Alayna is wearing. It was a 2/3 T top. Yes, I knew it was a top but it was such a cute dress on her and was perfect for the beach that I bought it.

Little did we know that 2 years later we would be welcoming her big sister into our family and into the body of Christ so we were thrilled to have Dariya wear the same top.

Aidan is saying, "Can I go swim now?"

After the service the kids could swim and play on the beach. Dariya enjoyed getting her toes dipped in the sand

Dariya has already learned to pray before every meal, during church services and folds her hands and prays at bedtime (with a long oratory, trust me) then signs AMEN!

It is the sweetest thing to watch this girl who a few weeks ago had never heard anything about Jesus already starting to listen to Bible stories intently and understanding the word pray.

I still get choked up every time I think about God choosing her and placing her in our family.

We are thankful to all our family and friends who came out tonight to share in this beautiful event and look forward to watching Dariya grow in faith over the years.

*thanks Aunt Jane for taking pics and video xoxoxo

Wonder twin powers...

2011-08-04T13:47:00.000-05:00

Activate!

If I only had a dollar for every time we have already been asked if they are twins (even when I don't have them dressed alike). Jason found these cute dresses in Ukraine and had to get them for the girls.

I am not sure what I am so busy at doing but, it seems at the end of the day I have just kept even with life. Obviously, keeping up with the blog isn't happening either.

The girls are learning so much from one another and from Aidan. Alayna is learning to be more independent, self help skills and sharing not only her things but her family (and doing quite well at it) and Dariya is learning to enjoy books, new signs and words daily (she is over 30 signs and 10 spoken words), and be a part of a family. They compliment each other perfectly and truly enjoy being together. I am still amazed at the perfect way God brought us together!

Oral hygiene is always important especially on dentist visit day! The girls watched Aidan and I get our teeth cleaned and did really well, they go for first dentist visits at the end of the month.

I know I am outnumbered. Thankfully after they helped themselves to a chip picnic on the floor they put the empty bag back in the pantry, I guess in hopes that I didn't notice. Note to self: Do not leave pantry unlocked when going to rescue ~~stupid~~ dog who yet again got trapped in the playhouse in 110° weather.

We have a preschool intake conference Friday morning for the girls. They will start preschool at the end of August at the infant development center where Alayna has gone since she was 3 months old. In October, when Alayna turns 3 we will transition both girls to the school district's preschool. Alayna is so ready for preschool. She is communicating verbally well, singing words to lots of songs, knows her colors, the ABC's and most of the sounds, and can count to ten.

Before we brought Dariya home I was worried about her starting preschool so soon, but I think she is totally ready too. Even though she doesn't have all the "school skills" that Alayna has right now she is a quick learner, enjoys learning and will soar by leaps and bounds.

We scored a great double stroller on Craigslist for a few dollars! YAHOO for bargains and big brothers!

Love Alayna striking her best Marilyn Monroe pose....seriously where did this cute girl come from?

Hope you have a great weekend, Dariya is getting dedicated at church at our beach side service on Sunday night! YAHOO! Hoping she will be over her cold that has her face all red, irritated and snot covered (if so I will post pictures and video =)

Dariya is brilliant...

2011-07-28T02:14:00.004-05:00

We got the great news today that Dariya passed all her tests with flying colors! We had taken her to our pediatrician 2 days after we arrived home to run all blood work, labs and have new x rays taken to rule out TB that the doctors in Ukraine thought she might have.

We are happy to report our girl is spot on healthy. No parasites, no TB, no thyroid concerns, no celiac (Alayna doesn't have it either...doing an eat more bread happy dance over here), no health concerns at all! She is a happy, healthy, chunky 30 pound bundle of love.

Yahoo Dariya we are so proud of your acing your tests without even studying. You are a rock star girlfriend. Next week is our preschool intake conference won't they be impressed?

Next tests, August 15th ophthalmology appointment (we are expecting to get glasses as she had glasses in Ukraine but they couldn't keep them on her tiny little bridge of her nose), August 24th cardiology consult just to verify her heart is perfect and then in September both girls go to the ds clinic for their annual check ups and spinal x rays to make sure they don't have Atlantoaxial Instability.

It truly does seems like Dariya has been with us forever. Being in Ukraine seems so long ago even though it was only two weeks ago we were arriving home. I still have a hard time wrapping my head around how intricate God's plan was to bless us with this little girl. Each day I thank him for the gift of Dariya, she is amazing and I can't imagine our lives without her.

Life continues to go smoothly, minus the dead battery on my car last week (my own fault) and having strep throat this week. Even after Jason went back to work.

We were able to attend church this week for the first time since being back from Ukraine. What a blessing to be in worship. I was very glad that Dariya did not attempt to go to anyone, she walked around a little bit but, kept me in her sights the whole time. Ahh that does a momma's heart good.

The girls are having a wonderful time playing together and learning from one another. Alayna is quick to offer Dariya the sign and word for something when needed. Alayna LOVES to pat Dariya on the back or have me pat her on the back, ever the little momma. So now Dariya clearly says, "pat, pat, pat". When I get Alayna up in the morning or after nap her first word is, "Dora" (Dariya) Oh boy, am I at the bottom of the totem pole now...trust me she has hugs and kisses for sister always, and some for mom well sometimes =)!

Dariya has turned into a fish in the bathtub. In Kiev, she enjoyed the bath but, I couldn't get her to lay down or really play in it she just kept washing herself. Well, 2 weeks later she is like a highly trained dolphin at Sea World nearly doing flips over Alayna to lay down in the bath and swim around. It is truly comical.

Aidan is loving having two little sisters chase him around. It is fun to watch the three of them interact with each other. Dariya is a fantastic eater. My kids are definitely not picky eaters and Dariya fits right in. Aidan obliged her with passing off the rest of his cooked broccoli last night for dinner (he loves it raw but, not cooked). Yep she ate it right up! Now that is a loving brother isn't it?

Finally a special thanks to Sarah Marie, who continues to bless our family. She made the girl's dresses they are wearing in the new header pic and Aidan's shirt which says,"Big brother x 2 with a heart! Super cute! We got tons of compliments on them at church on Sunday!

Dariya's homecoming pictures

2011-07-24T16:10:00.000-05:00

When Alayna was 3 months old she started therapies and classes at the LeeAnn Britain Center. We were blessed with Shannon Lockwood as Alayna's teacher. Shannon blessed us again with her great photography skills and surprising us at the airport to capture Dariya's homecoming.
Thank you Shannon!

welcome home dariya from Shannon Lockwood on Vimeo.

