While I'm not a huge one on asking for money, this is one organization that I won't hesitate to ask for support for.
Orphans at Play
This spring OAP is sending two doctors to Vlad to introduce a curriculum to orphanages. The curriculum is aimed toward getting more grandmas into the orphanages...and with the current ban on Russian adoptions, this is highly necessary.
The grandmas play with the children, encouraging fine motor skills.
They love on the children, encouraging attachment. That one is huge. HUGE. While fine motor skills are vitally important, it is so much more important for a child to feel an attachment to one person. A child in an orphanage gets used to caregivers coming and going. They get used to the feeling of 'nobody cares enough for me to stick around'.
With the grandmas coming in to give some one on one attention, that could make a world of a difference in the life of the orphans. If it even helps one, it will be well worth your money.
OAP is currently needing to raise a little over $5000 in order to get the curriculum and the doctors to Russia for the conference. $5000. While, yes, that is a significant amount, it's also a very little amount when you consider how many children it could impact.
Dealing with a child with Reactive Attachment Disorder puts a whole different light on this picture. IT IS IMPORTANT. And as stated above...even more important now that there is a ban on adoptions.
While those children did have a chance of a loving family sometime in their future...they now don't have that chance. This grandma program COULD be the saving grace for some of these children. Someday, when they hit their 16th birthdays and are turned out on the streets to fend for themselves, they may remember the Grandmas who loved on them....and choose to make something of themselves.
If you care to give...any amount...$5, $10, $25, $100, $1000...you can donate here on my sidebar or you can go the website for OAP.
I sincerely thank you for your help. And for your love and care for the orphans of Russia.
Life With Littles
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Funny Boy
How can a child possibly sleep in so many different positions....and at so many different times?
Too bad he doesn't sleep like this at night. :)
Seriously?
He makes me laugh. Most of the time.
Too bad he doesn't sleep like this at night. :)
Seriously?
He makes me laugh. Most of the time.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Baby Hits 6 Months
Where have the past six months gone?
Back then, our little guy looked like this.
Now he looks like this.
Still cute as a button. Likely a little cuter than he was six months ago when I deemed him not overly cute. :)
He's a generally happy baby, though the past couple weeks have been far from pleasant.
I think this is the cause.
If you can't see it in the picture, his second sweet little tooth finally popped through yesterday. We're all rejoicing and hoping his happy disposition comes cruising back in.
He has overly helpful big siblings...one of whom thinks he must wear a hat of some sort at all times.
Ty seems to go along with it.
He has more than perfected his squeal.
His tongue is by far his very favorite toy.
He has slept all. night. long. the past two nights. All. Night. Long. I hesitate to say that for fear of him thinking I'm a little too happy about that new habit.
He still doesn't roll over...too fat and lazy, I think...BUT he's been sitting up well on his own for nearly a month. :)
He loves his bath.
Is this pic too racy for a public blog? :)
He is quite chubby...tipping the scales at 18lb. 3 oz. two weeks ago.
He could likely qualify as the most spoiled baby ever...though we prefer to think of it as well loved. In all seriousness, we don't let him 'cry it out'. Ever. Knowing that our older three never had all their needs met when they were babies likely plays a large role in that. We often look at each other when he gets sad, and with tears in our own eyes, comment that our other's would have simply been left in their cribs learning that nobody was there to comfort them. An issue we still deal with on a daily basis.
This little shaver was sent to us at JUST THE RIGHT TIME. Had you told us that fact nine years ago or eight or seven or six or even five years ago? We would not have agreed.
God did know best. Surprise.
We love you, baby boy.
Back then, our little guy looked like this.
Now he looks like this.
Still cute as a button. Likely a little cuter than he was six months ago when I deemed him not overly cute. :)
He's a generally happy baby, though the past couple weeks have been far from pleasant.
I think this is the cause.
If you can't see it in the picture, his second sweet little tooth finally popped through yesterday. We're all rejoicing and hoping his happy disposition comes cruising back in.
He has overly helpful big siblings...one of whom thinks he must wear a hat of some sort at all times.
Ty seems to go along with it.
He has more than perfected his squeal.
His tongue is by far his very favorite toy.
He has slept all. night. long. the past two nights. All. Night. Long. I hesitate to say that for fear of him thinking I'm a little too happy about that new habit.
He still doesn't roll over...too fat and lazy, I think...BUT he's been sitting up well on his own for nearly a month. :)
He loves his bath.
Is this pic too racy for a public blog? :)
He is quite chubby...tipping the scales at 18lb. 3 oz. two weeks ago.
He could likely qualify as the most spoiled baby ever...though we prefer to think of it as well loved. In all seriousness, we don't let him 'cry it out'. Ever. Knowing that our older three never had all their needs met when they were babies likely plays a large role in that. We often look at each other when he gets sad, and with tears in our own eyes, comment that our other's would have simply been left in their cribs learning that nobody was there to comfort them. An issue we still deal with on a daily basis.
This little shaver was sent to us at JUST THE RIGHT TIME. Had you told us that fact nine years ago or eight or seven or six or even five years ago? We would not have agreed.
God did know best. Surprise.
We love you, baby boy.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Two Years
I can't believe it. First I can't believe that I forgot this important date...and second I can't believe that Jack has been in our home for two years.
Okay. Make that two years and two weeks.
Yes. Jack's family day came and went and it took nearly two whole weeks until I realized that we had missed it. Two weeks.
That's like forgetting your child's birthday until two weeks after the birthday.
I felt like a pretty bad mom....but was extremely thankful that it was Jack's that got forgotten rather than Addie's or Will's. At least Jack didn't have a clue that we forgot. Even when we told him he just grinned and asked if he could open his present. :) Gotta love three year olds.
I don't know if any of you remember the ride we were on two years ago or not, but I remember it clearly.
It was a rough ride. We flew to the other side of the world on January 6th...and arrived in Moscow on the 7th, which happened to be Russia's Christmas. Getting there on the 7th was against our agencies wishes as they refused to ask our in-country reps to help us out on Christmas day. We agreed that it wasn't ideal, but when they didn't want to cover the $5000 difference in ticket cost for arriving one day later, we decided to sign the waiver and go for it.
