What can you do?

You can pray! This little girl is in need of a family! Will you help pray her home? I requested a new prayer angel from Reeces Rainbow and specifically requested one from the girls' old orphange. I was matched with little Anne Marie. All of her info from RR is listed below. Will you please remember to pray for God's protection of her while she continues to wait? Will you pray that her family hears God's voice and follows the call? Will you pray that her adoption fund grows during the Christmas Angel Tree project so that her family has some assistance in overcoming the financial burden of adoption? Will you pray with me? If you can do more.. then please do so, but prayer is absolutely FREE and has the power to move mountains!

Anne Marie (20)

Girl, Born November 25, 2005

Oh someone, see past this little bald head! They shaved them for the summer months! Blonde hair with dark blue eyes, this muffin needs a mama of her own!

Miss Anne Marie does have a heart murmur that should be checked once home. But I can't wait to see her with her long blonde hair, and a sparkle in her beautiful blue eyes.

Contact Andrea directly for more information

I have $0 in my grant fund towards the cost of my adoption!

Welcome home!

Welcome home to the Enberg family!


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The latest from "Chaos Central"

We are getting settled into a "routine" of sorts. Those that know me and my family know that we are flying be the seat of our pants most of the times so I dare not call it a real "routine". The kids are getting much better at playing and have unfortunately picked up some bad habits/ideas from the others already. For example, climbing on/hanging off/ jumping on the bed. We all know this is a NO-NO. They are not allowed to play on the bed at all since it always seems to lead to injury or argument. Well... I found Sophia laying on the floor near the bed yesterday with an odd look on her face. She would never tell me if she was hurt, but did point to the bed and with a teary voice tried to say something. So, we can only assume that she was doing one of the above and fell off. At first I was not to concerned since she never would show me where it hurt (which she normally will) and looked more worried about being caught doing something she knew not to do. She continued to act moody... again not to alarming since she is the one that does the 'moods'. Then she kept wanting to lay down and sleep. Well... I'm really watching her now. Take temperature, 98.8. Since we have all been fighting off a cold and we have no history with how illness effects her, I started to watch her breathing in case Asthma issues. Looks fine. Ask again about being hurt. She now points to her head. I notice lips look a little pale. I start to worry. Still not sure we have an injury so I take her to PriMed. They want her to go to ER instead since they don't have CTScan. So we end up at ER. By the time we get seen, she is now registering a fever. All is well other than this cold/viral thing that has plagued us for 2 weeks. She just wasn't feeling good. They did agree that she had most likely fell and hit her head, but there was no problems from it. Better safe than sorry, but this just highlights the difficulty of parenting with NO communication!

We did hear the special needs preschool class is still set to start and at this time they are expecting it to open no later than January. We are definitely interested since we think they will benefit and the schedule is different than the other preschool so I will have Monday/Friday with Sophia and Anastasia and Tuesday/Thursday with Abby (& Romney when watching him). Wednesday would be for me! All of the kids would be at preschool so the 2 hours between last drop off and first pickup would be MINE! I think we need this, I think I need this. Abby has shown she needs some time with mom without the girls. She had a lot of mom time before the adoption and we haven't had much at all since coming home. Yesterday her preschool went on a field trip and we opted not to participate (schedule conflicts). So during the girls' therapy hour Abby and I had a date. A quick lunch at McDs and she was beaming! Dad had been TDY for a couple of days and got back while we were at lunch so he met us there. She was very pleased to have both of us to herself for that little time. Looking forward to the possibility of having more individual time with all of them. I'm home with them most of the time, but end up spending most of it containing the chaos!

I feel like I should introduce myself!

I will apologize instead. I'm sorry for the pauses between post and I feel guilty when I see people have checked in only to find no updates! I just don't know how to do any better for now though! Time just gets away from me (can you imagine that!).

The girls had their OT and Anastasia's PT this week for the month. They will then work on those suggested items for the rest of the month. The special education teacher will reinforce the goals in her sessions, but for the most part... it is up to us. Our Buddy Walk was Saturday! Turned out great! They were forcasting rain for the day, but skies were clear for our walk. Everyone had a great day and a huge turn out! Ok... another apology. I forgot my camera! I'm dependent on our team members that did have a camera with them and hoping they will remember to email me the photos!!!! Hopefully I can post a photo at some point.

We took Sophia and Anastasia for their appointment Monday with the Orthopedic Specialist. Good News! The Xrays showed no abnormalities in bone structure. Both were given inserts for their shoes and both will go back in a year. Anastasia was the one that drew the most attention since her legs turn in so much in comparison. The doctor felt there was still time for this to correct itself. He feels that with the change in their daily nutrition and life opportunities things may very well make a change for the better.