Also, a big thanks to Jody Stump, from our church, for compiling the above video documenting Dariya's homecoming. We are so blessed with all the pictures and videos and you guys putting them together for me to post...PRICELESS.

This day will be forever etched in my memory but, it is so nice to have it captured so we can watch it over and over.

Nothing says summer like...

2011-07-21T20:36:00.000-05:00

Two scantily clad toddlers running through the sprinkler. I haven't been brave enough to take the girls to our community pool by myself so we are making due with our splash pool and sprinkler time with dad. Nothing better. Truly seems like Dariya has been with us forever.

The giggles that come from the backyard are priceless. We are so blessed.

Dariya is a water baby for sure. Doesn't matter how cold the water is she is always ready for a dip.

Alayna on the other hand would like daddy to turn the water up about 40°

Who needs splash cove when we have daddy around?

You tell me who is having more fun, Jason or Dariya????

So how is it going?

2011-07-18T15:34:00.000-05:00

I think this is the question we have received most so here is a brief update on us.

We have kept a low profile and remained at home except to take Dariya to the doctor. We are very thankful to the families that surprised us with meals and treats over the past few days. What a blessing.

I have gone to bed early every night to get back on US time and feel like I have finally kicked jet lag.

As Jason is going back to work tomorrow we ventured to take the kids to the pool for a little while and Dariya truly loved it. We will see how well I do with 2 toddlers at the pool with just Aidan and I.

All the kids seem to be doing very well and enjoying each other. Aidan can make the girls laugh and giggle like no one. They of course are entertained by following him around. The girls have spent the past few days kissing, hugging and playing well together.

Dariya has fit in nicely to our family. She naps when Alayna naps in the afternoon and goes to bed when Aidan and Alayna go to bed and gets up about the same time. She is eating well and sleeping well. She is slowly losing the head "rocking/banging" that she did in the orphanage to go to sleep. She had almost completely stopped it in Kiev but, we were all in one bed in our studio apt so now she is in a crib next to our bed she does it some but, not as much as she did the first night with us. She enjoys bathtime with her siblings and then reading books in our bed before we rock and put her down. She likes cuddle time, kissing and hugging - she in one affectionate little girl!

The day after we arrived home Alayna didn't like it when Dariya cried (she is a tender heart). So if Dariya cried, Alayna cried. Thankfully, they are small enough I can pick them both up at the same time. But, it has gotten better as the days have gone by.

Dariya was very impatient when waiting to eat and would make noises before mealtimes, to show us she was irritated. We have gotten her to stop the noises (for the most part) and fold her hands to pray with the family before meals! Amen!

We weren't able to attend church this first week home due to Aidan having a bad tummy at 4am on Sunday. He came into our room and forgot Dariya is sleeping in there and woke everyone up. Unfortunately, Dariya and I were up for the day. But, no worries Dariya kept me entertained with her fine motor skills...opening and shaking the spices all over the kitchen floor when I went to get Alayna up. Should have taken a pic but I was still too tired to think about it. Jason to the rescue new cabinet lock placed on the pantry within 30 minutes of spice clean up #2.

Dariya is continuing to pick up signs and words like crazy. Alayna had a language explosion while we were in Ukraine too. On Thursday morning after breakfast she said, "down, Dariya (which sounds like Dora), play. How is that for an understandable 3 word sentence? (I want down to go play with Dariya). These two are going to learn so much from each other.

Dariya had her first check up with our pediatrician last Friday. Our pediatrician LOVED her. Dariya was too dehydrated to draw labs on so thankfully she was well hydrated and was an easy draw today.

We know there will be some hard days but, overall I would say it has been a very smooth transition for us so far. Of course as Jason heads back to work tomorrow I could be changing my story...will keep you posted.

Goldfish, only in America!

Enjoying a splash in the backyard

Bringing Dariya HOME!!!

2011-07-15T13:23:00.001-05:00

After 24 hours of traveling we made it safely home on Wednesday evening around 7pm. As we landed tears filled my eyes just knowing we were so close to the kids. When we walked out of the gate we saw Aidan and Alayna through the glass. As soon as Alayna saw us she started crying happy tears! Oh how we missed them. I couldn't help but cry when I held them for the first time in 5 weeks.

We then saw the huge crowd of people that came to welcome us home.
What a blessing to be surrounded by such great friends and family to help us celebrate our girl's homecoming. Thank you to everyone who made her day so special.

Dariya did very well on all 3 flights. She fussed a little on the first flight because she was so tired and wanted to go back to sleep but, all the strange sounds kept her awake. Oh and that poopy diaper probably didn't help. You would think we were first time parents. But, overall she was a trooper.

She slept on the long flight for 2 hours and fell asleep on the final flight to KC and was still sound asleep when we arrived at the gate. I thought she would sleep through the homecoming but, she woke up just enough to see everyone (not to focus clearly on them though LOL).

As the crowd dispersed and we headed to our van it really hit me that we are finally home. A family of 5 together!

Thank you Father for guiding us, leading us and protecting us on this journey. We strapped the girls in their car seats, Dariya wasn't too happy about it for a minute then settled in and wanted to sing some songs. Alayna helped me sing and Dariya signed along. Sweetness x 2!

Here is the link to the local news channel that covered our story. Jason and I are going to have an interview with the reporter sometime soon.

http://www.kctv5.com/story/15082501/metro-family-welcomes-international-child-to-new-home

A huge thanks to all those that took pics and video for us. Many more pictures and videos to come from our awesome photographers and videographers!

There is no place like home!

Bringing Dariya home: It is finished...

2011-07-12T10:38:00.000-05:00

Daddy & Dariya proudly show off her passport, visa and immigration papers.

The sheep was a gift to Dariya from a very nice couple that live down the hall from us in Kiev, Yuri & Gala

We had our visa appointment this afternoon and after a mere 45 minutes we were issued her visa to enter the United States. This was the last document we needed to leave Ukraine and bring her home.

Get your kicks on Route 66, Kiev....

Our work here in this country is complete, it is finished.

These words, "it is finished" were the last words Jesus spoke from the cross. This shows us that he faithfully fulfilled his mission to save mankind from sin. For this I am so completely thankful.