Signing the waiver simply meant that there would be nobody at the airport to welcome us and take care of us upon arrival in Moscow. Not a big deal, except it's hard to converse with folks who don't speak English. :) We had booked a motel before leaving home and the motel did have a couple men waiting on us when we got there. It was a great faith builder. They stuffed Mom, Addie, Will, and I in the back seat of a car while the men loaded our luggage as it was freezing cold. When the time came to leave, we thought Mom and Dad would hop in one car and our little family would be in the other. However, they gave us no time for the switch and as soon as Dad hopped in the other car, he took off! Jason climbed in with us and off we went!
The unfortunate part of it was that our drivers took two different routes. We drove for nearly 1/2 hour wondering if we would ever see Dad again. It was a little humorous....after all we had flown all night and none of us were feeling overly well rested. The car was full of giggles. I'm sure our driver thought we had lost our marbles on that plane.
Dad beat us to our motel and was waiting with a grin when we finally arrived.
The next afternoon we flew on to Vladivostok and then the fun really began.
We had nearly a week to kill before we were to go to court on the 17th. And to court we did go.
And from court we left wiping our eyes.
No, we were not wiping our happy tears. We were wiping tears of sadness, fear, frustration, etc.
Our prosecutor wasn't impressed with the fact that there was an older brother somewhere who didn't sign off on the adoption. The social worker was required to attempt to find him one more time and court was to take place for the second time on the 21st.
The days between the 17th and the 21st were some of the most stressful in our lives up to that point. We did a lot of crying (behind closed doors so as not to scare Addie and Will, though they were ticked at the judge for not letting us go get Jack that day), we did a lot of praying, we did a lot of playing pool in the White Rabbit, we ate the remainder of our M&M's and sent a joking sos home for some more....and folks took us serious and shipped 10 pounds of M&M's to us. All the way across the globe. We watched that little box every day checking into various points around the world. It was more than we could handle the night when it said it was in Artem...a mere 30 minutes from where we were sitting. That next day we sat in the White Rabbit and were glued to the windows waiting on our precious box. :)
And then the 21st arrived and we were back to court...this time with a favorable outcome.
We left court with more tears, but this time they were tears of happiness and relief. That afternoon we raced off with Oksana to Nakhodka to pick up our little boy.
We walked in the door that night at the Vlad Inn and were mobbed immediately by my parents (who had made the trip with us, thankfully) and Addie & Will. Exhaustion was great, but our joy and praise to Jesus was so much greater!
The rest of our trip was smooth sailing. We ended up being in the grand country of Russia for five weeks and had so many experiences. Such as taking the train to various stops in the grand city of Vlad. Missing the last train of the day from downtown Vlad and having to hail a taxi...and of course not being able to talk to the taxi driver. Nearly missing the train another time from the Vlad Inn and Jason dropping his passport while trying to run to the train after purchasing the tickets...thankfully the engineer saw what happened and held up the train for him. Purchasing what we thought were round trip train tickets only to find out from the officer who roamed the train that they were one way and we were on the train back to the Vlad Inn with no tickets. THAT was a mess. :) She spoke no English and we spoke not nearly enough Russian. Some kind soul who knew tidbits of English finally stepped forward to let us know that we owed some more money.
We flew to Moscow February 1st to have the final steps of our paperwork completed and continued to have awesome experiences! Such as trying to get out of the Vlad airport...but we got in the wrong line, and they didn't like something about Jack's paperwork..and we stood there waiting on several different folks to clear us for about 45 minutes...which made us come very close to missing our flight. Made it to Moscow and were met by the proper gentleman, but he got sick and we never saw him the rest of the trip. He had his buddy haul us around the rest of the week. Walking to Red Square multiple times. Walking to Arbat Street. Walking downtown after dark. Going to McDonalds. Staying in an apartment on the eighth floor of some apartment building...and cringing. It was so filthy dirty that we called the Marriot to see if they had any rooms at all. They did for only $1500 per night or something like that. We stayed in the apartment. All the dishes were dirty and had to be washed before we could use them, the one bed (for seven people) had obviously not had clean sheets for quite some time, the hide-a-bed couch was broken (so dad and mom pulled the mattress off and slept on it on the floor. Nasty.) The floor was dirty. The bathroom was far from clean. We searched closets and finally resorted to breaking a lock on a cupboard door to get some clean linens for our beds. And we didn't even feel that bad about it.
We saw more things in that one week than we ever thought we would. We walked miles every day, too stingy to hire a driver to haul us around. I'm still amazed when I think about that. Jack in the Ergo, the rest of us walked for hours every day. It did a super job of wearing out Addie & Will. :) They slept like logs that whole week.
We flew back to the states on February 5th, missed our flight out of Atlanta, spent the night in the airport, and caught the first flight out the next morning. It felt so good to be home...except I forgot about one thing. Sometime during our weeks in Vlad we received a very depressing phone call from home.
Our furnace had quit, pipes in the upstairs bathroom had frozen and burst...the result? A flooded downstairs. There we were on the other side of the world. Our house needed vast repairs. Folks back home were making decisions for us as we didn't know what the extent of the damage was. It ended up being a little more serious than we thought. All new ceilings downstairs, except the bedroom and bathroom, new floor in the kitchen, refinished floors in the dining and living rooms, new walls in the dining room, and a whole new paint job for the whole downstairs, except for the bedroom and bathroom.
All that to say, when we got home we couldn't actually go home. We lived at Jason's sister's house (she's a travelling nurse and happened to be in Arizona working right then) for two weeks while they finished up the work on our house. It was interesting.
Two years have passed since that time. Jack is now three and a half. The little 17 month old closest-thing-to-a-baby-that-we-thought-we'd-ever-have has grown by leaps and bounds. He still doesn't talk much, but words are being added daily and they are even getting easier to understand!
He still sleeps downstairs as we only have two bedrooms upstairs and there is nowhere to put a third child right now. We thought we would stuff all the boys in one room and the girls in the other....but when children don't sleep overly well, it's really not a good option to put them in the same room. Having Will and Jack in the same room would be chaos all night long. Nobody in the whole house would get any sleep. So. He's on a toddler bed mattress which is strategically placed under the bay window, behind the loveseat and the recliner...which results in his not being able to see around the house too much.
We skipped clean over the terrible twos and barreled headlong into the torturous threes. While the shaver is a ton of fun, he can also be the most horrid little guy around. He's very stubborn, but quiet about it.
We did have a little party for him. Yep. Our children each have two birthday celebrations. The day they came into the world and the day they came into our family. We treat it just like a birthday, complete with cake and gifts. When we remember.
This year, due to my forgetfulness, the cake was totally un-decorated but did have two little candles.
