Easter

We were awakened on Easter morning by 2 very eager little girls at 6:15. The kids found their Easter baskets and searched for eggs around the house. Then we were off to church. Sadly, it was our pastor's last Easter service with us, and we were happy we were able to be there for it. We were there in time for the Easter pancake breakfast and egg hunt. (We ignored the gluten-free diet for the day.) After church, we headed to Grandma Lynn and Grandpa Bob's. The kids had to find their Easter bags there, too, and Grandma had also hidden puzzle piece all over the house. We found all of them and put the puzzle together. It said "We Believe. Jesus Died. Jesus Rose." Then it had all of our names on it.

Cousins on the couch.

Easter baskets at home. My kids are getting so big!



Aren't they the best?!!


Miss I coloring Easter Eggs on Saturday. Miss O did some, too, but wasn't in the mood to have her picture taken.
Happy Easter to you all! Christ is Risen!

Cakes

I made a couple of cakes recently. Mike's birthday cake:

A cake for a family at church.

I love practicing cake decorating!

Ethiopia

I led a day of activities on Ethiopia at our homeschool group the other week. I brought in a bunch of the things we bought while we were there, we watched a short video about Etiopia, looked through our scrapbook, made a traditional thatched roof hut, and finished the day with a snack of Yesmir Wat and Injera. It was a really fun day!

Digestion

We've been studying about our bodies in science. We traced each of the girls' bodies, and then drew their digestive systmes, and they had to color organs different colors. Sorry the pictures are sideways.

Fun night

A couple of weeks ago, Grandma Lynn and Grandpa Bob took the kids overnight for us, so we could get some time away together. What a blessing that was! These are some shots of the kids and grandparents playing in the back yard before we left for the evening.

Miss O and I had spent the morning at a Neuropsychology appointment. They spent a good amount of time making me feel terrible about our decision to home school, and trying to convince me that it would be best for Miss O if she were in a special Ed. setting in a school classroom. I came home in tears. Thankfully, my wonderful husband is just as committed to homeschooling the kids as I am, and he was comforting to me, and so was Lynn. But, after a morning like that, it sure was nice to get away with my husband to discuss our plans and options, regroup, and just relax. We spent the afternoon at the Science Museum Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. We checked in to our hotel, had a nice dinner out, and a relaxing evening in the room. In the morning we checked out a new book store we hadn't been to before, and found they had a good sized homeschooling section. It was a nice, relaxing time away.

More creativity

The girls made coil clay pots. They turened out pretty cute! They boy played with the clay, but just was not a huge fan. After they dried, they each painted their pots. It was a fun day!

Stories and creations

We read The Little Red Hen, and the girls each made their own Little Red Hen book. They drew the hen and told me what to write for them for the story.

Miss O's Little Red Hen story.

Miss I's Little Red Hen story.

The same day, the girls decided to use their creative sides on their own. Here is Miss O and her special book she made for daddy.

Here is Miss I with her mask invention. Yes, she did it completely by herself, including asking specifically for the TP rolls.

Chores

The girls have had chores for quite some time now. They are both responsible for picking up their rooms, putting their clean clothes away, helping set the table, and clearing their plates from the table. This winter I've been working with them on cleaning the bathroom. For a few months I've been doing it with them. They have now graduated to doing it mostly on their own. I spray the cleaners and they do the scrubbing. When they are done I go in an wipe up the puddles and any missed spots, and I take care of the base of the toilet and floor. Here they are doing their new chore. I'm so proud of them!

Miss I lost her pants while scrubbing the toilet. :) (Which, by the way, is her favorite part of cleaning the bathroom.)

Two amazing events

As I type this post, I am sitting on our couch watching two absolutely amazing events. Miss O is sitting on the floor with Boggle Jr. spelling out words, looking at the pictures, and saying the words. That in and of itself is wonderful and amazing to watch, as she teaches herself to read! While that was happening, Ato T rolled himself over to her and then "crawled" to her, pushed the top of the game box on purpose to mess up her letters, and then giggled loudly when her game was messed up and she was bothered. These two events from my kids with special needs. The girl who I was chastised about just 2 weeks ago, for not teaching her enough phonics, and the boy who is missing half of his brain. They are amazing kids! Our God is even more amazing. Thank you, Lord, for creating and nurturing these amazing lives, and for allowing me to be part of that.

More sensory fun

Shaving cream play sparks up any day! And mommy loves it for practicing letters. They don't even know they're doing "school." :>)

She did it!!!!!

Miss O has peed in the potty!!!!! We tried for no diapers again today. She always does well until she has to go (about 4-5 hours), and then has the accident all at once. Then she's good for another 3-4 hours. Today it started out all the same, until I noticed she was missing. When I found her, she had taken her panties off and put on a pull-up to pee in. So mommy said, okay, that's it - you are not allowed to wear pull-ups or diapers anymore. And guess what - she's gone pee in potty twice now. Once with a witness and a lot. So it's a pizza party tonight! Wahoo!!!!! Way to go Miss O! We're so proud of you!!!!!

