Sickness

We have been fighting colds around here, but I think yesterdays hike sent little Hannah over the edge, sadly.

She spent most of the morning and afternoon in bed, but I am happy to say she doing lots better tonight!

My youngest treasures have not been sick much, there is some questions running around out there as to whether kids who have suffered some kind of early trauma are sick as often as other kids.  Their early trauma usually puts them on high alert much of the time, hence their bodies are like hyper-vigilant, and possibly this keeps them from getting as sick as other kids.  I am not sure of this, but I do know mine are not sick very often at all.

This was probably the one of the sickest I had seen Hannah with a high fever and sweats.

All this got me to thinking how differently all my kids have been when they are sick.

Danielle my wonderful first-born who introduced me to motherhood----when she was sick everyone knew it because she was a moaner!!  Kind of like she wanted everyone to suffer with her--LOL!  Lets just say we were always very excited when she got well!!----Love ya Danielle :)

Erinn my middle child peace-maker---when she was sick just give her a good book, something soothing for her throat and some quiet and she was happy and would come and let you know if she needed anything else.  We did not so much rejoice when she got better, because she was so quiet when she was sick.

Drew my rough and tumble boy who never stopped---he spent his first 10 months sick and in someones arms, after that when he got sick it was about the same.  He was my snuggler when he was sick, not so much at any other time, because he was so busy all the time.  I almost enjoyed him getting sick, just for the snuggle time!

Caleb my curious kid who is always fidgeting---the few times he has been sick he is up and down and back and forth, as though he would get more sick sitting still.  Kleenex are torn apart and blankets are everywhere!  I just pray we can keep him caged enough he doesn't get everyone else sick with his constant motion and sniffling!

Now my little Hannah the baby of the family---she never complains, I am serious, we are working hard on her verbalizing her needs, so when she says she is not feeling well it is a BIG thing.  Today she stayed all day in her room and I never heard a peep.  I had to keep checking, just because I was worried and she was so quiet.  When the fever went away, I had to go tell her it was OK to come out an join the family. 

So there you got it.  Five kids and  5 very different outcomes to sickness.  I just thought it was interesting and that I should put it down before I forgot the uniqueness of the situation.

Now don't ask me about David--Let's leave it by saying Danielle got it from somewhere!

Hawaiian Update

 Wow the day almost got away from me before I got a chance to post.  So though I am just catching it, I am still on a streak--3 days :)

Erinn and Michael's turn for an update.

They have been in Hawaii since the end of November.  They lived in a hotel for over a month--it might sound fun, but not really for that long in that expensive of a place.

They have now been in their own place for 5 months.  The longest they have been together in one place since they were married almost 2 years ago!

Here is their newest addition, Marley.  A cross of cute and adorable.  He is trouble on the move and Erinn's constant companion when Michael is on maneuvers.

Michael has recently passed his boards and is now promotable, which hopefully will be within the next year.  Congratulations on all the hard work!

Erinn is working with developmentally disabled children and young people through Hawaii Behavioral Health.  She is enjoying the challenge.

They have been enjoying exploring the island hiking and learning to paddle board, with sea turtles no less!

Oh and if life was not exciting enough, they just ran a 1/2 marathon together last weekend, and finished in just over 2 hours with lots of blisters to prove it!  Ha, my non-runner is running by choice!  I guess your running partner makes all the difference!

Catching UP!!!

 David and I were just discussing this week how much has been happening in our lives in the recent past.

I have been neglectful of my blog and many family and friends keep up with the goings on through this, so here goes some major catch up.

ENJOY!

 Danielle and Ryan have been settling into their new house and making it a home.

Lots of remodeling and make overs happening in their little place.

They are trying to stay ahead of Justice tearing it all apart:)

Ryan has just received a promotion at his work also!

Congratulations Ryan!

 Erinn and Michael are FINALLY settling into their new home in Wahiawa, Hawaii (please don't ask me to try to say that)!

They spent one month in Texas with no furniture and 2 months in Hawaii living out of suitcases in a hotel---it was on the beach though.

They are looking forward to settling into one place and being together for more than 3 months without having to move:)

Erinn has just accepted a position with Hawaii Behavioral Health.  She will be working with kids with disabilities helping them to become more independent.

Congratulations Erinn!

 Drew has won his last two college indoor mile races setting a personal best each time!