And the gift? Lets just say it's good he's only three and any gift at all is cause for much rejoicing. His gift consisted of a shutterfly book that records his first two years in a forever family. He of course was thrilled and didn't know that he would have had more had his mom found the time to head to town.
What he doesn't know won't hurt him.
He was beyond thrilled with our little celebration.
One more thing about Jack...he is a superb big brother. Nobody can coax a smile out of Ty quite like Jack can. He's a super entertainer.
We are so very thankful that God granted our desire and placed little Jack Nickolay in our family.
We love you, Mister Jack!
Okay. Make that two years and two weeks.
Yes. Jack's family day came and went and it took nearly two whole weeks until I realized that we had missed it. Two weeks.
That's like forgetting your child's birthday until two weeks after the birthday.
I felt like a pretty bad mom....but was extremely thankful that it was Jack's that got forgotten rather than Addie's or Will's. At least Jack didn't have a clue that we forgot. Even when we told him he just grinned and asked if he could open his present. :) Gotta love three year olds.
I don't know if any of you remember the ride we were on two years ago or not, but I remember it clearly.
It was a rough ride. We flew to the other side of the world on January 6th...and arrived in Moscow on the 7th, which happened to be Russia's Christmas. Getting there on the 7th was against our agencies wishes as they refused to ask our in-country reps to help us out on Christmas day. We agreed that it wasn't ideal, but when they didn't want to cover the $5000 difference in ticket cost for arriving one day later, we decided to sign the waiver and go for it.
Signing the waiver simply meant that there would be nobody at the airport to welcome us and take care of us upon arrival in Moscow. Not a big deal, except it's hard to converse with folks who don't speak English. :) We had booked a motel before leaving home and the motel did have a couple men waiting on us when we got there. It was a great faith builder. They stuffed Mom, Addie, Will, and I in the back seat of a car while the men loaded our luggage as it was freezing cold. When the time came to leave, we thought Mom and Dad would hop in one car and our little family would be in the other. However, they gave us no time for the switch and as soon as Dad hopped in the other car, he took off! Jason climbed in with us and off we went!
The unfortunate part of it was that our drivers took two different routes. We drove for nearly 1/2 hour wondering if we would ever see Dad again. It was a little humorous....after all we had flown all night and none of us were feeling overly well rested. The car was full of giggles. I'm sure our driver thought we had lost our marbles on that plane.
Dad beat us to our motel and was waiting with a grin when we finally arrived.
The next afternoon we flew on to Vladivostok and then the fun really began.
We had nearly a week to kill before we were to go to court on the 17th. And to court we did go.
And from court we left wiping our eyes.
No, we were not wiping our happy tears. We were wiping tears of sadness, fear, frustration, etc.
Our prosecutor wasn't impressed with the fact that there was an older brother somewhere who didn't sign off on the adoption. The social worker was required to attempt to find him one more time and court was to take place for the second time on the 21st.
The days between the 17th and the 21st were some of the most stressful in our lives up to that point. We did a lot of crying (behind closed doors so as not to scare Addie and Will, though they were ticked at the judge for not letting us go get Jack that day), we did a lot of praying, we did a lot of playing pool in the White Rabbit, we ate the remainder of our M&M's and sent a joking sos home for some more....and folks took us serious and shipped 10 pounds of M&M's to us. All the way across the globe. We watched that little box every day checking into various points around the world. It was more than we could handle the night when it said it was in Artem...a mere 30 minutes from where we were sitting. That next day we sat in the White Rabbit and were glued to the windows waiting on our precious box. :)
And then the 21st arrived and we were back to court...this time with a favorable outcome.
We left court with more tears, but this time they were tears of happiness and relief. That afternoon we raced off with Oksana to Nakhodka to pick up our little boy.
We walked in the door that night at the Vlad Inn and were mobbed immediately by my parents (who had made the trip with us, thankfully) and Addie & Will. Exhaustion was great, but our joy and praise to Jesus was so much greater!
The rest of our trip was smooth sailing. We ended up being in the grand country of Russia for five weeks and had so many experiences. Such as taking the train to various stops in the grand city of Vlad. Missing the last train of the day from downtown Vlad and having to hail a taxi...and of course not being able to talk to the taxi driver. Nearly missing the train another time from the Vlad Inn and Jason dropping his passport while trying to run to the train after purchasing the tickets...thankfully the engineer saw what happened and held up the train for him. Purchasing what we thought were round trip train tickets only to find out from the officer who roamed the train that they were one way and we were on the train back to the Vlad Inn with no tickets. THAT was a mess. :) She spoke no English and we spoke not nearly enough Russian. Some kind soul who knew tidbits of English finally stepped forward to let us know that we owed some more money.
We flew to Moscow February 1st to have the final steps of our paperwork completed and continued to have awesome experiences! Such as trying to get out of the Vlad airport...but we got in the wrong line, and they didn't like something about Jack's paperwork..and we stood there waiting on several different folks to clear us for about 45 minutes...which made us come very close to missing our flight. Made it to Moscow and were met by the proper gentleman, but he got sick and we never saw him the rest of the trip. He had his buddy haul us around the rest of the week. Walking to Red Square multiple times. Walking to Arbat Street. Walking downtown after dark. Going to McDonalds. Staying in an apartment on the eighth floor of some apartment building...and cringing. It was so filthy dirty that we called the Marriot to see if they had any rooms at all. They did for only $1500 per night or something like that. We stayed in the apartment. All the dishes were dirty and had to be washed before we could use them, the one bed (for seven people) had obviously not had clean sheets for quite some time, the hide-a-bed couch was broken (so dad and mom pulled the mattress off and slept on it on the floor. Nasty.) The floor was dirty. The bathroom was far from clean. We searched closets and finally resorted to breaking a lock on a cupboard door to get some clean linens for our beds. And we didn't even feel that bad about it.
We saw more things in that one week than we ever thought we would. We walked miles every day, too stingy to hire a driver to haul us around. I'm still amazed when I think about that. Jack in the Ergo, the rest of us walked for hours every day. It did a super job of wearing out Addie & Will. :) They slept like logs that whole week.
We flew back to the states on February 5th, missed our flight out of Atlanta, spent the night in the airport, and caught the first flight out the next morning. It felt so good to be home...except I forgot about one thing. Sometime during our weeks in Vlad we received a very depressing phone call from home.