As I laid awake last night those words kept swirling in my head. We would have nothing without Christ. We feel like we have been called on this mission by Christ to bring this sweet child home. We aren't amazing or fantastic in what we are doing, we are sinners saved by the blood of Jesus. We are just trying to be obediant to God's call for our family. Through this journey we have continued to be blessed through our obediance to His call.

We are prayerful that other's lives have been changed and that more orphans will soon meet their forever families through our story. Maybe God is calling you to pray, donate, or even adopt. If you asked us in December if we would be in Ukraine hours away from flying home with our new daughter we would have said you are crazy. Never say never. Pray and seek His guidance.

A fabulous journey it has been. We have enjoyed Ukraine and will miss our friends here dearly. Jason wants to come back for the Euro 2012 games next summer, I told him to get our dossier ready and we can come back. (Don't have a heart attack Grandma, it was a joke).

As we sign off from Kiev we will leave you with pics of Dariya having her celebratory pasta dinner and ice cream for dessert.

I fit right in with the Cannon family. I LOVE ice cream!

Just a friendly reminder for those of you who are meeting us at the airport or those who will see us soon in the community or at church etc...Dariya probably will make attempts to come to you.

We request that you help us help her to understand that she can't jump into everyone's arms by telling her no (at least for a little while until she gets settled well into our family). Thank you!

Bringing Dariya home: Consulate appt and medical

2011-07-11T05:54:00.000-05:00

We arrived at the consulate a little before 9am for our appointment. They asked us if we had a copy of our appointment letter. Um, no I just emailed and made the appointment last week and don't have a printer (guess I should have put one in my carryon LOL). So they looked at the appointment docket and our names were not on it.
No worries, the guard said come in and let me check a few things. We went through the security checkpoint . We had to be checked and rechecked because we brought in our backpack and they kept asking if we had anything electronic in our bag...no I don't think so. Then we finally figured out Dariya's toy telephone was in the backpack.
Once we cleared security we entered the main building. Jason and I were both expecting to see other US citizens there. Nope not a one. There was a huge line outside of Ukrainians waiting to apply for a US visa.

Once inside we were sent directly to the international visa/adoption area. We were served immediately by a very friendly lady. She helped me complete the necessary documents. Dariya's birth name had to be written in Ukrainian, I have gotten good at some Russian language while here but haven't mastered the writing. (Victoria we should have had you do this for us).

It was almost a catastrophe as Jason set our plastic file folder containing all our paperwork on the top of the stove this morning. When I looked at the embassy paperwork some of them had singe marks on the bottom, I thought he had spilled his coffee on them (thankfully they were the extras I had printed and not the completed ones.)

I was sent to the cashier to pay our $404 for Dariya's visa and brought the receipt back to the person who was helping us. She gave us our copies of the documents, told us our appointment for our interview is at 2pm on Tuesday and sent us off to our medical.

As we were walking out I looked at my watch and it was 9:10. YAHOO the day was going well.

We made it to the medical by 9:40 and saw the nurse immediately and the doctor shortly afterwards. Dariya had to show off her singing and signing with a round of Oh Mr Sun and Itsy Bitsy Spider. The doctor loved it. She checked Dariya out and suggested we get some saline drops for her nose as she is a little stopped up, especially before traveling.
She then said she would complete the paperwork and give it to us in about 20 minutes. We went to the cafeteria so Nico and Jason could get a coffee.
We were counting our blessings thinking we were only going to be at the hospital about an hour.

Then the doctor came and met us and said that she wanted to have chest xrays done on Dariya because she had one negative TB screen at the orphanage then had another one with numbers a little elevated.

We went down the hall and were immediately ushered into the xray room. Jason opted to stay outside (chicken). They had Dariya lay flat on her back and me hold her down. Oh my imagine trying to hold down a really greased pig. Dariya was having none of the xrays and moved around too much during the first 3 xrays so they did a fourth. I had Jason come in to hold her legs while I held her arms. I am sure the people in the hallway thought we were killing her. She was screaming for all she was worth. But, as soon as it was over and I picked her up she was fine again.

We stood in the hallway and prayed that her xrays showed clear. We were informed the next step was to go to a nicer facility and they would have to sedate Dariya and do a complete scan on her. This would take several more days here in Kiev.

Thankfully God again heard and answered our prayers. The doctor called us in again and said she was ok to sign all the paperwork to allow Dariya to get her visa. We will have to follow up with our home pediatrician in a month on the TB screening.

Overall, Dariya is doing very well. Being in a studio apartment we can't get away from her when we put her down to bed. Last night she decided to stay awake until we gave up and went to bed with her at 10:30. As soon as I layed her down when we arrived home today she rolled over and went straight to sleep. Good girl!

Final step, interview tomorrow at 2pm and sign all the documents we filed today. Then we will be issued her visa about an hour later!

Please continue to pray for our journey home. Dariya and I have bulkhead seating on the long flight but Jason is a few rows behind us. Please pray that someone will change seats with us so we can all be together, that Dariya sleeps and is great on the flight home. Also, we ask prayers for the transition for all of us.

Bringing Dariya home: Lazy Sunday

2011-07-10T07:44:00.000-05:00

As we had no where to go or no place to be today we decided just to enjoy the day and have a lazy Sunday. Of course, Dariya decided to wake up around 6:20 but she is a quiet snuggler in the morning so she stayed in bed until 7:30 with me.

We got ready and met Joel & Rachel Golden for lunch at the Ukrainian buffet. The Golden's are a sweet couple that are adopting their first children via RR, Jackson and Josiah.
A couple from our building who speak good English introduced themselves and Jason shared what we were doing in Ukraine. They thought Dariya was wonderful and were so glad to meet us and know our story. They were just heading into town and asked us if we would like a ride to the restaurant. Very kind (wish they would have picked us up, the restaurant is about a mile from the apartment but it is all up hill). LOL

A building across from the president's office

Us with the Golden's in front of the President of Ukraine's office

Dariya is napping well in the afternoon. It took her quite a long time to go to sleep last night so we are hoping that she gets into a good sleep routine once we get home. Praying she sleeps on the plane too, otherwise the people next to us will be asking for new seats I am afraid.

Praying our embassy appoinments tomorrow go well and quickly.

Bringing Dariya home: HOMECOMING INFORMATION

2011-07-09T06:07:00.001-05:00

We are so grateful to everyone who has prayed for, donated, and helped us bring Dariya home. We know we are loved and are happy to have you on this journey with us.

