Isn't she just beautiful?!
Along with the pictures, we received a very thorough developmental evaluation! The information confirmed our suspicions that Amelia is most likely left alone in her crib. She is 16 months old and is not yet able to sit on her own and she doesn't know how to hold/play with toys. It says that any tactile stimulation makes her cry which means that she probably isn't ever held :(. She also has trouble tracking objects with her eyes, she doesn't make any sounds (talking/babbling), and she doesn't turn her head toward sounds which makes them think that she doesn't hear well. We won't know what any of this truly means until we are home and able to get her medical attention but it definitely makes us want to hurry through this process so that she can have the love and care that she so desperately needs!
Additionally, we requested any photos that they had of her (the ones in her file are a year old) four weeks ago and all of the pictures that they sent on Friday were taken within a 16 minute time span. It seems unusual that the only pictures they would have over the last year were staged because we asked for pictures. Of course we are so very thankful for the pictures, they are all that we have! It just makes us sad that she doesn't have more and it further makes us wonder about her level of care.
Oh what a day it will be when we finally get to hold her in our arms!!!!! <3
ADOPTION UPDATE:
Several of you have asked us about the name "Mimi" and where it came from. Reece's Rainbow is a non-profit organization that lists children with Down syndrome and other special needs who are available for adoption and also helps get them home! In order to maintain the privacy of the children who are listed, since it is a public site, they change the names of all of the listed children. Mimi is the name that was made up for Amelia just for their site. Her name IS Amelia and if we give her a nickname, it will most likely be Mia (Mee-uh), not Mimi ;). BUT if you mail a check to Reece's Rainbow, please do list that it is for "Mimi / The Howells" since that is what our account with them is under.
So here is where we are at with all of the paperwork / fundraising....
Our dossier is almost complete! We are literally just waiting on one document to come back from Oregon (Justin was born there) and we will be ready to send it. We have to mail a $10,000 check to our agency in order for them to submit our dossier to Poland so we hope to have that amount very soon so that we don't fall behind on getting that approved. After it is sent, it has to be translated and approved but we hear that it's a pretty quick process in Poland. Our USCIS (US Immigration) application was received on April 8th which puts as at about May 28th to receive that approval. After that is done, we will be ready to travel as long as we have all of our money in order!! Our goal is to be fully-funded by that date (5/28) so that when we receive our travel date, we will be ready to go and can just focus on preparing to travel. At this point, we could travel as early as the beginning of June!
The estimated total of are expenses is $35,126.88. The total of what we have both already paid ourselves and what we have raised so far is $12,794.70, meaning that we have $22,332.18 left to raise (in just 6 weeks). It sounds like such a big number but knowing that we have already paid/raised 1/3 of it in just the last month is HUGE!!! It is such a testament to both the power and provision of God and to our generous friends! We do hope to have about $3,000 more as soon as possible in order to submit our dossier (a delay in submitting our dossier could set us further behind) and I've been working on even more fundraising projects to hopefully get a quicker return to help us meet that goal. I am planning to make Amelia (and her siblings) a book with the pictures and stories of all of those who helped to bring her home and I'm planning to make some artwork with the names to hang on the wall as well, we have such wonderful stories of generosity to share with them!! THANK YOU for all that you have done in sharing our story, telling your friends and family about our fundraisers, and for helping us bring Amelia home <3.
Please keep sharing our links!:
Current Fundraisers: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.533890950083388.1073741831.465731646899319&type=1
FSP (tax-deductible donations): http://reecesrainbow.org/89467/sponsorhowell-3
No comments:
Post a Comment