Our furnace had quit, pipes in the upstairs bathroom had frozen and burst...the result? A flooded downstairs. There we were on the other side of the world. Our house needed vast repairs. Folks back home were making decisions for us as we didn't know what the extent of the damage was. It ended up being a little more serious than we thought. All new ceilings downstairs, except the bedroom and bathroom, new floor in the kitchen, refinished floors in the dining and living rooms, new walls in the dining room, and a whole new paint job for the whole downstairs, except for the bedroom and bathroom.
All that to say, when we got home we couldn't actually go home. We lived at Jason's sister's house (she's a travelling nurse and happened to be in Arizona working right then) for two weeks while they finished up the work on our house. It was interesting.
Two years have passed since that time. Jack is now three and a half. The little 17 month old closest-thing-to-a-baby-that-we-thought-we'd-ever-have has grown by leaps and bounds. He still doesn't talk much, but words are being added daily and they are even getting easier to understand!
He still sleeps downstairs as we only have two bedrooms upstairs and there is nowhere to put a third child right now. We thought we would stuff all the boys in one room and the girls in the other....but when children don't sleep overly well, it's really not a good option to put them in the same room. Having Will and Jack in the same room would be chaos all night long. Nobody in the whole house would get any sleep. So. He's on a toddler bed mattress which is strategically placed under the bay window, behind the loveseat and the recliner...which results in his not being able to see around the house too much.
We skipped clean over the terrible twos and barreled headlong into the torturous threes. While the shaver is a ton of fun, he can also be the most horrid little guy around. He's very stubborn, but quiet about it.
We did have a little party for him. Yep. Our children each have two birthday celebrations. The day they came into the world and the day they came into our family. We treat it just like a birthday, complete with cake and gifts. When we remember.
This year, due to my forgetfulness, the cake was totally un-decorated but did have two little candles.
And the gift? Lets just say it's good he's only three and any gift at all is cause for much rejoicing. His gift consisted of a shutterfly book that records his first two years in a forever family. He of course was thrilled and didn't know that he would have had more had his mom found the time to head to town.
What he doesn't know won't hurt him.
He was beyond thrilled with our little celebration.
One more thing about Jack...he is a superb big brother. Nobody can coax a smile out of Ty quite like Jack can. He's a super entertainer.
We are so very thankful that God granted our desire and placed little Jack Nickolay in our family.
We love you, Mister Jack!
Friday, January 25, 2013
A Winding Road
Ever had the feeling that life is like a long, curvy, mountainous road?
You drive along. The road is good. You see a sharp curve sign ahead and think...oh, now surely it's not quite as sharp as the sign infers. Surely I can take this curve at 45 rather than 25.
There's a few little pot-holes here and there, but nothing that is deep enough to do any damage.
Then you head up a very long hill and you wonder if you will ever reach the top. You do. You let out a sigh of relief as the engine was running a little hard and you really don't want to take the car to the shop when there's so much life to live.
Your car tops the hill, you sail down the other side, trying to decide if an application of the brakes is necessary to control the speed. You opt to just use them occasionally as everyone knows that holding the brakes could result in no brakes at all.
Down the other side you zip, and then at the bottom is a sharp curve. Very sharp. It requires a slamming on the brakes and you look around wondering where you missed the 'sharp curve, slow down' sign.
Oh. It wasn't there. Warning signs are nice. Just so you know.
Perhaps that wasn't a very good description of our lives around here, but I think you get the point.
The past couple weeks have been anything but pleasant. Not just with Will, though that definitely has a large bearing on it.
On top of the issues we've been dealing with in our home for the last week and a half, my uncle is currently in the hospital awaiting confirmation of pancreatic cancer. It's been a rough week. We should find out definite results today sometime. If you are a praying person, could I add Uncle Mark and his family to your prayer list?
We didn't expect this curve in the road.
On top of Uncle Mark and the potential for some very sad news on him, Will has taken a turn for the worse again.
Another curve that we didn't anticipate. Oh, yes. We knew that a couple good weeks does not equate 'out of the woods', but we had high hopes and were nearly holding our breath in hopes that he was, for real, healing.
Yes. We see progress even in the raunchy curves and steep hills. We look back over the past two years (uh-huh, two years ago was when this all started....when Jack joined our family. Which reminds me, I failed to do a court date anniversary post on the 21st.) and see so much improvement just in the past couple months.
It's hard to remember that, though, when in the thick of not so fun climbs.
Just a short six months ago, he banged a hole in my kitchen wall with his head when he got upset at having to do something that I asked him to do. A short six months ago, he was screaming and banging on the door to his bedroom for hours every night. A short six months ago the door jam trim snapped off due to excessive banging. A short six months ago we had not one good day for well over a month's span.
Currently he's not being quite as destructive, he's not holding scream fests every night before climbing into bed, he's not knocking any trim off the door jams, he's not acting as if he despises us, he's not nearly as sick as he once was.
He's simply not 'being strong'...which is defined as respectful, responsible, and fun to be around.
His 'fun to be around' and our 'fun to be around' apparently mean two different things. :) He seems to believe that as long as he's happy and laughing it doesn't matter if he is respectful or responsible. We seem to think that being happy and laughing doesn't mean that he no longer has to obey.
See? We don't agree.
It's sad. So sad. And frustrating and overwhelming and maddening and ......
But it is sad. His little six year old mind processes a lot of stuff. Stuff that no six year old should have to process. Do my parents REALLY love me? Do they REALLY want me in their family? Do they REALLY want what's best for me? Do they REALLY....?
We do. REALLY.
And so we continue down our long, winding, mountainous road. Every few days we have a slight downward slope where it's all smooth sailing. Then there's a little sign warning us of a slight curve. Then it's back up the hill for a couple days. Then we have another downhill slope. Another sharp curve. Another downhill slope. Another curve, another steep hill.
We're ready for the down hill slope stuff to return. We're ready for this chapter of our family's book to be one that we look back on and talk about...but are no longer living. We're ready to be a 'normal' family.
And yet we are living the life that God has given us. It's not the cookie cutter American dream. But it is our life. And we do love it.
Well, minus the drama, of course. :) We love being a little family of six. We love the happy days.
And what we really love? We love the fact that there is hope. We see great potential in Will. As much stubbornness as there is present in his little life, there is great potential if he can channel it in the right direction. Towards Jesus. He has come from his birth country for a reason. Perhaps it was to refine us. Perhaps it was to give us empathy towards others with difficult children.
But I believe the real reason is that God has a plan...a great plan...for this little boy. A plan that could not be lived out in the land of his birth.
