Adoption Craziness.... But Almost There!

Whew!  These last few days have been crazy, but productive!  We are on our final push to get our Dossier out the door to India.  Arizona and US approval are done, but next comes India.  We had most documents done (stacks of them!), but needed a few more notarized, and then needed it all apostiled.  It took two days with multiple hours at the bank, a trip downtown, and lots of running around (not to mention Christmas shopping for toy donations, DDD 90 day reviews, PT, attachment therapy, counseling, homeschooling and homeschooling co-op, and a trip to our orthotics maker...  all in 2 days :)) , but we are almost done!  We just need a few things fixed so they can be apostiled as well, and then they are off to WACAP and India.  Yeah!  Please pray they can be processed and sent to India quickly and that we move at supersonic speed through the India court system.

Two Big Reasons to Rejoice Today

We have two big reasons to rejoice today!

To start with, both girls had appointments with Dr. Goggins, our orthopedic surgeon, today.  He wrote a prescription for new HKFOs for Ramya as she has outgrown her current pair (Which is great news because she is finally gaining weight!!  Her eating hasn't improved, but she is looking so much healthier, building muscle, and retaining new information so much better!  Yeah!).  He also said he signed off on both the girls new wheelchairs, which they were both recently fitted for, so we are excited to get those.  The biggest news, though, is that Madi's scoliosis came in at 42 degrees when standing again (laying down with the pressure off her dislocated hip it goes down to 28ish degrees), which means her scoliosis is stable and right now there is no reason to proceed with detethering surgery.  Of course if she started declining neurologically, started losing function, or her scoliosis suddenly changed we would know the surgery was necessary, but for now, she does not need surgery.  We go back in 6 months and we will check Madi's scoliosis again at that time. 

Here is the second great bit of news today...

 

 

I know that is hard to read, but that is our U.S. approval to adopt from India.  That means we are one step closer to being able to bring "D" home!  I'm almost done with our dossier paperwork and then that will go to India for approval there.  We still have a long way to go, but I love that we are one step closer!

 

 

Please be praying for our doctor paperwork to get notarized correctly tomorrow (wait, today?  I'm up past midnight so often I forget it means a new day has begun :)).  We have had some issues getting it completed so far.  Basically, about 2 or 3 months ago we got full physicals and a blood panel done to make sure we were healthy.  Everything looked great so our doctor signed the paperwork needed for Arizona/US approval stating that we are healthy enough to adopt.  For our Dossier India wants a different form, though, that states (give or take), "Upon examination (insert name here) shows no signs or symptoms of hepatitis, tuberculosis, HIV, or any other communicable diseases."  I called our office, twice, to tell them what we needed.  We set an appointment date, found a travel notary, and showed up to get the doctor's signature notarized.  After waiting about 45 minutes we were told they wouldn't sign the paperwork because we had never actually been tested for hepatitis, tuberculosis, or HIV.  I tried so hard not to get frustrated, but was feeling pretty bummed.  Not only did we have to pay the travel notary anyhow, as well as our co-pays, but I have been going to the same doctor for about 22 years and David has been going to them for about 11 years.  They have done blood work for both adoptions, and we are always very healthy.  Not to mention the form said that it was "upon examination", not via blood test.  However, I do understand the only way to really know is to test us, so we went ahead and got tested.  All of our blood work and testing came back negative, as we expected, so they said they are now ready to sign the paperwork.  I made an appointment for tomorrow, as that is what worked for our travel notary, but I cannot be there as I teach at homeschool co-op.  I asked if I could drop off the form for the doctor/notary, since my signature does not need to be on the form,  and they said that was fine.  Once David got there to drop off the paperwork, though, they had no clue what the paperwork was for once we dropped it off.  Sigh.  Please be praying it all works out and the paperwork is able to be signed and notarized tomorrow, since this is one of the last "big" things I need to do in order to complete the Dossier.

 

Thank you for following our journey and sharing in our excitement! 

 

A Quick Update on Our Day of Surprises

The first surprise we got today was when we took Madi to get her HKFOs adjusted by Ron at Hanger.  He said she had just grown too much and there were too many adjustments, so she is getting new ones.  He casted her right there on the spot!  He's going to change things around a lot to give her less trunk support, but more hip support.  I'm excited to see what he comes up with.  I love that Madi loves Ron.  She gets so excited when she sees him and it makes the visit so much nicer.  He is really an amazing guy.  He was given an award at our local Spina Bifida Association party (more to come on that in another post :)) for a lifetime achievement award because of the many, many lives he has touched.  We love him!  Anyhow, Madi should have her new HKFOs in about 2-3 weeks!  We are going to keep the bottom half of her old pair to use as knee immobilizers at night, since she is supposed to wear those to keep her stretched out but they are a bit of a problem because they always pinch her funny and stuff.  Here she is getting casted...

She did great!  Of course, we had to keep Conner busy, so Ron gave him some scraps of the material they put under the casts so that the casts don't stick.  Luckily Conner is a very bright and creative boy and he got straight to work casting his Bionicle!  Conner gets drug around to a lot of appointments, and I'm thankful that he does so great.  He's such a great little boy!

Our second surprise of the day is that our dossier paperwork here is done and is officially on the way to India.  Well, I shouldn't say our paperwork is done, because it's not ever going to be done (the e-mail containing the information about our dossier came with many more papers to fill out :)), but it is finally on the way to India and that is HUGE!!  Please pray that our paperwork is processed quickly and that we are approved.

Yeah for a great day!

Celebrate with me!!

I have more to post about later, but I just came home to this...

I just wanted to let you know that I sent your completed dossier to Vathsalya today! Congratulations.

Our paperwork is officially on the way to INDIA!!!!  WOOO HOOOO!!