Awesome Fundraiser to Bless Many Families!

I LOVE these products! 

Sevenly is doing a fundraiser again this year for Reece's Rainbow, but this year the proceeds are benefitting families who are waiting to travel to bring their child home! 

That includes us! I haven't said much, but with the new regulations, we are no longer fully funded (we will be needing around $1,500 or more in addition to what we have already raised). But so many other families are far short of what they need to bring their child/children home!

 All the proceeds from this fundraiser will be divided equally between all of the families! Check it out and order some T-Shirts - $7 from each item purchased will go to these families  - these are the "almost home" families/children, and we are only one of many families in this category!

These hats are hand knit by women in Uganda

Over $3,000 has already been raised for these families already!  This campaign only lasts a week (I think it started today, but I am not sure).  

These are made in Costa Rica providing jobs there! 

Please consider purchasing something, and please share on your social networking (blog, FB, twitter, Google+) and help these families bring their children home!!!

This event ends January 6, so don't wait to order!

Esther is Growing Up!

Here's a quick update on things Esther is learning to do!

At camp last summer she found a broken bad-mitten racket and was playing it like a guitar for all she was worth.  Recently we found an adorable little tune-able toddler guitar and she loves it!

She has begun to be dry some mornings, so we began to get her on the potty seat and she has had success most mornings!  She loves the routine, and she gets so excited when she has success!  She has even begun to tell me when she is "stinky"!  This is HUGE!

We are also seeing progress in her cognitive development through the Can Do therapy program I am doing with her.  She now knows the names of nearly all the photo cards that I use with her, and just this week she was able to see two cards, and then find their matches after I took the cards away!  She is also able to repeat back to me some of the sounds for letters!  She LOVES working with these cards and gets so excited when she gets it right.  I'm so glad we were able to begin this program with her.  She doesn't like some of the physical things, but she loves all the attention!

She is talking a lot, but we can't always understand what she is saying.  I love it when we finally understand a word that she's been saying for a while.  Once we have context, then we can totally understand what she is saying, but many times, without context, we just can't figure it out.  Once we know it, sometimes is seems silly that we didn't understand it!

Esther LOVES going to the beach.  We had a little scare earlier this summer when she decided to follow the big kids and got in deeper that she was prepared for and her floaty swimsuit kept her afloat, but she got her head under the water longer than she likes and I was afraid she was going to lose her love of the beach, but our day at the beach and couple weeks ago proved that she is still 100% a fish.  She was the first one in and the last one out!

I re-arranged the girls' bedroom this week.  Esther was SO excited about the change.  I had taken her top blanket to be washed, so it was missing for a couple of days. When I brought it back she acted like it was her long lost friend!

 Her excitement over everyday things is so captivating!  I'm sure her birthday this year (in just a couple of weeks now) will be a most over-the-top exciting day for her!

Esther has great Follow Through!

She had a great time playing with a friend at camp last week!

Esther "Can Do" Therapy

Esther LOVES to help Carese...
far more than Carese likes to be helped, though!

Summer has arrived, and with it some beautiful weather!  In the past few months, we were given a swing set which is getting a lot of use now, and we got a steal of a deal on a swimming pool (ours died of old age last year) as well.  The kids haven't been in the pool much in the last two weeks due to cool/rainy weather, but that all changed this week!

Esther enjoyed our first "Lake Day"
 

Summer also means "Lake Days."  We have some sweet friends who live on the lake, and they invite us over almost every week for some beach time.  We all enjoy this special treat!  Last Friday was our first "Lake Day" and we all had so much fun.  Esther spent almost the entire time in the water, and enjoyed every minute of the day.  Carese kept me busy, and it took a while for her to get used to wearing a life jacket, but Esther had no problems with the "life jacket all the time" rule at all!

Last winter we heard about a neurodevelopmental program that a dear friend of mine had discovered, which had made a huge difference in her child - leaping 18 months in development in just 4 months.  The second 4 months did not show this great leap of developmental progress, but there were other extenuating factors.  But she had continued to progress more rapidly with this program than with any of the other therapies that they had tried.

Esther learning her alphabet while getting her hair combed,
after getting dressed and getting her glasses on.
While we are doing therapy with Esther we have Mozart
playing on our stereo for brain stimulation.