How humbling to be given the honor to be his parents. What a huge job it is to direct little souls toward the one who created us all.
You drive along. The road is good. You see a sharp curve sign ahead and think...oh, now surely it's not quite as sharp as the sign infers. Surely I can take this curve at 45 rather than 25.
There's a few little pot-holes here and there, but nothing that is deep enough to do any damage.
Then you head up a very long hill and you wonder if you will ever reach the top. You do. You let out a sigh of relief as the engine was running a little hard and you really don't want to take the car to the shop when there's so much life to live.
Your car tops the hill, you sail down the other side, trying to decide if an application of the brakes is necessary to control the speed. You opt to just use them occasionally as everyone knows that holding the brakes could result in no brakes at all.
Down the other side you zip, and then at the bottom is a sharp curve. Very sharp. It requires a slamming on the brakes and you look around wondering where you missed the 'sharp curve, slow down' sign.
Oh. It wasn't there. Warning signs are nice. Just so you know.
Perhaps that wasn't a very good description of our lives around here, but I think you get the point.
The past couple weeks have been anything but pleasant. Not just with Will, though that definitely has a large bearing on it.
On top of the issues we've been dealing with in our home for the last week and a half, my uncle is currently in the hospital awaiting confirmation of pancreatic cancer. It's been a rough week. We should find out definite results today sometime. If you are a praying person, could I add Uncle Mark and his family to your prayer list?
We didn't expect this curve in the road.
On top of Uncle Mark and the potential for some very sad news on him, Will has taken a turn for the worse again.
Another curve that we didn't anticipate. Oh, yes. We knew that a couple good weeks does not equate 'out of the woods', but we had high hopes and were nearly holding our breath in hopes that he was, for real, healing.
Yes. We see progress even in the raunchy curves and steep hills. We look back over the past two years (uh-huh, two years ago was when this all started....when Jack joined our family. Which reminds me, I failed to do a court date anniversary post on the 21st.) and see so much improvement just in the past couple months.
It's hard to remember that, though, when in the thick of not so fun climbs.
Just a short six months ago, he banged a hole in my kitchen wall with his head when he got upset at having to do something that I asked him to do. A short six months ago, he was screaming and banging on the door to his bedroom for hours every night. A short six months ago the door jam trim snapped off due to excessive banging. A short six months ago we had not one good day for well over a month's span.
Currently he's not being quite as destructive, he's not holding scream fests every night before climbing into bed, he's not knocking any trim off the door jams, he's not acting as if he despises us, he's not nearly as sick as he once was.
He's simply not 'being strong'...which is defined as respectful, responsible, and fun to be around.
His 'fun to be around' and our 'fun to be around' apparently mean two different things. :) He seems to believe that as long as he's happy and laughing it doesn't matter if he is respectful or responsible. We seem to think that being happy and laughing doesn't mean that he no longer has to obey.
See? We don't agree.
It's sad. So sad. And frustrating and overwhelming and maddening and ......
But it is sad. His little six year old mind processes a lot of stuff. Stuff that no six year old should have to process. Do my parents REALLY love me? Do they REALLY want me in their family? Do they REALLY want what's best for me? Do they REALLY....?
We do. REALLY.
And so we continue down our long, winding, mountainous road. Every few days we have a slight downward slope where it's all smooth sailing. Then there's a little sign warning us of a slight curve. Then it's back up the hill for a couple days. Then we have another downhill slope. Another sharp curve. Another downhill slope. Another curve, another steep hill.
We're ready for the down hill slope stuff to return. We're ready for this chapter of our family's book to be one that we look back on and talk about...but are no longer living. We're ready to be a 'normal' family.
And yet we are living the life that God has given us. It's not the cookie cutter American dream. But it is our life. And we do love it.
Well, minus the drama, of course. :) We love being a little family of six. We love the happy days.
And what we really love? We love the fact that there is hope. We see great potential in Will. As much stubbornness as there is present in his little life, there is great potential if he can channel it in the right direction. Towards Jesus. He has come from his birth country for a reason. Perhaps it was to refine us. Perhaps it was to give us empathy towards others with difficult children.
But I believe the real reason is that God has a plan...a great plan...for this little boy. A plan that could not be lived out in the land of his birth.
How humbling to be given the honor to be his parents. What a huge job it is to direct little souls toward the one who created us all.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Whew.
We made it through that batch of sickness and are starting in on round two.
Yes. You read that correctly.
We're hoping that we can contain it to Addie....the only one with anything at this moment, but hopes are not very high.
She is on the couch with a sore throat, fever, earache, and pinkeye. :) Fun stuff. She's taking Emergen C, garlic chopped up in honey, eye drops, and gargling with salt water.
She is one tough cookie.
The rest of us are cleaning the house with Lysol wipes and disinfectant...and the boys thought it was great fun. I think the wipes have them all excited.
In other news.
Will is a different boy the last 1 1/2 weeks.
PRAISE THE LORD!!!!
Last week he went to school every day and never lost the first fish all week. (Fish in fishbowls are their behavior watches.) Not one fish. All week.
We celebrated with candy bars at the end of the week.
Not only was he super duper in school, the attitude transferred to home. He was amazingly helpful. He said, 'yes, mom' in a respectful manner. He didn't melt down to the floor in a raging fit when asked to do something.
We were all amazed. And astonished.
And ever so thankful. After six long months of raging, this little break has been delightful.
There is hope. Lots of it. We're seeing glimpses of the happy little boy who once lived here.
Yesterday on the way to church, Jason and I looked at each other and grinned. And commented on how peaceful the whole family is when Will is not trying to cause a little chaos. He sat back there cracking funnies with Addie rather than trying to make her cry. He laughed with Jack rather than trying to get Jack in trouble.
And today? While he started off with a bang...i.e. not really pleased with something and melting on the floor (thus causing us heart failure at the thought of a weak day)...he snapped out of his funk in record time and has been a pleasure and joy to be around the rest of the morning. Of course he's been lying on the couch 'resting' for the past hour, which always helps out!!
All the children are currently 'resting'. Doesn't lots of rest keep the bugs away? It's worth a try....plus it gives mommy a little break. :)
I forgot just how happy a home can be. It seems that we're always bending over backwards trying to keep things light and happy for Addie and Jack with Will screeching in the background, but when everyone is just simply happy and smiling it makes a huge difference.
Mentally, I feel well rested and ready to face the day after a happy day.
Ahhhhh.
