Sometimes.....

 .....you just have to get it out.....

....just to move on!

So bear with me:)

 Math today.

Lots of colors using a pen with 4 colors in it.

No it is not just cute and fun---it is a child that is HIGHLY distracted.

And he took 2 hours to do his "cute" math page.

 Here is part of our language book.

Actually almost every lesson has the name written in.

Preparing ahead of time?

No--anything but what we should focus on.

 Yesterday's math.

Love all the cute pictures?

This was hours in the making.

Oh my.

 An example of two days of lessons.

One day fine attention...

...the next--not so much.

Wondering if food may be more related.

I think a food journal will be happening.

 Oh my Caled.

About 50% of the time.

 You may just laugh at this one.

But there is a total inability to slow down enough to even try to tear these on the line.

If he does, he is so proud he brings them to me:)

 A two week old toothbrush.

A great example of oral sensory issues.

A blanket on one of the couches.

This was chewed apart.

During a movie--there was a need for sensory input.

Actually seeing this one more and more right now.

 Our computer sits just off our kitchen in a former laundry closet.

We chose to leave the faucets in, in case we wanted to put them back in some day.

Well Mr. Curious wondered if they worked.

You guessed it....

Right over my computer.

Thankfully he also has fast reflexes and got it off quick, but did not get it cleaned up too well.

 This is the result when you wonder if the scissors will actually cut through jeans?

Answer:  Yes

 An example of Caleb's pencils.

All the tabs pulled off in the first 24 hours.

Erasers gone in three days.

Chewed up.

He mostly uses mechanical pencils because he presses so hard he is constantly breaking lead.

These pencils require him to press lighter and I can also read it.

 Not such a great picture.

But you can get the idea of all erasers..

and parts and pieces of erasers.

 Another example of his name.

He wrote his name 8 times and 6 are CaleD and 2 are CaleB.

 Again this is kind of hard to see.

His helicopter from Christmas.

Totally broken to pieces, but he has tried to tape it back together.

Probably half a roll of tape here.

He buys his own tape now.

 An example of a book.

Any book.

Missing, riped, bent---normal.

 His favorite drawing book at the moment.

Was in perfect shape till after finishing a math lesson.

Why?

He has no answer.

 Headphones worn during his school.

See the tape again.

He usually tries to 'fix' his mistakes or hide them.

 Here you see what it looks like under the tape.

You can also see the other side is already fixed by me.

He needs the headphones to help keep focused on his video lessons.

 The great idea to go move dirty logs for in the back yard after the rain...

in a white sweatshirts and our good shoes!

I thought this was perfect for the last picture!

There is actually drawing all over the shelf below my 'Pray'!  

Good reminder---to keep praying and keep it in focus.

I am going through "The Connected Child" again with our adoptive group.

Karyn Purvis says on page 36 that a child that "is restless and constantly fidgety"  may be trying to express "I must stay alert and prepared to defend myself at all times because in the past there was no adult to protect me."

Do I feel this is possibly true?

You bet.

When the stresses are higher, the behavior is higher.

What set this last set of issues off?

Well we are working on that.

It takes years to unlearn behaviour that is learned as a trauma response.

Right now it is gentle constant reminding of love and safety.

God is good.

He is the ultimate healer.

We trust with Him all is possible.

We know He amazing plans for our treasure.

So we pray.

We love.

And we give thanks daily for the blessings that come in so many shapes and sizes:)

We have been enjoying some late season white stuff around our house!

Living where we do, that usually means a nice powering in the morning that is gone by 10am.

So we have had our share of late start school days to enjoy our little blips of white pleasure.

Our Little Hannah has had about 6 months of free-flowing learning--which we have been abundantly thankful for.

But as we have seen in the past, she has times of very blocked learning also.

Sadly we have come across one of those points again.

Praying for patience for me.

That I may be able to provide some positive concrete reinforcement of what she does have during this time.

God is good.

Perspective

Yesterday I realized it had been a while since I got the ironing done and thought I better get at it.

So about four hours later this is what I had!

As I looked at this rack of clothes I just knew I could not be upset with having to spend all morning getting this done.

There is so much to be thankful in this one picture of daily life:

1) My wonderful husband has a good job requiring him the need to wear all these clothes.

2)  That I have a wonderful, hard working husband providing for us.

3) That we have the finances to buy enough clothes that I don't have to do this everyday.

4)  That I have the time in my day to accomplish this task.

5)  For fun video and teaching audios that make this task easier.

6)  That Hannah mostly likes non-ironable dresses.

7)  For sweaters and sweatshirts that I love to wear so I don't have to iron much for me.

8)   That Caleb, at the age of 11, does not want to wear anything that needs ironing.

9)  For electricity to run the iron and computer during this time, seriously can you imagine doing this the old fashioned way!

10)  For the many blessings we can find in our lives, if only we choose to have the eyes to look for them.

Have a wonderful Thursday, and may you find many blessings hidden in your day:)

Normal?!

Young African Choir

What an amazing week we had with our four young guests.

This is Isaac, Me , Hannah, Nicolas, David, Caleb(otherwise known as big eyes and cheesy grin), Jonathan, and Samuel.

It was like having Drew home times 4!!!

Here is the whole group performing on Sunday night.

We hosted the only four boys in the group.

Here is Isaac belting it out.

I thought he was a quiet young man, but found out differently on his last day here.

Here is sweet Samuel sharing his talents.

He always had a smile---seriously!

This is Jonathan who was our quiet serious one:)

Who was so kind and tender to everyone.

And lastly our lone Kenyan, among his Ugandan friends, is Nicolas.

He was the mischievous one with a grim that can melt hearts

Samuel and Nicolas sharing how important water containers are to the people of Africa.

And now they demonstrate how fun they can be too.

This was quite a talented group.  

They will be heading up the west coast, make sure to look and see if they will be in your area.

Demonstrating some traditional instruments.

The girls singing and dancing and the boys with lots of energy and traditional instruments.

And Nicolas, Samuel and Jonathan  really getting into the drumming.

It was amazing!

Now for the story you will want to share with your kids.

While here these boys were all waiting for results of their final exams, and they were seriously nervous.

Here are a group of young men who only through the African Children's Choir were given an education all the way through high school.

Their final exams tell them if they will be able to go to University and if they will be able to get into the University that has their field of desired study.  

It is pretty much a one time shot.

Considering our boys were planning on being psychologist, lawyers and architect, good grades were a must.

These two very excited young men, Samuel and Issac, got outstanding grade and were dancing around my front room praising the Lord for His blessings at 10 pm one evening.  

David and I were blessed beyond words to be able to be there and witness it with them and share in their joy as surrogate parents.

Thank you Lord for the privilege.

As of Wednesday morning Jonathan still had not worked up the courage to look at his grades, he was so afraid of possibly letting others down because of his performance.

Nicolas was still waiting as Kenya's scores had not come out yet.

We will always treasure our time with these young men and the privilege it was spending time with them.