We researched the "Can Do" program, and found out that they would even be at our Christian Heritage Homeschool Convention!  Even though it was difficult to come up with the up front costs, we decided that it was the best time to start this program for Esther, as during the summer months I have less on my plate (homeschooling break) and it would be good to start this program before Esther's new sister come homes (her adoption should be finalized next winter).

Esther had her first evaluation at the beginning of May, and at that time I was also taught everything I needed to know to implement the program that they custom designed for Esther.  We will be sending in updates every two weeks and later every month.  We will have her re-evaluated every 4 months (that is how often they are in our area).  Can Do services 8 states (WA, ID, CA, ND/MN, MI, OH and NY) and families drive a long way to use their services.  Thankfully, we only have to drive about 1 hour away!

Here are some photos of Esther's therapy!

Esther leaning animal sounds while getting deep pressure massage
to her hand/arms/feet/legs.
Jessica is doing the massage in this photo.

Our therapy checklist for the week, and her daily meds/supplements
most of which go into her yogurt.
The penny bank and pennies is for fine motor skills
- she has to pick up the pennies and put them into the bank!
That is Daniel's job - to help Esther with this therapy.
You can also see "bite tubes" in a baggy.
The bite tubes are part of her mouth stimulation and for
strengthening her jaw for better speech later.

Esther gets a vibration massage to her hands a feet while she eats her yogurt
this helps develop her brain/body connection to help her overcome
her high pain tolerance and prepare her for potty training.
Here Rachel is working with Esther

Esther's memory cards.  She is learning the names of the items on the cards
both to say them and to point them out on command.
She can only do one at a time, but we are working to help her be able
to point to two in a row and then three, and then four.
You can see Carese is also at the table "playing" therapy.

These are photo cards that I made.  There is the word for the item in the photo on the back
We show her the word, and then the photo, and then the word again
She loves these cards and is saying more words now, as well as
pointing to the object in the photos!

Dayton is helping Esther learn her numbers.
All the children (except Carese) help Esther with different parts of her therapy
as each child is able - it's their "school" for the summer!

This is Carese - she stole this sucker/sponge that we use for mouth stimulation with Ether
She loves these (she's been teeting)
We use this with Esther,one is dipped in very warm water and swished around in Esther's moujt
The other one is put in very cold water and we alternate between the two.

Esther has many other therapies, but I'll save those for another post!

If you want to check into this program, check out their website - Can Do

They are a christian company who focus on teaching parents to work with their children at home to enable their children to reach their greatest potential - it's for children with any disabilities, even ADHD, dyslexia and Autism!

Ahem...and now for public release!

A video to tell our story - our journey to adoption


Feel free to share this as I think this could be a tool used to get the word out that these children need homes and families to love them!

Here are the blogs of the families represent in our journey:

http://carryyourlight.blogspot.com/
http://www.fryefamilyfive.com/
http://theblessingofverity.com/


Prolife means more than just preventing abortion, it means promoting all life, even those who are abandoned or rejected at birth!  Not all are called to adopt, but anyone can support an adoptive family or advocate for these children who are hidden away from the world and left to die.

And don't forget - we have 31 days left to build up our funds to make the most of our matching grant!

Esther has New Glasses

We took her to a new eye doctor recently.  The new doctor found that Esther's eyes needed much stronger correction.  Not only that, but that Esther needs to where her glasses as much as possible or she might have her eyes get weaker!

So we have two sets of new glasses, and we have rigged up a way to keep them from being lost. To help prevent them getting broken, we paid a little extra and got titanium based frames, called "flexi-frames".  So far, so good.  She's had her glasses for nearly a month and they only thing she has broken is some of the soft plastic on the nose piece!  She has also only lost them a few times, but not for long and it was not always her fault (the fault lies with the person who takes them off ;).

She likes wearing them - I think they are far more helpful that her last prescription!

You'd Better Not Watch This

or it might make you want to have a child with Down Syndrome in your family!




If God has blessed your family with a love one with Down Syndrome, then Praise God!  If He hasn't....yet...maybe it's time to see if you can adopt one!

Reece's Rainbow can help!  Check out their "Children with Sizable Grants" page!