We're praying this lasts. We see a light at the end of the tunnel that we really weren't sure we would ever see. Some days it just seemed like we were taking 43 steps backward and never a single one forward.
Now that this is written in black and white, IF those hairy days come back I can check in here as a reminder!!!
Yes. You read that correctly.
We're hoping that we can contain it to Addie....the only one with anything at this moment, but hopes are not very high.
She is on the couch with a sore throat, fever, earache, and pinkeye. :) Fun stuff. She's taking Emergen C, garlic chopped up in honey, eye drops, and gargling with salt water.
She is one tough cookie.
The rest of us are cleaning the house with Lysol wipes and disinfectant...and the boys thought it was great fun. I think the wipes have them all excited.
In other news.
Will is a different boy the last 1 1/2 weeks.
PRAISE THE LORD!!!!
Last week he went to school every day and never lost the first fish all week. (Fish in fishbowls are their behavior watches.) Not one fish. All week.
We celebrated with candy bars at the end of the week.
Not only was he super duper in school, the attitude transferred to home. He was amazingly helpful. He said, 'yes, mom' in a respectful manner. He didn't melt down to the floor in a raging fit when asked to do something.
We were all amazed. And astonished.
And ever so thankful. After six long months of raging, this little break has been delightful.
There is hope. Lots of it. We're seeing glimpses of the happy little boy who once lived here.
Yesterday on the way to church, Jason and I looked at each other and grinned. And commented on how peaceful the whole family is when Will is not trying to cause a little chaos. He sat back there cracking funnies with Addie rather than trying to make her cry. He laughed with Jack rather than trying to get Jack in trouble.
And today? While he started off with a bang...i.e. not really pleased with something and melting on the floor (thus causing us heart failure at the thought of a weak day)...he snapped out of his funk in record time and has been a pleasure and joy to be around the rest of the morning. Of course he's been lying on the couch 'resting' for the past hour, which always helps out!!
All the children are currently 'resting'. Doesn't lots of rest keep the bugs away? It's worth a try....plus it gives mommy a little break. :)
I forgot just how happy a home can be. It seems that we're always bending over backwards trying to keep things light and happy for Addie and Jack with Will screeching in the background, but when everyone is just simply happy and smiling it makes a huge difference.
Mentally, I feel well rested and ready to face the day after a happy day.
Ahhhhh.
We're praying this lasts. We see a light at the end of the tunnel that we really weren't sure we would ever see. Some days it just seemed like we were taking 43 steps backward and never a single one forward.
Now that this is written in black and white, IF those hairy days come back I can check in here as a reminder!!!
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Long Time....Many Words
The time has come. It's time to catch up.
I could regale you with the happenings of the past month or two.
I'm sure it would be riveting and you would be perched on the edge of your seats totally enthralled with the next round of Christmas gathering pictures.
But I think I'll skip over all the nitty-gritty stuff and just start in where we're at right now.
Right this minute our house smells like Vicks, the sound of coughing can be heard at nearly every point in time, and the thermometer is a common sight on the table.
Jack welcomed the flu into our family Saturday, Ty got it early Sunday morning, Addie & Will started in Monday afternoon, Jason was Tuesday morning, and finally...I got it too, on Wednesday.
It's the kind of knock-down drag-out stuff that I'm sure you are all hoping that you cannot contract it simply by reading about it. High fevers, upset tummies, nasty coughs, and pounding headaches.
Word on the streets is that this stuff can last from 7-10 days. Yippee.
As long as I keep myself drugged up...as in Tylenol and Ibuprofen...the rest of my family has a nurse. If that stuff stops working, we're up a creek without a paddle.
Anyway.
That's the here and now.
As for why this blog has been so sorely neglected? We've been busy. Way more busy than is typical for around this house.
For quite a while, nearly a year to be exact, it has simply been easier to stay home from various functions due to our certain child's behaviors than it has been to go out and be sociable. Not that I really mind. I could easily be classified as a homebody, but I'll have to admit that being cut off from all friends and family for so long is starting to grate at me.
Hence the reason we made the decision to really enjoy our family Christmas gatherings this year. We get together with four families over the holiday season...three of them lasting from Friday night to Sunday night. The fourth is this coming Sunday and it remains to be seen if we are well enough to attend or not. Hoping we can.
Anyway. We went to three family Christmases. The first was the weekend before Thanksgiving. We skipped Friday evening and went on Saturday and Sunday. That's the weekend that my way-too-young brother had a heart attack...but he's doing just fine now so we won't discuss that at length.
The weekend went well. The children were on best behavior and put on a good behavior show for all the family. Those who deal with RAD know exactly what I mean by that statement. All was well until Monday morning hit. Then all went haywire.
Two weeks later, after both the older children were back on track and Jack was rewired after watching Will (his idol) spiraling backwards (whatever Will does, Jack does too), we had another weekend long Christmas. This time it was in Holmes County at my aunts house.
The weekend went fairly well. We pulled the children in for time-in's frequently, they responded well and we had high hopes that the coming weeks would be great!
Those high hopes were dashed quickly.
Those next two weeks were kind of like de-ja-vu. (How in the world do you spell that?) It took us back to the fall when Will was in the thick of his not appreciating us at all. AT ALL.
It was far from pleasant. I don't say that to complain, that is simply how it was. I was swiftly nearing my burn-out stage and was just ready to hole up for a while with nobody anywhere close. Hard to do when you have a husband and four young children. ;)
We made it through those two weeks with a chicken pox scare somewhere in the middle. Only Addie got it much to our surprise and her case was so minor that she was back at school the very next week. Sent home on a Thursday and back on Tuesday. Not too bad.
We also made it through those two weeks with Will not attending school at all....except for the last day before Christmas break. And no, that wasn't our call. We have the rule around here that if chores aren't finished before time to head to school, there is no school that day for that child. His chores? Swapping out the dog water...which should take about five minutes and those weeks was taking over an hour. We can't MAKE him do his chores properly. We can only reward for a job well done and give consequences for a job not well done. (Making our children do something does nothing for their trust level and love for us as their parents. All we can do is stay on our toes and be willing to follow through if the wrong choice happens to be made. Our goal is to re-wire their brains. Our goal is to teach them how to use the logic part of the brain rather than the survival part of the brain. Our goal is for them to think...If I don't do my chores, I don't get to go to school. Do I want to go to school and have fun? Or stay home and learn how to clean the bathroom...since Mommy says I don't need an education to be a janitor? Slowly but surely we're seeing the logic part kick in. Slowly but surely we're watching more good choices being made.)