I'm a Christian

We don't celebrate Halloween at our house. Miss O's therapists are aware of this, and are really nice about not doing "halloweeny" stuff with her around that time. Today I guess one of Ato T's therapists was confused about what holidays we do and don't celebrate, so she asked Miss O if we celebrate St. Patrick's day. Miss O boldly and joyfully (from what I hear) said "I'm a Christian! I love Jesus! I've always loved Jesus! I celebrate Jesus!" Ahhhhh ... music to this mother's ears.

Wiggle Tag

Miss O made up her own game, called Wiggle Tag. It's not really tag, more of a race. She had us start in the front living room and do an exercise (like crab walk, downward facing dog, etc.). Then we run to the front door, which is where the race begins. We race to the patio door in the back family room and then back to the front door. Our last time doing it, she added that we had to run around the dining room table before going to the patio door.

This is an amazing accomplishment for Miss O! She made up her own game with rules, and explained it very well to the whole family! Then she came up with her own name for it! I wish I could explain how incredibly amazing this is for our beautiful girl who happens to have 1p36 deletion syndrome. It was the funnest game I have ever played!

I feel so blessed to have her here at home with us all the time, so we are able to witness these wonderful bursts of creativity. On a side note, she has also been very interested in making her own books lately. :) We praise the Lord for His grace in allowing Miss O to continue to develop so well!

When daddy's away ...

Mike is gone for a good portion of this week on a business trip. He'll also be gone next week for a good portion of the week. When he's gone, the kids and I are able to realize how much he really does for us, and how much he means to us. We also realize (especially me) how much we take him for granted.

Yesterday was his first day gone, and the girls woke up saying, "I miss my daddy!" I found this amusing, since even if he WAS in town, they typically would not see him until about 6:00 in the evening. However, they just knew that their daddy was not as accessible as he usually is, so they missed him.

Does your life feel like that when you are not able to spend time with God? Mine does. Even though I know he's always there for me when I actually take the time to be with him, it's easy to take his presence for granted. When I have strayed and not taken time to be with him, I miss my heavenly daddy, just like my kids miss their earthly daddy when he is away. The difference is, my kids can't control when their daddy is "absent" because of work. (Mike is never truly absent). Our heavenly daddy is never absent, we just make the choice to not turn to him.

Have you taken time with your Father today?

"Jokes"

We're driving home from the chiropractor today, and the girls decided to make up some "jokes." I'll share some with you, so that you understand why I put that in quotes.

Miss I's: Why did the slug chase the chicken? Because he wanted to eat the chicken. (roaring laughter)

Miss O's: What did the potty say to the kid? I'm going to flush you. (more roaring laughter)

These "jokes" continued for the entire 20 minute drive home. My girls are so funny! :-)

Are you reading?

Just wanted to check and see if people are reading the blog and just not writing any comments, or if maybe no one reads, and there is really no point to me continuing to blog. Can you let me know?

Thanks!

"Way too much" days

If you are reading this on Facebook, fear not, I am sticking to the giving up facebook thing, but my account automatically posts my blog into my notes.

Our days seem to be filled from top to bottom, constantly. They seem even more full for me lately, because Ato T's PCA left a few weeks ago for a full-time job. We hope to have her position filled soon. Our days are filled with school, cleaning, cooking, and therapy appointments. There are times that's okay, and times that it's just way too much for the kids. Yesterday was one of those "way too much" days.

After a morning of cleaning parts of the house and doing some school, we headed to an afternoon eye doctor appointment for Miss O and Ato T. We were there on time (for once)! Unfortunately, the Doctor was running WAY behind. Our appointments were at 3:45 and 4:15, but we were not seen until about 4:45. That makes for a long afternoon in the waiting room for 3 kids and mommy! However, they did really well, and we made it through the appointments and the 45 minute drive home in rush hour traffic.

That is not where our story ends, oh no. I arrived home at 6:05 with 3 very hungry and tired children! Thankfully I had made dinner before we left, and all I needed to do was set the table and warm up the soup. Mike arrived home about 5 minutes after us. He was able to deal with the screaming and whining while I got supper on the table. Supper went well, but the evening went downhill from there.

After supper was filled with screaming, whining, fighting, crying, etc. We got through the evening, and all children went to bed early.

After an evening like that, the girls woke up today to tell me they didn't want to go to Horizons (our home school group), because they were coughing too much. I couldn't argue that, so we have spent the morning at home reading, cleaning, cooking, playing games, and having some much needed down time. Praise the Lord for days when we are able to make these choices for our Children! I am so thankful today (and every day) that we have the privilege of home schooling our children, and we can give them what they need, when they need it.

Thank you Lord!

Art Show

The kids all submitted artwork to an art show at a small studio in the area, and the first open house was this Saturday. Here they are posing by their works.

