mission: accomplished

I love our social worker! She's fantastic. She's about my mom's age, she said she's a grandma, so when Brecken was being a total show off, she just laughed at him. He was the one to give her the grand tour of the house. He was quite proud. :)

She asked us all the standard questions, said she loved the story of how we met, asked what we did around town, what we liked about where we lived, stuff like that. She asked about the fire extinguisher and the locks and the outlet plugs.

We talked about race and gender and all that sort of stuff. Brecken said he wanted a baby brother. :) She was here for two hours and we had a lot of laughs. She's great. She asked if we'd be ready for a baby as soon as the home study was completed (the three interviews- not just today) and we said yes, and she said she has seen that happen. We're not getting our hopes up, but wouldn't that be wild if it happened like that?!?

AND... here is the best part. We still have to have two interviews. She said we are more than welcome to go to where she lives (1.5 hours away) on a night, have the one-on-one interviews, and then stay the night at a hotel and then the next morning get the 3rd interview done and we'd be certified! AND, she'd totally do a weekend. YES! So Saturday Feb. 5th, after Josh's game that afternoon, we'll head over, do the one-on-ones, and then the next morning be finished! Hooray!

She disclosed to us that she knows one of our references. I thought it was cool- one of Josh's good friends from growing up is a minister, and he actually was the one that married us. She goes to his church! She loves him and thinks he's great. One point for us. :)

I'm soooo glad it went well today. Huge lift off my shoulders. Not that I ever thought it would go badly, but you know how it goes.

eeek!!!

Tomorrow: BIG DAY!!! Social worker sounds nice, but you know how it is- someone important coming over to your house and your house will never seem clean enough. All the books say "they won't do a white glove test", and "they aren't expecting your house to be ready for a photoshoot for Better Homes and Gardens"... but let's face it. You don't want to look like a slob, either.

I had asked for a half day off tomorrow, since she is scheduled to arrive at 2:00 p.m. My secretary thought I said a WHOLE day. Turns out, it's a blessing in disguise. I can drop my boy off at preschool AND pick him up, which is something I never get to do. Plus, I get 3 uninterrupted hours to do all the last minute picking up, sweeping, vacuuming, hiding the crap (!), and all that grand old stuff, before she gets here. Maybe I won't feel so rushed. Or maybe I'll just have that extra time to get scared.

Either way. I'm nervous.

home study: scheduled

Wednesday is the big day.

I'm so nervous.

Must get my house cleaner than ever!

I've spent the past two days doing nothing but hanging out with my boy while Josh was away for basketball. Have to get it all in now, as tomorrow will be my turn to leave. It's time for our annual All-State Music Conference, and it's a long trip this time- all the way up to Cody! Then I ahve to stay because I have a meeting in Jackson on Thursday- so I won't get to see either of my boys until Thursday night. :(

So yesterday and today, B and I did laundry, vacuumed, (he helped with both!), went to the lake to see the ice fishing derby all set up, he had a couple baths, blew bubbles, we watched PLENTY of cartoons, and we pigged out on junk. It was a good two days. :)

scooters in the snow

It's tough to be a kid in Wyoming, where you have so much snow all the time. Especially when your birthday falls right when it's getting ready to start being winter, and anything you get for your birthday and Christmas that might be an outside toy can't be played with! The past two Christmases, Brecken has gotten some great riding toys- a big boy bike (last year) and a scooter (this year). The poor kid tried riding it in the snow the other day and realized how hard it is. :(

Enter: DADDY'S SCHOOL! We're very fortunate to be able to load up B's stuff and take him to Josh's school so he can ride around the hallways and the multi-purpose room. We did that today so that he could run around a big area and use his scooter too. It is a great option for the winter and it makes me very glad we have that building available to us. :)

amazing progress

Brecken showed amazing progress with his sensory disorder over Christmas vacation. I'm so dang proud of him.

*He tried 3 new foods, and loved 2 of them. (Potato Oles from Taco Johns and garlic bread were the fantastic discoveries- he SCARFED them down after trying both of them on two different days! Stuffing, on the other hand, he was not a fan of. But heck- he tried them!!!)

