Saving Sofia

New BLOG!

2011-06-27T11:55:00.000-07:00

Please come join us over at our NEW blog...it's about time we realized we are now a family of 6!!!!

The Sanchez Six

Promise to have some fun updates this week!

Summer Glow

2011-06-21T12:19:00.000-07:00

Quick post to explain why we've been too busy to blog. We've been poolside almost every day this summer. Here is our bathing beauty. She loves the water and who would have known she had such BEAUTIFUL skin color. She doesn't burn...just turns a lovely shade of bronze even with gobs of sunscreen on!

Annual Check-Up!

2011-06-14T23:34:00.001-07:00

It was time for our annual check-up and we are happy to report that we are growing and thriving! Only 3 pounds separates the two of us (despite being almost exactly one year apart!) so we are often mistaken for twins. We LOVE each other so very much and get into constant trouble around the house! Thank goodness one of us is in school almost every day otherwise mama would be going crazy by now chasing and cleaning up after the two of us.

Mama says she PROMISES to be better about posting! Life sure is busy with 4 rambunctious and very busy kiddos! Having three boys ages 8, 6 and 3 is a handful and add one feisty 2 year old princess and well...we have a FULL house.

Check back in again soon! So many new things going on with the Sanchez Six (yes...mama and papa round us out to 6 silly Sanchez family members!) Stay tuned for a new blog that combines Three's a Charm and Saving Sofia....coming soon!

Bring Kirill HOME!

2011-04-04T21:25:00.001-07:00

Be a part of something BIG....be a part of HISTORY!

BRING KIRILL HOME!

Happy World Down Syndrome Day! 3-21-11

2011-03-20T19:46:00.000-07:00

All these beautiful children I am happy to know and love...the babes of the Sacramento Area Sisterhood. This is a preview to a DSIA 2012 Calendar fundraiser and photos were taken by the talented team at Benton Photography. Enjoy!

Celebrate that special extra chromosome!

Bee-utiful!

2011-03-08T21:00:00.000-08:00

Photo taken by my friend and photographer Michelle Marrone

iPad Giveaway

2011-03-08T07:21:00.001-08:00

Donate for a Chance to WIN AN iPAD

Grab This!

iPad Giveaway

2011-02-25T07:51:00.000-08:00

Please enter this drawing for a new iPad and help bring Sofia's newest little friend home! Lydiah is being adopted by a local family who just brought home John David from Ukraine last Fall. They fell in love with Lydiah while visiting JD at the orphanage and now they are going back to get her and bring her home. This family is AMAZING and deserves our support! PLUS...you have a great chance at winning this HOT new gadget! We LOVE our iPad and there are so many useful applications for adults, kids and even babies :)!
Love for Little Lydiah

Turning Two!!

2011-02-22T12:59:00.000-08:00

Sofia turned 2 yesterday and we celebrated with a tea party for all her friends. Everyone was asked to come dressed in their party dresses and ties!

It was a beautiful celebration and we had so much fun. The pictures say it all. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Sofia! We love you and can't imagine life without our little girl.

Sweet Sofia

2011-02-06T23:21:00.000-08:00

Picture captured by the amazing Penny Sylvia for DSIA.

There is nothing sweeter than Sofia's face!

Quick update on our wonder girl! She is pulling up to stand on EVERYTHING and climbing onto things as well (as evidenced by her constant bumps and bruises). She is a COPY CAT...she will literally do whatever anyone else is doing. She is constantly using new signs and can very clearly say banana (nanana), mama, papa, nana, ball (baa), tickle (ticka) and many more words. She can blow into a recorder (brand new skill learned today!) and she drinks only from a straw now. She is cruising on furniture and in her crib and will push a shopping cart or walker toy and walk around. She has absolutely perfected her creep on hands and knees and is FAST. She dances and loves bathtime. She throws a ball and explores her whole house. She and Joaquin ADORE each other, give kisses, pats on the back and get into laughing matches in the car. Sofia's big brothers adore her and want her around them all the time, they fight over her often. She is very much in love with her mama, papa and nana. She is sassy and when she's done with something she is DONE. She has perfected her coy head tilt when she wants to be cute. She LOVES to eat and DO NOT get in her way. The only time she is truly angry is whenever food is taken away or not coming fast enough! She sleeps through the night and never makes a peep and likes to nap twice a day or one long nap but is totally flexible about this. She loves her bed and her room all to herself. All in all she is doing incredible and we continue to bond with her a little more every single day.

My friend and fellow blogger Bethany just wrote an amazing post on her blog "Our Perfectly Imperfect Life" about the rewards of special needs adoption. She speaks from her heart and really paints an accurate picture of the bonding process when adopting a child. Read it here.

Baby Steps

2011-01-21T22:30:00.000-08:00

Look who is taking some assisted steps! Sofia did this all on her own, without my prompting. I just turned around at our sweet friend Kassi's birthday party and there she was shopping with her cart crusing across the floor. Amazing!

Increasing Awareness...Powerful Stuff Here

2011-01-14T14:01:00.001-08:00

Tears are still in my eyes watching and listening to this awareness video done by Kelle Hampton.

Check it out HERE!

You'll see a little clip of both my sweet angels! Rock on Nella!!!

Reece's Rainbow LIVE Interview!!!

2011-01-11T17:18:00.000-08:00

Live Interview about Sofia & John David & Reece's Rainbow!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-08T01:20:00.000-08:00

And what a year it has been!

Please consider visiting Kelle's blog at Enjoying the Small Things and see our little Miss Sofia and her brother Joaquin as one of the MANY beautiful faces of Down syndrome.

Let's start the new year giving back...and in return giving a better future for all children blessed with a little extra chromosome and those GORGEOUS almond eyes.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-26T22:27:00.000-08:00

Our REAL LIVE angel under our Christmas tree! She was ALL smiles this Christmas...her FIRST Christmas with her forever family. We are so lucky to have her. She is PURE joy!

One Year Ago Today...

2010-12-13T07:53:00.000-08:00

One year ago today, my grandmother passed away peacefully. We miss you dearly Grandma.

One year ago today, I stumbled across Reece's Rainbow's Angel Tree fundraiser and decided to make a donation in my Grandma's memory.

One year ago today, I caught a glimpse of a little baby girl named Sofia (2) who had Down syndrome and a face that permanently touched my heart.

One year ago today, a seed was planted.

One year LATER, we are the Sanchez Six and we can't imagine life without our daughter. She completes us! What a difference a year makes.

SO Much To Share

2010-12-09T22:51:00.000-08:00

But so little time these days....I promise to do a proper update VERY soon.

So for now...here is our little sweetie! This symbolizes her new life. She's a kid in a candy store! Loving every moment of it.

Trick or Treat?

2010-11-05T07:32:00.000-07:00

Sofia's first Halloween was celebrated all day long with a baby Halloween party in the morning and hanging out with Nana and Grandpa Halloween night while her big brothers went trick or treating in the neighborhood!

Lots more pictures to come soon! There was a professional photographer (and dear friend) at our baby party so I'll be sure to share those when we get them. Can't wait!

Sofia was a super diva...complete with outfit changes! She was a bee and a ladybug...couldn't waste those adorable costumes.

For a post on our evening activities complete with pictures, go to Joaquin's blog here!

Her First Halloween!!!

2010-10-25T08:22:00.000-07:00

What to "bee" for Halloween????? Our "cute as a bug" girl has to make up for some lost time with Halloween costumes!

So...how does one pick?!? Maybe we need a POLL! Let us know your favorite!

God Works in AMAZING Ways...

2010-10-23T11:24:00.000-07:00

My new friends Mark and Hansina are currently in Ukraine adopting their new son Liam. This is a local family to us that decided to adopt a child from Reece's Rainbow as a result of our journey to save Sofia. This is a beautiful family that does not have a child with DS but decided that they would love to adopt a child with DS...I find this absolutely amazing and so incredibly wonderful!

Liam and his new Big Sister Madison

Hansina contacted me earlier this week with some fears and concerns about little baby Liam's health. Since she is not familiar with having a child with DS, I can imagine how scary it must have been to meet him and hear that he has some health issues. Adopting a child oversees can be scary enough let alone a child who comes with a set of "issues." God knows Hector and I were scared, knowing very well what we were getting into with adopting Sofia, and we were almost paralyzed by the fear after the long travel, stress of being in a foreign country and having absolutely NO CONTROL over any of the process of the adoption. It would have been so easy for us to turn around and run home.

So, when Hansina contacted me with her fears, I felt extremely obligated to help ease her mind and offer her the support and care that I could thousands of miles away and through email. One of the health concerns that Liam has is cataracts in both eyes. Sounded scary to me. I don't know anything about it. I don't know any child with DS (or otherwise) who has cataracts and I simply did not know what to tell her. I did get her the names of two excellent eye doctors in town and thought this might be the only thing I could do. I was so anxious about it and couldn't stop thinking about her and Liam.

Well...God had different plans. Last week, just two days after getting Hansina's email about Liam, I had a follow up appointment with our eye doctor for Sofia's tear duct surgery. While in the waiting room, I saw the most beautiful, active, curious and lovable little boy with DS. He was about 3 1/2 years old and was just a joy to watch. His eyes looked perfect and gorgeous and I wondered why he was at the opthomologist's office. I felt something move me to initiate a conversation with the mom and dad (and got a sweet hug from their boy as a result) and I asked them why they were at the office. I'm not usually so bold or "nosey" but again I just felt moved to ask them. I was so curious.

Lo and behold, the mom told me that they were there for their son's follow up appointment. He had double cataract surgery a month ago. She went on to tell me that the surgery was very simple. The healing was quick and their son can see perfectly. WOW. WOW. WOW. I got chills. I had exactly what I needed to tell Hensina. Thank you God!

God works in mysterious ways but I'm beginning to think that He knows EXACTLY what He is doing.

Four Kids on a Swing

2010-10-10T11:29:00.001-07:00

The Sanchez kiddos at the park on the same swing set! Can you spot Sofia?

San Francisco Bay Area Dandelion Parent Feature Article

2010-10-04T16:27:00.000-07:00

Reece's Rainbow and our story are featured in the latest Bay Area Edition of Dandelion Parent Magazine. SO exciting to see our story and stories like ours covered in magazines to spread the word. Check it out here! Our story is on page 16 & 17.

Showering Sofia

2010-09-29T21:43:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, my "best" girlfriends threw a very intimate and beautiful shower for Sofia. It was a lovely afternoon and Sofia was a little movie star! She lights up a room when she enters it. The cool crisp mimosas were delicious on this warm September day and the company was perfect. Thank you Michelle and Katie and all our guests for honoring our little birdie and showering her with love.

Birthday Bubbles & Music

2010-09-29T14:14:00.000-07:00

Here is Sofia at her buddy Sheridan's birthday party last month. She LOVES music and people and birthdays and bubbles and she has a sense of wonder about EVERYTHING. And then I remember it's because EVERYTHING is new to her!

Me & My Brother

2010-09-22T22:05:00.000-07:00

Sasha HAS A Family-UPDATED!!!!

2010-09-22T07:38:00.000-07:00

HIS FAMILY FOUND HIM!

Follow his journey home here! CONGRATS to the Hagler family! You are about to win the adoption lottery jackpot of love and cuteness with Sasha :)!

Tears Are Flowing...It's a Good Thing!

2010-09-20T21:24:00.001-07:00

Little Miss Sofia had her tear duct surgery today and all went well. The doctor was able to probe both ducts and balloon one side but not the other but they feel that surgery was successful and that all should be flowing well now!

She charmed all the nurses and doctors in the children's surgery center and did really well during the surgery and coming out of anesthesia. She seemed to recover quickly in the morning but had a little relapse in the afternoon with some vomiting of fluids. She was more cranky than she's ever been today as well, poor little girl. Hopefully tomorrow she will feel like herself again.

Thank goodness for our healthy girl. And if she should need to cry (and we hope that she doesn't too often), she can now cry with tears and all!

The Ripple in the Pond Continues...

2010-09-04T18:23:00.000-07:00

...and another little girl's life is going to be saved.

Embracing Life's Journey

Before & After

2010-09-02T20:37:00.000-07:00

We are a few weeks shy of having Sofia home with us now for three months and I can't get over how much she has transformed. She is such a happy and healthy little baby. We love her more and more each day and she is becoming more and more our little girl. The boys continue to love on her and play with her (Joaquin sometimes a bit too much...as evidenced by a few love "bites") but all in all she fits in so perfectly with our family. Look how far she's come!

Before...bruised, pale, chapped skin.

After...clear, soft, illuminated skin.

Before...nothing to call her own, dressed in layers of clothing, not able to feel her own body.

After...a closet full of lovely clothes especially given to her or handed down to her, dressed like the princess that she is.

Before...very little tone, poor coloring, overfed and no variety of foods for her body.

After...brighter skin, more alert, better tone, proper body weight.

Before...all alone, no friends, no family.

After...lots of friends and a big family.

Before...sad and sorrowful eyes.

After...eyes full of wonder!

Before...stuck indoors almost all her life.

After...soaking up some California sunshine!

Before...a face without much hope.

After...a face filled with joy!

Before...a hidden beauty with lots of love just waiting for someone to share it with.

After...a glowing, radiant beam of light! Photo taken today at the opthamologist's office.

On the MOVE!

2010-08-22T20:08:00.000-07:00

She's army crawling! She has been moving on her belly a little bit every day since coming home with us but I can officially say that she is now using belly crawling as a mode of transportation...to get from Point A to Point B...and we couldn't be more thrilled! She gets up on hands and knees a lot too and rocks or lunges. I also found her sitting up in her crib this morning...she got that way all by herself!!!

GO BABY GO!

DISNEYLAND!

2010-08-19T21:48:00.000-07:00

We celebrated many things with a recent trip to Disneyland and one of the BIG reasons was Sofia's homecoming! And what better way to be introduced to the USA but by going to DISNEY!

I wrote a bit more about our trip on Joaquin's blog here and I'm sad to say we don't have many more pictures. This one below, our bathing beauty, I took with my phone. We were just too busy having fun at the parks and meeting up with friends Lisa, Cheri and Denise (thank goodness they had their cameras!) and swimming at the hotel pool.

Sofia was incredible during this entire trip. Not one peep in the 8 hour car ride to LA and back and never once cried during our Disney experience (and we went two days in a row from opening to closing). In fact, I think we have a thrill seeker on our hands! We took her on the sliding car ferris wheel and everyone of us got freaked and a bit motion sick except for Sofia who was laughing out loud and flapping her arms in the air. Every single ride she just soaked in and observed. She waved at everyone and generally just enjoyed the whole experience. She's AMAZING!

Here's our favorite of the trip. Have I told you lately that Miss Sofia LOVES to eat...and she will eat anything! Check her out...all the boys are looking around at something going on and Sofia has her eye on Mateo's lollipop! That's my girl!