(The following excerpt is from an adjustment and attachment post by Tesney Davis, Kirill's mommy it is so well written that I asked her if we could borrow some of it, to read the whole post click on the link)

We know some people are planning to meet us at the airport when we arrive home. That will be wonderful and touching for us to see familiar and supportive faces when we arrive. We want you all to know that Aidan, Alayna and Dariya are our first priority when we arrive home.

In Dariya's best interest we will not pass her around for anyone to hold at the airport and we will have to be mindful of overloading her with new things and people. We know you will want to hug, kiss, and help spoil Dariya, and trust us we want you to. But, it is recommended that we be the only ones to do that at first to improve her chances of attaching strongly to us. We know that it may feel disappointing to some of you because you have shared in our excitement of meeting Dariya.

As strange as it may seem, adopted children who act very outgoing and affectionate with strangers is not a healthy thing. It is called “indiscriminate affection” and can mean that they haven’t really attached to anyone. It would not be a good sign that Dariya is attached to us if during her first months home she will let just anyone take her and hold her without searching for us. For example, when she walked up to a stranger on the streets of Kiev last night and grabbed his hand (not so good).

She will be adapting to a lot of new things…new parents (instead of many caregivers), new brother and sister, new home, new foods, new time zone. Although we cannot predict how long it will take Dariya to adjust to our home, we feel confident that by implementing some specific parenting approaches it will happen more quickly than if we did not implement those approaches.

We appreciate your time and understanding in reading this. Thank you again for your continued prayers, love, and encouragement.

We will be arriving Wednesday, July 13th at 6:20 pm on United flight 3670 and would love for you to welcome us home. I know Sarah Marie is taking pictures for us, anyone else who would like we would love more pictures. Also, if anyone is coming has a digital video camera we would love to have video of her homecoming. Please email me and let me know if you are available to do this. Thanks! See you Wednesday.

Breakfast of champions - Daddy's oatmeal to start the day!

How better to celebrate independence than dancing in the fountains of Independence Square, downtown Kiev

Saint Michaels church

She LOVES the sling Grandma, actually fell asleep in it on our walk back home

Bringing Dariya home: GOTCHA DAY!!!

2011-07-08T14:25:00.000-05:00

We were picked up a little before 9am so we could be at the passport office at 9 when it opened. We waited about 10 minutes and were issued Dariya's passport. We then drove around the corner to the orphanage to celebrate and get our little girl.

We were greeted by Tamara and Oksana, our two favorite caregivers. We were thankful they were working today. They allowed us to take pictures of the whole groupa area and of all the kids. One little sweetie you will see me holding in the video will be listed on RR shortly.
We took bubbles, candy, fruit and cookies for the kids and chocolates, tea and champagne for the caregivers.

Our sweet friend, Victoria translated a thank you card for the caregivers and for Sasha (Dariya's birth father).
We stayed and played with the kids and visited with Sasha for an hour then we gave our final hugs, kisses and tearful goodbyes and made the drive to Kiev.

Dariya did really well in the car for the first 1 1/2 hours then as it was getting close to nap time she just wanted to lay down but she couldn't. She fussed a little then would be fine. We made it to Kiev around 2:30. We are in the same apartement we had when we first arrived. We then tried to get her down for a nap. Haha, she was too excited and had caught her second wind. So we opted to head out and walk around.

We were blessed to be able to have an early dinner with Jill and Jonathan tonight. We got home and Skyped with Alayna and Grandma (Aidan was playing with a friend). The girls were throwing each other kisses SO CUTE!

As we guessed Dariya LOVES the water so bath time was a blast then she was OUT for the night!

We are very thankful for the continued prayers on our journey. Please pray for our smooth ending at the embassy on Monday and Tuesday and for our safe travels (and good napping for Dariya) on the flight home.

NOW here is what you came for so enjoy! One less orphan in the world tonight.....

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Bringing Dariya home: UPDATE Gotcha day

2011-07-07T10:41:00.001-05:00

YAHOO, can you hear us hollaring from here? Dariya's passport is in and will be ready for us to pick up around 9:30 tomorrow morning. We will pick up the passport and go back to the orphanage to break her out.
Her birth father is going to come and say goodbye, hoping her birth mother shows up too.

We will be in the capital city just after noon. We are making arrangements for our flights. Please pray there is a great flight into KC on Wednesday at a decent time so the kids can meet us at the airport.

We won't be able to blog until tomorrow night our time, afternoon in the U.S. (sorry Renee you will have to enjoy your coffee and read someone else's blog for the morning LOL)

Thank you for all the prayers, comments and support while we have been here it truly makes all the difference.

As we were dropping Dariya off (for the last time) one little 3 year old in her groupa broke down crying and was saying in Russian, "I want a Mama and Papa". You know I left there crying. Unfortunately, his mother is very ill but hasn't released him to be adopted so he is stuck there. Also, the little 18 month old boy that took such a liking to Jason when we first arrived now greets us with hugs and kisses and gives us more before we leave for the day.

How can I be so joyous and so sad all at once? Please pray for these children with me.

Bringing Dariya home: Pre Gotcha day visit

2011-07-07T04:55:00.000-05:00

Dariya was very snuggly today, wanting to spend most of the first hour in my lap. She has not wanted to go back to the groupa lately and has cried saying, "mama", tomorrow sweet girl, tomorrow we pray!

As it wasn't raining we took her outside for the rest of our time. We were able to see a couple other RR cuties but couldn't get pictures.

We are 99% sure that Dariya's passport will be back on Friday afternoon. The plan is for us to have our regular 10am - noon visit Friday morning then be picked up by Nico around 2pm Friday afternoon and go get her passport then go to the orphanage and break our girl out of there after her nap!!

After 4 weeks of being in country we are ready to break our girl out of there and bring her home.

We will go directly to Kiev for the weekend, have our embassy appointments Monday and Tuesday (already have the appointments booked) and fly out Wednesday morning (still haven't bought the tickets yet so not sure what time we will be home.) We are looking for someone to take pictures and video at the airport for us, if you are interested please email me.

I will post a little post after our morning visit tomorrow to let you know for sure if it is Gotcha day, then you will have to be patient and wait a bit on the Gotcha day video.

Dariya and Sasha, her birth father

Chasing bubbles...

