Friday, June 2, 2023

Krassimir's Graduation

 Guess who got to have a small private graduation ceremony this afternoon?

We decided that he wasn't really going to be into the whole big deal at the civic center downtown with 300 other kids, so his teacher was able to coordinate a time that almost all of us could come and Dr. J, the principal, was able to come and do a mini commencement ceremony just for Krassi. I wish I'd thought to take a video, but it's probably good I didn't because I was crying through the whole thing. :) It was appropriately short for a commencement speech, and yet still beautifully done, and being a class of one, it was tailored specifically for Krassimir.

Notice the triangle (his favorite shape - it's something he keeps in his classroom that they made out of cardboard boxes) and the bracelet (given by the principal, knowing that they're also a favorite of Krassi's) are both on the floor. The diploma followed soon after. :) Krassi does NOT like wearing his graduation gown! With that, here's a nice photo that's actually kind of funny when you look closer...


This was taken just before the ceremony as we (me, Matt, and the kids) were all walking in. There are three or four people in front of his jumping around trying to get him to smile, and you'll notice someone sitting behind him with a death grip on his arms so he doesn't rip off the hat and gown!! :)

We got a decent family photo, too. Bobbi was at work (she's doing 20 hours a week now at her Food Product Demonstrator job, and has customers who come in and complain if she's not there!) but all the rest of us were able to be there - even Owen, who's working a full 40 hours a week as production manager for a roofing company, but has some flexibility in his schedule, so did his running near our house (we live next to the school) at the right time to coordinate with Krassi's ceremony, and just clocked out long enough to join us. Owen's got a different solution for the hat - one that Krassi's much happier about! :)

Krassimir's journey through school was a very custom journey, not just because he had an IEP (individual education program), but because when he first came home as a nine-year-old, he'd NEVER been to school, and when they wanted to start him in 4th grade, we pushed to have him join the kindergarten class instead - Reuben was in the special ed kindergarten class, and it was very important to us that Krassimir still be with someone from his family even when he was at school, and the people who worked with us on his intake respected that. Krassi spent kindergarten and 1st grade in Reuben's class, then moved up to 4th grade all at the elementary school. He then did 7th and 8th at the middle school, followed by 4 years with his incredible teacher, Ms G, at the high school.

This fall he will be part of a special program for severely handicapped young adults at a local community college. He can attend there for two years, and during that time they'll be working with him on functional skills (like developing self-feeding habits - he's working on hand over hand bringing his spoon to his mouth with his private therapist, and occasionally at home - they'll work on it every day and take however long he needs at each meal to give him the chance to work on that skill!) We'll also be looking into what options he has for occupying his days in a meaningful way after these next two years are up. As happy as he is to tool around at home, he also really enjoys getting out and seeing different people and doing different things. 

We're so proud of our second oldest and all of the things he learned and accomplished through his years at school!




Tuesday, December 27, 2022

Merry Christmas!! (Updated with photos of the cat!)


 

It's kind of a cop out for a blog, but for those of you who are still interested in keeping up with us, here's a link to our Christmas letter, which has a little paragraph for each of the kids!

 ***Someone requested photos of Goldberry Rose. She's grown a lot since these photos were taken, but it gives you an idea, and they're SO CUTE!!



Saturday, July 30, 2022

Krassi's rings, part 4

 Krassi's still going strong with his things in rings theme! Here are a sampling of  what he's been up to since the last post I did on the topic.











Monday, July 25, 2022

A bit on Bobbi

 I'm grateful to all of you who have asked me to post. I've wanted to, but with the myriad of things waiting for my time, not everything gets done. :) But, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, right? And there's been enough of you "squeaking" to make this worth my time!

So, today is a little tidbit on Bobbi, who graduated from "Branch Out," which is our school district's transitional program for young adults with disabilities. She had quite an interesting tenure there, with all of the COVID lock downs and distance learning impacting much of her time there, but we made it through, and she had some beneficial experiences through her years there. She now has officially earned her high school diploma, and they had a nice, small graduation ceremony in the spring.

