Please come join us over at our NEW blog...it's about time we realized we are now a family of 6!!!!

The Sanchez Six

Promise to have some fun updates this week!

Quick post to explain why we've been too busy to blog. We've been poolside almost every day this summer. Here is our bathing beauty. She loves the water and who would have known she had such BEAUTIFUL skin color. She doesn't burn...just turns a lovely shade of bronze even with gobs of sunscreen on!

Be a part of something BIG....be a part of HISTORY!

BRING KIRILL HOME!

Photo taken by my friend and photographer Michelle Marrone

Donate for a Chance to WIN AN iPAD

Grab This!

Please enter this drawing for a new iPad and help bring Sofia's newest little friend home! Lydiah is being adopted by a local family who just brought home John David from Ukraine last Fall. They fell in love with Lydiah while visiting JD at the orphanage and now they are going back to get her and bring her home. This family is AMAZING and deserves our support! PLUS...you have a great chance at winning this HOT new gadget! We LOVE our iPad and there are so many useful applications for adults, kids and even babies :)!
Love for Little Lydiah

Sofia turned 2 yesterday and we celebrated with a tea party for all her friends. Everyone was asked to come dressed in their party dresses and ties!

It was a beautiful celebration and we had so much fun. The pictures say it all. Enjoy!



























Happy Birthday Sofia! We love you and can't imagine life without our little girl.

Picture captured by the amazing Penny Sylvia for DSIA.

There is nothing sweeter than Sofia's face!

Quick update on our wonder girl! She is pulling up to stand on EVERYTHING and climbing onto things as well (as evidenced by her constant bumps and bruises). She is a COPY CAT...she will literally do whatever anyone else is doing. She is constantly using new signs and can very clearly say banana (nanana), mama, papa, nana, ball (baa), tickle (ticka) and many more words. She can blow into a recorder (brand new skill learned today!) and she drinks only from a straw now. She is cruising on furniture and in her crib and will push a shopping cart or walker toy and walk around. She has absolutely perfected her creep on hands and knees and is FAST. She dances and loves bathtime. She throws a ball and explores her whole house. She and Joaquin ADORE each other, give kisses, pats on the back and get into laughing matches in the car. Sofia's big brothers adore her and want her around them all the time, they fight over her often. She is very much in love with her mama, papa and nana. She is sassy and when she's done with something she is DONE. She has perfected her coy head tilt when she wants to be cute. She LOVES to eat and DO NOT get in her way. The only time she is truly angry is whenever food is taken away or not coming fast enough! She sleeps through the night and never makes a peep and likes to nap twice a day or one long nap but is totally flexible about this. She loves her bed and her room all to herself. All in all she is doing incredible and we continue to bond with her a little more every single day.

My friend and fellow blogger Bethany just wrote an amazing post on her blog "Our Perfectly Imperfect Life" about the rewards of special needs adoption. She speaks from her heart and really paints an accurate picture of the bonding process when adopting a child. Read it here.

Look who is taking some assisted steps! Sofia did this all on her own, without my prompting. I just turned around at our sweet friend Kassi's birthday party and there she was shopping with her cart crusing across the floor. Amazing!

Live Interview about Sofia & John David & Reece's Rainbow!

And what a year it has been!

Please consider visiting Kelle's blog at Enjoying the Small Things and see our little Miss Sofia and her brother Joaquin as one of the MANY beautiful faces of Down syndrome.

Let's start the new year giving back...and in return giving a better future for all children blessed with a little extra chromosome and those GORGEOUS almond eyes.

Our REAL LIVE angel under our Christmas tree! She was ALL smiles this Christmas...her FIRST Christmas with her forever family. We are so lucky to have her. She is PURE joy!

But so little time these days....I promise to do a proper update VERY soon.

So for now...here is our little sweetie! This symbolizes her new life. She's a kid in a candy store! Loving every moment of it.

Sofia's first Halloween was celebrated all day long with a baby Halloween party in the morning and hanging out with Nana and Grandpa Halloween night while her big brothers went trick or treating in the neighborhood!

Lots more pictures to come soon! There was a professional photographer (and dear friend) at our baby party so I'll be sure to share those when we get them. Can't wait!

Sofia was a super diva...complete with outfit changes! She was a bee and a ladybug...couldn't waste those adorable costumes.

For a post on our evening activities complete with pictures, go to Joaquin's blog here!

What to "bee"  for Halloween?????  Our "cute as a bug" girl has to make up for some lost time with Halloween costumes!


So...how does one pick?!? Maybe we need a POLL! Let us know your favorite!

My new friends Mark and Hansina are currently in Ukraine adopting their new son Liam.  This is a local family to us that decided to adopt a child from Reece's Rainbow as a result of our journey to save Sofia. This is a beautiful family that does not have a child with DS but decided that they would love to adopt a child with DS...I find this absolutely amazing and so incredibly wonderful!

Liam and his new Big Sister Madison

Hansina contacted me earlier this week with some fears and concerns about little baby Liam's health. Since she is not familiar with having a child with DS, I can imagine how scary it must have been to meet him and hear that he has some health issues. Adopting a child oversees can be scary enough let alone a child who comes with a set of "issues." God knows Hector and I were scared, knowing very well what we were getting into with adopting Sofia, and we were almost paralyzed by the fear after the long travel, stress of being in a foreign country and having absolutely NO CONTROL over any of the process of the adoption. It would have been so easy for us to turn around and run home.

So, when Hansina contacted me with her fears, I felt extremely obligated to help ease her mind and offer her the support and care that I could thousands of miles away and through email. One of the health concerns that Liam has is cataracts in both eyes. Sounded scary to me. I don't know anything about it. I don't know any child with DS (or otherwise) who has cataracts and I simply did not know what to tell her. I did get her the names of two excellent eye doctors in town and thought this might be the only thing I could do.  I was so anxious about it and couldn't stop thinking about her and Liam.

Well...God had different plans. Last week, just two days after getting Hansina's email about Liam, I had a follow up appointment with our eye doctor for Sofia's tear duct surgery. While in the waiting room, I saw the most beautiful, active, curious and lovable little boy with DS. He was about 3 1/2 years old and was just a joy to watch. His eyes looked perfect and gorgeous and I wondered why he was at the opthomologist's office. I felt something move me to initiate a conversation with the mom and dad (and got a sweet hug from their boy as a result) and I asked them why they were at the office. I'm not usually so bold or "nosey" but again I just felt moved to ask them. I was so curious.

Lo and behold, the mom told me that they were there for their son's follow up appointment. He had double cataract surgery a month ago. She went on to tell me that the surgery was very simple. The healing was quick and their son can see perfectly. WOW. WOW. WOW. I got chills. I had exactly what I needed to tell Hensina. Thank you God!

God works in mysterious ways but I'm beginning to think that He knows EXACTLY what He is doing.

The Sanchez kiddos at the park on the same swing set! Can you spot Sofia?

Reece's Rainbow and our story are featured in the latest Bay Area Edition of Dandelion Parent Magazine. SO exciting to see our story and stories like ours covered in magazines to spread the word. Check it out here! Our story is on page 16 & 17.

On Sunday, my "best" girlfriends threw a very intimate and beautiful shower for Sofia. It was a lovely afternoon and Sofia was a little movie star! She lights up a room when she enters it. The cool crisp mimosas were delicious on this warm September day and the company was perfect. Thank you Michelle and Katie and all our guests for honoring our little birdie and showering her with love.