Patty cake

Giggles with daddy, of course

Bringing Dariya home: Where's Dariya?

2011-07-06T04:44:00.000-05:00

Woke up this morning and checked email to find another sweet blessing from Sarah Marie. She not only has raised money for us, donated to our silent auction, has made the girls matching dresses and Aidan a big brother top, now she has digitally scrapbooked our trip here in Ukraine.

What a joy you are Sarah, thank you!

I forgot to blog yesterday about Dariya's caregivers comments to us via our facilitator. They are very happy for Dariya, pleased to see the bond we have made with her, for her to be joining our family and wished us well on our trip home. They even shared with Luda all about the songs that Dariya was doing sign language to!

These women will definitely miss this little one...

So much cuteness! ♥ this girl!!!!

Daddy and Dariya take turns rolling the rings down the slide each day then Dariya has her turn.

Now that the wait is over and the paperwork is done we are more than ready to head home. We truly have enjoyed this country and will miss our friends that we have made dearly but, there is no place like home.

Please continue to pray that Dariya's passport comes before Friday! Thank you!

Bringing Dariya home: Birth certificate, Passport and birth dad

2011-07-05T11:05:00.000-05:00

After 7 hours of paper chasing by Luda, our facilitator, (we only had to be in the chase for 3 hours of it) we have Dariya's new birth certificate with our names, we closed her bank account out and donated the $2800 to the orphanage, and took Dariya out in her first car ride to get her passport applied for.

When we got in the car with her she didn't know what to do and got a little anxious, she didn't cry but wouldn't be still for about 30 seconds and was arching her back then she wrapped her arms around my neck and was fine. They don't use car seats over here so she had to sit on my lap. I think I was more stressed about it than she was, oh and the driver swerving to miss every bump in the road AHHH!

We arrived back at the orphanage around 4:30 and took Dariya back to her groupa so we could sign the final paperwork in order for us to take her out for good.

We are praying to have her passport back on Friday. If her passport comes back as planned on Friday. We will have gotcha day and head to the capital for the weekend. On Monday and Tuesday we would have our embassy appointments which would mean flying home on Wednesday July 13th. Nope we haven't booked the tickets yet we will know Thursday night if her passport will be ready for Friday so then we will book.

Once we were finished with the paperwork we went back and got Dariya to play in the sports room for a while. About 5:45 Luda phoned us and said that the birth dad (Sasha, nickname for Alexander) had arrived at the orphanage to meet us.   He had talked to the director to find out when he could meet us and when someone would be there to translate. He understands some English but doesn't speak it.

We were able to visit with him for about 20-25 minutes. He was very kind, quiet and soft hearted (sound just like Jason? YEP!) We were able to tell him that we will raise Dariya to know that he loves her. He gave us his email address so we can email him pictures of Dariya as she grows up. He was so kind he said maybe just around her birthday each year. He didn't want to ask for more than we were willing to give.   Dariya got her beautiful blue eyes from her birthdad, they look exactly like his.

We didn't take our camera with us today as we didn't know we would be visiting Dariya (trust me it wasn't my idea) but, thankfully Luda allowed us to use her camera and take pictures of Sasha and Dariya. He is going to come visit again on Friday so I will get many pictures then. Luda is on the bus now back to the capital so we will have to post pictures later.

We visited a bit longer with Luda after Sasha had to go back to work and learned that she was taking updated pictures of RR kids and new kids to be listed on RR. One little boy is 2 years old with FAS from Dariya's groupa! Please start praying for his forever family, he isn't walking and needs a family asap!

Bringing Dariya home: Our FINAL day (Independence day)

2011-07-04T05:32:00.000-05:00

Of the 10 day wait that is (sorry to get your hopes up Grandma!)

Tuesday morning will entail more paperwork chasing so we will miss our normal morning visit with our girl. We will pick up the court decree (just get teary eyed thinking about it), get Dariya's new birth certificate, apply for her passport, and close her bank account out (the country provides a small stipend monthly for child maintenence like they do in England) we will donate all that money back to the orphanage.

Also, our sweet friend Courtney Heigele shipped 80 pounds worth of cloth diapering supplies to us via, Wayne & Jennifer Johnson who are arriving back in this country today. We are so thankful to be able to present the orphanage with this donation. Courtney is also working with wholesale diapering companies to use the chip in money to send cloth diapers directly to the orphanage. A HUGE thank you to Courtney and ALL of you for this outpouring of love to Dariya's orphanage!

We will miss the family cookout and fireworks display at my brothers house today for July 4th.

As I think of independence I can't help but to think of all the kids here who have no independence. They remain in these baby houses or institutions because of money. Adoption is expensive but, when God calls you he always provides. We have been blessed beyond measure with the the body of Christ surrounding us and donating to bring us here to rescue our daughter. She will have independence in a few days but, what about the rest of the RR kids at this orphanage (and this is just at THIS orphanage)....

Orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names.

Sweet "Lorie" who is already 6, she will be institutionalized this year. Why because she has Cerebral Palsy..

Or what about "Angela" who is cute as a bug and also sports an extra chromosome like Alayna & Dariya. She is stuck here because of that chromosome.

Or "Jewell", again stranded here because of parental abuse and Cerebral Palsy and don't forget "Noah" he is here too and stuck because of his CP diagnosis. They have no independence.

Click HERE to make a donation to any of these sweet children and give them a chance at independence. If you aren't able to make a donation today please pray for these children, share about Reece's Rainbow and how they are literally saving the lives of children (it costs you nothing but, will save the life of a child).

When these kids age out of the baby house they will not survive in an institution. They will be left to lay in cribs all day with no love, no stimulation and no future.

Now that you have stayed with me through my soap box, I will reward you with our sweet girl.

Each day a new style. She loves to play beauty shop and jabbers the whole time she is "making me beautiful"

Have a safe and happy 4th of July!

Bringing Dariya home: A visit from the birth parents?

2011-07-03T05:19:00.026-05:00

When we arrived at the orphanage on Saturday afternoon we were informed by the groupa caregivers that Dariya's birth father (Sasha) had come by to see her just 30 minutes before we arrived. The caregivers showed him our photo album that we had left for Dariya and told him we were leaving with her soon. He was very happy that Dariya will have a sister with ds to grow up with.

We learned that this couple was very young when they had Dariya (only 21 or 22 years old). The birth mother (sorry don't know her name) has been to visit also but, we couldn't understand how recently (you know our Russian isn't that good!)

