I just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who left comments of sympathy on my last post about the loss of our precious little Noah. I am also very grateful for those local that sent cards, brought meals, flowers and gifts for the kids. We are so blessed by the love that has surrounded us at this difficult time. We were able to celebrate his life last Saturday with a small, private service. I'm so very thankful that we had that opportunity. I long for the day when I will be able to hold him again. But in the meantime, I know he is safe and very loved in Jesus' arms. We would appreciate your continued prayers for our family. Thank you!
Ok, onto ELIJAH!!! Have I mentioned lately what a JOY this little boy is?!?! Well, he is! :-) He continues to amaze me with all he is learning, and signs that he comes up with that I didn't specifically practice with him (he just learned them from watching the Baby Signing Times DVDs). He seems to be more loving lately too, but in some ways he is more aggressive too. I know the attachment process is just that - a process. It doesn't happen over night. We are continuing through that process and doing very well.
A week ago Friday, we had his kidneys and bladder checked by a pediatric urologist at Children's hospital. He was listed on RR with a kidney issue. We found out at the orphanage that it was discovered when he was only a few months old via ultrasound, but he had no problems since them. Elijah had another ultrasound last Friday, and I'm excited to say that his kidneys are fine! Praise God! The doctor said there was a tiny bit of extra fluid on the left one (where the original problem was), but it wasn't enough for him to be concerned or warrant more tests. Of course, if he starts having UTIs or something, then we would need to investigate further. But for now, he is A-OK! Thank you Lord.
Post-adoption update - I'm not sure if I ever posted much about the post-adoption paperwork. Yes, more paperwork, but it's super simple compared to the dossier. The first thing we were required to do is mail Elijah's passport into the EE consulate's office in Chicago. (They are SLOW. It's been over 2 months and haven't gotten it back yet. I know many people have waited 3-6 months.) I'm thankful I made a copy of his passport and visa page before I sent it. Then, his Certificate of Citizenship came in the mail almost exactly 45 days after we landed in O'Hare. We didn't have to do anything to request this to come, just turned in our sealed envelope from the EE embassy at the airport. Let's see, I guess the next thing was scheduling a post-placement with our home study social worker. We weren't in any hurry for this, and since Pat was in Argentina for three weeks starting in mid-February, we finally had it on March 24th. We filled out a questionnaire beforehand, and it was a nice visit. MUCH less stressful than the very first visit w/ our SW back in August. LOL Oh, before that, I went to the Social Security office to apply for his SS #. That was super easy too. I needed his Cert of Citizenship and the birth certificate that showed us as his parents. The guy at the SS office said it would take up to a month to get the card in the mail, but we could call the next week to get the number. (We needed it to file our taxes I guess. We still haven't filed...hopefully tomorrow!) The card came in the mail SIX days later. That was cool. A speedy gov't office...go figure. :-)
So, now we are waiting on the post-placement report. Once we have that, we have the forms to go to our county, finish the re-adoption process, and get a US issued birth certificate for Elijah. I will be relieved to have that in case something ever happened to his EE one. I would have no way to replace it. And then I think we are done!
The poor boy had to have blood drawn today to get a karotype done. This will give us medical documentation that he does indeed have Down syndrome. We need that documentation to apply for some other gov't grants for children with Ds.
Elijah also started Speech and Occupational therapy on Tuesday at the local elementary school. So, we have officially entered the world of IEPs. He did great on his first day. I will bring him in 2x/week right away in the morning, so it won't interfere with our school time at home. Hopefully, that will work well for us. I'm excited to see the progress he'll make too, especially in the speech area.
Well, I guess that's about enough rambling. Sorry, Liz K, no pictures today! I'll have Sarah post some more in a few days hopefully. Time to get supper going. Thanks again to everyone for your love, support and prayers for our family during our loss of Noah. We love you all!
No comments:
Post a Comment