Saint Sophia of Thrace

2010-08-08T21:45:00.000-07:00

I was at my parents house this weekend and my dad and I got to talking about saints. We know that Diego, Mateo and Joaquin have a saint associated with them....the cities San Diego, San Mateo and San Joaquin were all named after saints. We wondered if there was a Saint Sophia (Sofia). We certainly don't have a city of Santa Sophia here in California so she must not be a big Latin American saint. But she certainly was somebody important since there is a giant Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, Ukraine. I knew that the actual name Sofia means "wisdom" and that Sofia is a beautiful name and one of my favorite girl names but I didn't know much more. My dad disappeared for awhile upstairs to his office and a few minutes later he came down with a copy of this.

Imagine my surprise when I read the title...St. Sophia...the Mother of Orphans! My dad and I chuckled...another little sign from God. Do any of you remember this entry? And if you've read my other blog Three's A Charm or read the book Gifts 2, you'll remember this story.

I did a little more research on Saint Sophia of Thrace. She even has a fan page on Facebook!

I found this lovely synopsis...

Sophia was born in modern-day Bulgaria, in eleventh-century Byzantium. She was known for her beauty and intelligence, and as wealth and high social standing were added to that, her life was set up for happiness. She had six children, and raised them with love.

Then, in her relative young age (her early thirties), a plague hit… and Sophia watched as her husband died, and then her children, one by one. She at first, overcome by grief, wished and prayed that she might die too. We can only imagine the depths to which such a blow would have taken her. Most of the hagiographies seem to pass over this point in relative silence, for obvious reasons. It is something indescribable, personal and somehow sacred.

Eventually, however, a new conviction was formed in her. Or rather, the divine spark in her manifested itself—being who she was, she could only truly respond to such tragedy with love. She made inquiries to local church leaders about how she could best distribute her wealth to the poor, although still keeping her house, which she transformed into a home for the unfortunate, the homeless, and, especially, the orphan. It seems that her love for children never waned after her loss, but instead seemed to grow—she legally adopted over 120 children (she did not only take care of them, love them, and raise them, but bestowed upon them legitimacy in a noble family and, therefore, unheard of opportunity for most abandoned orphans.) Like St. Juliana of Lazarevo, a Russian saint who lived centuries later, she often would go without food herself in order to meet the needs of anyone who came her way.

She became somewhat the equivalent of Mother Teresa for her day, a supreme example of a spiritual ideal. Mothers, caught up in their own troubles, could always compare themselves to Sophia and become truly humbled.

She received monastic tonsure shortly before her death, consciously giving up her life to God. She was fifty-three years old.

The one miracle which is associated with her is represented by the urn which she holds in the icon. She used it to serve wine to her children and guests, and it is said that no matter how many people were present, no matter how little wine there was available, the urn would always fill to the brim with “the best wine”—a second Cana of Galilee. And as with that first miracle of the incarnate God, it is a symbol of infinite giving, even complete self-emptying out of love. He who provided the wine would Himself become the wine of the eternal feast—in His own blood.

Sofia's Perfect Heart

2010-08-07T20:51:00.000-07:00

Sofia saw a cardiologist on Friday as we move down the list of specialists that we may or may not have to see on a regular basis. We had Sofia's heart checked out, and the ECHO and the EKG both showed that Sofia's heart is in perfect shape! Such a relief.

She was as charming as ever in the waiting room making friends, she babbled and smiled at the nurse doing her vitals and EKG and then again with the ECHO technician. The doctor was mesmerized as well by her sweet disposition.

Children with Down syndrome have a 40% chance of having heart issues and because it had been reported to us that Sofia had an open oval window we were concerned that she may fall into that percentage. Dr. Choy said Sofia beat the odds on that one. He said her heart is "perfectly normal" that she is "obviously thriving" and seems to be "very healthy." GREAT words to hear from a health professional.

Just a few more specialty appointments (ears and eyes) and we will be ready to move on with life as usual!

Here is Sofia on the exam table...such a doll baby!

A Special Connection

2010-08-05T21:51:00.000-07:00

Today we finally got to meet a very special group of girls and their moms at a water park in Folsom. These are the girls from a local bible study group that worked so hard to fundraise for Sofia earlier this year. It was a very special day and Sofia LOVED every one of them. We had a blast and I literally did not hold Sofia for 2 1/2 hours as she happily went to each and every person who wanted to hold her. She was adorable and so were these girls!

I was really blown away with the love, maturity and overall kindness of these sweet young ladies. I was in awe of them all. I can only imagine what this experience was like for them. To meet Sofia in the flesh and know that they had a part in bringing her home to us. I also wonder how it will touch their lives in the future and if this possibly planted the adoption seed in their hearts.

Here are a few pictures that were snapped by the girls! SO much fun! We can't wait to meet up with them again. I'm thinking that Sofia will have a special connection with this incredible group of girls for many years to come...I hope!

Sweet Dreams

2010-07-30T23:04:00.000-07:00

I just peeked in on Sofia tonight in her little crib and found her smiling in her sleep.

It made my evening.

Sweet dreams baby girl!

A Mini Update

2010-07-28T23:07:00.000-07:00

Life is SO incredibly busy. Having four children is SO incredibly hard. The days are long and full and busy and tiring and fun and frustrating. There are moments of bliss like today....having a picnic lunch on our front lawn watching a cement mixer truck make a new pathway for our neighbors yard. Joaquin napping peacefully after a busy morning of therapy. Sofia playing with her hands and her shadow on the picnic blanket. Diego and Mateo getting along, giggling, eating their lunch happily, mesmerized by the construction project going on across the street. And then there are moments of complete CHAOS...a huge dirty diaper explosion from Sofia right before needing to get all the kids in the car to drop off the big boys to soccer camp in time. Joaquin escaping out the door after destroying every room he came in contact with on the way out the door. Diego and Mateo fighting over who is better or faster or smarter or gets to go first or gets to go last, you name it they fight it.

It's hard work being a stay at home mom to four children ages 7 and under. It's exhausting. But I signed up for this so I show up to work every day and put in my best effort. Sometimes I do a pretty good job, some days not so much. But I try to go easy on myself...this is an adjustment for me and for Hector as well as for the kids and for Sofia. We are all evolving as a family of six now.

There are days when I get in a bit of a panic about Sofia's delays. She is making incredible progress and everyone agrees she is doing so well, but I can't help but worry and fear that she has so far to go and is so far behind. What I see at her core is a girl who is smart and capable and strong and determined when she wants to be...but sometimes I also see her lethargy or apathy for things...ghosts from her past where her little spirit may have been damaged and still needs repair. An orphanage is no place for a child...especially a child with special needs.

Sofia is still in the process of having all medical related issues checked out and ruled out. We have seen her pediatrician and an endocrinologist but we still have her cardiology appointment, ENT appointment, audiology appointment and opthomology appointment. She is currently receiving 2 hours of Physical Therapy a week and 1 hour of Occupational Therapy a week and a 1/2 hour of Music Therapy. Starting next week we will add 1 hour of Speech Therapy a week and we will see an Oral Motor Therapist once a month. She is eating all sorts of different foods and textures. And she just started self feeding this week. She learned that she can hold a cracker and put it to her mouth and eat, seems so simple but she never knew this before as everything she ever ate in the orphanage came in a bottle. We are working on the straw drinking but no luck yet. It will take some diligence and effort on my part to switch over to a sippy cup but that is her next goal for feeding. She is still VERY verbal and has excellent mimicking skills. We are still working on independent sitting...she prefers to sit in a tripod. She just started army crawling as a form of transportation...maybe up to 3 feet or so to get to a toy or food. We have so many goals for her and I try not to get overwhelmed.

Most importantly she is loved and is not lacking for love. She's also a bit famous here in Sacramento. I've had strangers stop me and ask "Is that Sofia?" and I've had people stop us in doctor's offices saying they saw Sofia on TV. She has a cult following and if you meet Sofia in person you will see that she takes the job seriously. She puts on her best smiley face and will wave to the crowds. You should see her in the stroller...waves like she's on parade. She's hilarious!

Anyway, just a little update on our baby girl. She continues to grow in our hearts each and every day. I'm still getting used to saying "the kids" instead of "the boys" and it's becoming more and more real that we have a daughter now. I hope to share more about some deeper thoughts on adoption and special needs and having a girl with DS versus having a boy as time permits and when I get a moment to really assimilate everything that has happened since the beginning of the year. I have so much more to share and talk about. Oh boy, it's been a big year for the Sanchez family. At the end of the day, we are SO blessed and SO fortunate and for that I am SO grateful.

Blossoming!

2010-07-28T00:17:00.000-07:00

Sofia is blossoming here at home with us. It's been exactly 6 weeks today that she has been home with us and I would say that she is fully acclimated to her new life in California. Every day she becomes more and more the precious little girl she was meant to be. Sofia is 17 months old now and she is SO happy and she is eager to smile, laugh and wave hello or goodbye. In fact, I would say waving is her most favorite thing to do...as well as clapping and smacking her lips when she wants to kiss you.

A "mommy" friend of mine (and neighbor) Tracy recently took these beautiful photographs of Sofia and Joaquin in between our occupational therapy sessions that morning and after carting off the big brothers (Diego and Mateo) to summer basketball camp. I'm in awe of what photographers can capture in such a short amount of time with their talent. These photographs speak more than any words that I could write. Thank you Tracy for such a lovely gift!

And one medical update...Sofia does NOT have a thyroid issue after all. We tested her 4 different times and the first two showed a VERY slight issue and the last two which were done by a more "careful" and "precise" lab showed no problems at all. We will continue to watch it closely and will most likely test every two months just to make sure we don't miss anything. What is really interesting though is that between the 2nd and 3rd blood draws I began introducing sea kelp into Sofia's diet. I add it in her morning oatmeal and it's extremely high in iodine which helps thyroid function. Could it have helped her in that short of time? I don't know, but I'm sure happy all is well with her right now!

Touching More Hearts

2010-07-15T13:07:00.000-07:00

It's awe inspiring to see how our story of adopting Sofia has touched the hearts and souls of people especially children near and far. Here is link to a community blog with a post about Sofia and her newest friends. LOVE it!

Click here...Natomas Song

Americana

2010-07-07T21:01:00.000-07:00

Just a few snapshots of our kiddos on the 4th of July. My dear friend Michelle Marrone is starting a photography business and she really has a wonderful and unique approach to capturing loved ones. Here are our sleeping baby beauties!

Joaquin (a.k.a. "Squamp"...his brothers made that one up!)

Little Miss Sofi!

Mateo (my little "Tay-Tay")

Mr. D...Diego

Summer Lovin'

2010-07-07T07:13:00.000-07:00

Sweet Sofia is at no loss for love at our house. All three boys adore her and shower her with affection, hugs, kisses, sweet talk...the whole nine yards.

Sofia looks like a princess in some of these photos...as she should...being the only little girl in the house!

She's Our Little Blossom

2010-07-06T19:38:00.000-07:00

She is blossoming before our eyes. Sofia is doing so well at home with us. These photos were taken this morning. She is already sitting up unassisted after we prop her and she has so many expressions and verbalizations. She LOVES to "talk" and one of my most favorite faces is her "pouty" lips.

We've spend the past two weeks getting into a new routine, visiting friends, going to the doctors office, having blood drawn, getting regional services started, a social security card, getting initial therapy evaluations and doing our first round of PT (physical therapy) and OT (occupational therapy).

Sofia is doing so well and her eating technique from a spoon is almost perfect and soon we will transition to a straw cup from the bottle. This girl LOVES to eat. She can army crawl to get to toys or people. She loves people but I have to say she gets the most excited with her Nana. They have a very special bond already.

We haven't seen many of the specialists yet to clear her heart, ears and eyes but we are investigating the possibility of hypothyroidism. It was the only thing that came back from her labs as a bit off. The second blood test showed normal levels so tomorrow we are off to a third blood draw to see if we can figure her thyroid out. It makes a lot of sense that she may have "hypo"thyroidism...she gains weight easily, is often lethargic and sleepy, she has a hoarse voice and she sweats easily. We'll see what happens and I'm so glad we are on top of this so early so we can get her thyroid functioning properly so she feels her best.

She's a love bug, a snuggle bug and she's OUR bug! We love our little blossom!

Let Freedom Ring

2010-07-05T10:39:00.000-07:00

We celebrated the 4th of July in our hometown of Sacramento which included a neighborhood parade, swimming, block party complete with dunk tank, cupcake walk, watermelon eating contest, water balloon contest, seed spitting contest, neighborhood potluck and BBQ, music and of course a fireworks show.

This year was especially meaningful as it was Sofia's first 4th of July, her first American holiday and one that symbolizes so much for her. She has a brand new life here in the United States. She has a future that is bright, so much brighter than the four walls of the orphanage that she lived in just 3 weeks ago. We are so happy to have her home now and settled into her new life...full of freedom!

More pictures to follow soon. We finally got the camera out since returning home from Ukraine a couple weeks ago!

I also promise an update on all the "goings on" since we've returned. It's been a busy couple weeks and I'm still adjusting to life with four children. We are truly blessed. The house is full and happy and lively...and sometimes crazy but it's all good.

Sofia's First Playdate

2010-06-24T23:59:00.000-07:00

On the same whirlwind day that the news reporter came to our house to do a quick interview on our little "star" Sofia, we rushed off to attend a music therapy playdate at a friend's house. We were so excited to see a HUGE group of friends attending the group and Sofia got to meet so many of her new girlfriends. There must have been about 10 children there (not including siblings) and all with DS and when Joaquin arrived he was the only boy (with DS) in attendance and he sure poured on the charm for everyone. Sofia was a little social butterfly and happily was passed from one mama to another and even participated in the music therapy session. I swear this little girl LOVES a crowd and enjoys all the attention! She really lights up around big groups of adoring people.

Here are a few snapshots from the morning playdate. Check out Sofia taking a ride in the big drum and Joaquin at the front of the class practicing his animal "signs".

We look forward to LOTS more of these in the future! We are so blessed to have an amazing community of families touched by DS and we (the mamas) affectionately call ourselves The Sisterhood. I love my "sisters" as if they were family. They have been an incredible support and it's just a wonderful feeling to have so many great families to experience this journey with. We hope to raise our children together and watch them grow and thrive and build friendships based on these early playdates. It's so exciting to think of all the kids when they get older. And judging by the numbers at today's playdate, Sofia will have LOTS of sleepovers and princess dress up playdates and tea parties at the park with all her "girls". And Joaquin....well, the odds are in his favor when it comes time for a homecoming date!

Sofia & Joaquin on TV Today

2010-06-21T21:10:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th Anniversary to Reece's Rainbow!

2010-06-18T20:59:00.000-07:00

Video Montage for Reece's Rainbow on their 4th Anniversary!

Get your tissues ready. This is a very powerful video. I am in awe of what Andrea at Reece's Rainbow has been able to accomplish with her adoption ministry. I am honored to be a part of it. Look for faces that you will recognize in the video (my dearest Leeza and precious Anna both still waiting for a family!). Please open your hearts and consider adoption or please continue to support other families trying to save the life of an orphan. Like Andrea said, there is no shortage of families wishing to adopt, only the funds.

Thank you so much for taking this journey with us!