*He wore "dress" pants to Christmas Eve service. They were not sweat pants, but had sweat material inside. But they were new, different, and he wore them.

*My sister gave him some brown cords that were too small for my nephew, and he wore them ALL DAY!!!

*Then, my mom got him two new t-shirts that she found, and he wore one of them! I was so proud of him.

*He went sledding! He was extremely timid at the beginning, but by the time we left my parents' house, he was going to the top of the "mountain" and taking a running start!

*AND, he let us finally give him a hair cut.

Small steps, but they are HUGE steps to us.

Interesting, however, that he won't wear the new clothes to school. He doesn't want anyone to see them. Baby steps.

He was still quite clingy to us when we got to each of our parents' houses- enough that our families noticed. He warmed up quickly though, which was a relief. He didn't have a ton of issues with the noise this time around, which was good since it was PLENTY noisy this Christmas. :)

So proud of my little guy!

See? New pants and a new sweatshirt, too!

rudolph

We had a visitor at our house this Christmas season. An elf was sent to us from the North Pole to watch over Brecken and report back to Santa each night how the day went. Then he'd come back before we woke up and hide in the house somewhere.

I didn't order him so much to help with behavior, as we have a pretty well behaved child to begin with. But I knew this elf would hold so much magic, and this year has been the most magical since Brecken has been with us. His eyes widen in wonder and he gets so dang excited about everything- so I knew this elf would be the perfect addition to our Christmas traditions. Brecken would get out of bed every morning so excited to go elf hunting. B would tell him when we left for school to have a good day, and would tell him "Good night! Have a safe trip!" every evening. Rudolph (what Brecken named his elf, though he mainly called him "my buddy") stayed through Christmas Day, even arriving at my mom and dad's house, and then flew back to the North Pole until next December. Brecken is so sad- he misses his little friend.

(you can get more information about the elves here)

bravery

If you know my son, you know this was a big thing for him. I almost cried, I was so proud of him.

letters

Brecken wrote a letter to Santa last week during school. The class then walked down to the post office and put them in the mail box that goes to the North Pole. He was soooo excited that Santa was going to get his letter in the mail! And today, Santa came to school to personally deliver letters back to them!

Dear Santa,

For Christmas I want a train with wheels that drive backwards by itself, a frisbee, and a Mater that you pull back and it moves by itself.

Love, Brecken

Dear Brecken,

Thank you for writing to me this year. I really enjoy getting letters from your school. Your teachers are very nice to help you write your letters to Santa. Did you know Santa has to answer thousands of letters each year? My typing is getting better but sometimes I still make mistakes.

The elves were really excited to read your letter and they have picked out something very special for you this year. I was excited to read your letter too because Mater is one of my favorite toys. I like Lightning McQueen but Mater is the best. I love his cool teeth and I love to hear him talk.

The reindeer are really busy practicing their flying. They will have to fly faster than Lightning McQueen can drive in order for us to make the trip around the world and to get all the presents delivered. We have a very long trip.

Be good and I will see you on Christmas Eve with a very special gift from everyone here at the North Pole.

Love,
Santa

you're never going to believe it!

BRECKEN SAT ON SANTA'S LAP TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had my elementary program tonight. It went really well! Afterwards, Santa came. Brecken came running down the bleachers right to me so we could get in line. I was shocked. He told Josh and I in line that he was just going to say hi to him, not sit on his lap. Because Santa already knew what he wanted, since he wrote him a letter at school. We said that was fine. Well, he got up there, and Santa kind of just picked him up and put him on his lap, and B did NOT freak out!!!!! I was almost too shocked to get a picture!! I was so proud of him! What a change in my little guy from a few weeks ago!

