Prairie Arts

On January 22nd we got the privilege of going to the Prairie Arts Art show on the campus of our local college.  Emma had a piece of her artwork that was featured with several other students from surrounding schools in our area.  She was SOOO excited and we were very proud and excited for her. 

I love the concept of this because it is all elementary students and not only do they feel so special to be chosen but they also get to go to a college campus and hear a speech on creativity and how art is one of the only subjects where there is really no wrong answer. 

I’m so amazed and in awe of the person Emma is becoming.  She thinks things through (most of the time) an analyzes them and usually tries to find God in whatever it is she is doing.  Recently they have been studying African American history in her class at school.  She has grown a sort of obsession with Ruby Bridges.  For those that don’t know, she was the first African American child to be integrated into white school.  She has her brother and cousin role playing and acting out the scenes, she’s writing papers on her and talks about her a lot in conversation.  Over the weekend I was in Texas visiting family and she called me to tell me about a paper she was writing about Ruby.  She told me that she wanted to find a verse that she thinks could have been something that Ruby would’ve been able to use to not be afraid.  So, on her own, she searched the bible and found Hebrews 13:6 “So we say with confidence ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?’”  She called and told me that and then said “ya know mom, I really started thinking about that and really, what could man do to us?  Nothing! God is bigger than anyone!”  Man I love that girl!

 

CLC in April!

We applied and were granted again by REMC's Operation Round Up for another 4 weeks at the Conductive Learning Center in Grand Rapids, MI!!  Full Tuition paid!  How blessed are we to have this company in our area and how amazing that two years in a row they have donated to us! 

We were struggling with this so much because with all of the the expenses going on with our adoption we really weren't sure how we were going to swing the $2425 for her tuition but we really wanted to make sure Laila gets back to CLC before Judah comes home and we'll need to be really settled for awhile to give him some stability.  God is SOOO good to us!

Get ready for some daily blogs come April ;)

Christmas Break 2011

I love having my kids home on breaks from school.  I love it.  So yes, part of it is that I love not having to get up so early in the morning but mostly because I feel like half of their life is away from me when they’re at school and I love these times when I get them back to myself.

Here’s a problem.  Laila goes to preschool at the public elementary school here in town and Emma & Jackson go to the Christian school.  They had two different time frames of time off.  That sort of stinks.  We were going to try to go visit our friends in Minnesota but Laila went to school a few days after Emma & Jackson and then Emma & Jackson went back a few days before Laila and that mixed with two holidays just wasn’t going to work.  We’re still trying to decide what we’ll do with Laila for school when she reaches Kindergarten age.  Pray about that please!

We filled our time up with other fun things and spending days at home.  This year for Christmas we asked each of our parents to get the kids memberships to museums because we really don’t need any more toys and they just needed a few clothes.  My parents got us a membership to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and Jack’s got one to the Museum of Science and Industry.  We’re so excited to be able to do these fun things with the kids all year long and it was very nice this year not to have to try to find somewhere for more toys!!

Here’s the kiddos on Christmas Eve getting ready for bed. 

 

Christmas morning we always read the real Christmas story before we do any presents

This is one of my favorites.  Jackson went around the how and put things in gift bags for all of us so we’d have presents from just him.  This was in mine.  We love the book “Love You Forever” and this was him trying write out the line that says “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living my mommy you’ll be”  :)

We wrapped up the kids passport applications and told them they’re coming with us when we go to bring their brother home :)  You can check out updates about that here

This was Laila’s FAVORITE present.  PS – look at those chubbers! :)

This was probably Laila’s least favorite present but it sure has helped us with potty to give her something to hold onto in front of her while sitting on her potty.  She’s getting used to it again already.  She better because we’re hoping to go back to CLC in April!

Another tradition is that Christmas is the only day of the year that we eat cake for breakfast :)

One of the days over break Grandma Kathy took us all out to see the movie “We Bought A Zoo.”  We picked up Cole & Kirstyn and headed to McDonald’s play place for lunch first.

The Friday before New Year’s we road the train and headed to the aquarium with Grandma Kathy & Papa Roger.  It was INSANE there!  Hopefully next time we go it won’t be so busy and hopefully we can get grandma and grandpa to brave Chicago again sometime…….

My kiddos playing in the water at the aquarium.  Yes, Laila is standing be herself :)

So Emma & Jackson are back to school already and Laila goes back on Monday.  Back to our normal routine and excited to see what the kids will learn this year.  One of my favorite memories from Christmas this year was that Jackson praying before we opened presents.  “Dear Lord, it’s not about presents, it’s not about trees, it’s not about ornaments, it’s not about lights, it’s not about food ( and on and on), it’s only about you.  Amen.”  I love that kid and since this was Emma’s first year with the true knowledge about S-A-N-T-A and us not being sure what to do about Jackson since Emma was very surprised we would lie to her and questioned us on some other very important things, I desperately needed to hear that prayer from my little man.