Our First Day

2010-06-16T21:53:00.000-07:00

We spent the day visiting with friends, taking a stroller walk, walking to Starbucks, visiting our Great Aunt Tootie at her Senior Living Center, getting a social security card and swimming at Nana and Grandpa's pool. It was a perfect summer day and I hope there are MANY more to come!

Sofia is having some difficulty with the time change so we tried to get out and about as much as possible so that she could feel the "daytime" and be ready for bed tonight. I think it worked. She got some good California sunshine and took her first swim in the pool. She was a bit unsure about it but overall she did amazing since it was on the cool side.

The boys are loving their baby sister. Diego is the caretaker. He wants to make sure she is happy, safe and fed. He gave her two of her bottles today and took great care in feeding her. Mateo constantly hovers around Sofia, giving her kisses and hugs and making sure she always has a toy nearby. Joaquin stops to give a kiss here and there but otherwise that boy is BUSY! His new walking skills are WAY more interesting right now than baby sister. Too funny! He is overall VERY gentle with her and every time he kisses her he strokes his face which is the sign for "gentle" so he gets it...MOST of the time. He did sneak in a little pull of her fuzzy hair today but mostly because he was really wound up from wrestling with his brothers.

Today at the social security office we discovered that the man behind the counter helping us with our application was actually born in the same city as Sofia! What are the chances? It really truly is a small world! This ended up being a blessing in disguise since all of Sofia's official documents are in Russian and we needed them to be translated in person (they don't accept outside translations) so he was able to sit and read her birth certificate and adoption decree right there in front of us. It was so incredible! What are the chances?

A couple local news stations called today and yesterday wanting to do a follow up story on Sofia so I think I'll give them a call tomorrow. We need to let our community know that Sofia is home and so so happy!

3 Boys and a Baby Girl

2010-06-16T11:31:00.000-07:00

Sofia is HOME!

2010-06-16T04:38:00.000-07:00

Oh those sweet words...Sofia is home.

And because I'm not sure when I'll get another spare moment in the next few days of getting settled with our newest addition, I will send you over to my dear friend and "sister" Lisa at Genenetically Enhanced who was able to document us getting to the airport and some of our first few moments all together as a family.

Oh what a sight to see, our three golden boys waiting for us with Nana and a group of my closest friends and fellow "sisters". Thank you everyone for all the love and support. It means the WORLD to us.

Sofia's Homecoming!

I'll post again soon with how things are going as a family of six and some more photos and videos of the boys with their new sister and how Sofia adjust to being home in California.

Much love and blessings to you all!

We're Coming HOME!

2010-06-14T08:18:00.000-07:00

Today we got Sofia's Visa at the U.S. Embassy so we are completely DONE with our adoption! YAHOO! We are headed back home early tomorrow morning and we'll arrive Tuesday night in Sacramento. Two days earlier than we originally planned. We can hardly believe it!

We've tried to soak up as much as we can of Ukraine. We took a 2 hour walking tour of Kiev yesterday with Nikolai's daughter and learned so much about the history of Ukraine and realized that it truly is a VERY young country as it has only been independent since 1991. It was so interesting to hear the perspective of a young citizen of Ukraine and all her hopes and disappointments about the country and it's leadership.We hope for the best for Ukraine and it's people...all it's people...especially the orphans, the elderly, and the disabled. Again, we have so much to be grateful for in the United States.

So it's on to a new chapter in our lives. We're now a family of SIX! We cannot wait for the boys to meet their new sister.

But especially for this boy to become a big brother for the first time!

Wedding, Anyone?

2010-06-13T20:38:00.000-07:00

In the course of an hour walk, we saw at least a dozen brides if not more (we seriously lost count!) at the historic park across the street from our apartment in Kiev. When we saw the first one, we were so excited...oh, look someone is getting married! And then we saw another...and another...and another. It got quite comical. In fact, it was a parade of brides in the park. It was at least 90 degrees at around 3pm and everywhere we turned we saw a different white dress with a sweaty groom attached. LOTS of champagne bottles popping, too. The occasional blushing bride. Even a bridezilla pouting and stomping her feet at her photographer. It was hilarious! It seems that in Ukraine it is customary to get married in the church and then to take a pilgrimage to the park and make an offering of flowers to the eternal flame monument overlooking the Dniper River.

And then, after the photo op, you head in one of these to a nearby restaurant for the after party!

Cheers to all the beautiful Ukrainian brides!

An Afternoon Walk in Kiev

2010-06-13T20:18:00.000-07:00

Through the Dark - Alexi Murdoch

2010-06-11T20:54:00.000-07:00

GOTCHA Day!

2010-06-10T13:20:00.000-07:00

Today was GOTCHA day for Sofia!

When I woke up this morning I was overwhelmed with emotion. My feelings about this whole experience have been all over the map but today especially. I felt so incredibly excited about finally brining Sofia home. We've waited 6 months for this moment but I also felt a huge amount of sadness for the ones left behind. It's so hard to explain. My heart absolutely aches for all of the orphans left waiting for a family. So with a heavy and happy heart, we set off to scoop Sofia up around 10 am.

We arrived to discover it was a very busy day at the orphanage. There were teams of "doctor" types visiting all of the groupas and so the staff were very preoccupied and seemed nervous and on edge. It was almost as if it were examination day and these groups of people all dressed in white coats were examining the children and the staff had to be alert to answer their questions.

When the staff saw us, they knew the reason we were there and so they scrambled to go get Sofia. One of our ABSOLUTE favorite staff members was there today so I was thrilled to be able to say goodbye to her. We brought the groupa some bananas (a rare and expensive treat to the children) and some baby cookies. We also brought diapers and a large box of chocolates for the staff. We also presented them with a brand new little girl's outfit as a trade offering so that we could bring a pair of old orphanage tights home to have something from Sofia's first home.

Out came Sofia with WILD hair and a HUGE grin! It was marvelous! The staff had so much to say to us so we got Marina on the phone to help us translate. Basically they wanted us to know that they love us, they are grateful to us, they wish us well, and wish for us a safe journey home with Sofia.

Sofia was in her usual form cheerful and sunny but she seemed to be especially giddy today. I wonder if somehow she knew deep down what was going on.
When they brought her to us she had nothing on but a diaper so we dressed her in her sweet little outfit and pulled out her hat...we knew we better have a hat or we might get scolded! And of course a few minutes later one of the staff brought me some long socks to put on her. At first I thought, I better listen to her and put them on but since it was about 90 degrees today, I shook my head and said "No thank you!" It was actually a really sweet gesture, she was going to give them to us and again I realized the staff really do care about these children.

We said our goodbyes with Sofia waving and laughing and made our way to Sofia's "baby" groupa down the hall. The staff took one look at little Sofia and burst into cheers and happiness. They wanted to thank us for the couch and they let us walk into the room (such a "no no" here so we were thrilled!) and we got to see the couch and ALL THE BABIES! Oh my goodness, there were shirtless diapered babies EVERYWHERE and they were ADORABLE. I couldn't scan the room fast enough to try and see if I recognized any of them. I think I saw at least one pair those familiar and beautiful almond eyes! But about a minute into our visit, one of the "visiting doctors in a white coat" shouted in the scariest tone something to the staff and we were quickly led out of the room. If the staff had tails, they would have been tucked in tight after that scolding! Regardless, the smiles were bountiful from Sofia's first "mamas" and we were so happy to have at least said goodbye to them.

Then we made our way to the head nurse to say goodbye and of course ran into everyone on the way. I think every staff person was on duty today for whatever special inspection was going on. So of course Sofia was on display and was giving the crowds what they asked for...smiles and "Paka Paka" waves. We waited a minute for the nurse to arrive (and boy did she seem stressed out today!) and we presented her with a box of chocolates and then we were on our way.

We took our last walk from the orphanage to our apartment, this time with Sofia in our arms and it was an emotional moment for sure. On our way back, I tripped on something and almost lost my balance and I had Sofia in my arms. I was able to regain my footing and not lose hold of Sofia but in that moment it was sheer panic for both Hector and me. I almost dropped Sofia on the pavement on our walk home having her not even 10 minutes under my watch. Oh the pipeworks started. The tears and sobs were uncontrollable. I was so shaken by it. She was fine, I was fine but in that moment I realized that I had fallen literally and figuratively for my daughter. I love her and want to protect her for the rest of her life. Hector was so nervous too and I realized then how much he cares for her as well. All was fine and I DIDN'T drop her and we made it home in one piece. Phew!

When we got home we put on the fans and let Sofia play and relax on the floor with her toys. She was so curious about her new surroundings but took it all in like a true champ. She's such an easy going child. She happily played and smiled for us but within 10 minutes she was OUT. She just put her head down on the ground and fell asleep. I don't know if it was the heat or the excitement of the morning but guess what? We let her sleep! Sure...it was only 11 AM and she hadn't had her lunch and this wasn't her scheduled nap time...but we were so happy to let her sleep when she felt like it. Can you imagine that feeling? I put a little blanket under her head and she managed to stay there for awhile sleeping.

THREE HOURS LATER, she was still asleep and had managed to get herself in all sort of different sleeping positions. It was adorable to watch but I was SO tempted to wake her up just to be with her more. But soon enough around 2pm she woke up...happy! For the rest of the day, I managed to be her mama. Changed a poopy diaper, fed her some cereal, gave her a bottle, gave her a bath, massaged some lavender lotion on her, brushed her teeth, sang for her, rocked her, played with her. It was a wonderful first day together and after a little dinner she put herself to sleep again for the night. Right now, Hector and Sofia are sleeping soundly and I'm left here pondering all the great fortune in my life. I feel so blessed and happy. Thank you God for opening this adoption door for me and for giving me the courage and the faith to walk through it. I am forever grateful and forever changed.

Summer at the Orphanage...and We've Got Photos!

2010-06-09T20:49:00.000-07:00

Summer at the orphanage is completely different!
Today we went to the orphanage at Sofia's visiting hours and after we presented the director with all the donated clothes and toys we went over to Sofia's groupa. We were surprised to find the room almost entirely empty. There were only two or three children left in the room and I could barely see them as they are very ill and are kept pretty isolated.

We quickly realized that the staff had taken all the children OUTSIDE to a covered outdoor permanent playpen and all the kids were dressed in diapers and tank tops (NO SHOES OR SOCKS!) and the they had put out a few toys and some blankets. At first Hector and I were a bit nervous to walk over there but we quickly realized that the staff were totally open to us coming over! The staff even introduced us to all of the kids by their names. Hector snapped LOTS of photos and I got to play with Sasha (the cutie pie who is going to be adopted later this year from an RR family), Anna (the adorable brunette girl with DS that I love dearly), Leeza (the sweet girl with DS and FAS that has stolen and broken my heart) and another little darling boy named Trenton (new to the RR website) and a little girl named Sasha (who does not have DS but has an orthopedic condition and is not on RR yet!).Maybe the conditions are not as bad as I feared here at this orphanage. The staff today are some of our favorite staff members that we've come to know and I am so happy to say that I do feel they care for these kids and I saw them interact and hold the kids today. I hope it wasn't just a "show" for us but a general care and consideration for the children. I'm sure they have their bad days and days when they are understaffed but today was a good day. A happy day. Warms my heart!

I am THRILLED to report that I got to hold Leeza and play with the rest of the kids. I got Leeza and Anna to smile- YEAH! I had Anna laughing which was the first time I have seen a range of emotion on Anna. She loves to be tickled and it was just adorable. Sasha was up to his usual antics and was as charming as ever. It's definitely Sasha that makes himself known in the groupa, that boy loves attention and knows how to get it. Leeza can definitely see and has good fine motor control. I watched her pick the smallest pieces of lint off a blanket and pieces of bark off the ground to try and eat it! She's a fast one...she got a piece of something in her mouth before I could grab it out of her hands. The staff seemed hesitant to let me hold Leeza pointing to her newly shaved head and the scabs but I told them I didn't care and grabbed her anyway. She responds to people, looks at your face and tries to make eye contact. Again, there is a sweet spirit in there! When you look at the photos look beyond the bald head. She has platinum blond hair like Sasha and pale blue eyes. No photo will ever do her justice to what I see in her in person. There are a few children missing from the groupa and we don't know where they went. I'm not going to allow myself to think about that too much for fear of the worst. And there is a new handsome boy Trenton. I'm not sure what medical condition Trenton has and if it is DS then he is very high functioning and it is not very apparent. We weren't able to get any photos of him because the staff took him back as soon as we got there.

For those of you wanting more info on the kids, I saw a heart surgery scar on Sasha and Leeza. None on the others. Sasha and Anna are army crawling but can both pull up to a stand position and cruise. Trenton was being help most the time but I have seen him pull to stand and cruise as well as sit at a baby chair independently to eat. Leeza rolls around and cannot sit up but if she wants to get somewhere she can get there and fast in her own way!

It seems the staff are happier and more easy going now that the weather is better and more pleasant. I was so happy to see the children outside and the kids were happier too. They seemed happy to be in the fresh air and shade and although I'm sure they long to be roaming more freely than the bars that contained them in the playpen, this was at least a start! So, I am happy to say that my goal of getting to hold and play with the kids was accomplished and we have the pictures to share as well. I feel so much better now just knowing that I was able to connect however briefly with the children. I will miss them and hope and pray that they are all safe in a loving home as soon as possible. These children need you!

During our morning visit, we put Sofia in the outdoor playpen to see how she interacts with the children. It was immediately apparent that she is the most robust child in this groupa! What are they feeding her that they aren't feeding the others!!! She is just a sweet girl and full of laughs and smiles. The staff really love her. I watched her and Anna interact and baby "chat" with each other. They were adorable together. I know Sofia is going to LOVE her brothers when she gets home. They will be a source of constant entertainment!

Later that morning, we asked to feed Sofia so we could get a glimpse of what to buy her in terms of baby food etc. They prepared her meal by mashing it up and creating a think soup and then put it in a bottle with a LARGE hole in the nipple. The soup was a mixture of carrots, cabbage, potato, meat, bread and gravy...and it had a very pungent smell. The thick soup essentially poured into Sofia's mouth when I fed her. She ate/drank about half of that and she was done. Then the staff brought out another bottle filled with what they called compote which was a thick hot fruit juice which again she drank in about 1 minute. I'm wondering now how much of a challenge it will be to feed Sofia and if she will have the patience to actually suck from a normal bottle. We'll soon find out. I think I'm going to stick with rice cereal, oatmeal, bananas, applesauce, sweet potato and apple juice/water until we get home. I don't want to upset her stomach during our week left in Ukraine. We'll get more adventuresome when we get home. I think they give her one bottle of milk a day (but we have not seen this) but due to her excema and her congestion I think we'll hold off on formula or milk until we get home too. Maybe we'll get her some yogurt here instead. I'm sure hoping my experience in raising 3 boys will pay off now with caring for Sofia.

Tomorrow is the big day. We still have more supplies to purchase for Sofia which we will do first thing in the morning and then we will go and pick her up!

Worldless Wednesday - At the Passport Office

2010-06-09T13:41:00.001-07:00

A Girl from Baby House 1

2010-06-09T11:27:00.001-07:00

I'm in the process of reading a really intense and all too familiar book called "The Boy from Baby House 10". Within the first few pages of this memoir about a boy from an orphanage in Russia, I knew that it was going to be difficult to read especially since so much of those first few pages remind me exactly of what I've witnessed in Sofia's orphanage here in Ukraine.