They wrote letters to Santa at school the other day, and today they took a walking field trip to the post office to mail them in the special mailbox. Brecken is so excited that Santa will be getting his letter soon. I love the magic of Christmas. :)

brushing

I picked Brecken up this afternoon and we met his OT at the preschool so she could teach me how to use the Wilbarger Brushing Protocol she has been using on Brecken since his diagnosis. She's seen great results out of it with him, which I was very proud of! I now know how so I can do it at home with Brecken. I'll show Josh too, so that we can both do it. (He couldn't come with me today because of basketball practice.) I'm excited to try it before bedtime to see if bedtime goes better, and definitely before basketball games (which start tomorrow!!) because of all the noise, etc. She told me I could do it as often as every two hours, and I now have a couple of the brushes at home. Here is a little bit more info on it for those who want to read about it!

http://www.thetherapyplace.net/newsletter/3_2.htm

It's hard to explain. We have a brush, it's a surgical brush. (Which is easily replaced at low cost- hooray! Especially if Aunt Kristen can get us some! :)) After it's used for a while, you have to replace it because the bristles will wear down and won't be as effective because they aren't stiff enough.

There's a certain way to brush up and down his arm, using a certain amount of pressure and not letting the brush come up at all. After you get every inch of skin you can, then you go it real fast on his palm, about 3 or so swishes. Then you put the brush down and "hug" his fingers. It's like pushing (lightly, but with pressure) the knuckle toward the hand, on each finger. Then you brace the arm and push his wrist toward his elbow a couple times. Then the elbow toward the shoulder. Then you repeat on the other arm. And then the legs and feet. And "hug" his toes, ankles, knees, and hips. And then you brush his back. Then after his back, you brace his back and push (again lightly, but with pressure) on his head. And push his sternum toward his back.

It's very hard to explain and this is the abbreviated version.

So proud of my little man! We weren't sure he was going to let the teachers touch him- he's very guarded about that stuff- but he now searches for his teacher that does it in the mornings, when he gets there, so he can have his special time with her!!

While we were in the OT office, he was playing with some rubber spikey things and was putting them on his feet, which shocked me. The OT quietly told me that was a new development just this week. So he's growing in that sense! Hooray!!

forward movement

Things are finally moving forward again in the adoption process. The "week to 10 days" it was going to take to review our application turned into over 3 weeks. However, word has been trickling in from our fantastic references that they have been receiving the letters from the Society. And they have a deadline, apparently, to write a letter for us and have it back to the Society. In addition to that, we have received our second packet from them, with MORE questions to answer ("were you able to confide in your mom and dad?" "tell us specific amounts and frequency of how much alcohol you drink", etc) and instructions on how to get fingerprinted.

Wee-haw, here we go! :)

getting organized

We got to spend a weekend at home for once. It seems like we haven't been home for a weekend in a very, very long time. And because of that, our house is a disaster. A huge disaster. And sometime in the future, we are going to have a home study done, so we need to get organized. Fast.

So today was it.

We managed to get a lot done!! We got into the middle bedroom, where we keep all the baby stuff and other things that kind of get thrown in there. It is now all set up. We even set up the crib, finding out that we are missing a couple of the bolts. Hopefully we can order new hardware for it! I'm glad we discovered that now, rather than later when we actually need the crib!

While we were at it, we rearranged the living room. That's the best way to clean because it forces us to move the furniture. Gross! And since we were moving around furniture, we decided to make more space upstairs and move the piano downstairs. Josh had a couple students and one of our friends come over and help him get it down there.

That's the exciting life we had today- but it was so nice to be able to stay home for once!

a fish funeral

I had my very first fish funeral tonight. We came home yesterday to find Fishio was no longer swimming. I didn't know what to tell Brecken, so we waited until this afternoon after school to tell him. My poor baby cried. Hard. He's so broken hearted, it made me cry right along with him. He wanted to bury Fishio in the back yard under the plants, so after Josh came home from practice, we did that. Brecken wondered if we could get Fishio back after he felt better and we wiped the dirt off him from being buried. :( The poor kid got teary-eyed every time he thought of Fishio tonight. Poor baby. :(