Sasha said that he wanted to shake our hands and say thank you.  Tamara (our ever protector) told Sasha that she didn't see the reason for him to come meet us. She was surprised when we told her that we very much wanted to meet Dariya's family. The caregivers are going to try to get ahold of him to come and meet us before we leave here. We would love to be able to get pictures of Dariya's birth parents (even though they are now divorced) and share our email and blog address so they can see her pictures.

We are so thankful for the blessing of Dariya and for God allowing us to be her parents. We are very thankful that our first information about her parents abandoning her at the hospital was untrue.   This girl is part of our family, I couldn't love her more if I had given birth to her myself.

We truly are again humbled by this journey.

Sunday morning brought out the kissy monster in Dariya.  Everytime she would walk past us she would lean over and kiss us.

Love you daddy

Thank you God for all the blessings.

Her favorite game

When we dropped Dariya off in her groupa at the end of our Sunday morning visit we were excited to see all the kids sitting in little chairs in a semi circle around their teacher, Luda. She was teaching them something about chickens, she had a toy chicken and a book that she was reading to them. This groupa tries their best with the kids. But, it in no way is the same as having a family.

Monday July 4th is our last day of our 10 day wait!!! Tuesday morning our facilitator will come down from the capital city and take us to get Dariya's new birth certificate (with our names listed as the parents) and apply for her passport!

Please pray that her passport comes back this week, as soon as we have her passport we can pick her up and head back to the capitl for our 2 day embassy appointments then fly home.
We are enjoying this country but are so ready to be home as a family.

Bringing Dariya home: Sunshine Saturday, day in pictures

2011-07-02T04:34:00.000-05:00

Beautiful day here, sunny and 75°. We played a litte inside to avoid the mud then went outside for the rest of our visit and enjoyed the sunshine.

Yogurt snack and giggles with daddy. Does it get much better?

Still one of her favorite toys!

Hello, Aidan we will be home soon!

Vroom, vroom outta my way!

Tamara LOVES Dariya. She comes in even on her days off to see her.

Here are some things Dariya is doing: Amazing to see her transform in just 2 weeks with us.
Smothering me in kisses daily, Requesting songs and signing Mister sun, Itsy Bitsy Spider and All the fish without us signing with her. Saying vroom, vroom for cars and making the car sign instead of beep, beep. Signing: stop, more, please, eat, ball, bubbles, me, play, tree, children, apple. Saying: mama, dada, said Alayna "layna" twice.

Bringing Dariya home: Physical therapy Friday!

2011-07-01T04:53:00.001-05:00

Happy 400th post to us!

The sun just couldn't hold out any longer, we made it to the orphanage for our morning visit and down came the rain. Thankfully each caregiver in Dariya's groupa is really good at guessing Jason's charades (with lots of giggles mind you) and has understood for us to be able to continue to play in the sports room each day.

When we arrived in the sports room a "physical therapist" was working with a baby boy whose mother was present. We realized pretty quickly that the little boy wasn't living here at the orphanage but his mom (dressed to the 9's) was bringing him here to work with this therapist. I felt a little bad because he was way more interested in smiling and making faces at us than doing the tricks they were trying to get him to perform. Anyway, it was nice to see that they have a pt in the building on a daily basis and knows what she is doing. Even though she doesn't do individual therapy with each child in the orphanage they have "classes" biweekly in this sports room and I assume she is present and helps work with the kids.

We decided to do a little PT of our own. In true Cannon fashion, Dariya enjoys working on the ball just as much as Alayna does.

We know many of you are traveling for the holiday weekend, enjoy your travels, be safe. And please remember that independence day means so much more than cookouts, family, fireworks, getting away from the queen (well not in our house LOL) but instead to 147 million orphans that are waiting for their families independence day is so much more. Praying we will see our own independence day at the end of next week. There might not be visable fireworks when we pick her up from that orphanage for the last time but, believe me they will be in my heart!

She is so cute in the way she takes her napkin and wipes her face after each snack or meal.

We will never forget the faces of the children we have seen here and pray that you won't either.

Bringing Dariya home: On the downhill slide

2011-06-30T04:35:00.000-05:00

Today is the 6th day of our 10 day wait (but, who is counting) we are excited that we can see the finish line start to appear in the distance. We might be on mile 15 of the marathon but we will get there soon. Gotcha day could be end of next week! It seems like we have been here a long time but, then again it doesn't.

The sun finally decided to come out today. Still way to muddy and too many puddles to take Dariya outside. Hoping it dries up by this afternoon and we can at least stroll her around and get her some vitamin D!

We played in the sports room again and are truly enjoying our time bonding with her.

Thankful this Thursday for my parents who are taking care of Aidan and Alayna otherwise this trip would not have been possible. Also, thankful to Courtney Heigele for gathering diapers and raising funds so we can donate to the orphanage. A huge thanks to Wayne and Jennifer Johnson who are traveling back to this country July 3rd and are bringing the diaper mother load with them on the plane! The bums of this baby house thank you so much.

She loves flying way up high and signs "more" over and over

I think this is my new favorite pic of her

Can you just put that camera down and give me some more snuggle time?

I told you I meant business, I want my 20 minutes of snuggle and you put me down 30 seconds early!

Will leave you with a little video that is one of our favorites: Up until this week she hasn't had much interest in the books that we brought with us. But, today she sat and read them with us, turned the pages (she didn't know how to do that 2 weeks ago) and then took this flip book and started reading all by herself. Oh this mama's heart was SO happy (you know it's the teacher in me).

Bringing Dariya home: Wordless Wednesday

2011-06-29T04:38:00.000-05:00

Swimming through the front gate to the orphanage

Bringing Dariya home: Tuesday

2011-06-28T05:12:00.001-05:00

Her giggles when daddy chases her are priceless.

Bubble, bubble POP!

The tunnel of love!

Don't you love my creative post title? Still soggy outside so Tamara let us play again in the sports room. Dariya has figured out how to give kisses with the kissy sound added now. So cute. Tamara said Dariya was anticipating us coming and was waiting for us.

Even though Dariya's groupa caregivers are all very kind and nice to the kids they don't have the time to give each child the attention they need. Dariya obviously has longed to be hugged and kissed because she spends the first 15 minutes of each visit hugging and kissing me. If I try to put her down before she is ready she just asks to get right back up again and commences her mommy love fest. Once she has given me enough love off she goes to play with daddy.

