The Greatest Show On Earth

 As you may have guessed from the blog title and pictures of dancing elephants, we celebrated Gotcha Day 2011 with a trip to the Barnum and Bailey circus with another Cincy Kaz adoption family.  My mom swears I went to a circus when I was younger, but I don't remember it.  In any case, I was thoroughly entertained by the show and Hannah...well Hannah liked the snack bar a lot and was mildly impressed with the actual performance.  Half way through she said "go away, bye bye Mamoo" and sweetly put on her coat and handed me my purse, but luckily the midgets riding motorcycles paraded out just then and that placated her for a while.  It was a fun day on top of a very busy weekend ~ Friday night was the fish fry at church for the start of Lent.  The priest calls himself the Codfather and his helpers are the Sole Men :-). I had planned on giving up facebook, but decided instead to give up texting. We'll see how it goes.
 
On the adoption front, there is a new facebook page called the Real Face of Special Needs Adoption.  If your heart needs a lift, check out this page filled with stories of beautiful children and family.  One of the topics on the page that I really like is the question,

What do you want people to know about your child with special needs? (I paraphrased that to use person-first language).  Here are some of my favorite responses

That his special need does not define him. He is the same as everyone else; he is different as is everyone. He is special, and not just because of his need. You are special, too.


That the only limitations my guys have are those put on them by others.


Yes, we knew they had special needs before we adopted them. No, they were not second choices, we did not settle for them - they are perfect in every way and we are lucky to have them in our lives.


That my kids needing a family was really their greatest special need.

I am staying busy working on my newest volunteer project, The Passport to Forever event benefiting the Int'l Adoption Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. After I posted about this the last time, a few people emailed me asking why we are raising this money.  As many of you know, the IAC in Cincinnati s the MOST comprehensive program of it's type in the entire United States.  Although they are affiliated with the hospital, they are entirely self sustaining and non-profit. Although they charge for some services, many of their support groups, educational programming, and parenting classes are free. With adoptions in the US declining rapidly, events like Passport to Forever help the center stay afloat and continue to provide desperately needed services to adoptive families.  I am helping with the Silent Auction and our goal is $10,000. We are currently looking for hostess items (Pampered Chef, Thirty-One, Silpada, etc), theme baskets (i.e. holiday, sports teams, picnic, etc) and of course items from birth countries.  If anyone would like to help with a committee, donate products or services, or even just attend the event, please email me.      


Hannah Update

Happy, Healthy, Wonderful!!  At twenty months, her favorite books are Miss Spider, Go Dog Go, Clifford the Big Red Dog, and the Sandra Boynton books.  Her favorite foods are spaghetti, ice cream, pizza, and fruit snacks.  She loves to swim, play with her kitchen, and do puzzles.  She can identify all shapes, colors, animals, and almost every letter and it's sound, she is starting to count, has a rapidly growing vocabulary (her favorite phrases are "More ____ please" "No! My _____" and "Hannie big Girl."  She probably has over 200 words but I haven't counted.  She is starting to copy basic shapes on paper (just line up/down ,circle, etc). 99.999% of the time she is smiling, laughing, chatty, and generally wonderful.  However, this weekend, I accidentally stumbled upon the one thing that sends her into a fit of rage.  I tried to hold another baby.  My neighbor and friend Jenny had a little girl last week, and I made the mistake of attempting to hold her in Hannie's presence.  No dice. She wouldn't let me anywhere near her, but I took a pic of Nana holding the baby and Hannie.  One of the few pics and times in which I have seen her genuinely distressed.

I think her reaction was pretty normal for her age, but it does concern me for the future if I would chose to have to adopt another child. Oh well, as the old saying goes, we will cross that bridge when we come to it. We have a busy month ahead, and the key word is PLANNING.  Planning an EPIC Easter Party, planning summer vacations and a possible "dirty 30" trip to Germany this fall, and planning on enjoying every minute of it!  If I don't blog before then, ""Hoppy Easter" everyone! ~Erin
PS Check out my video of Hannie's words of wisdom from inside the spice drawer!