This is a video that Andrea Roberts, who owns Reece's Rainbow, put together to show at the cruise she is taking with hundreds of other families blessed by Down Syndrome. She will be showing it, I assume, in one of the "auditoriums". If you watch closely, you'll see a picture of Mark and Erik that she put in there! (We found our precious Erik at Reece's Rainbow.)

--oh, and be sure and get your kleenexes before starting it.

Except that I'm now working 6 half-days a week, so really tomorrow is Friday!

We are having a blast with Erik. He is sooooo funny! He gets so excited about everything, and everything is so exciting! He gestures wildly and makes a million faces. The woman who runs Reece's Rainbow, where we found him, told us (long before we got him) that he "has personality coming out of his ears"! How she knew this I don't know, but she was RIGHT! He's so happy and fun!

This week has been busy for him: he went to get screened for services for the school system (in 6-8 weeks he'll receive formal evals, then 6-8 weeks after THAT, he'll get his IEP meeting). He also went to the dentist! He did NOT enjoy this visit but did well considering and his teeth are a brilliant white, now he had no cavities!! Parents, MINIMIZE the sugar you give your kids!! Erik did not have one session of teeth-brushing (nor did my other kids before they came home) but he (and the others) did not have one cavity!! Simply amazing!!! Now, we have to brush his teeth and that is a huge deal every night, but once it's over we simply sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and he's instantly happy and animated again. An interesting fact was that, because he doesn't chew his food, but simply mouths it and swallows (from always having pureed food), he had tartar on his molars on the "bumpy" surfaces! Kind of weird, huh? I never thought of that before!

He also saw the Ophthalmologist (on the same day, no less!). A much nicer experience, though he did hate having the drops in his eyes for the pupil dilation. He is quite nearsighted (no surprise) and needs glasses! So we will be ordering some, and want to use these guys for his frames. Trying to figure out how to get them ordered right now. I think he's going to be so cute with them on!

Today, he, Mark and I are going to my office as they are giving us a shower! Isn't that sweet? I've never had a shower for any of my kids, and I'm not real sure what to think! I brought Erik in once this week for a quick visit and he woo'ed them all and they are all in love. ;o) So we'll head out here shortly.

I guess that's my update! Sorry, no new pictures! Maybe this weekend. :o) It's Kennedy Space Center's free weekend for Brevard county residents and we may go up there with him (not that he'll get anything out of it, but he likes to "go").

Bye!!

Greetings from Kramatorsk!!! WE MADE IT!!! We actually had 3 very smooth flights (BIG HINT: If you are planning on traveling a long distance by plane and are overweight (especially if BOTH of you are overweight) ... LOSE WEIGHT! Mark's tailbone and my hips will never be the same, especially after the long flight from Philly to Frankfurt! Those seats are NOT designed for "big boys and girls"!! LOL But our flights were on time, good connections, and Mark tolerated the flying pretty well. He hasn't flown in decades by choice, and he did great! He was adorable on the first flight, gripping my pinky finger for support, yet with his nose plastered against the window looking out at the clouds, all hyper from excitement and fear. He was so adorable!! By the third flight, he was a chilled as the rest of us.

We arrived in Kiev in the afternoon on Tuesday and were taken straight to our apartment, where, if I remember correctly, we stayed until the next morning. We were BEAT. At noon the next day, we had our SDA appt. and the lady who interviewed us was so nice!!!! It was not a tense meeting by any means! Very relaxing. We saw a picture of little Sergei (Simon) taken 2 years ago. Not a great picture (we have a lot that were better) but it is always fun to see a picture we've never seen before! We agreed that we wanted his referral and a few hours later we picked up the letter (whatever that was) and we were off to the train station! THAT FAST!! The bad part is that we didn't get to see any of our Reece's Rainbow friends like we were hoping to. UGH. Maybe a little too fast?? We arrived in Kramatorsk this morning (what day is this?? Thursday??) after a rather long night on the train. The train itself was fine (and the bathroom not THAT bad!!) but our systems are SO out of whack that it was hard to sleep. I didn't dare take a sleeping pill that night but you bet your boots I will tonight!!

Whoops! Gotta go! Time to go to the orphanage for our second visit and our facilitator will be meeting us in a few minutes. Gotta get down there to meet her - more later!!!!!!