Thankfully, (and this is a total God-thing) his teacher totally understands our situation as she has only adopted children herself and both of her children dealt with RAD. She was more than willing to send home his work every single day. It was super for him as he is learning that staying home from school does not mean that he loses that responsibility. It simply means that he has lots of make-up work to do.
And that is something that he really doesn't enjoy. I'll have to admit that I am likely the farthest thing from a patient teacher. In fact, he informed me after about four hours of non-stop school work that he sure was glad that I'm not his teacher all the time. I totally agreed with that statement and then asked him why? His answer, "Because my teachers are happy."
Oops.
Two weeks after our weekend in Holmes County was Christmas with my family. And, yes, even though we all live within 30 minutes of each other, we still get together from Friday night to Sunday night. Once again, the weekend went well...for the most part.
And once again, the after-the-weekend was a totally different story. In fact, ever since then really hasn't been the most fun.
Our days have been up and down. We're ever so thankful that our big plans are over, though we did enjoy them while they lasted.
The biggest problem with Will's set backs? Our other children. Addie is scared of him again cause she never knows what is going to set him off. Jack starts to act just like Will as Will is the big brother and he totally wants to be just like Will. And Ty got to the point when every time Will acted out Ty would start crying inconsolably.
It's really hard to know what to do. Please don't take me wrong. I love Will. He is my son in every sense of the word. We pray for him all the time. Addie included. Anytime she prays at a meal she always includes a prayer for Will to get strong. We love him so much...but it leaves us in a quandry. If he doesn't snap out of this funk soon we risk losing our other children...maybe not physically, but definitely mentally. All we can do right now is to keep our children safe. If Will starts in on a scream fest, he is immediately sent to his room. There's no point in our other children having to listen to that. Not only is it bet for the other three, it's best for Will. He gets some kind of satisfaction out of seeing the others scared.
At least in the thick of it, he does. Without fail, after a week or two of being stuck, he breaks. Totally of his own accord, he will break down in real tears. He'll tell us he's so sorry. He'll apologize and ask for forgiveness for his actions. And he'll become the loving happy little boy that we once knew.
At the point of his real tears, we know that his regret is real.
So what's his point?
Just checking to see if mom and dad (mainly mom) will still love him. She says she loves me. If I tear off this wall paper...will she still love me? Certainly, but there will be restitution for the destruction. If I rip the soles off my school shoes...will she still love me? Of course, but the next pair of shoes will be purchased with his own hard earned money. If I...... Yes, Will, I will love you no matter what you choose to do. ALWAYS.
We have high hopes that someday this will all be behind us. We have high hopes that Will is going to turn out to be a godly young man whose extreme energy and ambition will be used to spread the love of Jesus. He has such potential. He is truly a joy to be around....when he's not stuck.
When he is stuck? I send Jason to the store to search for the elusive sanity pills.
And honestly? This recent sickness that has invaded our home is a blessing in disguise. A very good disguise. It snapped him out of his funk and he has decided that mommy isn't so bad after all. When it comes right down to it, no matter how hard he tries to push mommy away, she's pretty nice to have around when the fever is raging at 104*. :)
And so we plug on. We have our fun times regardless of what it looks like on paper. We've made dozens of cookies & plate loads of candies, played games, put together puzzles, had a sledding party to enjoy our foot of snow, and just enjoyed being a family.
Our life really isn't as bad as it may sound. Really. While Will is stuck and trying to drag down the rest of the house, we are doing all we can to ensure that the happy times are stuck deep down in the hearts of our children. It's so very important for the other children to have a 'normal' life....as normal as it can be with a RAD child around. It's so very important that we have fun. It's so very important for our other three to see that life does not revolve around Will's choices...and it's also important that Will sees that our lives don't revolve around his choices.
2012 was a stressful year. RAD is stressful enough, but throw in a new baby and you've got enough stress to last a life time. Though, I'll have to say that God knew that HIS timing was best on the new baby end. More than once, I have told Jason that Ty has been my sanity keeper over the past six months. You simply cannot resist a sweet, innocent little bundle.
So there you have it. You're all caught up in the lives of our little family. The other five in the household are napping...one on the couch, one on the love seat, one on a floor bed, one on the recliner, and one in my lap. I know. I should be there too. But we don't have any other chairs to sleep in. ;)
Now. If we can just kick this sickness to the curb, we'll be ready to grab 2013 by the horns.
Praying for a wonderful year for you all....and us too!!
And, I guess I did a little of the nitty-gritty news after all.
Oops.
I could regale you with the happenings of the past month or two.
I'm sure it would be riveting and you would be perched on the edge of your seats totally enthralled with the next round of Christmas gathering pictures.
But I think I'll skip over all the nitty-gritty stuff and just start in where we're at right now.
Right this minute our house smells like Vicks, the sound of coughing can be heard at nearly every point in time, and the thermometer is a common sight on the table.
Jack welcomed the flu into our family Saturday, Ty got it early Sunday morning, Addie & Will started in Monday afternoon, Jason was Tuesday morning, and finally...I got it too, on Wednesday.
It's the kind of knock-down drag-out stuff that I'm sure you are all hoping that you cannot contract it simply by reading about it. High fevers, upset tummies, nasty coughs, and pounding headaches.
Word on the streets is that this stuff can last from 7-10 days. Yippee.
As long as I keep myself drugged up...as in Tylenol and Ibuprofen...the rest of my family has a nurse. If that stuff stops working, we're up a creek without a paddle.
Anyway.
That's the here and now.
As for why this blog has been so sorely neglected? We've been busy. Way more busy than is typical for around this house.
For quite a while, nearly a year to be exact, it has simply been easier to stay home from various functions due to our certain child's behaviors than it has been to go out and be sociable. Not that I really mind. I could easily be classified as a homebody, but I'll have to admit that being cut off from all friends and family for so long is starting to grate at me.
Hence the reason we made the decision to really enjoy our family Christmas gatherings this year. We get together with four families over the holiday season...three of them lasting from Friday night to Sunday night. The fourth is this coming Sunday and it remains to be seen if we are well enough to attend or not. Hoping we can.
Anyway. We went to three family Christmases. The first was the weekend before Thanksgiving. We skipped Friday evening and went on Saturday and Sunday. That's the weekend that my way-too-young brother had a heart attack...but he's doing just fine now so we won't discuss that at length.