Sofia is in what is officially called Baby House 1. Luckily, the director here at this orphanage really does care for the children so they are renovating the orphanage and most recently got new insulated windows so that it stays cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.

Yesterday, we cashed Sofia's bank account that had about $1800 in it and we donated it back to the orphanage to help with renovations. It is customary to do this and we were so happy to do it. We hope this money will make even more improvements to the conditions inside the orphanage at Baby House 1.

We also found out that all babies in Baby House 1 are baptized usually before they turn 1. We received a copy of her Baptism and a small angel prayer card and a cross on a chain. Sofia was baptized on February 18th of this year, just a few days before her first birthday. What a blessing.

Starting tomorrow, the girl from Baby House 1 will no longer be. She will be Sofia from Sacramento, California!

Whirlwind

2010-06-08T11:15:00.000-07:00

What a whirlwind the past few days have been since we left California on Sunday morning at 6 am only to arrive to our apartment in Ukraine on Tuesday night at 6pm.

The flights this time to Ukraine were uneventful and with no delays due to VOLCANOS. Thank God! It's amazing how less stressful this trip was for us. Isn't it amazing when flights take off and land as expected. It was wonderful. When we arrived in Kiev on Monday afternoon at 2pm, we were immediately taken to the train station to catch a 5:30 pm Express Train to Dnep. Well, I guess we needed just a *little* bit of drama and due to a miscommunication we missed our train and had to wait another 6 hours to catch the overnight train to Dnep...so much for getting unpacked and rested before our marathon day planned for Tuesday.

We stepped off the train on Tuesday morning (this morning) at 7 am and Marina greeted us and we HIT THE GROUND RUNNING. Seriously, running. Marina is absolutely the energizer bunny. She's organized, smart, beautiful, driven, full of energy, and does NOT take no for an answer. We did see her eat today...so we know she's human and not some adoption super hero! Seriously, this woman is amazing and I've not met anyone like her before! She is definitely in the right business and is an angel in disguise for the orphans in this country.

I lost count on all the different places and stops we made today. I swear we made over 25 different stops and trips to gather all the paperwork to finalize Sofia's adoption and get her passport documents submitted. The good news is that we accomplished EVERYTHING we needed to do today and now it's just a waiting game until the passport arrives.

Our highlight of the day (besides a Big Mac at McDonald's in the bigger city of Dnep) was seeing Sofia and getting to take her on a drive to the passport agency for her photo. She immediately greeted us with smiles and waves. They woke her up early from her nap so it took her awhile to figure out what was going on since we whisked her away in our taxi and of course the open window air and sunlight was startling to her as well. It's been a month since we last took her outside. She looks good. Her hair has grown but she still has a bit of a cold and her color is very pale. This baby girl needs to get out into the sun...needs her Vitamin D dose of sunlight. It also looks like the exczema on her tongue (known as geographic tongue) has flared up and she may have a slight eye infection in one eye but otherwise she's still our healthy little "tank". I think she may have lost any of the small gains we had made in her physical development but I'm confident it will return once we get her out of the orphanage and into loving arms and with lots more opportunity and motivation to move and explore.

On our drive to the passport agency we changed Sofia into one of her new little outfits. A girl has got to get "dressed" for a photo opportunity after all! First photo attempt after propping her on the chair with several reams of copy paper to get her to the right height, she looked right at the camera and gave the sweetest expression. First shot and it was perfect, I think she likes the camera! The outfit we changed her into is the cutest orange and pink flowered romper and we clipped an orange flower in her hair. Orange and hot pink are definitely going to be "her" colors. About halfway through the passport appointment I realized that the flower print on her romper was actually poppies. She was covered in orange poppies. California's state flower is the Poppy! How appropriate is that?!? She looked adorable. She's our own California Poppy. California...here she comes!

After the last of the appointments and after returning Sofia to the orphanage (VERY HARD TO DO), we made it to our apartment around 6:30pm and finally put our feet up and unpacked and set up our computer to check in with the rest of the world. Here is where we have to share some bad news. Hector forgot to pack the cord that downloads our photos into our computer. GASP! Ok...so we know we just lost over half of our readers with this news since we KNOW the photos of Sofia are pretty much the highlight of this blog. So...we will be utilizing our iphones and our flip camera as much as possible to share photos on our blog until we get home and can download our "good" camera photos. Don't leave us now! We'll do our best!

So...the waiting begins for Sofia's passport which allows us to return to Kiev and get her U.S. medical appointment and Visa so that we can go home. Best case scenario is to get the passport on Friday so we can get home one or two days early on the 15th or 16th. Otherwise, we are scheduled to return on the 17th. We'll wait and see what happens!

The other big news is that we can take Sofia out of the orphanage as soon as we want to. We plan on BUSTING her out of there on Thursday morning. We need tomorrow (Wednesday) to get prepared for an infant (need to purchase food, diapers and wipes, etc.) and we plan on spending the day at the orphanage trying to learn her routine and see what and how she eats, etc. We will also plan on visiting the other orphans (getting pictures of them, holding them, etc.) We are going to meet with the director of the orphanage and present her with all the amazing donated clothes that we gathered from our friends back home. We know they will be put to good use. Thank you again to those who donated! It will be an exciting day and it will be Sofia's LAST day living in an orphanage. Please pray for a smooth transition, it will likely be very scary for her to leave the only home and caregivers she's known.

On a side note, I got to see Leeza today while we were waiting for the staff to wake up Sofia. She was the only one in the room, all alone in her hard crib. They shaved her head again and she has many little bed sores on her head that are covered in this bright blue/green ointment. I walked right up to her and rubbed her back and held her little hand and I swear there is a fighter inside or her. I can see her inner beauty. When I rubbed her back and held her hand she relaxed so much and she squeezed my finger. She's an itty bitty little thing that my heart aches for. There is just something about her that I feel is so special. She could gain so much from a loving family. I know she will NOT survive if she is not adopted and on the surface it would be hard for anyone to have the courage to adopt her and the fact that she has Down syndrome and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome makes it even more unlikely and challenging and I think that is what hurts so much. I pray to God that there is a special family for this special girl. I look forward to seeing the rest of the kiddos tomorrow and we'll be snapping away with our camera that we can't download...darn it!

Bags Are Packed!

2010-06-05T22:14:00.000-07:00

Bottle...check!

Sippy cup...check!

Baby spoon and dish...check!

Burb cloth...check!

Adorable clothes and bows...check!

Our bags are packed and we are ready to catch our plane early tomorrow morning. I'm packing my lucky four leaf clover charm in my carry on. We are READY to go get our girl! I can't believe the day has finally come! THANK GOD!

I think it might actually be summer weather now in Ukraine...no need for her polka dot jacket and pink hat...I hope!

Check back in with you all "on the other side"!

A New Home For Sofia...and Our Boys!

2010-05-31T16:29:00.000-07:00

We are putting our precious Tudor home in East Sacramento on the market this week in hopes that we can sell it and buy a bigger home in the suburbs outside of Sacramento. It's about 1600 square feet and it has 3 big bedrooms and 1 bath, living and dining room, kitchen with nook, large utility room, manicured front, side and back yard, wrought iron gate on the driveway, detached one car garage, an attic and a cellar. Lots of potential to add on as well!

We thought long and hard before doing this because 1) We ADORE our house and our neighbors and our friends and East Sac and 2) We LOVE living so close to my parents (Nana and Grandpa). It's just that our cozy home is just too small for a family of 6 and we just need a little more space to breath and to move and to feel that everyone has some room to grow. We are about to have 4 children under the age of 7 and in a few years those bodies will get bigger and bigger. And although it's not a great time to sell, it is a great time to buy so we think we are making the right "move"...literally and figuratively.

So...if you or anyone you know is looking for an adorable home that has tons of charm and lots of updates and ready for you to hang your clothes up...you can contact our realtor Tim Collom.

Here is a link to our listing.

East Sacramento is probably one of the most charming places to live and it will be hard to leave. We live on the most beautiful tree lined street. Lots of neighbors with children live up and down the street. We have excellent public schools and nearby private schools as well. It's walking and bike riding distance to parks, coffee shops, restaurants, Trader Joe's, and the list goes on.

I've made some amazing friends here in East Sacramento and I hate to leave and start all over again but I know that I will keep my good friends and I will see them often since my parents live here and we will be visiting VERY often!

We're moving to the suburb of Rocklin in the Whitney Ranch neighborhood...if we are able to sell our home. It's about 30 minutes away so not too far. We hope to make new friends quickly and if all works out we will sell our current house before the end of summer and then move to Rocklin in October. We HOPE we can do this. I think our family needs the space and I need my sanity! We look forward to having a neighborhood school (two blocks away) that is brand new, a wonderful neighborhood pool (4 blocks away) and lots and lots of open space and parks. It's not East Sac (hard to beat!) but it does have a lot of the qualities of the kind of neighborhood I grew up in and I'm looking forward to having that for our kids.

So....with so much happening in just a few days with us leaving for Ukraine to get Sofia...we are adding to that stress by putting our house on the market while we are gone and getting it prepped to sell this week! Yikes! We sure know how to keep busy in this household!

But, even with the craziness, I feel deep down inside that this is what is best for us, the boys and for our Sofia. This move is ALL about the kids. And it doesn't hurt that we will be saving money as well since it's less expensive living in the suburbs than in town. Seems smart all the way around.

Please pray our house sells quickly and that the perfect family finds it to be as sweet and charming as we have. We will miss our sweet home.

An Abundance of Gratitude

2010-05-27T21:37:00.000-07:00

My heart is full of gratitude tonight. An abundance of gratitude. It brings tears to my eyes.

There are so many people to thank and I really do not know where to begin or how to express my gratitude to each and every one of you.

We received support in so many different ways...emotional, financial, spiritual, physical.

Friends, family, coworkers, strangers, community members, businesses...all of you came together to help us save a little orphaned girl in Ukraine who now has a family to come home to and a community that loves and supports her. We absolutely could not have done this without YOU.

I will never doubt the good in this world again. I have witnessed it and lived it and it has changed me. I want to give back and will always look for ways to return the love and support we have received. This experience has deeply moved me and I'm so grateful.

A few people have recently asked how much we were able to raise and how close we got to our fundraising goal. We totaled it up tonight and we have raised through DSIA and Reece's Rainbow a total of $24,400. Our estimated costs for Sofia's adoption are at $26,000, just $1600 shy of that goal. I would say our fundraising efforts were EXTREMELY successful and again we have all of YOU to thank.

10 more days and we will board a plane to go get Sofia and bring her home to her forever family. Thank you for making this possible. Thank you for saving Sofia!

God bless all of you.

Love for Liam

2010-05-27T16:28:00.000-07:00

Can you believe this?

Liam is being adopted by a local family who learned about Reece's Rainbow from our story in the local newspaper.

I'm overjoyed for this family and to be a small part of this is just an honor. Liam will be welcomed with open arms into our community here in the Sacramento area. I think this makes close to 20 little children with DS all under the age of 3 all within 10-15 miles of each other (and those are just the few that we know of!)

Please go visit and follow little Liam's journey home...what a love! Liam will be Hansina and Mark's sixth child, their second adopted child and their first child with Down syndrome. Oh, they have no idea how much more blessed their lives will be with Liam in it! I also can't wait for Sofia and Liam to meet...our little Ukrainian angels! And by the looks of this handsome boy...Sofia could be a distant relative!!!

Love For Liam

Thinking of Her

2010-05-21T22:13:00.000-07:00

I think of her often. Here is the photo I have on my desktop. I think it's my favorite right now.

Missing her and wondering what life will be like when she is here. Looking forward to getting to know her better, to bonding, to becoming a big, happy, busy family.

Two more weeks and a few sleeps away from bringing her home. There isn't much space in our house for her but I've carved a corner of our bedroom as her space for now. We will move a "smaller" sized crib in our master bedroom and put some pink sheets on the little crib mattress. I have a small stack of adorable clothes and bows. We're ready, can we get her now?

The Trickle Effect

2010-05-17T21:08:00.000-07:00

GUEST POST FROM TONI V.

I had no idea what had begun that April day when I opened the March issue of Kidaround magazine. I was actually searching for a different article, but my heart was captured by a photo of Sofia. As an adoptive mom myself, Jennifer’s story moved me to tears. I shared the article with my eldest daughter, Sara age 11. We immediately agreed that we wanted to send money to Reece’s Rainbow for Sofia.

Later that week Sara attended her Girls’ Bible Study meeting, there she shared the story of Sofia and the fact that she wanted to send money to Reece’s Rainbow. All 17 girls in the group decided that they wanted to participate in raising money for Sofia too!

Each of the girls invested their time and talent differently. Some held bake sales, one girl had a lemon-aide stand, another crafted jewelry and hair clips, another made soy candles, sold bags of fresh herbs, sold licorice on the sidelines of a soccer game, or simply donated their allowance. After 2 weeks time, together they had collected over $400.00. Their motivation was of course helping Sofia. But it is also incredibly valuable for these young girls (age 8-12) to learn that they are old enough to make a difference through both their work and prayer. It has been a wonderful experience for them as they followed the details on Sofia’s journey through her blog, they now feel connected with this little girl from half way around the world. Jennifer has agreed to bring Sofia to meet all the girls as soon as they have settled in this summer. The girls can't wait!

And still another blessing...

While Sara was asking for donations for Sofia we met up with a friend, Danielle. Sara shared with Danielle the details of her fund raising effort. Danielle was intrigued, and she promised to read Sofia’s blog and visit the Reece’s Rainbow website when she returned home. That evening Danielle and her husband saw Ivan on the Reece’s Rainbow website, and they have now started the process of adopting him. We are now praying for Ivan and seeking ways to help support their journey. Here is their blog Saving Ivan.

Hang On

2010-05-17T16:32:00.000-07:00

Hang on little Sofia, your mama and papa are coming soon!

We just booked our flight back to Ukraine. We leave Sunday, June 6th and we hope to return on Thursday, June 17th...if not sooner...with Sofia!

It takes this amount of time to process the new birth certificate, passport, medical appointment and visa in order to bring Sofia home.

I already have two PACKED suitcases full of donated clothing for the orphanage...THANK YOU!

It's been a busy week here at home with the boys and add on top of that a cold for me and pink eye for Hector...at least we got sick here at home. Last week I couldn't get enough sleep, I was exhausted and still feel like I need to catch up. That trip home really wiped us out, emotionally and physically. We've been loving on our boys and it's been wonderful to be back to our normal, busy routine. I have such a new found appreciation for everything that we have here at home. We have so much to be grateful for here in the States.

It's strange to think our daughter is half way across the world. I hope she's happy. I hope she's healthy and doesn't feel lost without us visiting her. We can't wait to get her home. The first thing Mateo asked us when we got home was "Where is Sofia?" It's so hard to explain to them why she couldn't come home the first trip and why we will have to leave AGAIN but we know that in the end everything will work out and then they won't know life without Sofia.

Final Fundraiser TODAY!

