The 12 Days of Christmas for Parents of a Child with a Disability

This is stolen from another mighty mom that lives locally, though I'm not sure where it originated.  It's worth the share, though!

♥ The Twelve Days of Christmas ♥

On the first day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me: a child with a disability.

On the second day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me: a heart full of love for my child with a disability.

 

On the third day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me: an ache in my heart and a heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the fourth day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me: a tear in my eyes, an ache in my heart and a heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the fifth day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me: an unsuspected strength for the tear in my eyes and the ache in my heart and my heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the sixth day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me: a ray of hope, an unsuspected strength for the tear in my eyes and the ache in my heart and my heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the seventh day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me: a sense of humor, a ray of hope, an unsuspected strength for the tear in my eyes and the ache in my heart and my heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the eighth day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me: supportive friends, a sense of humor, a ray of hope, an unsuspected strength for the tear in my eyes and the ache in my heart and my heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the ninth day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me: remarkable doctors & therapists, supportive friends, a sense of humor, a ray of hope, an unsuspected strength for the tear in my eyes and the ache in heart and my heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the tenth day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me: an appreciation of small accomplishments, remarkable doctors & therapists, supportive friends, a sense of humor, a ray of hope, an unsuspected strength for the tear in my eyes and the ache in my heart and my heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me: a sense of pride, an appreciation of small accomplishments, remarkable doctors & therapists, supportive friends, a sense of humor, a ray of hope, an unsuspected strength for the tear in my eyes and the ache in my heart and my heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, the good Lord said to me: Reach out and share your sense of pride, your appreciation of small accomplishments, your remarkable doctors & therapists, your supportive friends, your sense of humor, your ray of hope, your unsuspected strength for the tear in your eyes and the ache in your heart and your heart full of love for your child with a disability.

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!!

Sigh.

It's always something!

A few days ago I got a document in the mail from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services department.  The form basically said that they received my I-800A (an application for determination of suitability to adopt a child from a convention country).  The weird thing, though, is that it went to my parent's address.  Huh.  I figured it was an error on their part and assumed they just accidentally sent it to my previous, instead of current, address. 

I called Jessica, our adoption coordinator through WACAP and told her about the error.  She gave me an e-mail address to e-mail the correction to.  Today, after a very long day, I heard back from her.  They said that I had written that address on my application as my address.  Ooops.  I have lived at my parent's house most of my life (my dad built it when I was 3 and I lived there until I got married), and we did live there after we sold our old house before we moved into this one, so I'm not really surprised that I messed up, but obviously that was a dumb mistake.  They say it's "very unusual" for an application to come in with a completely wrong address and told Jessica that basically they are worried we are being dishonest about where we live.  WHAT?!?!!??  Why in the world would we do that?  So now they have to wait to hear back from Oasis, who did our homestudy, to confirm that we do in fact live where we say we do (we do ;)) before they will update our address and continue with the application.

I really hope this mistake doesn't further delay our already delayed paperwork.  It just always seems to be something with us, and this isn't the first time something "very unusual" has popped up.  I guess we are just really special like that!!

Please keep praying for our Ramya, and that we get her home quickly.  Thanks!

Last Chance for the Arbonne Fundraiser :)

TOMORROW IS THE LAST DAY!

I am hosting an online Arbonne Party with a Purpose! Arbonne is a 30 year old Swiss health and wellness company with fantastic vegan products free of Petroleum, Phthalates and Fragrances. Arbonne marries current technology with botanicals to produce products that deliver results. Whether you are interested in skin care or cosmetics for yourself or holiday gifts for friends and family, your purchases will make a difference! Suzi Istvan, Independent Arbonne Consultant, will be donating 25% of all retail sales from this party to help us bring Ramya home! Suzi isn't taking any commission, and is donating all her commission to fundraiser for us! How awesome!! THANK YOU SUZI!

The instructions for ordering are below. Please be sure to e-mail or message me and tell me you ordered, so that your order counts for our fundraiser.


To shop online:

1. Click Here: http://bit.ly/tS7WW8

2. On the bottom right side of the page, use Sponsor's ID number 19689391

3. Register as a "Client" (first choice) and fill out all info on this page.

4. Submit and get shopping!


5. After you've made your purchases, (email, message, FB post- Jamie insert how you want people to get in touch with you here) and let me know you did so Suzi can count your purchase towards this party.


This party will be active this Wednesday 12/7- next Wednesday 12/14. These orders will qualify for ground shipping to be received by Christmas! For gift-giving ideas or product questions, find Suzi on her Facebook page: www.facebook.com/ArbonneWithSuzi.

Thank you for your support!!

Come Read an AMAZING Update!

Our latest goal was $10,500 (I previously said $10,200, but had my numbers wrong) to raise for our adoption.  I paid $3,000 of the bill from money we had saved up from me babysitting three times a week and money we had put aside.  That left $7,500.  At our garage sale we made $1,800, but we also sold a trash compactor that was donated to us on craigslist for an additional $200, making our grand total $2,000.  That brought our money owed down to $5,500.  I posted about my friend Emily's mom donating $200 to us, bringing us down to $5,300.  She also told me the company her mom works for will match her donation, which will bring it down to $5,100.  My friend Monica donated $50, bringing us down to $5,050.  My good friend Mary told us she would be donating $100, bringing our current goal down to $4,950.  And on top of all of this, yesterday I got some completely amazing news......


Someone (whom wishes to remain anonymous) donated $5,000 towards our adoption.  Yes, you read that correctly, $5,000!!!!  We are SO amazed, thankful, and in awe!  What a completely selfless and amazing donation!  Words cannot express how much this donation means to us.  It brought me to tears!

With our recent donation, we have a surplus of $50 on our current goal!!  Praise God!
After this round of bills, we will still have a big chunk to raise, but we are getting closer and closer every day!  We will owe the agency about $4,000 more approximately, will need about $5,000 for a lawyer here in the states (India does not finalize the adoption in-country.  Instead, you finalize after you bring your child home.  It is recommended you get a lawyer for this), and will also need travel money (about $10,000....  $7,500 in airline tickets (since we are bringing the kids), then money for hotel, food, and anything else that comes up).  There may also be a few more fees here and there, but that is the bulk of it. 

Our initial goal was $40,000, and we are already down to needing just half of that!  We are feeling incredibly blessed and thankful for everyone traveling this journey with us.  Your love for Ramya and our family is so touching and we really cannot thank you enough!  We love each and every one of you!

Does it get any cuter than this?

Nope, it doesn't!

P.S. That shirt was David's when he was a little boy!!  Isn't that cool?!?!?!?