The weekend went well. The children were on best behavior and put on a good behavior show for all the family. Those who deal with RAD know exactly what I mean by that statement. All was well until Monday morning hit. Then all went haywire.
Two weeks later, after both the older children were back on track and Jack was rewired after watching Will (his idol) spiraling backwards (whatever Will does, Jack does too), we had another weekend long Christmas. This time it was in Holmes County at my aunts house.
The weekend went fairly well. We pulled the children in for time-in's frequently, they responded well and we had high hopes that the coming weeks would be great!
Those high hopes were dashed quickly.
Those next two weeks were kind of like de-ja-vu. (How in the world do you spell that?) It took us back to the fall when Will was in the thick of his not appreciating us at all. AT ALL.
It was far from pleasant. I don't say that to complain, that is simply how it was. I was swiftly nearing my burn-out stage and was just ready to hole up for a while with nobody anywhere close. Hard to do when you have a husband and four young children. ;)
We made it through those two weeks with a chicken pox scare somewhere in the middle. Only Addie got it much to our surprise and her case was so minor that she was back at school the very next week. Sent home on a Thursday and back on Tuesday. Not too bad.
We also made it through those two weeks with Will not attending school at all....except for the last day before Christmas break. And no, that wasn't our call. We have the rule around here that if chores aren't finished before time to head to school, there is no school that day for that child. His chores? Swapping out the dog water...which should take about five minutes and those weeks was taking over an hour. We can't MAKE him do his chores properly. We can only reward for a job well done and give consequences for a job not well done. (Making our children do something does nothing for their trust level and love for us as their parents. All we can do is stay on our toes and be willing to follow through if the wrong choice happens to be made. Our goal is to re-wire their brains. Our goal is to teach them how to use the logic part of the brain rather than the survival part of the brain. Our goal is for them to think...If I don't do my chores, I don't get to go to school. Do I want to go to school and have fun? Or stay home and learn how to clean the bathroom...since Mommy says I don't need an education to be a janitor? Slowly but surely we're seeing the logic part kick in. Slowly but surely we're watching more good choices being made.)
Thankfully, (and this is a total God-thing) his teacher totally understands our situation as she has only adopted children herself and both of her children dealt with RAD. She was more than willing to send home his work every single day. It was super for him as he is learning that staying home from school does not mean that he loses that responsibility. It simply means that he has lots of make-up work to do.
And that is something that he really doesn't enjoy. I'll have to admit that I am likely the farthest thing from a patient teacher. In fact, he informed me after about four hours of non-stop school work that he sure was glad that I'm not his teacher all the time. I totally agreed with that statement and then asked him why? His answer, "Because my teachers are happy."
Oops.
Two weeks after our weekend in Holmes County was Christmas with my family. And, yes, even though we all live within 30 minutes of each other, we still get together from Friday night to Sunday night. Once again, the weekend went well...for the most part.
And once again, the after-the-weekend was a totally different story. In fact, ever since then really hasn't been the most fun.
Our days have been up and down. We're ever so thankful that our big plans are over, though we did enjoy them while they lasted.
The biggest problem with Will's set backs? Our other children. Addie is scared of him again cause she never knows what is going to set him off. Jack starts to act just like Will as Will is the big brother and he totally wants to be just like Will. And Ty got to the point when every time Will acted out Ty would start crying inconsolably.
It's really hard to know what to do. Please don't take me wrong. I love Will. He is my son in every sense of the word. We pray for him all the time. Addie included. Anytime she prays at a meal she always includes a prayer for Will to get strong. We love him so much...but it leaves us in a quandry. If he doesn't snap out of this funk soon we risk losing our other children...maybe not physically, but definitely mentally. All we can do right now is to keep our children safe. If Will starts in on a scream fest, he is immediately sent to his room. There's no point in our other children having to listen to that. Not only is it bet for the other three, it's best for Will. He gets some kind of satisfaction out of seeing the others scared.
At least in the thick of it, he does. Without fail, after a week or two of being stuck, he breaks. Totally of his own accord, he will break down in real tears. He'll tell us he's so sorry. He'll apologize and ask for forgiveness for his actions. And he'll become the loving happy little boy that we once knew.
At the point of his real tears, we know that his regret is real.
So what's his point?
Just checking to see if mom and dad (mainly mom) will still love him. She says she loves me. If I tear off this wall paper...will she still love me? Certainly, but there will be restitution for the destruction. If I rip the soles off my school shoes...will she still love me? Of course, but the next pair of shoes will be purchased with his own hard earned money. If I...... Yes, Will, I will love you no matter what you choose to do. ALWAYS.
We have high hopes that someday this will all be behind us. We have high hopes that Will is going to turn out to be a godly young man whose extreme energy and ambition will be used to spread the love of Jesus. He has such potential. He is truly a joy to be around....when he's not stuck.
When he is stuck? I send Jason to the store to search for the elusive sanity pills.
And honestly? This recent sickness that has invaded our home is a blessing in disguise. A very good disguise. It snapped him out of his funk and he has decided that mommy isn't so bad after all. When it comes right down to it, no matter how hard he tries to push mommy away, she's pretty nice to have around when the fever is raging at 104*. :)
And so we plug on. We have our fun times regardless of what it looks like on paper. We've made dozens of cookies & plate loads of candies, played games, put together puzzles, had a sledding party to enjoy our foot of snow, and just enjoyed being a family.
Our life really isn't as bad as it may sound. Really. While Will is stuck and trying to drag down the rest of the house, we are doing all we can to ensure that the happy times are stuck deep down in the hearts of our children. It's so very important for the other children to have a 'normal' life....as normal as it can be with a RAD child around. It's so very important that we have fun. It's so very important for our other three to see that life does not revolve around Will's choices...and it's also important that Will sees that our lives don't revolve around his choices.
2012 was a stressful year. RAD is stressful enough, but throw in a new baby and you've got enough stress to last a life time. Though, I'll have to say that God knew that HIS timing was best on the new baby end. More than once, I have told Jason that Ty has been my sanity keeper over the past six months. You simply cannot resist a sweet, innocent little bundle.
So there you have it. You're all caught up in the lives of our little family. The other five in the household are napping...one on the couch, one on the love seat, one on a floor bed, one on the recliner, and one in my lap. I know. I should be there too. But we don't have any other chairs to sleep in. ;)
Now. If we can just kick this sickness to the curb, we'll be ready to grab 2013 by the horns.
Praying for a wonderful year for you all....and us too!!
And, I guess I did a little of the nitty-gritty news after all.
Oops.
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