What's up

I just downloaded a graduation packet for Zach to participate in a homeschool graduation ceremony.  I'm pretty sure I'm not old enough to have a kid graduating from high school!

I'm still knitting.  I finished these socks just in time to keep my feet warm for the very wintery weather we had last weekend.

I also made this cupcake hat for a friend's daughter (Christmas gift).  I love the color combo!

I got the mantle decorated with our stockings.  Yes, I knit them all!

The nativities are up.

But still no tree.  Maybe tomorrow.

Greg's parents are coming for Christmas!  They will be here next week and stay through the new year.  We are all so excited to have them.

 Emily is still just as adorable as ever.  Usually.  Soon after that picture with the Veggie Tales nativity she through it down and broke off the star.  Gotta work on that temper!

Me and my big brother!

With her new doll, a gift from a friend for her adoption.

Planking on the stairs?!

Photo Shoot

My friend Stephanie did an outdoor photo shoot for us last week.  She delivered the disk with the pics today.  They turned out great!  It's not easy getting good shots of a busy toddler!  I can't post any of the pics with Emily yet.  But hopefully soon!  Our social worked visited today and things are looking good to finalize on November 18.

Anyway, here's a few I can show you. 

Zachary

Jonathan

Benjamin

Dad and the boys

Mom and the boys

 You'll have to wait until next month for the rest.  But believe me they are adorable!

Good news!

Finally some good news! We got notice today of the TPR hearing in M's case. This is the last legal thing that needs to be taken care of before we can start the adoption process. The hearing will be August 29 and is really just a formality. This person won't show up and his rights will be terminated. We will have to wait 30 days (in case anyone wants to file an appeal), then we will be able to file our adoption petition. Guess I'll be calling a lawyer soon so we can get started on the paper work. I really think we might be able to finalize before the end of the year.

M's language is coming along too. She started saying bye-bye and puppy this week. She is sooo adorable. I can't wait until I can post a picture here!

J starts kindergarten tomorrow. I think she'll do just fine. She saw her dad's house for the first time yesterday. It went ok, although the therapist said she was hyper and uncooperative after I left.

And finally, Ben started soccer practice with a new team tonight. It went great. Ben had fun and Greg really liked the coach and how he ran the practice. I think it's going to be a good fit.

Zach is home!!!

Zachary made it home last night - finally. Five weeks is a long time to be gone. We hadn't seen him in three weeks since we left him at Liberty University for his missions trip to the Bahamas.

He was supposed to be home Sunday night, but his plane from DC was delayed and he would have missed his connection in Denver. So he had to wait another day (he was with family). But he's home.

His trip was great. He worked at a youth camp for Bahamian teenagers. We're still getting the stories, but he saw what God can do and how lives can be changed when people are willing to serve.

Jonathan is at church camp. Greg dropped him off Sunday evening. He comes home tomorrow. It will be nice to have our whole family together again.

M can climb up in a chair now. Nothing is safe!!!

We have the rest of the termination trial this afternoon. Check back tomorrow for the results and please be praying for God's will to be done.

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Here's the photo book I made of my little New York City trip I took during our vacation.

Sick and more...

Ok, so that sick to my stomach comment on my last post. It was a little more than just being upset about the situation. By Thursday night I could barely get out of bed. I won't go into all the gory details, but I was sick. It is not easy being sick when you have 4 kids to care for and one of them a baby. Greg was able to come home from work early Thursday and Friday and Jonathan was a big help too. I'm finally today starting to feel somewhat normal again.

We do have a date to finish the trial: August 2.

And some exciting news about M. I think she's finally decided to talk! The last couple days she has been saying a lot more: da-da, ma-ma, diaper, thank you, night-night. It just seems like she's trying more to talk. We know she understands a lot. She just needs to make the jump to actually using words herself. Because the screaming to communicate is not really working for us!

We have a busy week coming up with doctor appointments for the girls and a visit with M's social worker. Hopefully we'll find out where they are in the process of termination so we can get moving on her adoption.

Zach will be back in the states Thursday and home Sunday night. We sure do miss him.

Update

So sorry it's been so long since I've updated. Life has been kind of crazy!

We got home from our vacation Monday evening. It was another looooong 3 days in the car to get home, but the kids all did great and I'm so glad we made the trip.

The TPR trial for J's dad started Tuesday afternoon, but they didn't even get through 2 witnesses. It will continue again next Wednesday and then August 9 if needed. I still really feel at this point it could go either way. Yes, it would be in J's best interest to be freed for adoption, but her dad has been doing everything he's asked to do and I'm not sure from a legal standpoint that his rights can be terminated. I'm having a really hard time with all of this. I want to love J with all my heart and I do love her. But I think I hold back a little because there might be a chance we have to let her go. I'm praying all the time for God to help me love her with His love.

