Certificate At Last

After 2 hours at the Immigrations Office today we were given the original Certificate of Citizenship. It was a positive experience, besides the behavior problems Prema had today due to the visit. Seeing her passport again and sitting in a room filled with people of different races, (me being the only white person) and people leaving but never seeing them again is a trauma trigger for her. Hopefully she will be better tomorrow.

Immigrations Again

Since the last post we have celebrated Isaac's 3rd birthday. When I get more time I'll post about his special celebration.

But you may find it interesting that our government sent us a notice 2 weeks ago that we are to come to the Office of Immigration in Tampa tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. to REBUILD the file on Prema. At the bottom it says you must show up unless you have written notice as to why you can't come.

So tomorrow we will yet again make the trip to the office with her, her Indian passport, American passport and Social Security card. Mind you we have made this trip several times before twice requesting a green card so that we could apply for SSN and American passport and the third time to apply for her Certificate of Naturalization at which time we also gave $200 for the certificate which we should have received 9 months later. At each visit I was assured there were no problems even though they couldn't find her file each time we came. (So what did they do with all the paperwork we filled out each time we went?) The initial problem happened when we entered America from India in June 2006. I handed the Immigration Officer a HUGE envelope of paperwork from the past year and a half of the adoption legal documents. Somehow, it was never entered into the computer after he stamped our passports and never seen again. Does this make you trust our government?

birthdays and chasing

Life has been crazy the past couple weeks with birthday and Easter preparations/ celebrations and chasing kids...but here is a little update.


We celebrated Prema's 9th birhday (legal) on Good Friday night. Kyle's parents and the Heuertz clan helped us celebrate. The week before Prema and I had made 3D butterfly invitations so I carried out the theme with a chocolate butterfly cake that cracked after I frosted it. Luckily it was on a piece of cardboard so we folded it back together for pictures and Prema was satisfied with my solution. She got lost of wonderful presents...mostly clothes to fit her new curves.


Eli is officially a toddler. He started walking unsupported at 10 1/2 months old. He is getting more confident and taking bigger steps. He wore his first pair of shoes yesterday; only his Crocs fit his fat feet. He loves the new freedom to roam the outdoors on the grass and cement without having to scrap up his knees. He gets up on the porch ledge and shouts along with mounting a small tittle trike.


Isaac will be turning 3 on Tuesday. He talks and reasons like a 4 or 5 year old. He has been keeping us busy with constant questions (a lot that the knows the answers to also), debates about what really is true (his world of truth is a bit skewed), and trying new lines and actions to get what he wants so as to appear to not be disobeying. He is also constantly still entertaining us with elaborate pretend play of many things related to church, the ice cream truck, football and now some baseball, Bob the builder/ construction, garbage truck, etc. He definitely keeps melting my heart with his cute facial expressions and "mature" body movements.

A Child mind, A Woman's Body

Last night we discovered the news I have dreaded for quite some time. Some mothers and daughters celebrate this day as a time of coming of age. I was still hoping yesterday that I had at least 9 more months until the big day. Prema started her first menstrual cycle yesterday. Its a shock to my system. I am overwhelmed with the possible limitations it may hold, as her body (hormones) tell her to be independent and we still fight for attachment. I fear our expectations for learning will be stifled. I am also just dreading the hygiene issues related to it.

Its an odd thing to have a two year old in mind having a woman's body. Prema, not knowing what it really means, is announcing to everyone its arrival with graphic signs (blood flowing from her vagina). After inserting a pad into her underwear she walked with her legs extremely spread apart. Thankfully her teacher saw the humor in it and helped me to laugh about the situation too.

So now I am back to helping all 3 kids with their bathroom needs; changing diapers, wiping poopy butts, and changing pads. I really hope that Prema will be able to do it on her own within couple of months, but she still can't even brush her teeth herself (coordination problems) so it might be too hopeful for the other.

Laugh Out-Louds with Isaac

On Monday I came out of the bathroom with Eli to find Isaac swallowing a metal ball from our magnet collection. I think he put them in his mouth and intended to spit them out but my appearance scared him, knowing full well they are not to be in his mouth and his immediate response was to swallow them instead of taking them out. I was a little worried but not too much once I realized he was fine. I knew the drill since Eli's penny incident. So I planned on waiting several days. Tuesday morning Isaac went to the bathroom and came to tell me "my poop is making a clink, clink noise". I had forgotten about the balls so I just figured he was making up a silly story as he does a lot recently. Isaac went back on the toilet and then came back a few minutes later to announce that the balls were at the bottom of the toilet. They sure did pass fast. I was surprised to see two and not one.

Today I was cleaning Isaac's room and he asked me if I was going to clean the blood off the sheets from a past bloody nose. I told him I would wash his sheets later. He responded..."well red blood is nice for Valentine's day." okay.

Random Updates

Our week was filled with the excitement of watching this...



become this...



that is the house that Kyle's grandparents and himself with his parents and brother lived in. The house became to moldy after a leaky roof to remain livable, so hence the demolition. Isaac has been thrilled about watching it all take place. We started watching it on Thursday morning and have taken several trips back and forth between meals and sleep times to see the machines at work and all the rubble taken away. When Isaac has been home is main play is demoing buildings with his own digger and dump truck.




Eli is crawling around and standing up everywhere. This week he has been wanting to follow Isaac outside. He crawls out to the porch, stands up and steps onto the ledge to shout at people and Isaac. He also signed and said "mama" simultaneously the other day.

Prema's language seems to be improving more and more since we started neurofeedback at the language area of the brain 2 weeks ago. She has been able to put together 7-9 signs on one topic...not all in correct order but understandable. This week after neurofeedback and setting up pictures and dolls to represent India/ birth parents and America/ us Prema was signing a lot about a hospital visit where her IV broke and was bleeding and she was told not to pee or poop. We couldn't understand if it was when she had her oral surgery here or her adenoids removed in India. The next day she and I were looking at pictures of her orphanage and she began telling me that the car in the picture was the one she left the hospital in and the same car that took her to school where she peed her pants. These two stories we have not heard before from anyone, but assume they are true. We are very excited that she was able to tell us herself.

Happy Valentine's Day

Yesterday, we had fun celebrating Valentine's Day as a family. Last week the Prema, Isaac and I began making their Valentine cards. They each dictated their own list of people to give to and then we began the process of tracing hearts, cutting them out, pasting them on red paper, and stamping their fingerprints around the hearts. The entire creation took about 4 days since their attention span and Eli's willingness to stay out of the activities was limited. Wednesday we made chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting to hand out with the cards.
Yesterday we woke up and got ready for the day, all dressing in red or pink. Then we took Prema to school and Isaac gave one of his valentines to Prema's teacher and Prema handed out some of her valentine's to her classmates. While Prema was school the boys and I visited the Heuertz girls and exchanged valentines.
For dinner Kyle's parents joined us. Kyle's mom arranged a very nice fondue dinner with nice red and white table decorations. While we were eating the fondue rules were established. One rule was that if you dropped something in the pot you then had to either kiss or hug Kyle or myself. This is really a fondue rule, but normally you would hug or kiss anyone you want...not a good idea for a child with RAD so we limited the hugs. After the two fondue trays (veggies with cheese and chocolate with fruit) we then exchanged Valentine cards/ gifts. The kids loved the meal and handing out their cards. The fondue may become a V Day tradition...we'll have to see. Thanks Sandy for your thought and preparation.