Yesterday afternoon we were in the hallway playing and another groupa came by who we see outside daily (bummer no RR kids in that group) but, they stopped to play with Jason.
The more he high fived them and tickled them the more tears built up in my eyes. It sunk in that while I am overjoyed that Dariya is ours and we will be bringing her home in a couple weeks 104 other kids are stranded here, no family, no bouncing on a trampoline or making smores in the backyard, no movie nights, no going to the pool, or long snuggles in mommy and daddy's bed reading books before bedtime.

It is a very emotional experience for us both. We are tired everyday not because of the grueling play schedule we have but rather because of the emotional draining of our hearts with these sweet faces that we will leave behind.

Yes, God moved our hearts to bring home Dariya and we wish everyone had that kind of experience and that every orphan worldwide had their own family but, we understand that not everyone is called to adopt. However, God does call us all to take care of orphans.

James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

How do you take care of orphans? (I know I am preaching to the choir because you have given of yourselves without holding back to bring us to Ukraine in search of our daugher and without your help we wouldn't be here!)

Pray and seek God's wisdom and discernment for where He is calling you to help!

Sponsor a waiting child on RR, or sign up to donate to the child of the month each month
Sponsor the angel tree project - The biggest fundraiser of the year for RR
Check out the RR website for how you can become a prayer warrior for a child (it costs you nothing but, will save their life) Do you know how many people prayed for Dariya to have a family before we heard God's whisper. Prayer is HUGE!
Use your social networks like FB or twitter to get the word out there about RR and this awesome ministry and the waiting children. (costs you nothing, just a little time)
Sponsor a dress down for down syndrome day at work and donate the money to Reece's Rainbow. (again costs you nothing)

These are just a few ideas, there are many more. Please leave us a comment and let us know what great ideas you have to help orphans.
There are 147 million sweet faces in the world with no family to call their own. Won't you help one today?

Bringing Dariya home: Oktoberfest anyone?

2011-06-27T04:36:00.000-05:00

Is it just my German heritage or do you think Dariya looks like a little German boy in her lederhosen? The real crack up is we donated the 12 month overalls and shirt (not to be worn together mind you, I am NOT at all fashionable but, I do know that they don't go together!) We think they put tights on her due to the fact that we let her take off her socks and shoes the other day. =)

Playing round and round the garden with daddy

Our sweet friend, Victoria let us borrow her extra umbrella (we love you Victoria!) as the weather here is supposed to rain for a few more days. But, what do you know as left the apartment it was raining a little bit and a few minutes later it stopped and didn't rain the whole time we visited Dariya. I think we should take our lucky umbrella everywhere.

Note we did NOT cause the mark under her eye. She ran into something before we arrived.

Signing "me" with daddy

Signing "play" (My favorite sign she does, it is so cute!)

Tamara wasn't working today so we had to play in the hallway again. Fun to spend time with our girl but, truly not much happening in the hallway.

Had some questions about why we have to wait another 5 (hopefully shorter) days after the 10 day wait to take her out of the orphanage.

On the 10th day the court decree becomes final, then we can apply for her passport. Until we receive her passport we can't take her away from the orphanage due to their concern for her medical needs. If we took her out we would have no access to medical care either here or in the US because we couldn't travel out of the country without her passport. So for Dariya's protection we must wait...

If you have any questions, feel free to leave us a message or email us. I will try my best to answer or find the answer for you.

Bringing Dariya home: Rainy Day play

2011-06-26T04:35:00.000-05:00

Rain, rain and more rain for our area of the country. Too bad I didn't bring my travel umbrella that I always take to England with us. Thankfully, Tamara had pity on us today (I am sure it was because I looked like a drowned rat when we arrived). We were able to play in their "sports room".

We had loads of fun and enjoyed our 2 hours tremendously (much better than the walk home in the downpour!) I look as though I just stepped out of the shower! LOL Oh well our girl is worth it!

Dariya played hard and was so tired she was laying on the floor ready for a nap when it was time for us to go. We get to play in this same room this afternoon too! YAHOO! Much better than the hallway!

Sports room - each groupa has a 30 minute block of time in here daily

Tickle time in the ballpit...nothing better!

Outta my way daddy!

Played so hard she needed an apple snack.

She has striking blue eyes just like Aidan & Alayna (even has the pretty brushfield spots too)

Happy Sunday!

Bringing Dariya home: Where is that Mr. Sun

2011-06-25T05:24:00.000-05:00

It began raining here yesterday afternoon while we were visiting Dariya. Thankfully, it slowed up enough for us to walk home without getting drentched. However, we nearly had to swim out of the orphanage. The front gate was completely flooded. The sidewalk right outside Dariya's groupa collapsed with all the rain, it looked like a giant sink hole.

This is just one small puddle we had to cross

Dariya was thrilled with daddy's antic of pushing her through the puddles and running around to join her.

It didn't rain this morning but, we know our girl so well that if we let her down to walk outside she would be dreadfully covered in mud and water when we returned her. So we opted to take a stroller today and wandered around and around and around the grounds for and hour and a half then we couldn't take the circle anymore.

Dariya is requesting her fingerplay songs (Mr. Sun and All the fish are her favs) so we walked and sang and walked and sang.

Jason said he felt like a Nascar driver who couldn't get off the course. We have taken to entertaining ourselves by watching cars pass by the orphanage gates, or seeing how many people we can get to smile and say hello to us. I told you it is groundhog day.

Daddy starting early to train her to be crazy about chips like him

Daddy stepped outside the gate and walked 50 yards to the water, juice, snack stand and boy did we hear BIG cries and real tears come from Dariya, her face even turned red. She thought daddy was really leaving her. (*Daddy was pretty chuffed about the tears, she does love him!) She was very happy to see the juice that daddy had bought her and to try chips!

We went inside and played in the hallway for our last 30 minutes. When we took her back, Tamara (the caregiver that speaks some English and has been there 33 years, also has been with Dariya since she came to the orphanage at 2 months) asked us what we named her at court yesterday. We told her Dariya Joelle and she was pleased. She told one of the other workers too.