2010-05-16T08:13:00.000-07:00

EVERYONE IS INVITED!!!

Hostess:
Kelly Stephan

Location:
The lovely backyard of Bonnie Merz (Kelly's Mom)
14060 Riva Ridge Circle
Auburn, CA 95602

When:
Sunday, May 16th
2:30PM

Phone:
916-847-5355

Event Details

2:30-3:30 Free Wine and appetizers. Raffle tickets will also be sold at this time for some great prizes and a 50/50 cash raffle. 100% of proceeds from raffle will go to saving Sofia.
You do not need to be present to win a raffle prize!

3:30- Fashion show begins
Jen's friends will model the new CAbi Spring/Summer line! A portion of all clothes purchased at the event will go towards Sofia's adoption. After the fashion show, raffle winners will be announced and you can do some CAbi shopping!

Silpada jewelry display. Come purchase some beautiful sterling silver jewelery. 100% of profits of the sales will go to Saving Sofia. If you'd like to purchase some jewelry and cannot make it to the event. Please email me at jvaranini@yahoo.com and I can give you more details.

Please come enjoy the day with friends and fashion for a great cause....to bring sweet Sofia home to her family!

If you are unable to attend, but would still like to purchase CAbi clothes with part of the proceeds going to Sofia, you can check out the website, www.kellystephan.cabionline.com. Please call Kelly at 916-847-5355 or e-mail at kstephan15@gmail.com with your order.

If you are unable to attend, but would still like to purchase raffle tickets for the 50/50 cash raffle ($1/ticket or $20/25 tickets), you can call or e-mail Kelly also.

Trains, Planes & Automobiles

2010-05-07T17:11:00.001-07:00

After court on Thursday we started making our way home, with a heavy heart in leaving Sofia behind but very excited to be home with the boys. We took the train from Dnipropetrovsk to Kyiv in the afternoon (about 7 hours)and got there around 11PM where Nikolai (Uncle Niko) picked us up and drove us to the airport to wait another 5 hours for our flight that was leaving at 5:30AM. It is always a pleasure to hang out with Nikolai, his stories are great and he is always eager to practice his Spanish. After waiting and waiting for our flight, we finally took off on our way to Frankfurt. In Frankfurt we had a long layover and waited 5 hours to board the flight from hell to Washington Dulles. We sat on the tarmac for 2 hours and then had to take a longer route due to the volcano ashes over England (10 1/2 hour flight) which made us lose our connection to Sacramento. So here we are in D.C. with a 3 hour layover getting ready to fly to San Francisco (6 hour flight) and Grandpa is picking us up at 1 AM and driving us back to Sacramento by 3AM. We haven't slept in 2 days, we are tired to say the least, but we are so happy to be in the USA. Now I'm (this is Hector) going to have a much anticipated hamburger and fries here at the Dulles airport, YUM!

Court

2010-05-06T21:00:00.000-07:00

Getting ready for court this morning, I wasn't very nervous. I really felt calm and peaceful. Hector was slightly nervous as he had no idea what questions the judge might ask of him. I just trusted that we would answer from our hearts and that we would be absolutely fine.

Marina picked us up around 9am and took us straight to the courthouse, where we waited on a small bench while she collected the social worker, the representative from the orphanage and the prosecutor. Meanwhile, two witnesses also filed into the hallway waiting for our court as well. This is when my stomach went crazy with butterflies. I realized then that we would essentially be on "stage" and would need to fight for our little girl. We waited until about 10:15 before we were allowed into the courtroom. I decided to show Marina our photo album at this point and she quickly brought it over to the witnesses, the social worker and the orphanage representative. They seemed to enjoy the album and I heard a lot of "syndrome de Down" talk but otherwise we have no idea what they thought of the photos they saw. I had compiled an album full of pictures of our home, our vacations as a family, tons of photos of the boys, photos of our nephew Andres who has DS and is 19 years old, photos of our community and all the gorgeous babies with DS, photos of Joaquin doing his therapies and photos of our families and our wedding day. I hope they enjoyed it and I hope it opened up a few eyes about the potential of children and adults with DS being fully included in society.

We waited another 10-15 minutes for the judge to arrive and when he did we realized we had seen him in the hallway a few times going into and out of different offices. He was a young judge maybe early 30's, very tall and a large frame with a bit of a boyish "pudge" about him. He had a half grin on his face and kind eyes although he played VERY serious in his courtroom.

The prosecutor was a mid to late forties something woman who looked a little bit like the editor of Vogue Anna Wintour but without the "glam" factor. She seemed very firm and very by the book and showed very little expression and very rarely looked at us. Oh the nerves were really starting to go crazy and I worried I might pass out.

The social worker reminded me of Tammy Faye with her makeup but was wearing a polo style shirt and jeans, very casual and relaxed. The orphanage representative had the soft, warm look of a grandma in her early 60's with a nurse type practicality about her. We learned that Sofia's parents were married and this was their first pregnancy and that Sofia has no siblings. We also learned that her biological parents were considered highly educated, her mother studied economics and her father studied law. Both the social worker and the orphanage representative wanted us to know that what we were doing for Sofia was absolutely necessary and kept stressing to us that if these children (children with DS or any other disability) are not adopted by age 4 or 5, they will die in the institution setting. Grim but true.

Up and down we stood each time the judge spoke with us. We answered all the formalities and then the true questioning began. Hector courageously volunteered to take the majority of the questions and all I can say is that I've never been more proud of him and his composure and his wonderful, thorough and thoughtful answers to all the questions that were asked of him.

Then it was my turn and I really got it easy since Hector had explained most everything about us but of course the first question the judge asked me was what I though of Sofia and that is when the tears welled up in my eyes and I got pretty emotional. I did my best not to burst into tears and was able to get through my questioning with composure.

I really think we sailed through the questions because of our experience with Down syndrome and having Joaquin. Once the questioning began, we realized we were going to do just fine. It seemed that everyone really wanted to know about the therapies available, the medical benefits and what type of future we can expect for Sofia. Everyone just seemed eager to know that there really is a place for a person with DS in society. We told them that people with DS can go to college, drive a car, get married, hold a job and that there is huge potential in each individual. We also stressed that Sofia would be raised knowing where she came from and that we would teach her about her culture and give her the opportunity to visit if she ever wanted to. The only question asked of us by one of the witness was if Hector's parents were alive and how old they were. We're guessing he wanted to see what type of longevity Hector might have...maybe?

The judge agreed to only ONE court date during the proceedings which was a HUGE victory for our region. I think everyone in that courtroom was shocked and it was at that point that we really were able to BREATHE again.

The judge excused himself for about 15 minutes with the witnesses and prosecutor following him to make his final decision. When he returned he officially pronounced us the parents of Sofia Andrea Sanchez.

The 10 day waiting period was not waived and we are in the process of working out a return date with Marina when she gets back from her vacation. Unfortunately it looks like it might be closer to one month before we are able to return and get our precious girl.

After court, we wanted to present Sofia's original "baby groupa" with a gift from us. We decided to give it to her baby groupa and not her current groupa since that is where she spent her entire 14 months before being recently transferred. High on the orphanage wish list was a couch for the groupa room so that when the staff feed the babies, they have somewhere to sit. Right now, there is nowhere for them to sit and this makes feeding time very uncomfortable for the staff and the babies. We decided we would LOVE to purchase a couch for them so we went to the local furniture store and picked out the biggest couch we could find, bought it on the spot and hired two workers to deliver it to the orphanage later that same day. I will tell you it was the BEST $300 we have ever spent. It felt amazing to give back to the orphanage in some way that would make their lives better and more comfortable. When Marina called the director to tell them what we had purchased, she said the director was screaming with joy! How cool is that? There will be money given to the orphanage as well from our adoption but they like to use that for medications for the children since they have so many sick babies. They rarely if ever budget for luxury items and a couch is considered a luxury there.

We also found out that Sofia's orphanage is one of the poorer ones and is often overlooked because it is not in a big city. They are in desperate need of everything. So, we plan to pack light on our next trip and bring two full suitcases of clothes for the children so if anyone in the Sacramento area would like to donate clothes we will do our best to take as much as possible with us next trip. They also need diapers so if anyone would like to donate money towards a diaper run when we get there, we would be happy to collect that and keep it separate in a "Diaper Fund" and purchase those when we get into town.

All in all it was a great day albeit very emotionally exhausting. We left a small bag of toys and pj's and Sofia's polka dot jacket and pink hat in her locker so they know we are coming back for her. We weren't able to see her one last time as it was her nap time when we got there but we pray that God watches over her and the others the next few weeks until we return and bring her home.

On another very special note, Marina said that we will be allowed to get good pictures of the other children in Sofia's groupa (mainly Liza) when we return and we will get all the details on her and some other's if we can to put them on the Reece's Rainbow website. I can't wait...because I'm going to HOLD Liza when we take her photo!

It's Official!

2010-05-06T03:38:00.000-07:00

Introducing....

Sofia Andrea Sanchez

Born 2-21-09

Adopted 5-6-10

We are off to catch a train to Kiev and we will come back for Sofia in early June.

We will say one last goodbye to Sofia at the orphanage before we leave and this time it will be as her official MAMA and PAPA!

Thank you everyone for your prayers! God answered them!

P.S. We chose "Andrea" as Sofia's middle name in honor of my mother. We know this makes Grandma Esther smile! Happy Early Mother's Day Mom!

Two Weeks in Ukraine

2010-05-05T12:24:00.001-07:00

We've been in Ukraine two weeks as of today and tomorrow is court at 10 am. When we think of it that way, it really hasn't been that long and we are so grateful. If everything goes as planned, then we will be Sofia's parents tomorrow around noon. At that point, we will tie up some loose ends, get some gifts for the orphanage staff and for our landlady, finish packing and hop on a train to Kiev at 5pm. We will arrive in Kiev at 11pm and we'll have Nikolai take us to the airport where we will camp out until our flight at 5:35am. We will fly from Kiev to Frankfurt then to DC and home to Sacramento around 7:45pm. It will be a LONG two days but we've rested up for this and we look forward to being home with the boys in time for Mother's Day weekend.

It will be very hard not to come home with Sofia. The boys will be so confused as it's the first thing they ask us when we skype with them. Is Sofia coming home? We don't expect the 10 days to be waived and even if the judge softened his heart to the idea, the prosecutor would be the first to object and possibly cause even further delays in us bringing Sofia home. We know Sofia is taken care of at the orphanage and we think she'll be shielded due to her age of feelings of abandonment. The orphanage is all she's ever known so we take comfort that she'll be ok until we return. I'm trying not to think about the fact that we might not see her for close to a month. She'll have changed so much!

We will most likely come back the first week in June. Our facilitator Marina is taking two weeks off in May to take care of her mother and although we could proceed without her, we would rather not. She is wonderful and amazing and she is also very glad that we want to wait and finish the adoption with her in June as she really knows the system the best here in Dnep. It seems so far away but I will keep busy during that time to prepare our home for Sofia and to make all the phone calls and plan all the necessary medical appointments so that when she comes home with us we can get her looked at immediately and start her Early Intervention services as soon as possible. It will also be just in time for summer break so the whole family will have a chance to bond with her and adjust to having one more little body in our home without rushing off to school routines.

So I'll leave this last post before the BIG DAY with photos from our last visit with Sofia today. I wonder if she knows she's about to become a Sanchez...a daughter, sister, granddaughter, niece, cousin, and friend to many back at home. Her eyes tell it all...she has the wisest, kindest eyes. She must know!

World's Greatest Parents

2010-05-05T10:46:00.000-07:00

I will never be able to thank my parents enough for watching our 3 boys these past two weeks. We plan on coming home on Friday night and I'm sure they can't WAIT to have the house to themselves!

Thank you Mom and Papa (a.k.a. Nana and Grandpa) for loving our boys and loving us enough to watch them! We know how much you sacrifice for us and this is yet another one of those times. We could not have adopted Sofia without knowing that our boys would be in the best of hands.

Thank you always. And thank you also to so many of my friends that also helped out with the boys while we were gone. SO many of you...Michelle, Lisa, Katie, Christine, Cathy, Paige, Mary Ellen, Jennifer, and MANY many others. Our village is amazing!

Snapshots of Our Day

2010-05-04T21:26:00.000-07:00

There are goats everywhere around town and since day one we have been trying to get a good photo of one and it has been avoiding us but today I think we finally took a decent one.

A neighbor died of a heart attack this morning, our landlady was very sad. And yes, this is what the ambulances look like here.

This is our daily walk back and forth twice a day. On the other side of this wall there are some pretty fancy houses, right across from the orphanage. We wonder who lives here, perhaps something to do with the Urkaine soccer team.

We love the red head!

We are still letting Sofia sleep during our visit, but not for 2 hours straight. We wake her up way before we come back and so far we haven't gotten in trouble again.

Playing Peekaboo!

Feeling Guilty

2010-05-04T21:20:00.001-07:00

In the interest of keeping it real, I must confess that I feel a sense of guilt right now. It's strange and I know it's not appropriate at all but I feel bad for adopting Sofia who is doing really well and is not in as bad of shape as so many other children here.

I know this is really a ridiculous thing to say but it's how I'm feeling right now. Sofia seems happy and content, she is very healthy and robust and she is not in any pain or suffering. In her groupa, there are so many that are so much worse. One little girl in particular is breaking my heart. I found out today her name is Liza (prounounced "Lee-zah") and she is probably closer to 2 or 3 years old (probably 15 lbs at the most) and has a slash across her forehead (a new injury) and a bed sore on the back of her head. She has Down syndrome and she suffers from an extreme strabismus and literally rolls around on the hard crib surface all day long and shakes her legs and arms to entertain herself. A few rare times she has made eye contact with me and has smiled as well as waved. My heart absolutely breaks for her. She is the one that most of the time is just fed her bottle without even being held. The staff just lean over the crib and hold the bottle up for her to drink. All I want to do is hold her. I'm tempted to ask them tomorrow if I can. I'm in tears just thinking about her right now.

I won't even begin to talk about the others in need in her groupa. Too many. I think I look at Liza because it would have been just as easy for me to pick her. Or precious Anna...I ache for her but I'm certain a family will come for her very soon. Liza is NOT on Reece's Rainbow and if there is anything I can do to get her on there I will. I plan on asking Marina next time we see her if we can get her basic information and get her on the website.

I know we are saving Sofia and she is just as worthy as any other child but these children are not as well off as her and I fear that that will scare people away from wanting to adopt them. Should I have found a child less fortunate to save? The circumstances of me finding Sofia that day in December were not anything that I planned. It just happened and I found myself drawn to her and to adoption for the first time in my life. Now, I see the gravity of the situation here and I am deeply affected by it.

For now, I will do my best to share these children's stories and to spread the word. It's all I can do right now. And I will try and shake the guilt I feel inside. I will focus on our task at hand and save Sofia.

Torture

2010-05-04T06:04:00.001-07:00

Jen and I are craving comfort food bad. The food hasn't been terrible but we are getting tired of our options here. We've tried a lot of different things and we are eating a lot of cheese and toast with marmalade.