My sister Renee and her 2 youngest kids have been here since Wednesday evening. We've been swimming, to the zoo, and bowling. We're going swimming again today. We've got to keep these kids busy or they just want to play video games all day!

Greg and I celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary Thursday. I really can't believe I've been married over half my life! And Greg still surprises me - he got me an iPad! Renee babysat for us so we could have a date night. Thanks Renee!

Zach called yesterday from the Bahamas. He's doing great, working hard and having fun. I sure do miss him!

Renee will leave tomorrow morning and we'll try to get back into our regular routine, which all of us need, especially J and me!

Night out

We


went to McDonald's (their choice)


and to a Drum Corp show.

Our favorite of the night, the Cadets, won the night.



I love spending time with these awesome boys!

Father's Day Car Show

Our church has a huge car show every Father's Day. We went Saturday afternoon before church.

Here's the boys with their favorites.

Dad and his kids minus Zach who was at work. Sorry about the starred out faces.

And a really cute little girl checking out a cool car.
In other news...We signed the Adoptive Placement Agreement for M. Nothing really changes and we can't even move on her adoption until the TPR is taken care of. But now she is technically no longer in foster care but an adoptive placement instead.

Update

Well, things are going very well here. It's finally starting to feel normal to have 5 kids!

J is doing really well. Her behavior issues are much less often and severe. I think she is getting more and more comfortable and attached to us. We have the permanency hearing next week and are looking forward to the TPR hearing in July. I really want to be able to tell her she'll be with us forever.

M is doing great. She's walking more than crawling now. She's still not really talking (other than something that sounds sort of like "all done" and "nite-nite". We were having sleep issues. She would go down fine at night, but then wake up after an hour and not want to go back to sleep. We bought a white-noise machine and that seems to be helping - no waking up 2 nights in a row! Our homestudy update is done and we should be doing disclosure (when we get to see all her records) in June. After that we get to talk to a lawyer!

Jon and Ben are finished with school and are enjoying their break. They rode bikes to their friend Bradley's several times last week to work on a "fort" in his backyard. They were so proud of all their hard work. Then it all blew apart in the wind Sunday. Bummer!

Zach is still finishing up his school. He's almost done, if he can just get his English research paper finished, I think he'll make it. We are all ready for him to get done so it will really feel like summer. You can pray for him too if you think about it. He's having a hard time dealing with the new manager at Chick-fil-A. He doesn't want to quit, but work is stressful and no fun for him right now.

We took all the kids to an indoor swimming pool Sunday afternoon. It was the first time we'd taken the girls to a pool. We weren't really sure how they would do. Well, J is a fish! She loves the water and is not afraid to put her head under. I think we'll have her swimming before the summer is over. The water was too cold for M. She mostly just sat on my lap shivering. But I least I didn't have to chase her!

That's all for now!

This and that

We had a home visit from another social worker to update our homestudy for M's adoption. She still needs to talk to Zach, but then it should be finished quickly. At least things are moving.

We had a meeting with workers from RCI who will be working with M on her developmental delays. What's really funny is a lot of the things she wasn't doing 3 weeks ago when they did her assesment she is now doing. We will have a developmental specialist come once a week to work on language and self help skills. I don't really think we are going to need this help for long. She's already catching up.

We decided that we will drive to Virginia for our vacation this summer. We did it several years ago when Ben was the same age as M is now and said we would never do it again. But after adding up the cost of 6 plane tickets (M wouldn't need a ticket) and a mini-van rental, we decided that was just too much money. So if we want to see the family we have to drive. 5 kids in a van for 3 days. Should be an adventure!

Still no news on J's case. :(

Jon and Ben finish school on Friday! Zach still has 3 or 4 weeks left, depending on how hard he works at getting things finished.

Aquarium

We took a field trip to the Aquarium and Botanical Gardens today. We went with some friends who also homeschool. The weather was perfect and everyone had fun. Another successful outing with 5 kids!


M liked the fish, or maybe she was just glad to be out of her stroller!

Update

Greg, Jon, and Ben left yesterday afternoon for homeschool band camp. So it's just me and the girls for a couple days. (Well, Zach is home today, but busy with school work.) J had a hard time last night. She has trouble with any kind of change. But she's doing better today.

J has a new social worker. Her worker showed up for her visit today with the new one. The new one is an adoptive worker and they want us to sign an intent to adopt. But the CYFD attorney still has not filed the TPR. More waiting, uggh. The biggest issue is that we want to take vacation in July and don't want to purchase plane tickets and then get a court date while we are gone, but we can't wait too much longer.