Miss O and Miss I made their paintings by putting the canvass on the floor below the swing, then swinging back and forth, using their hands and feet to paint.

Ato T made his painting by stomping on the canvass with his feet.


There were activities for the kids to participate in, too.

There was a drawing for a prize at the end of the open house, and Miss I won! We picked it up on Tuesday, and she won a sketch jpad with a sketch pencil. She's having a great time exploring her artistic style with it!

Saturday morning sensory fun

I got to hang out alone with Ato T this Saturday while Mike took the girls to swimming lessons. So, we had some fun playing with shaving cream in the stander!

At first, he wasn't too sure about it:

But he warmed up to the goo very quickly!


Needless to say, when all was said and done, I took him out of the stander and straight to the bathtub. He had a blast, and was able to get some great sensory stimulation!

Sledding

The girls love sledding! (The boy, not so much.) We've been able to get out a few times this year. We almost always go to the hill at our church. It's not too big and not too small - just right for us!

Happy Valentines Day!

Well, I'm really hoping to get my "new" camera set up to download pictures on my computer soon. I'm tired of not posting, but I also don't like posting without some type of picture. Hopefully soon...

We had a great Valentines Day! After church we came home and had heart-shaped pancakes with sausage. Then Grandma Lynn and Grandpa Bob stopped over to give us valentines, and a flower for each of us! Before nap, we opened our valentine gifts and cards from Grandma and Grandpa Bogie, Mary and Sue and mommy and daddy. The kids all got new beach towels. A Lightening McQueen towel for Miss I, a Princess towel for Miss O, and a fish towel for Ato T. Daddy got homemade cards, and mommy got some beautiful flowers, a show on DVD, and later we will be shopping for a new CD/tape player to have installed in the van. :)

We ended the day with a family movie night. We watched a BBC documentary called The Meerkats, narrated by Paul Newman. It was really cute! However, we're trying to decide if watching shows like this is good for Miss I or bad for her. We watched The March of the Penguins a few weeks ago, and she cried for 1/2 an hour at the end, because the penguins would never see their parents again. Last night she cried for about 15 minutes during the movie because one of the pups was caught by an eagle. Then at the end of the movie she cried for 15 minutes again for the same reason. After she had calmed down, she started asking about her foster families (there were 2, she came home to us when she was 3 months old). She wants to meet them. So this week I'm on a quest to try and contact them.

Miss O didn't have a problem at all with one of the pups being eaten. She just said "that's okay, his mommy and daddy are still alive!"

Ato T was just happy (as always) to be with the whole family!

That was our day. I'd love to hear your thoughts on showing these movies to Miss I. Does it help her work through some issues, or is it just making things worse?

God's Healing

A blog I follow recently posted about healing that God has brought to her life. It is an amazing story, and I encourage you to check it out at www.imghaaadopt.blogspot.com. It made me think about the amazing healing God has done in our lives, and I thought I would share that with you.

When Miss O was born, we knew something was "off." When she was about 3 months old, I brought her to a doctor in my hometown, who I knew would listen to my concerns. (Since docs near us kept making me think I was crazy.) He immediately admitted her to the hospital for tests. We ended up spending a week there, getting tubes in her ears, heart echos done, chromosome analysis done, and acid levels monitored. They were finally able to diagnose that her acid levels in her stomach were extremely high, and we got her put on meds to help. After the tubes were put in, she smiled and cooed for the first time in her life.

Unfortunately, the echo cardiogram showed some significant problems that were not so easily addressed. We were released from the hospital and told to see a cardiologist in our area in 3 months. So that's exactly what we did. Fortunately, we didn't do any research into her heart condition they told us she had until about a week before her next cardiology visit. I say fortunately, because what we did find out is that the heart condition we told us she had would cause her little life to end within a year. That week waiting to go back to the cardiologist was the worst week of my life.

After her next echo cardiogram and cardiology appointment, her new cardiologist informed us that the first doctors has misdiagnosed her. She actually had a condition called Left Ventricular Non-Compaction. this comes with it's own issues, but does not always mean certain death. Praise God!

Why do I post this in a healing post? Because what I have not yet mentioned is that during that week that we waited to to go back to the new cardiologist, I spent every spare moment I had crying out to God and praying for the healing of my precious girl. Do I believe the first doctors made a mistake in their diagnosis? No. I know that God chose to heal her heart. He did not choose to heal it completely right away, but I continue to pray for her an over her, and know that he promises to heal it completely. Will that be on this earth or in heaven? I don't know the answer to that question. But I do know that He will heal her at some point.

A pastor friend of mine posted a series of essays about healing on his blog. I encourage you to read them! www.philressler.com - then search the word Healing. I pray you are as encouraged by these as I was.

One Year

One year ago today we arrived home with Ato T! How fast a year goes by! He has grown so much and made so many gains in his development, and he is most definitely attached to his sisters! (Mom and dad, too.) Here are some shots and a video from when we arrived at the airport, greasy and very tired.