We're going to Pittsburgh

In two days, Kyle and I will drive up to Pittsburgh to meet the folks at our new agency, IAG. They have a requirement that they meet all families they place in person, so we are going to make a day of it. We are also in the process of gathering our dossier so that as soon as we get our USCIS approval, we can mail it off to Russia. Yay!

The Creed of Babies with Down Syndrome

My face may be different
But my feelings the same
I laugh and I cry
And I take pride in my gains
I was sent here among you
To teach you to love
As God in the heavens
Looks down from above
To Him I'm no different
His love knows no bounds
It's those here among you
In cities and towns
That judge me by standards
That man has imparted
But this family I've chosen
Will help me get started
For I'm one of the children
So special and few
That came here to learn
The same lessons as you
That love is acceptance
It must come from the heart
We all have the same purpose
Though not the same start
The Lord gave me life
To live and embrace
And I'll do it as you do
But at my own pace

Spreading Awareness {Down syndrome style}

Don't Pity Me
By: Joanne Green
Don't pity me
because my child was not born
"perfect", for in {her} imperfection I have
learned to see beauty that is deeper
than the flesh.

Don't pity me
because my child and I have faced challenges
that have served to forge
a bond much deeper than love.

Don't pity me,
because you could not have done this,
for I thought that too once,
before I learned that through love you can do
a great many things you once couldn't do.

Don't pity me,
my child is the greatest blessing to ever touch my life
I am rich to have {her}, and richer still for
the experience of knowing {her}.
And if you are truly my friend,
then you will understand.

And please,
Don't Pity Me.

Learning love from Baby Grace

After having spent a long weekend with my entire extended family to celebrate my sister's wedding, I found myself trying to find the right words to prove ... for lack of a better word ... to some of them that we are doing the right thing. I guess I still don't have the right words and as I have said all along ... we aren't asking for permission from anyone to do this (well, except for the Russian authorities, that is), we just would like to be supported. I have tried hard to help people in general to understand that being the parent of a child with Down syndrome is not the end of the world.

I recently came across an article about a woman who learned of her daughter's diagnosis prenatally. She was given one week to process the information before she would have to decide how to proceed with her pregnancy (i.e. abort or give birth). During that time, she was given a book called a book called Gifts: Mothers Reflect on How Children with Down Syndrome Enrich Their Lives. After reading Gifts, this woman was rocked in such a way that her little angel is now about six months old and thriving.

I contributed to the Gifts book and I am so honored to have been part of Baby Grace's chance at life. I think reading this book and the stories of mother's from all over is a great way to wrap your mind around what life is like with a child that has Down syndrome. I have several extra copies that were deemed "defective" by the printer by way of a few blotches on the cover ... I love would to send a copy to anyone that might like that extra little boost in understanding my world.

So ... I'm wondering who out there feels that they would like to better understand Down syndrome? That is why I'm here and why I blog about my journey ... to spread awareness and promote education. :)

We're moving on over

If you have been reading our blog, you know that our agency has been suspended out of Russia. We have been given the opportunity to switch to a new agency ... but there has been one hurdle. Our home study, which was completed and approved on 7/10/08, was done by the suspended agency. There was some question as to whether or not the MOE (Ministry of Education in Russia ... this is who governs all Russian adoptions) would accept our home study from an agency that has been suspended. The director of our new agency contacted the MOE and ultimately received confirmation that our home study will be accepted and we are good to go. Yay! This was such a relief, as we don't exactly have another 1K-2K to shell out right now for a new home study. Not to mention the delay it would have caused us.

Next on the list: finish compiling our documents (i.e. dossier) to send to Russia and drive to Pittsburgh to meet with the new agency.

The wheels are turning again!

USCIS Fingerprints: Check!

This past Friday, Kyle and I went to USCIS to have our fingerprints done. The purpose of this is so that we can get approved for advance processing of an orphan petition. The fingerprint process at USCIS is completely electronic ... so cool! Yeah, yeah ... I don't get out much.

We are changing agencies

In light of the suspension of our agency, Cradle of Hope, we have pretty much decided to switch to another agency, IAG, that can hopefully get us to Russia quickly. If we stayed with Cradle of Hope, we'd have to wait out the three month suspension, at the end of which we don't even know if it would be lifted. At that point, we would be that much further behind. While we are sad to say goodbye to our agency, we have to keep the best interest of the children waiting in Russia in mind. IAG has also agreed to waive their agency fees in light of our desire to adopt a child with Down syndrome.

One glitch that we are trying to clear up at this point is whether or not the Russian MOE (Ministry of Education), which is in charge of all Russian adoptions, will accept our home study being as though it was done by Cradle of Hope, who is suspended. The director of IAG is trying to communicate with the MOE to see if it will be okay. Please pray that it is! If not, we will have to do another home study, shell out another couple thousand dollars and wait another month or two. This is obviously not ideal.

Humanitarian Aide

Our agency gave us a ton of orphanage donations to take with us when we travel to Russia. We are so thankful for this, as it is the "norm" to bring donations. This gives us a huge start! Here is a glimpse ...

Welcome to Holland

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability or why I would want to adopt a child with Down syndrome. I wanted to share this story to try to help people to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this ...

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

Our agency

As you may have read in my earlier posts, our agency, Cradle of Hope, has been suspended out of Russia. They have been given three months to remedy things, but we really have no way of knowing what will happen. We have been given the chance to switch over to International Assistance Group, whom I have heard is a very good agency, but I'd still love to hear about your experiences if you have any. We are weighing our options right now about which direction to go, so please pray that we arrive at a sound decision soon and that it doesn't cause us financial and/or timely set backs!

Home study complete and approved!

We just got back in town from attending the Down syndrome convention in Boston (so fun, BTW) and we had a notarized copy of our home study waiting for us in our mail box! Yay ... everyone cheer now! And ... I'm not done ... we also already have a fingerprint appointment with USCIS on July 25, 2008! Double yay!

No news is not necessarily good news

I heard from our agency today, but really nothing has changed. The suspension is still there and they are just working as hard as they can to get it lifted. We are pushing on regardless, hoping that things will be okay by the time our dossier is compiled. We hope to have our home study sent off to USCIS by the end of this week, so please pray that we get a fingerprint appointment fast!

Guess what?!

I have a rough draft of our home study in my hands!! Woo hoo! We would like to thank our social worker so much for her speediness in writing everything up. We will review it this weekend and hopefully move onto the next step. Our agency is still on hold in Russia, but we are praying that things get resolved quickly.

Addison's First Doll {and Russian 101}

Awhile ago, I talked about dealing with the language barrier after we get Addison home. I bought a dolly that speaks Russian {her name is Kukla}, as well as a Russian lullaby CD. I got them in the mail the other day ... and here is Kukla ...
Push Kukla's belly and she says ...

"Privet" - Hello
"Ulybnees" - Smile
"Ya Tebya Lyublyu" - I love you
"Davai Druzhit" - Let's be friends
"Poigrai So Mnoi" - Play with me

Oook, how in the heck do you pronounce some of this stuff?! I've got some learning to do!

Please pray!

We received news this morning that the Ministry of Education of Russia, which oversees the work of accredited adoption agencies, decided on June 27th to suspend our agency's adoption program, due to alleged violations which must be corrected within three months. I don't know much more than that right now {other than that I'm totally stressed out}, but please just pray that things are resolved quickly!