If anyone knows me they know that I love tacos. Whenever we go to Mexico to visit my family, Jen knows that our first stop is not to my parents house, it is to a taco place.

I got an email today from work friends with this picture. I wish both of them a slow and painful death =). I can't stop thinking about those tacos, that was torture in the worst way!

Grandma Esther

2010-05-03T09:20:00.001-07:00

Grandma Esther is Sofia's guardian angel. She has been a part of this from the very beginning...from the moment I saw Sofia's picture at Reece's Rainbow...and every step of the way after.

Here is a picture of Grandma Esther with my mother Andrea. My mom Andrea was Grandma's first daughter. I am my mom's first daughter. Sofia is my first daughter. A very special bond between us all.

Thank you Grandma Esther for watching over all of us and guiding us and protecting us through this process. We think of you often and we miss you. We know you are always with us though and so we do not walk alone on this journey.

Thank you Grandma for helping us keep the faith and not letting fear paralyze us and for the angels who watch over Sofia and all the other orphans.

I read the story of Esther in the Bible and was shocked and surprised to learn that Esther was a orphan. A coincidence? I don't think so...AMAZING!

The Children

2010-05-02T23:14:00.001-07:00

The days here are getting warmer and warmer, today was close to 80, it is funny how its almost the same weather pattern as home.

Yesterday during our first visit we let Sofia take her usual nap, the care takers of Sofia's groupa were out walking with some of the kids as well so we had to be careful so they didn't notice Sofia sleeping. In this picture, Jen is propping Sofia up pretending to talk to her.

But you can see here she is really fast sleep.

When we got back for our second visit in the afternoon, the staff told us that we shouldn't let her sleep when we go out walking, because apparently she didn't want to take her nap when it was time...BUSTED! It is so hard not to let her sleep since she is so tired around 10 AM when we visit. We don't know what we are going to do today, we don't want to get in trouble again.

On the second visit we saw this mom that comes to visit her daughter on Sundays. It is the most heartbreaking thing to see, she loves her daughter so much but can't take her home because she won't have a future in this country. She visits every Sunday and bring her daughter Anna diapers and other necessities, treats for the children and the staff. She spends several hours with Anna taking her on walks, picking flowers for her, talking to her and loving her. We don't know the complete story but we know from Marina that she wants her baby to be adopted so that her daughter can have a better life than she would here. She is currently on Reece's Rainbow as waiting for a family. Jen and I can't image what it must be like to have to make the most difficult decision of giving your child for adoption when you love them so dearly. But at this date and time in Ukraine, she has no other option.

After 8 days of visits here, and seeing these children every day, you start to wonder what their story is. Even the "typical" children you see in the pictures, they are so beautiful and I wish we could take more home. Of course the children with special needs are the ones that need more help, they need therapy and care that they don't get here. But also the normal children, which look like any other child at a local park back in California, they need a home as well and it is heartbreaking to see them here in this place all alone.

We are so focused on Sofia and taking her home but it will be hard to leave so many more behind. We only hope and pray to God that it is just a matter of time until all these children find a loving family.

Holiday Weekend

2010-05-01T10:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after our first visit and Sofia's morning nap we took another walk to town. This weekend is a big holiday weekend here in Ukraine and the weather is beautiful, for the first time we saw a bunch of people in short sleeves outside enjoying the weather...and children without snow hats!!!

We've wandered back and forth almost every day since we've been here from our apartment nearby the orphanage to the town center about a mile away. This town is about 30 minutes outside of Dnepropetrovsk...but we think it's still considered Dnep. We walk through a wooded section to get to the town center which consists of some apartment buildings, some government and business buildings, a supermarket, a couple bars, an outdoor market, a post office, a small mall (which consists of open stalls of various goods), a notary office and a bank. I'm sure there is much more than this but since we can only travel by foot this is what we've discovered.

Inside the supermarket, there is a bar. An open beer bar with no seats where you can get a freshly poured draft and continue on your shopping excursion. We found the same thing at the "open air" market...right when you enter there is a bar with beer on tap. Beer is EVERYWHERE. People walk around with their beer bottles...instead of bottles of soda.

There are quite a few cars but it looks like people walk more than anything as a mode of transportation. We've seen some scooters and motorcycles, many bicycles and then a few old cars speeding by. What is fascinating is that immediately next door to the orphanage, with a shared wall with barbed wire, there is a state of the art sports complex where the Ukrainian soccer team lives and trains. Immediately across the street from the orphanage is a huge walled and gated community which must be where some of the staff live for this soccer team. There is a stark contrast between the people and the cars in town versus the people we've seen coming out of this gated community. The cars that enter and exit these places are high end new cars...think Mercedes, Infiniti, Lexus, etc.

On the other shared wall with the orphanage is another interesting place that we haven't quite figured out. It may be a school as we've seen kids on the property at times. Or it may also be a vacant building. Some parts of this building are literally "bombed out" and there even appears to be a bomb shelter door leading underground at one spot. Very interesting place...besides the few kids we've seen playing adjacent to these buildings, the place is totally vacant.

We plan on spending some time this weekend exploring town in more depth. It's a 4 day holiday weekend and it's one of the bigger celebration weekends here in Ukraine so I'm sure we'll see some action. It's there version of Labor Day and May Day combined. Cars drive crazy here and pedestrians do not have the right of way and are not regarded as important so we'll try and be as careful as possible. The parks are full of people this weekend too. LOTS of picnics and barbeques. Hector is always so eager to see what they are cooking. I think he's getting hungry!

We would love to get the nerve to go into maybe one of the bars and see if there might be food associated with it. There is a local dish, a soup actually, that we are so eager to try. It's called "borscht" and we are craving it! If we can't find it in town (and we couldn't find it in the grocery store), then we might ask our landlady who lives below us to make it for us. She's a cook at the orphanage after all!

Speaking of our landlady, we adore her. I wish we could speak with her more. Today, she rushed out the door when she saw us leaving for the orphanage and said in beautiful English..."How are you?" She was SO proud of herself and went on in Russian how she studied that all day today. She then taught us how to say "Fine" in Russian. Love her!

We run into goats all the time here...munching away at the fields nearby. That's the only livestock we've seen. Also, dogs run rampant in this town. There seems to be a HUGE stray population of dogs here. Cats on the other hand are few and far between and the few that we have seen are definitely pets not stray. Very interesting! It's kinda scary to come across a pack of wild dogs on our walks home.

People here do NOT smile readily. I haven't let that stop me from smiling at them. It would appear that most people here look grumpy and unkind and uninterested. That may or may not be the case. The checkers at the grocery store are downright mean! The staff that we've got to know at the orphanage and our adoption facilitators (Marina, Serge, Nikolai and Yulia) and our landlady have been incredibly lovely so I'm thinking that it may just be an exterior front that you just have to break through to see the true spirit and personality of a Ukrainian.

Many of the older women in Ukraine dress very traditional in skirts and layers and scarves around their heads. The younger women of Ukraine...well...that's a different story entirely! The women dress in VERY short skirts, hose, high heels and tight fitting and often revealing tops. They also wear a lot of makeup and have "big" or brightly colored hair. The men all kind of look the same in very typical and familiar jeans and sweaters or sweatshirts.

We'll see what the rest of the weekend brings for us! Maybe, just maybe, we'll find some "borscht" for Hector...it's become our running joke!

Daily Routine

2010-04-30T20:40:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a good day, we are so excited that by this time next week we might be home or heading home. The daily visits to see Sofia are getting harder every day, we love spending time with her and discovering new faces and sounds, but there is not much we can do with her. She naps for most of our first visit, which is great. She was so sleep deprived and sick a week ago, she needed extra nap time. Now she is doing so much better. The afternoon visit we always stay inside and let her play on the "floor" and we do lots of exercises and therapies we did with Joaquin.

Yesterday morning when we were bundling Sofia to take her out in the morning, They brought two other children out from her groupa and started dressing them to take them on a walk. We don't know the names of these two boys, we are not even sure if one of them is a girl ( the one on the right in the picture). They don't have Down syndrome, but they have some kind of brain injury.

The lady in the picture is one of Sofia's caretakers, she is really sweet and tries her hardest to speak to us in English. She tried to tell Jen the other day "Bless You". We really like her.

The boy on the left has gotten really fond of us, he gets so excited when he has a chance to interact with us. He doesn't speak much that we know but he makes noises and smiles a lot. This morning while they were getting him ready to go out, he looked at each of us and said: "Mama" ,"Papa"! The caretaker said something to him we didn't understand using those words and we assumed she was explaining that we were trying to be Sofia's mama and papa. It broke our hearts, the people here really like these children and they take good care of them, but to see this boy who wants a Mama and Papa of his own broke our hearts. It is so hard to turn around and look the other way. These two beautiful kids are not in the process of being adopted yet, as far as we know. We are trying to take as many pictures as we can so that somehow they can get noticed.

We brought a blanket out and sat on the grass today.

She lasted about 20 minutes and fell asleep.

Cute Sasha!

Sofia's cubbie.

She loves the feel of the floor.

COURT MOVED TO MAY 6TH!

2010-04-30T08:39:00.001-07:00

We just got a call from Marina that our interpol clearance arrived and that our judge was kind enough to move our court date to May 6th at 10AM!

We are so thrilled, shocked, excited...and nervous...it's so hard to get your hopes up here but we are going to trust that this is really happening and celebrate!

Cheers! Hector and I are toasting each other with a glass of red wine as I write this!

Focus

2010-04-29T22:05:00.001-07:00

Hector's corner...

Yesterday morning on our walk to the orphanage we heard some commotion in the road ahead and out of this field comes running like a bat out of hell this jack rabbit being chased by a pack of dogs, it zoomed by us so fast it was so cool to watch, it happened so fast this is the best picture I could manage.

"We will only be as successful as we believe. There is a racing axiom that says the car goes where your eyes go. Focus on the challenges and obstacles and you are bound to crash. Focus on where you want to go and you will succeed."

This morning I was reading my work email and I found this note from Mark, the CEO of my company. It is so obvious but sometimes we forget to focus on the target. It is funny that engraved in the brain of Diego and Mateo is the phrase, "keep your eyes on the ball" when they are playing baseball or tennis. I've said that to them a million times and they laugh at me now when i do. But when they do it, they hit the ball perfectly and I say "you see?".

Here are some pictures of yesterday's visit. We are running out of ideas on how to take new pictures of Sofia, but we wanted to share anyway.

Jen is doing therapy with Sofia every day on our second visit. I wouldn't be surprised is she is sitting up and crawling by the time we leave. She got up on her hands and knees today. God forbid we put her on the floor, the staff will freak out if we do, but we tried it today while I closely watched to make sure none of the staff could see us. We were almost caught once but Jen managed to scoop her off the floor just in time. The excitement is good for us!

The Orphanage

2010-04-29T12:05:00.000-07:00

We want to try and capture everything about the orphanage so that we can always remember it and try and document it all for Sofia. We're certain she'll want to know all about it someday. Maybe when she is grown and can truly appreciate it, we can come back with her and visit Ukraine and the orphanage.

Here are some pictures we've taken of the grounds and inside the building where Sofia is. Everyday on our first visit of the day we walk around and see all the other kids out as well taking walks or playing in the playgrounds, it is very cute to see.

In our afternoon visit with Sofia today it was very hard to be present, Jen and I felt numb with the news about our court date and the thought of having to be away from the boys for another 2 weeks was too much to take, we needed desperately to see that they are doing OK so we tried for the first time to video skype and we were able to talk to them and see their faces, it was so cute and it was all we needed to recharge. We are trying to hold it together and support each other the best we can, and together with all your prayers and notes of support we will get through this. Please keep praying for a miracle so that our Interpol clearance comes and we have something to work with.

Hard News

2010-04-29T04:23:00.001-07:00

We just got a call from Marina. Our interpol clearance is still not here, we got the toughest judge in our region and our court date is May 13th...trying hard not to cry. This is the worst case scenario coming true. All we can do is pray interpol comes tomorrow and that the judge moves our court date up. Praying.

One Week in Ukraine

2010-04-28T13:22:00.001-07:00

Today we have been here exactly one week and although we have accomplished SO much in that one week there is still so much more to do.

We have not heard back from Marina about our court date. We did hear from Serge in Kiev that our Interpol clearance has not arrived at the SDA yet and we will need this form before we can have court. We sent in our Interpol with our dossier back in March but apparently these are done without any sort of schedule so they just appear when they appear. Trying to remain calm as I write this.

So we wait...as patiently as we can. I've read one book and I'm working on two more. I've napped more than I have in 8 years...think I'm almost caught up on my lack of sleep since having my first child in 2003!!!

Today was more of the same...it's almost beginning to feel like Groundhog's Day but we're trying to mix it up as much as we can. Sofia, our little butterball, is still as sweet as they come. We have never heard her cry although she must have the other day. When we saw her yesterday she had a bruise and a blood spot on the top of her head. We were almost afraid to ask what had happened but I had to know. Apparently, they drew blood from a vein on her head (we gathered this from the creative sign language we use with the staff)...they couldn't find any on her chubby arms or legs. It looks like they tried on the top of one of her hands because there is a puncture mark there too but the one on her head is definitely bruised and the blood spot is about the size of a pea. Poor sweet baby.

We are continuing to bond with Sofia and I do think she knows us now as evidenced by her quick smile. She is REALLY fond of Hector. She doesn't feel like "our baby" yet. It's especially strange to have to hand her back in to the staff after each of our visits. So surreal. It felt good to provide for her the past few days by buying diapers and some medicine, to be able to give to her in that way was important. We're also quite proud carrying her around the orphanage. She's such a cherub and the staff and visitors just love to give her some attention.

It's also getting more and more difficult to be away from home. I almost try not to think about the boys because it's too painful. Mateo is sick today with a stomach bug and Diego has a pink eye that's being closely monitored. Joaquin is doing great it seems so that is a comfort but we also received news about his eye sight (he had a check up with an eye specialist late last week) and it seems his left eye is almost blind so he is doing some patch therapy to try and regain the sight he lost. Again, thank goodness for my parents taking good care of them and holding down the fort. It's just even more difficult to be away from your kids when they aren't feeling well.

Hector's corner:
Today was a hard day, the routine is starting to get to me and I felt a little bit trapped. We enjoy our time with Sofia and look forward to seeing her more and more every day but it is getting harder to find a way to keep ourselves entertained when we aren't at the orphanage. We read books and work on the computer and take turns cooking. Our only break of the routine is getting news from Marina and today was the first day that things went into a stand still. We assume she was not able to speak with the head judge and hearing from Serge about our Interpol clearance was a blow to our spirits as well. Yesterday we were hoping for a Friday court date, it would've been a miracle. And today we are certain that won't happen and we are looking at another week here at least. This is going to be a test to our patience and sanity for sure. Time is starting to slow down, just praying it doesn't go backwards!

Waiting on a Court Date

2010-04-27T12:44:00.001-07:00

The prosecutor came to work today and spent the day reviewing our case. She said it's a GO! So tomorrow our facilitator will try and find out if a judge has been assigned and then she'll get to work on a DATE!!! May is a holiday month for Ukraine so May 1st- May 4th all government business is closed. Darn it! So the absolute earliest we could have court (unless by some act of God it was granted this Friday the 30th of April) would be Wednesday, May 5th. So we'll be praying it's one of those two days!

