Adoption

You might notice that the "Blogs I Read" are adoption blogs.

I have known since I was a teenager that I wanted to adopt some day. After I had my son Sam, I was so madly in love with him, my desire to adopt grew stronger. I couldn't stop thinking about how all children should have a parent who loves them this much. My niece was adopted from China and the man who helped facilitate her adoption went to work for Gladney so my brother-in-law told me to check out that agency. I researched the agency was drawn to their Ethiopia program. My husband and I agreed it was something we would pursue when we had the money. Through the Gladney site, I found some fantastic blogs.

Then Sam developed Autism and everything changed. He requires almost all of our energy and money and we are just hoping we can do enough to give him the best chance possible at a normal life. We have a six month old daughter who is so far very typical so we are crossing our fingers. . .

So adoption is on hold, probably for quite a while.

BUT I just found a great way to do something for an Ethiopian orphan. We joined an online community being coordinated here - www.bottomlysandethiopia.blogspot.com
As an online community we are sponsoring an orphanage - Kebebtsehay Children's Home

The group setting up the sponsorship is Children's Hope Chest - www.hopechest.org

I am thrilled to be able to participate.

A New School Year/ GFCF diet

School is in full swing now for Sam and for me. I have a great groups of juniors this year and Sam is very happy to be back at his pre-school program.

We had a TERRIBLE summer. Sam seemed to develop some behavior problems when he first started school - throwing, yelling, jumping on furniture - but when school ended for the summer, he just went crazy. He was constantly wired and trying to take care of him and the newborn baby left me in tears most days. I just couldn't see any hope. Sam was so out of control I couldn't take him to other people's homes. In addition, Sam stopped sleeping properly. There was one night towards the end of the summer when he bounced on his bed and screamed (for fun) pretty much ALL night. His receptive language skills were so low that I couldn't tell him things like "it is time to sleep" or "stay quiet while the baby is sleeping".

I am SO relieved to be back in the swing of a school year. Sam does so much better when he has a structured day.

I also put Sam on the gluten free casein free diet. I resisted for so long because I thought it would be too hard and I wasn't convinced it could really make a difference. Why did I change my mind? I kept meeting people who said they felt it helped. I started noticing gluten free foods at the grocery store. I started slowly by getting him interested in Van's Waffles and substituting rice pasta for his regular stuff. ABout 3 weeks ago, I committed to it completely.

Do I see a difference? I think so. Sam has always had a crusty weepy rash behind his ears. I was comstantly treating it with creams. It has almost completely vanished. Was it a food reaction? Sam's spacial planning and climbing ability reall jumped about a week into the diet. Has the brain fog lifted? He is also sleeping better but that was starting to improve the deeper into the school year