grandma peewee

Edna “Peewee” Sandlian
Modified: Friday, Nov 12th, 2010

Edna Sandlian

July 8, 1933 – November 9, 2010

Funeral services for Edna “Peewee” Sandlian, 77, will be held at 1 p.m. Friday, Nov. 12, 2010, at the First Wyoming United Presbyterian Church with the Rev. Steven Seng officiating. Burial will follow in the Valley View Cemetery. Edna died Nov. 9, 2010, at Community Hospital in Torrington. Memorials may be made to the Special Touch Program at Community Hospital, the American Cancer Society, or the donor’s choice. Visitation will be Thursday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the funeral home and the casket will be open at the church prior to the service. Arrangements are under the direction of the Colyer Funeral Home and friends may send condolences to the family at www.colyerfuneralhome.com.

Edna was born July 8, 1933, at the family home northwest of Yoder, the daughter of Henry and Ella (Prentice) Garrelts. She grew up and received her education in Yoder graduating in 1951. She married Dale Sandlian on July 20, 1952. They farmed near Yoder for a short time before moving to Torrington. She drove school bus and enjoyed driving the sports trips. She started delivering rural mail part and then went to full-time in the mid 1980s. She retired from there.

Edna enjoyed bowling, playing bridge, golfing, and traveling the world with friends. She was a member of the Torrington Country Club, the Wyoming Rural Carriers Association, and the South Goshen Presbyterian Church.

Edna will be dearly missed by Dwayne and Jacquie Sandlian of Torrington, and their family; children, Summer and Eric, Beki and Josh, Daniel and Tiffany, Jessica and Mike, John, Tessa, Steffie, and Beth; grandchildren, Natalie, Anna, Molli, Emma, Caylie, and Caleb; Craig and Lennie Sandlian of Lingle and their family; children Joshua and Kara, Joel and Annie, and Jeffrey and Beth; grandchildren Karlee, Trevor, Hailey, Brecken and Bryell; Bryan and Anne Sandlian of Cheyenne and their family; children Jessica and Mike, and Mark; grandchildren Brayden and Lyla; brother Alvin “Sonny” Garrelts of Yoder; sister Anna Mae McElheny of Torrington; niece, nephews, and many close friends.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; two brothers; one sister; and one great-grandchild Kaylin Sandlian.

chicago

We made the fastest trip ever to Chicago this weekend for my grandma's funeral. It was a really great weekend, even though we were only there for one full day! EVERYONE from my family was able to make it, which I find amazing- we are spread out from FL to WA, to NY to CA, to WY, MN, and IL... and we haven't all been together in years. YEARS. It was so great to see all my family, even if the head lady wasn't there. :(

All of my grandma's great grandchildren together for the first time:
Myself with all my cousins- I think the last time we were together was when I turned 18:

Me and my family. :)

Josh, B, and I:

The whole family:

here we go!

Here it is- our GOOD news. The past month has been filled with nothing but horrible news, it seems, so I'm excited to say that today I have great news.

We're going to adopt!

We got the application packet a few weeks ago. We finally got all the information gathered and our autobiographies written and reference list put together, and pictures ordered and marriage license photocopied, and got it all ready to mail in today, and I did. And as I left the post office, I was a litte bit giddy- that must mean it's the right thing to be doing right now! And when I got back from the post office, I emailed an adoptive mother who has graciously opened her email inbox to us, to let her know it was done. And she wrote back,

"I know what you mean...the giddiness of "expecting" is pure Heaven!"



and I realized that's what it is- we're expecting.



Hip, Hip, Hooray!

trick-or-treat

He wore the costume! (most of it, anyway. and it had to be over his regular clothes, but I'll take it!!)

At my school's Halloween Carnival:
Carving pumpkins:

He drew the nose himself. :)

iep

Had a meeting at preschool on Tuesday afternoon to put Brecken on an IEP. He'll be on it for two things- speech (to fix his K's, hard C's, and G's- letters that use the back of the tongue) and for a sensory processing disorder. It was a super intereting meeting, an hour and a half long (and B did great playing the whole time!) and soooo many things are falling into place and making sense now! (like how he hates socks, hated footed pj's, the pickiness in clothing, etc.)