I get a night out! Some friends at our old church are doing a parent's night out as a fundraiser. I asked the social worker and we are able to take the girls to things like this. J's visit with her dad tonight got canceled (he's sick), so I'm taking them and going to a movie! I think I'll see Soul Surfer.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. I'm sure going to enjoy this first one as the mom of girls!

Pony tails

I put M's hair in pony tails yesterday!

I'm not a fan of the pony tail on the top of a baby's head. But twin ponies on the sides - adorable! Her hair has gotten pretty long, so I decided to see if it would work. It did! She looked so cute!

In other news, she is walking all over. She almost stood up from the floor (instead of crawling to furniture first) this morning, but slipped because of slippery socks. She's is definitely on the move!

Growing up!

M took her first steps about 2 weeks ago. But just yesterday she has decided she wants to be a walker. She is still pretty unsteady, but she's walking all over!

And yesterday was the first day with no bottle. I'm not sure she really even missed it. She just needs to start drinking more out of her sippy cup.

She's growing up!

Easter and a blanket

Easter weekend didn't go quite like we had planned, but we managed to make the most of it. Greg was sick and the weather of course was awful. Benjamin and Jonathan (reffing) had soccer games Saturday afternoon. I thought the weather would be ok, but by the time we got to the field the wind was howling and dirt was blowing. Yuck! Greg and I ended up staying in the car with the girls until they finished.

Then it was home to get ready for church. It wasn't very warm, but we dressed up the girls in their new dresses and I put on a skirt (first time since last summer I think!). We did manage to get some cute pictures (that I can't post here).

We went to Chick-fil-A for dinner and to see Zachary. He had to work and wasn't able to go to church with us.

Everyone got Easter goodies (baskets for the girls) Sunday morning. More cute pictures I can't post here. Zachary ran sound for the kids services (4 services!) all morning. Jonathan and I served in the preschool ministry for 2 services.

We were supposed to have a picnic Sunday afternoon with some of the families in our small group. But once again the weather did not cooperate. So instead J and I went to Walgreens for cough syrup for Greg (he's still sick) and Domino's for pizza for dinner.

At some point over the weekend, I finished the baby blanket I had started before the girls came.

It's for a friend due next month. I was just glad I finished it before the baby was born. Now I'm working on another baby blanket for another friend due next month also. I'm pretty sure I won't finish this one in time!

The new addition

We had a new addition to the family over the weekend.

Yup, a new fridge! The old one faithfully served us for 18 years. But a few weeks ago she decided she did not want to make ice anymore, so we decided it was time for a new one.

She's so bright and shiny and roomy. And she gives me ice and water from the door. So thoughtful she is. I think I'm in love. Welcome to the family!

Zoo!

We all had so much fun at the zoo today. We took the wagon for the girls to ride in. M loves riding in the wagon and would fuss everytime I took her out to get a picture. J had been to the zoo once before and loved going again. The boys always love the zoo.

I made sure I got a picture that I could actually show on here - no faces!

McDonald's afterward made it the perfect outing!

What's up?

My sister Renee and niece Sarah (17) were here over the weekend. Sarah had hadn't been here or wanted to come for a couple years because there was nothing for her to do and boys were no fun. But she couldn't wait to come meet the girls.

It was so nice to have them here and they were such a help. Renee was great at rocking M to sleep and Sarah kept J entertained.

Greg ran in the Batan Death March Memorial Marathon yesterday at White Sands. He said it was brutal: running mostly uphill in the sand in 4o mph wind. It took him just under 6 hours. He is very sore and moving slow today!

I'm still knitting when I can. I'm getting closer to the end of the baby blanket I've been working on, just a few inches to go. Then I came across another pattern last week and had to try it. It's the Mitered Crosses Blanket on the MasonDixon Knitting blog. Proceeds from the sale of the pattern go to relief work in Japan. I bought the pattern and have almost finished one square. Once I finish the square, I'll get back to the baby blanket.

Renee was at Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs a couple weeks ago and got to see the Duggars being interviewed for the radio program. (The only thing I miss not having satellite TV anymore is their show 19 Kids and Counting.) Renee bought me their book, The Duggars: 20 and Counting. It's a good book and very well written. It tells their family story and also gives lots of parenting advice and tips. I'm now finding myself thinking, "How would Michelle Duggar repond?" Although I don't want that many kids, I admire how they are raising their family.

Sure wish I could post pictures of my beautiful girls.

Jonathan is 12!

I almost forgot to post about Jonathan's birthday!

He turned 12 last Saturday. 12! One more year and I'll have 2 teenagers. Yikes!

His friend Bradley spent the night. We had dinner (just like every Saturday night after church) at Dion's. I made his favorite chocolate chocolate chip cookie cake.

His gift from us was new cymbals for his drum set, which came UPS yesterday. He didn't like the crash cymbal, so we're returning it and looking for a new one. He's getting picky about his drums!