As American as...blueberry...pie

Or, "The [reverse] A B Cs of our week."

C is for Cherry Pie, (and Blueberry Pie).

We have Bogomila signed up with the 4-H club that some of the other kids have been part of for the last few years, and on Monday I took two of our girls and two friends to the county extension office to make pies that will be frozen, and then baked to sell at the county fair to raise money for 4-H. Kind of last minute I asked Bobbi if she wanted to come along, too, figuring she wouldn't want to because it involves going out and being with people who speak English (still very much something she doesn't enjoy), but thankfully the draw of spending the morning with Mom baking was enough to encourage her to say yes!

Everyone was paired up for the baking; Bobbi and I, Rinnah and friend Nolynn (in the pink and blue at our table), and Leah and Hope (at the table behind us just to the left of Nolynn's blue shoulder). All together, the six of us assembled eleven pies from scratch! (Minus the filling, which came in big 3 gallon buckets!)

B is for Botox.

On Wednesday Bobbi had her first Botox injections. Botox works to reduce high tone by temporarily (2-4 months) killing some of the nerve endings that are over-firing because of her cerebral palsy. The effect of the injections takes about a week to be felt, and reaches its full potential a few weeks after that. Her injections were in her hamstrings, in the hopes that she will be able to both get some better stretch out of those muscles, thus allowing her to stand straighter and taller (and also helping her feet to hit the floor at a better angle to make balance better), and also to give the counter muscles a chance to develop some of their own strength, helping to improve things for her in the long run as well. One nice thing about Botox is its temporary nature. If we like the results, we can repeat it in 3-4 months; if we don't, we can try something different next time.

Climbing out of the car (which she does 95% independently these days!) upon arrival. She brought her music as a very practical coping mechanism.

SIXTEEN pokes later (which she doesn't remember thanks to the amnesiac effect of nitrous oxide) she's all set!

Feeling *very* relaxed afterwards, and kind of excited, too, I think, about the potential benefits!

And, last, but certainly not least...

A is for American citizen!

That's right! We finally got the letter directing us to appear downtown Minneapolis at 12:06pm (so we could wait for an hour and a half in the waiting room) for Bogomila's appointment to sign some papers and swear her oath of alliegiance to the United States so she can take home her Certificate of Citizenship! Her citizenship is effective the date of her arrival in the US per the Hague Adoption Convention's statutes, but it hasn't been real until today. Now she's legal!!!

We were grateful to the Bulgarian translator who's been helping us with all of her medical appointments for coming along with us. Apparently USCIS won't provide a translator for you, but this dear lady agreed to come on her own time (she had the afternoon open, so kept it open for us), and it was nice to have her be able to translate the oath for Bogomila and to help her read through some of the other documents she had to sign.

Our translator also helped Bogomila hold up her right hand for the oath, since that arm is not as cooperative as the left!

And here she is!!! Our 100% official American daughter!