Angel/Ana Update

Here is an update from Angel/Ana's Mom

Ana is doing very well---can't believe that soon we will have had her for a year. We are planning her 3rd birthday party for next weekend. The big news is that Ana started pre-school a couple of weeks ago. It is an excellent public pre-school and Ana has an IEP (Individual Education Plan) for her speech delay. She attends school Mon-Thur from 9-12 and she works one on one with a speech therapist once a week. There are fourteen kids in her class. Half have IEPs and half do not. It's a very good mix of kids and the teachers are practically famous around here for their teaching skills and dedication. We are noticing improvements in her speech every day and she really loves to go to school. They have a valet drop off system where we pull up to the front door and a teacher gets her out of the car and takes her inside. This is to minimize accidents in the very busy parking lot and for security. The first day nearly did me in. Ana screamed and cried and the teacher had to practically pull her out of the car. I cried all the way to Sophie's school and when I got home I called the school and the teacher got on the phone and said that she calmed right down and was fine. The next day and every day since she can't wait to go in and always gives Sophie and I a kiss before she gets out of the car. The other big news started when we had to have a dentist fill out a check-up form for her to start school. Ana absolutely freaked out in the dentist's chair and it took three of us to get her mouth open so that the dentist could get a look. It was awful, but the staff was really kind and patient. Turns out, one of Ana's molars is decayed and so they sent us to a pediatric dentist. Well, the same thing happened only worse and all he was doing was looking at her teeth. He says that the decay has nothing to do with dental hygiene---just a malformed tooth---kind of a little birth defect. The only way we are going to get this tooth taken care of it to take her to Children's Hospital where they will put her under general anethesia. I'm trying to figure out how to get my insurance to pay for it---just the anesthesiologist is about four thousand dollars, if you can believe that. The last big news is that we had our court date with our county's family probate court. This was part of the process to finalize Sophie and Ana's adoption in the state of Ohio. This way they can get Ohio birth certificates. This is the very last thing we need to do with the adoption stuff. So, that's about all---we are looking forward to Halloween and Trick or Treat. I'll send you pictures of Ana in her costume. I know she'll go nuts over the candy---One sure way to get her attention is to yell "Ana---Snack" and she drops what she is doing and comes running. She gets prettier every day and people stop us all the time to tell us how beautiful she is. She is so fun and loving and very very determined to do things herself! I've attached a couple of new photos. All our love to our Starfish friends, Jennifer

Life, Love and Laughter,
Amanda

Starfish Foster Home

New Website: www.thestarfishfosterhome.org
http://chinesestarfish.blogspot.com
chinese.starfishthrower@gmail.com
Cell: 1348.812.4847