Basically, he has the texture sensory issue I had already suspected, but he also has an auditory processing disorder. We didn't see that at home because we don't have a lot of chaos and noise going on. But they are noticing at school that when things get crazy, as preschool tends to do, he shuts down and won't do anything. If anything new happens, he shuts down because it's not in his routine. The OT had a heck of a time getting him tested for motor skills because she had to pull him outside and he wouldn't do anything because that's not what was "supposed" to happen. They said he has a hard time getting his work done because he's always looking around at what's happening in the classroom. They were quick to assure us he wasn't doing it to be naughty (and it's NOT ADD), it's just him self-preserving and being extremely guarded- if he knows what's going on, he won't be surprised- that's why he is making sure everything is "ok" while he's supposed to be working. He is always observing to make sure things will be alright and he won't be surprised.

I asked him last night if he likes it when it's noisy in his class and he said, "No. I can't think!!"

They also said that if it gets too crazy at recess, he leaves the kids and plays with the teachers, because he knows the teachers are safe and there won't be noise and anything unexpected. He just gets very overwhelmed with noise and chaos because his body can't process it right. He also has trouble doing anything that might be uncomfortable to him- like new activities, etc. One day they did an experiment with the class on tastes- salty, sour, sweet, etc. He wouldn't let them put anything on his plate because he was afraid of what it was!

So the OT (who is incredible) is going to do some pull-out work with him on how to deal with new situations, how to deal with noise, things he might think are scary, teaching him how to judge if things are safe, ans working on textures. The speech pathologist is going to work with him on letters. Each of those things will happen twice a week.

It really is making sense though. Since the people that moved in across the street have been there, he refuses to be in his room by himself. That's around the time he said he heard something bad outside. They have loud trucks and loud parties, so we think he heard one of those and his brain then told him it's unsafe. He will literally poop in his pull-up at night, from crying so hard when we try to make him sleep in there. It breaks my heart, and he's not doing it on purpose since he doesn't have a clue it happened. So now we know why- he knows mom an dad's bedroom is safe since we are there, and he thinks his isn't.

And why he won't try new food- he's afraid to try new things.

And why when we go to someone else's house, it takes him a long time to warm up- they said it's him making sure it's safe first.

And why he won't wear socks, or anything that e hasn't tried on and has deemed comfortable first.

It's fascinating to me!! Maybe if the OT can get some good results, B will be willing to go into his room. And he'll branch out on food, even though I think he'll always be a small eater. And hopefully he can deal with noises better! (Poor kid, the teachers said sometimes he stops and covers his ears and cries for his mom. :( )

They ALSO said, which is even more fascinating to me, that there have been studies recently linking kids that have sensory disorders to being in the NICU when they were born! The special ed director for the preschool has a grandson that was born at 30 weeks and was in the NICU for a long time, and his auditory sensory disorder has been linked to his NICU stay. So interesting!

They did say he LOVES shaving cream day where they get to play with the shaving cream on the tables. He loves that at home, too. :) And his teacher from last year that still works with him this year said he is the most kind and caring kid she has had, and is one of her favorite kids she's taught. That made my heart swell a little bit. (OK, a lot. :) )

So there you go- I'll keep you updated as things happen!!

internet

I have a whole lot to say, but this weekend our internet went down and we just TODAY got it fixed! We had to get a new modem from the internet company. And with super hectic schedules all around this week, we were just finally able to meet up with him today. *sigh*. The good news is, our internet works again. The bad news is, my email won't work and emails are being bounced back to their senders. I sat on hold for 10 minutes tonight with the company (who knew they'd be so busy at 9 at night?!) and finally gave up. I'll try again tomorrow.

Anyway, lots of news to share regarding a meeting we had with Brecken's preschool last night, but since it's late at night and I 1)forget things at night and 2)type all sorts of typos at night, I'll leave that post for tomorrow. :)

Until then...