Journey of Joy 2011

This year instead of doing a Christmas choir program with singing, the Love Notes choir put on a Christmas Journey of Joy.  This is a 15 minute walk through the story of Jesus birth.  Emma had the part of Balthazar (one of the wise men) and Jackson played a shepherd in the stable at Jesus birth.  Each kid did a great job with their different parts and I gave them a lot of credit for sitting still and doing this over and over again for three hours. 

We do hope and pray that as you come into this Christmas season that you will truly remember the reason for it.  We have been blessed in so many ways this year but none more than by having the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.  Merry Christmas!!

IPAD!!!!

These things don't just happen to people.  I keep saying that in disbelief of the surprise we got this past week.  Let me start at the beginning......

We have stayed in touch and good friends with one of Laila's therapists that she had before she turned three and was in the First Steps program for therapy.  Stacy was the one therapist that transferred with her when she came to live with us.  She is also the only person that we know that has known Laila pretty much her whole life.  She provided therapy for her for awhile before she went into foster care.  Her friendship and support has been invaluable to me because she not only rejoices with every little victory that Laila has made because she knows how bad off she was before, but she is also a strong woman of faith and is willing to pray with me and encourage me in the only way that really works.  I honestly am not sure if I would've made it through some of those weeks of therapy with her in the beginning if it hadn't been for Stacy's kind words.  She was also very good at incorporating Jackson into therapy to help Laila which was so good for us when we were trying to find a place for everyone in our crazy, upside down life at that time.

We have been able to get together a few times since Laila aged out of First Steps in May and the Webb family was a huge supporter of Laila's progress at CLC as well.  One day a few weeks ago we decided to stop by Stacy's house because we had an hour to kill and we had been saying for a long time that we would but had never made it over there.  They moved in June and we really wanted to be able to see their house.  On a whim I called Stacy and asked if Laila and I could stop by.  We popped over a little while later and visited for a bit.  While we were there her husband Jeff came home after having lunch with a consultant that he works with who comes in once a week.  We greeted each other and then Stacy started telling this man, George, that Laila was her miracle child and how far she had come.  We were having Laila try to take her steps and she was giving George that famous Laila smile.  Jeff was looking through their mail and saw that their new Kindle had come so he opened it up to check it out.  We were all sitting around talking about how we loved the new movie Courageous and would recommend it (buy it when it comes out in January just had to get that plug in there!!).  Stacy said she was going to use the Kindle in her therapy with patients and wondered if I had heard of people using them for therapy.  I explained that the Kindle is great but the reason the Ipad is better for Laila is that the screen is bigger and with her poor fine motor control that makes a big difference.  The guys left, Stacy and I visited a little while longer and that was the end of a fun day.  I thought.

This past Wednesday Stacy showed up at our house with an Ipad for Laila.  Apparently George fell in love with Laila and her story and her progress and decided to give her his Ipad.  He said that reading books on it and playing Angry Birds was not as important as Laila's learning and progress.  I think I am still in shock from the whole thing.  What an amazing, giving, Christian man to not only give her an Ipad but to give her his own Ipad!  I seriously am out of words to express my gratitude to this family.  A "chance" meeting (God set it up), a Kindle delivery that sparked a conversation and amazing friends that believe in and support us.  Laila is so amazingly blessed and is a blessing and I so look forward to many more things that God is going to use her through to show His love and kindness.  Praise Him!  And THANK YOU George!!

Adopting Judah

We are so very excited to announce that we are adopting again!  Our amazing brother Kevin has created us a whole website complete with blog to keep everyone up to date on this adventure.  I plan to keep this blog for our current family memories and keep that blog for our adoption process.  Please check it out at adoptingjudah.com!

ChiTag – Emma’s TV debut :)

Last weekend we went up to Chicago to Navy Pier for their annual Toy and Game fair.  Emma had joined a group through Girl Scouts to play a card game called Top Trumps.  All the Girl Scouts were planning to play the game to try break the World Record for the most people playing cards in one place at one time.  (sadly, they didn’t break the record).

We decided to make it a fun family day but weren’t so sure about the handicap accessibility for Laila so she had to stay behind with “bamma & papa" which was sad but she loves to spend time with them and it gave us a great opportunity to be able to scope things out for bringing her next time.  We found all the right train and bus stations to be able to take her next time!

We caught a 6:15 train into Millennium station and then found our way to the bus to catch to Navy Pier.  We had a little extra time so we walked around a bit on State street and showed the kids some fun stuff like being able to see them taping the morning news are the ABC station.  Little did we know that Emma would be on that news a few hours later!!

We got over to Navy Pier and found where we needed to be and right away they ushered us in and said that since Emma was there early she was going to be able to be on the news!!  I guess that made that SUPER EARLY morning all worth it!  They had table set up to have girls playing the card game while the news interviewed the inventors of the game.  You can see the video here.

We had never been to the Toy and Game fair but we had so much fun!!  We didn’t stay too long because we were missing our Laila and were stuck to a train schedule but here are some fun pictures.  We’re asking grandparents for museum and aquarium memberships for Christmas this year since we’re blessed with so many toys and clothes already so hopefully there will be many more fun trips to Chicago with everyone in our near future :)

Jackson was so excited about this because he’s been really getting into Star Wars lately.

The news camera!!

Jackson getting his cards signed by the inventors