We had our two visits with Sofia again today and we let her sleep for the first visit and we played at the second visit. The weekday orphanage staff is a bit more strict but still very kind with us. They've been putting even MORE layers on our little girl! You should see the stuff we find layered on her...socks on top of tights and then our little booties we brought from home on top of that. Hector and I just crack up at it! Today we changed her into an outfit from her Nana. So cute! (I also do not mean any disrespect to the way children are bundled up here in Ukraine compared to what we are used to back at home. We know this is a cultural difference and we totally respect it. I'm just lucky to get a jacket on my boys back at home when it's raining outside so it's just been fun for us to see this difference here.)

One of the main groupa staff tried to speak English to us today and it was really sweet. Another staff person, when they handed Sofia to us, smiled a huge smile and said in broken English..."you good people". This made our day. I think they actually might like us and to be honest we like them too...they've cared for our baby since birth. We are so grateful to them.

Hector and I are trying to learn as much Ukrainian culture as possible so we can share the stories with Sofia someday. Our landlady is the sweetest thing. She loves to take care of us and wants to make sure we are comfortable. Whenever she is home and sees us coming (she lives below us in the same house), she rushes out to greet us and chats away in Russian and we just nod our heads and say our one or two words back to her. It's clear she wants to make sure we're happy.

We still miss our boys like crazy. Mateo is having the most difficult time out of the three of them. My mom says he prays every night that we come home soon with Sofia. He's more quiet than usual and not eating as much. His teacher tells us the same, that he is not quick to smile at school and he tells her that he misses us at bedtime. I wish I could just hold him now. He needs us home soon. I'm sure Diego and Joaquin have the same feelings deep inside. Diego keeps his feelings very close to his heart and it takes a lot of encouragement from us to get him to open up. The fact that he says his prayers to himself speaks volumes to us. Joaquin...I can't imagine how he is feeling. Up until I left for Ukraine he was still night nursing...poor baby. He gets up every morning at 3 am and has trouble going back to sleep. Must be so confusing to him why his mama isn't around anymore. At least I know they are all in the loving hands of my parents (Nana and Grandpa). Gives us such peace of mind. We also have amazing friends that are making special visits and extra special efforts to comfort our boys while we are away. We are so grateful to all of you.

Little Tank

2010-04-26T14:23:00.001-07:00

I use this term affectionately but our sweet Sofia is a "little tank"! She is SUCH a big girl and I think that was part of what took me by surprise when I first met her a couple days ago. I was not expecting it! I never had chubby babies (love them...just never had one) and I just assumed that with orphanage living that Sofia would be on the smaller side due to the lack of food and the conditions.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm actually GLAD she is a little tank. That means she's been fed...maybe too much and not the best food...but she's not gone hungry and that gives me such peace of mind. Her basic needs have been met...food, clothes, shelter. Of course, being a bit chubby makes it harder for her to move her body and and sit up...and the 3 extra layers of clothes and ski gear doesn't help with her range of motion either. Poor baby!

Her cheeks are just adorable and always pink! She's a real doll baby. I can't wait to have her back at home...just in time for our hot Sacramento weather so she can wear her cute rompers and have bare feet! Oh the freedom!

This morning, we were greeted by Marina and Sofia in a cab on our way to the orphanage. We took Sofia to get her picture taken for her Visa immigration card, her medical exam with the embassy and her SDA file. What fun to have her for a short while outside of the orphanage grounds. We took her to the mall to have her picture taken and she was mesmerized by all the lights and action inside. She just babbled away at everything. This little girl is going to LOVE life! I think she'll find joy in so many things.

Sofia is called "Sonya" as a term of endearment by the staff. It's a nickname for Sofia here in Ukraine. She has a little cold right now so we went to the pharmacy to buy some saline drops for her nose and some ointment for her chapped cheeks and bum. She has a deep cough too but her spirits are good. She wanted to sleep for most of our two visits today and since she is on a STRICT schedule which only allows for one short nap, we decided to take her for a stroller ride out of site of the staff and let her sleep. It was a pleasure just to see her sleeping peacefully knowing her body just needed to rest. At our afternoon visit, she was still sleepy...loves to suck her index finger when she's tired...but the staff didn't want her outside so she had to stay awake but we just did some relaxing play on her blanket.

Unfortunately the prosecutor was out sick again today. Her child is sick so she has been out for some time. We are hoping she is back tomorrow so we can make sure our file is completely ready for the judge. Marina shipped off our documents to the SDA office today so our 7 day wait begins today. The EARLIEST we could possibly have court would be on Monday...but we still don't know yet. Tomorrow, Marina is hoping to talk to the head judge and find out who our assigned judge will be and then she will ask to speak with him/her and get a date set. PRAYING ALWAYS and until our baby girl is ours officially and at home with her new family. Her brothers (and her grandparents and so many others) are waiting patiently for her!

"Papa"

2010-04-25T13:28:00.001-07:00

Sofia is amazing. She is so mellow, so easy going. She is up for anything and everything. Even when the orphanage staff shout her name and rub her face to wake her up because she's drifted off to sleep in my arms, she wakes up and smiles at them. She is a beauty, inside and out.

She very verbal for a 14 month old. She babbles, blows raspberries and tries to imitate me when I talk to her. In fact, she says "Papa" and looks at Hector when she says it. I kid you not!

We've had a lovely weekend with her and we have actually bonded a bit with the staff too. Even though there is a HUGE language barrier, we have communicated a bit back and forth with made up sign language to bridge the gap. They dress Sofia is the clothes we brought for her. They have a cubby where they keep her things. We bought diapers today and they put those in her cubby. We traded the blue ski pants for some pink fleece ones...that match her jacket perfectly! She's a fashionista for sure!

The staff let us do what we want with her (as long as we don't let her fall asleep!!!). We take her for walks, we play with her on the floor (I've even managed to do some physical therapy with her). I don't know if the staff have been easy going with us because it's the weekend and quiet around the orphanage but we were happy to start off this way with them.

Sofia's orphanage is run down but they are making some improvements. We are getting to know some of the other little ones in Sofia's groupa. There are flowers blooming everywhere outside the orphanage...tulips, cherry blossoms, lots of other blooming trees. We see older children outside walking hand in hand, very well behaved kids. They all look with curious eyes at us when we walk by. There are always a few that waving and say hello.

Tomorrow begins the process of making sure our case makes progress at the court. Marina, our facilitator, will be working hard for us all day. We look forward to touching base with her about how things are going.

We will continue to visit Sofia every day and continue to bond with her, get to know her and show her what love feels like. Today she really snuggled in to me and rested her head on my chest. I'm not sure she's ever been held like that before. It must feel like heaven to her because it sure feels like that to me.

The Calm After the Storm

2010-04-24T20:11:00.000-07:00

Written by Hector...

Today was a beautiful spring day, the sun was out and we got to take Sofia out in the sun for the first time. She got to wear her new pink polka dot coat, and those ugly blue ski pants. (P.S. Sarah and Sean if you are reading this I'm sure you will relate!) She had to be so bundled up it was hard to hold her. Here it is very old fashioned and the "babushkas" put so many layers and hats covering ears on the kids just to go outside and play...it's 70 degrees out today!

We had two great visits with her today and Jen and I already feel so much better about Sofia and I believe that the bonding is starting to happen.

Yesterday was a very long difficult day, one that I won't ever forget. I remember having these kind of feelings before, an indescribable sense of loneliness and helplessness. The train ride to Dnipropetrovsk was very surreal, I thought about my mom a lot. She loves trains, trains have a very special place in our family since my grandfather was a train engineer and he died in a train crash when she was very little. On our way over to the orphanage with Marina I kept thinking that it all felt like we were in a movie, crossing the Dnieper river, the contrast of the city against this very poor part of town with its unkept buildings and streets full of potholes and the foreign looking signs all over.

When we arrived in Ukraine a few days ago, I had already had my moment of panic. I was homesick, missing my boys to death and the anticipation of meeting this baby which I knew nothing about. I didn't say anything to Jen because I didn't want her to feed off my thoughts and only one is allowed to go crazy at a time. That night I couldn't sleep and I kept praying for God to give me clarity, to remind me we are doing His work and that our three boys will learn so much from this experience. I, too, was on a personal emotional roller coaster ride.

After meeting Sofia yesterday, the anxiety was overwhelming. I could sense that Jen was a little bit disappointed and that broke my heart. It was hard to see it because she has been the power source of this entire journey and every time I would have doubts, she was there to settle my heart. But yesterday we both felt out of place, it was one of those moments were everything is out of balance. I think it was important to realize how difficult this process is and to bond and hold each other's hand and let the emotions come out.

Yesterday during the head nurse visit, they gave us a rundown of Sofia's medical history. That was a moment of clarity for me. The nurse told us that Sofia has never had a visitor in her whole life. It made me so sad to think that this little baby has no one other than the people that work here. It makes me so happy that, even thought she doesn't know it yet, her life is about to change forever.

Today we had two GREAT visits and I can't wait to take this baby home to a place where SO many people already love her and will always come to visit her!

Emotional Rollercoaster

2010-04-23T16:47:00.001-07:00

Today was a marathon of a day complete with an emotional rollercoaster.

We took the midnight train to Dnep and is was actually really comfortable and cozy. Hector and I had a private room and we settled in right away. I wasn't able to sleep however...and haven't really since the beginning of this week. I'm running on adrenaline and fumes. Too many thoughts inside my head! Eventually I'm going to crash and I think I might have today.

We arrived at 7am and we were immediately met at the platform by our facilitator Marina. We literally hit the ground running and didn't stop until 6pm!

I can't even begin to tell you all the places we went today and the people we met with and the papers that were written up and signed. So many things happened today as well as checking into our apartment, going grocery shopping and of course the much anticipated visit to the orphanage.

We went to Sofia's orphanage around 8:30am and after meeting with a few of the staff we were immediately taken to her "groupa". She was just moved into this new groupa about 2 days ago and the director of the orphanage was explaining how the staff cried when she left. Apparently, Sofia was a favorite of theirs and they were sad to see her moved into a new wing.

We were told that Sofia is very happy and healthy and a very easy baby. We followed a few of the staff into the reception area of Sofia's groupa and within a few seconds they brought her out for us to meet her.

She was dressed in a brown velvet dress with tights. I was immediately struck with how much she's changed and how different she looked in person than in her photo. The photo I have memorized. All this time I thought Sofia had blue eyes and brown hair but her eyes have turned hazel and her hair is much lighter...almost a light auburn color or a dark stawberry blonde color. She is also BIG!! She is chubby and round...she is well fed! She felt very solid and sturdy in my arms. She immediately smiled when I held her and within a few minutes was giggling when I spoke to her. Her hair is still growing out from her last "buzz" cut and it's growing straight out! I put on a few handknit hats that I had in a bag next to me and she looked adorable in them.

I noticed right away that she has 4 new teeth...two on top and two on bottom. They are pearly white and perfectly straight. She was chewing constantly on her hands to I grabbed a vibrating teething toy from my bag and she loved it. She wasn't shocked or alarmed by the vibration. She just seemed to enjoy and be calmed by it.

Hector took a few photos and then held her for literally a minute before she slightly lunged for me so I wasn't able to get a photo of him. We didn't even think to get one of the three of us. It was a bit of an awkward visit because we only got 10 minutes and 5 staff people were watching us and waiting for us to make a decision. You see, we had to decide right then and there if we wanted her. Hector and I said yes immediately.

We didn't have time to snuggle or cuddle and the visit was brief. I was a bundle of nerves and had anticipated the moment for so long and I'm not sure what I was expecting but I didn't feel an immediate connection with Sofia and it broke my heart. I think I was trying to soak her up...memorize her...you know that moment when they put your newborn in your arms and you just want to get to know them? That's exactly how I felt. And just like with two out of the three of my biological babies, our first meeting was brief before they whisked her out of my arms. Before we knew it, we were off to do the next task of the day.

We will get to visit her twice a day for two hours at a time starting tomorrow Saturday. I think that this weekend will be crucial for our bonding. We will also get to take her outside and get some fresh air and some sun. Sofia has never been outside before. She has spent her entire life in a crib. She cannot sit up, she cannot stand, she can barely roll over and she can inch around on her belly to reach for toys. We also found out in her chart that she is completely healthy and that her oval window has closed. Her parents were NOT alcoholics or drug addicts so she has a completely healthy blood test as well. She rarely if ever gets sick and the only ailment she has is occasional excema on her cheeks which the orphanage staff is trying to determine the cause with dietary changes. They really do care about her and she has had many doctor exams and specialists have even seen her to rule out any health concerns they might have had from her diagnosis of Down syndrome.

We spent the rest of the day going NONSTOP and when we got back to our apartment it was an 11 hour day of events. To say that I was exhausted would be an understatement. By the time we were finishing up our last task of the day, I was in tears, hiding them behind my sunglasses.

I kept thinking to myself...what on earth are we doing halfway across the world? How did we end up here in this very foreign city, completely alone just the two of us (and our wonderful and extremely hard working facilitator Marina), searching for a baby we don't even know and about to change our lives drastically. Hector took this very blind leap of faith with me and I have to admit...today was the FIRST day I EVER had doubts or questioned what we were doing. It has to be the exhaustion, the stress, the anticipation, the brief and stressful meeting with Sofia and the warning from our facilitator that NO ONE here cares about us or what we are doing. Sofia simply doesn't matter to them, therefore we don't matter and without Marina fighting for us this would be a losing battle. So many obstacles...financial, emotional, physical to get to where we are today. It's no wonder adoption (especially international special needs adoption) is not for everyone. This journey is NOT easy.

This process is far from being over. We need to wait 7 days before a judge will even look at our case in this region. We also need the prosecutor to accept our file without asking for more documents. We pray that she sees all that she needs or we will be out paper chasing again. After 7 days of our file at the judge's office, we will wait for a court date (hopefully sooner than later!) In our region, our judge is known for multiple court dates. We pray for only one court date. After court, the 10 day wait begins. We pray he or she considers waiving it. So many things left to pray for still.

So I came home and found myself curled up in a ball on the bed and in tears. Hector and I talked and we both feel scared and unsure and at this point we are relying on God to help guide us and support us through this journey. We also could not be doing this without our friends and family cheering us on, following our journey and praying for us constantly I miss my boys like crazy. I ache for them and all I want to do is be home with them right now. I couldn't help but think what on earth are we doing here? Why am I not home with my beautiful boys?

But then we remind ourselves, we are saving a little girl. A baby girl who has no one and is even more alone in this world. If we don't fight for her, no one will and she deserves a chance at life. A baby girl who will be our daughter.

So I wipe my tears and look at the pictures of her innocent face and know that we must march on and finish what we started. She deserves it.

Butterflies

2010-04-22T10:35:00.000-07:00

We received our referral letter and the "OK" to go and meet Sofia tomorrow morning!

