One more appointment down, three more to go this week

I took all three girls to Child Find today, I honestly do not have a babysitter for my children, no family or friends to watch them. My friends all have FT jobs, at least those who would watch them, so do my sons. So we always go as a huge group. We sure get a lot of attention when we go places.

Inevitably I am asked if the girls are my grandchildren, makes me feel like I am 60, actually, it makes me feel really bad, but that is vanity speaking, isn't it? I always tell them the girls are my daughters, then they ask if they are adopted, I say yes, two of them are, the oldest is homegrown. I like the looks on their faces, shame on them for assuming huh? LOL What I do not like is people telling me they admire me or that I am special because we adopted the little gals. I don't know why it makes me uncomfortable, but it does. It bothers Tom too, we did not adopt our girls for attention or to be admired for it, we wanted two more children with Down syndrome like our Meghan, I don't think anyone understands how incredibly blessed we feel to have them in our lives. Sometimes I can't believe they are here, it is such an amazing gift to be allowed to adopt.

The ladies at Child Find are very sweet, funny there is not one man working there. Kara went to Child Find in April and again in June, they were all amazed at how much she has grown, we are too, Kara is twice the size she was a year ago. They thought Amanda was just precious, and of course we do too. Meghan went through the office closing doors...I am telling you, this week is not a good one for her. I don't know why, but she is being a peel.

Amanda will go back the end of November for her evaluation, I suppose we just have to accept that waiting for all the services she desperately needs is on someone else's timeline and not hers. (sigh) Can I say, I am so very weary of doctors appointments, and yes, we knew having three with Ds would mean multiple trips to various specialists, but I want one week where no one is sick and we do not have to go to any doctors offices for any reason.

This week we went to the audiologists office, we were there for 2 1/2 hours, today we went to Child Find, tomorrow morning Kara and Amanda see the pediatrician to get their ears checked, and Meghan has speech therapy in the afternoon. Friday Meghan has her swim lesson. Sunday we are looking forward to, it is our Buddy Walk!! We get to take our two new daughters and they finally get to meet so many of our friends.

We got great news about our stroller, SANDS (Southern Arizona Network for Down Syndrome) is purchasing the stroller for us as part of their Give it Back program. It is such an amazing gift for us, and we know that Lori will need her stroller soon for her two new children. Lori lent us her double stroller a couple of months ago and with all the appointments I have gone to alone, it has been a Godsend. Lori, thank you so much! Sheila told me about this company, she will need a stroller for her three too.

I emailed Phil at Adventure Buggy Company after looking at all the other strollers available for our kids, if they held their combined weight, the wheels fell off, or they got stuck while going through rocky or sandy places. I have spent two months reading the descriptions and comments about pretty much every stroller made in America, and frankly I was not impressed with those that we could afford with the little bit of money we managed to raise to purchase one ourselves.

A heartfelt thank you to SANDS for helping us get our stroller. We are thinking of getting the toddler seat later on for Amanda, and letting Meghan and Kara sit in the main buggy, each child can weigh up to 55 pounds, and Meghan is still under 45 pounds.