Then she let us know that we had a 10 day wait and about a 5 day paperwork process before we can take her out of there (haha, she knows the process better than us!) She had a sad look on her face when she said "so about 2 weeks". Jason asked her if she will miss Dariya and she frowned and said "yes". Jason asked if she had a computer so we could email her pictures and she was overjoyed! So thankful for this sweet lady that obviously loves our girl so much.

MMM, she is hooked.

Bringing Dariya home: Court and Introducing...

2011-06-24T05:18:00.000-05:00

Dariya Joelle Cannon

Court went well, very smoothly. The prayers were heard and answered and we are praising God for this continued blessing on our journey.

We began court at noon and by 12:30pm the judge was reading her judgement in favor of the adoption with no break or anything. As the judge began reading that she was delcaring her Dariya Joelle Cannon I of course started tearing up. Next thing I know 2 of the people in the courtroom had tears and we were all in search of tissues. Thankfully we always have our kleenex stash in case of emergency toilet paper need.

It was very fast, our facilitator was even shocked by how fast it went. We were expecting to be there at least an hour. They asked us about Jason's job, our family, our support in raising Dariya (we were able to share about KP and the DSG) ability to care for and provide medical and financial stability to another child. Then the orphanage inspector asked me how I will handle two little ones with special needs based on my small stature. LOL I had to explain that my job as a high school principal included breaking up fights and managing teenagers so I said these two little ones are going to be easy.

We missed our morning visit with her so can't wait to get over and squish the newest Cannon. Oh and we were also blessed with her baby pictures immediately after court.

What's in a name?

Dariya was her given birth name. We all loved the name and obviously she knows it well so we decided to keep it.

As Liam's middle name is Jason's middle name, Aidan's middle name was my grandfathers name, and Alayna is the female version of Allan (my father) we wanted Dariya to not only keep some of her cultural background but wanted her to be named after someone in our family too.

The "Jo" is from Jason's mother's middle name Joyce and the "elle" is from the end of my name, thus Joelle.

We liked the sound of it then looked up the meaning and found that it means God is willing and we knew this was the name for our newest family member.

Bringing Dariya home: Oh Mr. Sun!

2011-06-23T04:22:00.000-05:00

Today when we arrived for our morning visit we were welcomed with hugs, kisses and a request for the Mr. Sun song. It is by far her favorite. This is the first time she has requested any of the songs we have been singing with her. Here is a little video clip (ignore the strange lady singing along).

Dariya's groupa was playing in their sandbox today and she wanted to join them. However, it cut our visit short by about 45 minutes because the caregiver took them in early to rinse all the sand off. We stripped her down to her diaper then the caregiver poured water on her. She LOVED it and was giggling the whole time. This one is going to be a fish...

Dariya asked for a drink of water from the caregiver (they serve them in china cups) and when she was finished she told her thank you and covered the cups and teapot up with the towel.

We still haven't heard about our interpol clearances yet today, praying that we hear good news this evening. If we get the clearance and court goes tomorrow as planned this is a loose schedule of what the rest of our trip will look like.

Unfortunatley, right after court we don't get to go grab our girl, there is a 10 day wait until the court decree becomes final. A couple regions waive the 10 day wait but, ours has not for any of the other 3 RR families who have been here this year so we expect to wait.

Once the court decree is final our process will look like this:

June 24 - Court at noon, followed by a 10 day wait

July 5- Court decree is final, apply for Dariya's passport (could take 3-10 days), get her new birth certificate and close her bank account out here (donate to the orphanage)

July 11 - Praying that passport is back in 5 days or less

July 12 - Gotcha Day - take her out of the orphanage forever, travel back to the capital city

July 13 & 14th - Embassy appointments, Dariya's visa and medical

July 15th (our 10th anniversary) fly home - How about that for an anniversary gift? Although I would take the passport coming in much sooner and us being home before our anniversary too. LOL

Prayer requests:

Please pray for our interpol clearances to come in today (Thursday). Not only would it be great not to worry about it but it will save us money in transportation costs getting our facilitator down to our city from the capital city. If she has the clearance today she can take a bus but if she has to wait until tomorrow morning for the clearance she will have to use a car and driver costing us a lot more.
Pray for our words as we go in front of this judge. Give us the words to speak that will overwhelmingly have this judge say yes without question to this adoption.
That all we are doing here is bringing Glory to our Heavenly Father.

We have a court date!!!!

2011-06-22T07:51:00.001-05:00

We were walking to the orphanage for our afternoon visit with Luda called us with the AWESOME NEWS...we have a court date!!! Friday the 24th at noon (4am Kansas city time).

Our interpol clearances are not in yet so keep praying on those as we must have them to have court.

We are BEYOND excited and thanking God for this blessing. YAHOO!!!!!

Bringing Dariya home: She said it!

2011-06-22T05:45:00.001-05:00

Totally by accident but, I will take it. Dariya said, "Mommy, beep beep" today. Go ahead write down the date for her baby book!

We were walking close to the front gate and a car was going by. She stumbled, fell over and skinned her knees up . No blood this time but, by her cries you would have thought a bone was sticking out. She was crying so hard and muttering "mmmm" and then she saw the car and forgot all about her knees and that is when the magical phrase just popped out. Plain as day! Oh how I wish we caught that on video.

They had her in one of Alayna's 12 month dresses again, it was my neices before Alayna so now 4 girls have worn it. LOL
Oh and we are doing nothing to dispel the myth that all kids with ds are happy all the time. This girl is pretty happy go lucky! LOL

Enjoying our time with her, but wishing we could take her home and be playing with all 3 kids at the same time.

This is how she greets us daily. Arms open wide, smiles, giggles and hugs on contact! Pure joy!!!

We ventured to one of the sandboxes today. She enjoyed playing in it and only tried to taste it a few times.

Praying that tonight (afternoon in the US) we hear good news from our facilitator about court being this week! We will update as soon as we hear. Thank you SO much for all the prayers!!!

Bringing Dariya home: Court update and praise!

2011-06-21T12:50:00.001-05:00

We are so thankful for your prayers! We are thankful to the head judge that allowed us to be reassigned to a new judge (our original judge was not willing to schedule us for court in the next 2 weeks!) We are praying that we can have court this Friday and that our interpol clearances will be in by then. We should learn when our court date is tomorrow.

Please continue to pray this specific request for us.

We are so blessed. This journey is amazing.

We had dinner tonight with our friend, Victoria and I shared with her that we know God placed her in our lives just to help us on this journey she is so kind and willing to help us whenever we need anything.