All I can say is WOW! We are thrilled and nervous at the same time. The moment we have most anticipated is very near. We board the train at 11pm tonight and arrive in Dnep at 7am. We will meet with our facilitator Marina and we will hit the ground running! We are literally on an amazing race here!

I can't even begin to describe the butterflies in my stomach. We are going to meet our daughter in less than 12 hours. Will she like us? Will she warm up immediately to us? Will she feel or know we are her parents? Will she make eye contact with us? Will she cry? Will she smile?

We know the bond may or may not be immediate for her or for us. We really have no idea what to expect. I will be as honest as possible about my feelings so that this journey is as authentic and real as possible for those following us though this blog.

Signing off for now. The next time I sit down to write, we will have met our Sofia!

SDA Appointment

2010-04-22T05:26:00.001-07:00

We just got back from our SDA appointment where we reviewed Sofia's file and saw our translated dossier here in Kiev, Ukraine. It's a chilly and rainy day here today but nothing could put a damper on our excitement as we drove to the heart of Kiev and to the State Department of Adoptions. On our way, we saw two BEAUTIFUL churches...Santa Sophia Cathedral (how appropriate!) and San Andreas Church just outside of the SDA building. Gorgeous architecture here.

Santa Sophia

San Andreas Church, history holds that the apostle Saint Andrew is said to have preached on the southern borders of Ukraine, along the Black Sea. Legend has it that he traveled up the Dnieper River and reached the future location of Kiev, where he erected a cross on the site where the Saint Andrew's Church of Kiev currently stands, and prophesied the foundation of a great Christian city.

The appointment was VERY brief. We found out that Sofia's parents are married and her mother Yulia was born in 1974 and her father Stanislas was born in 1977. We do not know if Sofia has any siblings. She was "officially" abandoned by her parents, meaning that both parents signed away their rights to her when she was born and also after 2 months (Ukrainian law), so there is not other paperwork needed in order to adopt her. Here in Ukraine it is "taboo" so to speak to have or keep a child with Down syndrome and so it is safe to assume that her parents felt they were not able to take care of her and would not have received any support or help in raising her and therefore gave her away. We will probably never know.

Outside the SDA building

Hector and I outside the SDA building

Right after our appointment, we met another couple from the U.S. adopting a 14 year old girl. She knew about us and was following our blog...so cool! We went shopping across the street at a tourist market and purchased a small and a large Ukrainian nesting doll called a "Matryoshka". So cute! Hector bought a nice silk Ukranian flag for the boys.

At the tourist market.

Harry Potter, Elvis and John Lennon, what else can you ask for?

We just finished having a nice little lunch from a market across the street...some garlic potatoes, Chicken Kiev, and a yummy fresh salad made with fresh cheese, tomatoes, cucumber and red bell peppers. Yummy!

We are waiting for a phone call from Serge or Yulia to find out if we will get our referral today (as opposed to tomorrow at 5pm) and if so, we will quickly pack our bags and hop on an overnight train to Sofia's orphanage in Dnipropetrovsk. We might be able to meet Sofia tomorrow morning if we get that referral today. PRAY!

News Briefs on Sofia

2010-04-22T05:14:00.000-07:00

Channel 13 in Sacramento came to our house Monday night after our original flight to Ukraine was cancelled due to the volcano. They did a quick interview with us and at that point we had no hope of getting a flight in time for our SDA appointment. It wasn't until 3 am that next morning that we knew we were leaving at 5am to catch our flight at 6:55am out of Sacramento. Check out the news brief here!

News update here the following morning after they confirmed that we were indeed going to make it in time! They just about got it right...Sacramento to D.C. to Vienna to Kiev is exactly how we made it here!

Meeting Alina!

2010-04-22T04:39:00.000-07:00

We had the absolute joy and pleasure of meeting Chris and Lisa and their newly adopted daughter Alina!

Lisa who authors Bridget's Light and Loving Alina was instrumental in helping me throughout this entire adoption process (behind the scenes) as one of our biggest cheerleaders. She knew about my secret desire to adopt Sofia before I think I even knew!

We met them at their apartment in Kiev last night just a few hours after we landed. What a joy it was to meet Alina who looked right at home with her new parents and was just as curious and inquisitive as a 3 year should be. LOVED her!

Chris and Lisa had a SPEEDY adoption process here in Ukraine and we are certainly hoping to follow in their footsteps. They are set to leave tonight (after a slight delay due to the darn volcano!!) and we wish them a safe and uneventful trip home and a wonderful new life with Alina!

We're HERE!

2010-04-21T06:27:00.000-07:00

We arrived safe and sound in Kiev a few hours ago. We are settling into our apartment downtown on the 15th floor and we have a nice view of the city. We are eating a little local cheese and bread, having a little amaretto coffee and trying to stay awake until night so that we can immediately adjust our body clock to Ukraine time.

Nikolai met us at the airport about 1/2 hour late and we were just about to get worried when a really nice man (a taxi driver I assume) offered us his cell phone. We called and confirmed we were here and a few minutes later Nikolai greeted us, he is 100% fluent in Spanish, he lived in Cuba for 5 years so even though his English is excellent his Spanish is even better and he can communicate with Hector perfectly. He took us to to get some of our money exchanged, did a quick grocery store run for us and helped us get into our apartment.

We will venture out in a few hours to find a restaurant for dinner. We'll meet Nikolai again so we can get our phone and then we'll head to bed so that we are fresh and rested for our early 9am appointment with the SDA.

TGI Friday on a Wednesday night, we have no idea what to expect as far as language so we played it safe tonight.

The language is such a barrier right now, I'm sure it will get better soon.

We think that says something about Mexico, so Hector thought it deserved a picture.

I still cannot believe we are here. I truly believe God had a hand in this one. I called United Airlines around 11:30pm Monday night (after calling every hour on the hour) looking for an opening on any flight going through to Kiev the next day (our last possible chance of making our SDA appt). I kept getting nothing, no seats available, no flights available. On my last effort, after seeing some encouraging words from friends on Facebook to not give up, I called United again and decided to ask the agent if there were any first class seats available. It was then (and only then) that the agent said let me do some looking around here. She said she saw an Austrian Air flight through Vienna and then to Kiev. She wasn't able to get through to them but put in the request and said to check back again early the next morning (Tuesday) to see if we got the seats. Hector and I went to bed figuring it just wasn't going to happen and that we had to prepare for being delayed until June if we missed our appointment on 4/22. I set my alarm for 3 am and checked the computer immediately and wasn't able to see anything. I called United and there it was...two confirmed seats going through Vienna to Kiev and we had to be at the airport in Sacramento in two hours!!! It was a miracle getting the seats but we still had to worry about whether or not the flights were going to operate due to the volcano. Every single leg of the flight we PRAYED that we would get through and every single leg of the flight did. It was Austrian Air's FIRST flight back to Vienna in 4 long days...we were on their first flight since the eruption. We got to Vienna and found that Kiev airport was open to all Austrian Air flights as well...we were GOLDEN!

(By the way, the international airport in D.C. and the airport in Vienna were eerily quiet and calm. Not many people and no chaos like I expected there to be...interesting!)

A picture fromm the plane going through the volcano ash cloud, you can see the black sky under us. Scary!

I still have to pinch myself. We made it! We're here! We are going to meet Sofia at the earliest this Friday and at the latest on Monday. Again, we'll hope and pray for another miracle and that would be to get an early referral to Sofia's orphanage after our SDA appointment so that we can hop on a train in time to see her on Friday 4/23. Otherwise, we will get our referral Friday afternoon and will have to wait until Monday to see her since the orphanage needs to open our case on a weekday. We'll take it either way we can get it but you can bet I'm praying we are on an overnight train Thursday night!!! Sofia's orphanage is in Dnep which is about 8 hours away from Kiev.

I can't tell you how comforting it is to know how many people are supporting us, praying for us and cheering for us right now. We feel incredibly blessed and we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for all of you. You are all on this journey with us. We feel it!

And We're Off...I Hope!

2010-04-20T04:48:00.001-07:00

We have a booked flight to Kiev through Austria leaving this morning. Our bags are packed and we are out the door. We PRAY the airports stay open and that our flight is safe. We PRAY for our kids left at home with our family and friends. We hope to be in touch when we are in Kiev!!!

PRAYING!!!

Baby Sofia on TV

2010-04-19T20:07:00.000-07:00

News 10 Coverage on Saving Baby Sofia

P.S. And be sure to read the comments section...all I can say is WOW!

Cancelled

2010-04-19T06:07:00.000-07:00

Everything we booked (even our alternative route through China and Russia) is cancelled. The volcano erupted more over night and air zones are closed. We are devastated. I have an email out to our adoption facilitators to work on a new SDA appointment ASAP.

We are NOT giving up. We will continue to work as hard as we need to in order to get to Kiev and get our baby girl. The volcano might have stopped us this time but we WILL get to Kiev and get this process started.

We know this is in God's hands and that there is a reason for everything so we will pray for a new quick SDA appointment (hopefully as soon as next week) and that the airports clear up in the next few days. We also pray that Sofia is healthy and is receiving the love that she deserves as she waits for her parents to come get her.

Wait & See

2010-04-18T07:40:00.000-07:00

So far our flight is still scheduled however all flights before it have been cancelled. We fly through Frankfurt and then to Kiev so we need two different airports to be open in order for us to make it. We've tried looking at alternative routes but so far it's either crazy expensive or just not possible because so many flights to Europe go through major hubs and all those major hubs are closed.

We're hoping that today the ash in the airspace has dispersed and that all flights can resume safely by later this evening and early morning tomorrow.

We move forward as if we are leaving tomorrow. Bags are packed. Schedules are written. Plans are in place. Lots of work...we hope it's not all in vain. But, we know ultimately this is in God's hands and we must be at peace with that. However hard that might be. We know there are so many travelers stranded right now so we have it good in that we are still in the comfort of our own home. So we pray that this air traffic mess is cleared up soon for everyone that is affected by it and hoping to move forward in their lives.

Ukraine

2010-04-16T21:46:00.000-07:00

This is where we are headed on Monday! Ukraine!

We can't wait to see this beautiful country and their beautiful people. Most of the population speaks Russian. We will arrive in Kiev on Tuesday 4/20 and we will spend the first week there getting everything set up for us to visit Sofia's orphanage and we will have some free time to explore her native country. Her orphanage is a 7-8 hour train ride away in the city of Dnep.

We will probably meet Sofia on Monday, April 26th if we can't convince the SDA to let us get our paperwork early and head over in time to meet her on the Friday before. Since our SDA appointment is Thursday at 9 am...there is a small chance we could get the ok by the end of the day but most of the time you get the ok the following day at 5pm. We can wish and hope it's sooner, right?!?

When we get to Sofia's orphanage in Dnep, we will meet with the director and the medical team and then we will be introduced to Sofia. At that point, we tell them whether or not we "accept" her and I can assure you that we WILL! Then things move at a rapid pace as our facilitator will gather all the necessary paperwork to submit to the judge in the region and to try and get as quick as possible a court date which would make Sofia legally our child. This can take anywhere froma few days to a few weeks. The bonus to waiting for our court date is that we get to visit Sofia twice a day at her orphanage for a few hours each visit. We get to love on her and start the bonding process. This little girl has no idea what love feels like and we can't wait to show her. PLEASE PRAY that we get our court date quickly so that we can start the process of bringing her home more quickly too. We can't wait to meet our judge and share with him our family and how excited we all are to bring her home. We have a few photo albums to share and we are so ready for this!

After the judge rules, that is when the 10 day "wait" begins. Some regions waive the 10 day wait. Ours has not waived in the past but there is always a FIRST! If we do have to wait the 10 days, Hector and I will return home to our boys for the 10 days and then decide if one or both of us will return to begin the Visa, Passport and medical appointments necessary to bring Sofia home (another 7-14 days).

So...let's just get to Ukraine first and then we can deal with the rest! We are on a mission to meet our baby girl and bring her home as quickly as possible to her waiting family.

Just tonight at bedtime, Diego and Mateo prayed for Sofia. They want her home now. They don't want us to go on a second trip. They also want to cash in their Saving Sofia piggybank to help bring her home. On Sunday, we will take their bank to cash it in and I plan on using whatever money they raised these past few weeks with random pocket change to buy some souvenirs for Sofia that we can give her through the years on her birthday to remind her of her heritage. It will be the boys gift to her.

CBS 13

2010-04-16T21:24:00.000-07:00

Check out what our local news station did for us!!! So cool! A banner advertisement runs on their website periodically throughout the day. Love seeing her little face up there on top of the page!

The Volcano

2010-04-16T07:10:00.000-07:00

Between the recent adoption fiasco in Russia (which is NOT where we are adopting from) and now the volcano in Iceland shutting down air travel in most of Europe, we are needing more prayers than ever that we can fly out Monday morning and begin our adoption process without delay.

Flights are cancelled all over Europe today so if we were flying today, we wouldn't get anywhere. Please GOD clear the ashes away so that flights can resume! We CANNOT miss our appointment on Thursday.

5 More Days...

2010-04-14T04:19:00.000-07:00

...and we leave to begin our adoption of Sofia.

It feels like time is on fast forward right now. There is so much to do and so little time left. I know we will pull it all together but right at this moment the task feels daunting. I think the hardest part is piecing together the schedule for the three boys for 3+ weeks and making sure every details is thought out and taken care of. I'm trying hard to "spread the load" so that there is as much help for my parents as possible and thanks to my amazing friends, I think my parents will get plenty of breaks. Thank you again to my parents and my community of friends that is absolutely the best. Our "village" is amazing.

Hector and I are gathering the last of our paperwork, putting together photo albums of our life to share with the judge, and packing our bags and filling every nook and cranny. We are traveling at a beautiful time of year but a time of year that requires we bring late winter AND early spring clothing...not too easy to plan. We are thinking lots of layers. We're also figuring out all of our electronics so that we can communicate easily to everyone back at home. And yes...we plan on taking pictures. Lots and lots of pictures!

We are taking a leap of FAITH on this journey. We literally have no idea who is picking us up from the airport, where we are staying and how we will get around but have been told that everything is taken care of and to just look for a man holding a sign with our names on it when we exit the airport. I TRUST that everything is going to work out.

I've really had to compartmentalize my feelings the past few days and luckily I'm too busy to really think about the emotional aspect of our journey to Sofia. She weighs heavy on my mind. I wonder if we'll recognize her. I wonder what she'll think of us. I wonder if we'll have an instant connection. I wonder if she's shy or outgoing. I wonder is she's babbling. I wonder if she's a cuddle bug like Joaquin or if she even knows how to cuddle. I wonder if her hair has grown out or if it's still cut short. I wonder if she's petite or a little "tank". I wonder if she is sitting up, rolling over or crawling around. We're so excited to meet her.

Sofia's going to be 14 months old next week. She's still a baby! We've managed to make this process happen as quickly as possible on our end. We HOPE and PRAY that it continues to move as quickly and smoothly when we get to her country. We have been so blessed with both emotional and financial support for this adoption. We are amazed by it all. GOD is watching over us, we know this and we feel this. Amidst the craziness around our house this week, I feel an underlying sense of PEACE.

Thank you for your prayers as we enter the next leg of our journey.