using DD with preselected values

I've got a parent list (organizations) and a child list(contacts). When the page loads, I would like it to show a particular value in the parent list as selected, that value depending on a recordset value. I tried selecting the parent dropdown and applying the set selected in list behavior, but that didn't work. I realized one reason it didn't work is that it was initially applied onchange, just like the populate list from array behavior. I tried changing it to onload, but still no luck.

If I weren't using dynamic dropdowns, I'd do this with the bind to dynamic source button in the properties window, but that seems not to work.

here's the code for the parent list:
<select name="orgID" id="orgID" onchange="WA_FilterAndPopulateSubList(contacts_WAJA,MM_findObj('orgID'),MM_findObj('contact'),1,0,false,': ')" onload="WA_setSelectionsInChildList(MM_findObj('orgID'),<?php echo $row_project['agency']; ?>)">
<option value="" <?php if (!(strcmp("", $row_project['agency']))) {echo "selected=\"selected\"";} ?>>-- select --</option>
<?php
do {
?>
<option value="<?php echo $row_agencies['orgID']?>"<?php if (!(strcmp($row_agencies['orgID'], $row_project['agency']))) {echo "selected=\"selected\"";} ?>><?php echo $row_agencies['name']?></option>
<?php
} while ($row_agencies = mysql_fetch_assoc($agencies));

?>
</select>

I'd like the child list to also prepopulate according to the recordset, but until I can get the parent working, that one seems unlikely.

Thanks for your help.