With Rose and one of her favorite paras.

Each student had a little framed description of themselves that they put together with their teacher for the back table to display next to their photo.We thought Bobbi's was pretty representative of who she is!


(She's making decent progress on her dreams, since Dad did get her ceiling fan installed soon after graduation! Maybe not the biggest of dreams, but achieved nonetheless...and much appreciated in our un-air-conditioned house!)

Moving forward from here, she's hoping to find another part-time job. She's still going strong at Kwik Trip as a Food Product Demonstrator, getting close to her two-year anniversary there, and although the 9.5 hours a week that she works can sometimes drag along for her, she is a faithful, committed employee, and is well appreciated on the job. She (and we!) know that she doesn't do well with too little to do, so we're hoping that a lead her job coach has on a job at Goodwill will turn into something real. I'll (hopefully!!) keep you posted on what comes of that. Ideally she'd be able to put in two 4-hour shifts or something like that, which would give her something productive to do almost every day.

Wednesday, June 15, 2022

18 years old

 First of all, thank you to those of you readers who keep gentling prompting me to post something! This isn't much, but hopefully enough to show that we're still alive around here. :)

Anyway, today is a milestone day! Krassimir is...EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD today!!! I snapped a photo of him as he and I were waiting for his occupational therapist at the therapy center this morning.

Looking pretty good, huh? I'm so proud of how big and strong he has gotten. (Well, "big" is a relative term, as he still weighs just around 70 pounds as a bona fide adult...) But he is definitely so much stronger than he's ever been, and look at how he's just grinning right at me and the camera! That is a skill that, nearly nine years into this, is still emerging and developing.

I'm so dreadfully behind on keeping you readers anywhere near up to date on everyone, but hopefully this is better than nothing! And I'll share one more photo - kind of fuzzy, but it captures a moment from after supper when Krassi was opening his presents from his siblings:

Lucky guy got not one, but TWO cools rolls of duct tape (his sisters know what he likes! See his still-favorite hobby if you click HERE...and HERE and HERE) and the littler girls made him the neat cardboard bracelets that you can see him wearing (by the yellow tape) and holding (under the striped bag.) He had a hard time leaving them behind when it was bed time, but when Dad reassured him they'd be waiting for him in the morning, he was able to take them off and set them down. That's my boy. :)

He is such a confident, contented go-getter. His world may be small and severely limited, but he's the king of his world, and he's good with it, and that's something that all of us are better off being able to do!

Monday, September 27, 2021

Mira got a hair cut

 Mira got her hair cut today. We haven't really CUT cut it since she came home, and it's so long and pretty...and more than she really needs right now! Even though we've kept the bottom third of it trimmed right up to her head for the last few months, she's got enough volume that there was more than enough to donate.


So this morning, we did it! Look in the mirror on these two to see the before, then the pony-tailed prep...


And the final result is VERY cute.

And look what we get to send off to share with a child who's lost their hair!


I think it's pretty neat that Mira, who has so little ability to actively contribute to the world around her, is able to share something really beautiful that she made.

I've spent a lot of today thinking about Toni, the adoption lawyer on the Bulgarian side that we worked with on all three of our adoptions. She is no longer living, so we can't share this with her, but I'm certain that she would have been more than pleased to know that Mira's beautiful hair is going to improve the life of another child! As Toni and I spoke on the phone one night during our week in Sofia waiting to get visa to bring the girls home, she told me that while with most of the children she helps place, she's excited to hear about all of the new milestones they'll reach and the accomplishments they'll have, but with Mira, her single request was that we make her hair pretty - to symbolically show the world that this little child is worth caring for! Well, that girl definitely has pretty hair, and now it's not only pretty for her, but it's going to be pretty for another little girl who is going through a tough time!