Both girls are doing rather well. Sophia is imitating a lot of words already. Anastasia has started making more pre-speech sounds "B", "M", "N", "P". Yes... these are things that normally would have come a long time ago, but she came home with one spoken work... "Dah". Both are picking up signs pretty quickly from the Signing Time DVDs. Anastasia is using quite a few in daily communication already. Sophia does not rely on them as much and attempts oral communication. We are prompting her to do sign and oral communication since her attempts at speech are not always accurate. They are playing better and better each day. We have trouble with fighting, but the involved parties vary between the little ones. We still have some issues with manipulation, etc..., but that is to be expected. I look so forward to the day that some of these behaviors fall away for good (or at least to the normal level for a child their age). I spend many days avoiding battles with Sophia.... planned battles that seem to have no point other than to drive me insane (and attention seeking, of course). Anastasia has her moments of defiance as well, but they seem to be fewer and shorter lived (thank goodness!). We have learned all about TimeOut and that we have to stay there. I'm pretty sure this was a skill they had at the orphanage since we witnessed a child in what appeared to be TimeOut, but without the little dressing area of the group and the bench they would sit on.... things didn't go so smooth to start! They absolutely love to go places. They get so excited when it is time to put on their shoes and go! Anastasia brings me my shoes all through the day and signs 'shoes'. She wants to go, go, go! Another favorite time is bath time. After supper we normally have snack, then start the potty turns and bath turns. They get all giggley and start signing 'bath'. They have settled down a good bit though.... they used to sound like wild animals in the bath they would carryon so much! :) They like to feel pretty like any other little girl and they just beam when they have been cleaned and dressed. Doesn't take much to make them feel like little princesses! :)

Two post in a day!!!

Shocked? No more than me! I am taking a break from life while the kids nap and getting caught up on the blog buttons. Feel honored? No? Well... you don't fully understand what my day has been like! I needed this nap time! :) Anyway... I've added a couple of buttons. The RR 2010 Redemption Calendar is available for download. Wonderful calendar as it celebrates some of the children from RR who have come home! (hint, hint... check out December). Also, the RR Christmas Angel Tree Project will be kicking off soon! Be sure to check out the RR site to find your Christmas Angel! Please pray for this project's success as this is the main fundraiser for these children's individual adoption accounts and prayers that many angels will find their forever families through this campaign. You may not know this, but we found our two angels through the 2008 Christmas Angel Tree!

I need to update some celebrations! Congrats to the following families that have brought their children home!

The Baker family


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The Lisciandro family



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Hanging in there...

Having one of those weeks. The kids have made a secret pact, I'm sure. They are tag teaming me and wearing me down. They have worked out a schedule or something. I haven't figured out the pattern yet or the mastermind behind this evil plan, but they are definitely up to something. All day, every day someone is pushing my buttons. When I finally get one unruly child under 'control' (yeah, right!) another child takes over doing things they know darn well they should not be doing. It is only 9:30 in the morning and we have already had 12+ hitting each other, my basket of toys is growing fast (the toys that become mine because the kids fight over instead of sharing), we have been separated, done time outs... they continue. We are home today. I had toyed with the idea of going out for a bit, but their behavior has nixed that thought! My laptop is still dead and I finally have told the manufactured I'm done with the over the phone attempts to repair so they are sending a box to mail it in. Hopefully, I'll be back up to speed in a few weeks. Luckily Abby hasn't tried to repair it. We caught her last night 'fixing' her computer. She had taken some of the keys off and Tim asked her why she had broken it. She said she was fixing it, "they were in the wrong order... B is supposed to be by A". This would be an example of someone being "too smart for their own good!"

This week we have managed to get Anastasia's cavities filled, therapy for both Sophia and Anastasia, normal school/preschool drop off/pick up, and squeezed in haircuts for Shelby, Sophia and Anastasia. We had Anastasia's new lense put in her glasses and both girls' glasses adjusted again. Miracle League game tonight, Buddy Walk is Saturday. We have an appointment Monday at Children's for Sophia and Anastasia to see an Orthopedic specialist. Hoping to see if there is an issue with Anastasia's legs and see if either/both need any braces or inserts to help them with stability. We will have covered all of the medical concerns at that point and have began all of their therapies. We still have an upcoming visit with the Down Syndrome Clinic, but that is serving as a 'second opinion' visit more than anything else. They will have their hearing tested, but everything else will re-checks.

My dad asked how things were going the other day. I replied, "Every girl dreams of being a princess, but I never dreamed of Cinderella's early years!" Looking forward to catching my breath... hopefully soon! :)

Week in review...

Wrapping up another busy week... Shelby's school schedule, Abby and Romney's preschool schedule, follow up eye exams for Sophia and Anastasia, doctor appt for Shelby, therapy schedule has began for Sophia and Anastasia, and a last minute trip in for everyone to get their annual flu shots. The girls continue to do better and better each week. We are still working on introducing sign language and they are doing rather well. Anastasia has a harder time with the signs since her fine/gross motor skills are not very good, but she is comprehending very well. They get excited watching the Signing Time videos. That is the only tv they watch so far. Playing is getting better and better. Sophia is doing much better with going outside and her little fits/pouts are fewer and fewer. We still have jealousy and some bullying towards Anastasia, but doing better. Anastasia seems to be embracing her new life. She has some crying episodes, but they are more typical behaviors... someone snatched something, she didn't get her way, she thought she was in trouble, she was in trouble, etc... The one thing we are starting to work on with her is being separated from Sophia. We noticed that when Sophia was called away Anastasia would try to follow or she would cry to be left behind. Even if the other kids were all there with her. We do not want her to become 'dependent' on Sophia's presence. Sophia has a tendency to follow Anastasia at times as well, but for different reasons... she is making sure Anastasia is not getting something she wants! Considering they have had a family for less than 2 months... we think they are doing wonderful! Our Buddy Walk is next Saturday... looking forward to celebrating with all three of our buddies this year! :)