He is looking forward to racing on a longer track hopefully on the 11th in Seattle, which we are hoping to go see.  For those of you who do not know WSU has a small 200m non-banked indoor track.  Racing 1 mile on that is slower than on longer tracks and harder on the legs.  Still he ran a 4:13 mile!

As you can see from the picture there is more going on in his life!

He is referring for flag football for a couple of months.  It is at the college and they work around his schedule.  It is a perfect opportunity for him to earn a few extra bucks while still keeping up his commitments with running and school, both of which are important and he receives scholarship money for both, so he can't let them slack.

Congrats Drew on all your hard work!

 Caleb and Hannah both learned to cross country ski this last week.  

It was very icy and not such great snow to learn in, but they were both troopers.

As you can see from the difference in their attire, Caleb was a little over dressed for the weather!  I think he sweated through three of his 6 layers-LOL!

Sweet Hannah has finished 1st grade!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a major accomplishment.

Not only that, but she finished it in a calendar year----the first time that has happened with any of her schooling.

The only subject she is still in first grade for is math, a more troublesome concept for many African children!

We are so proud of her effort and the amazing strides she is making.

She also wants to have LOTS of girls over for her birthday party.

This is also big as she is usually fairly afraid of her peers.  We are hoping having them all on her turf will be good for her!

Congratulations Sweet Girl!

David had the sweet privilege of finishing a marathon relay with his friends, Nate and Dustin!

The marathon was split three ways giving them the marathon feel without all the miles, which David's body is having a hard time dealing with.

After the marathon he was out for a few weeks, but I am happy to say he may already be back on the running road.

He is a much happier and content person when he is able to run.

He is also trying a new medicine for his arthritis.  With his first shot this week, he is not ready to say whether it works any better than his old stuff yet, but he is loving that he will only need a shot every two weeks instead of every week!

I love you my man!

This is what I have been spending a lot of time on.

It is Hannah's Birthday quilt.

It is not finished yet, but close.

I am slowly adjusting to having just littles at home and missing my big kids!

This project kept me busy.

We are so thankful for the many blessing and stretching things that fill our lives---

Hopefully you enjoyed the catch up too!

Six Years Ago.......

Six years ago....

we became a family of 7 at the Portland International Airport (Danielle was at college)!

What an amazing day full of so very many emotions for everyone of us.

Oh the amazing joys and trials and frustrations and victories adoption brings!

It is a journey of love and growth that is incomparable to anything I have ever experienced!

We are so thankful God led us down this path to bring this two beautiful treasures into our family! 

May His name be forever glorified!

Welcome Home Ball

The official welcome home ball for the 3rd ACR was a happening thing in Austin, Texas last night.

Erinn and Michael dressed in their best for the night.

Gotta love the Stetson, which is part of the official uniform of the scout of the 3rd ACR.

Caleb thinks it is very cool and that he has spurs too!

What boy wouldn't want to be a soldier then!

Thanks guys for the sacrifice of time, of the first year of your life together, to help keep our country safe!

Praying God bless you greatly in the coming year.

Sister Time

We have so enjoyed having Erinn home:)

In the mornings we have had a little time with her while Devynne has been sleeping in.

This morning a game of "Ticket to Ride" was on the agenda.

This is a wonderful game if you are looking for a game for various ages.

Hannah can even play this with a little guidance and it has become our favorite family game.

I am looking forward to hopefully a little time in the next weeks to post about some of our school changes.

I am excited to see what is happening.

If you have a struggling learner try this site and I will post more next week on what we are seeing in only two weeks.

A Texas Surprise!!

I mentioned the other day we had a surprise coming!

I was being very literal.

Our church flew Erinn back to Medford from Texas to surprise Devynne at church on Sunday.

Erinn and Devynne have been good friends for about 4 years, and both of them were missing each other.

We planned our trip to Texas to be 2 weeks after Devynnes surgery.

They moved it back two weeks so we were somewhere in the middle of Arizona when she was having her surgery.

When things started not to go well it was very difficult for Erinn to be so far away.

We prayed a lot, remembering that God is in control of all things including the timing of Devynne's surgery and our trip.

Well after her long nine week hospital stay, Devynne came home on Friday.

Erinn flew in quietly on Saturday.

She hid behind the curtain at church till the pastor said that the church had to go all the way to Texas to get her welcome home present.

What a surprise.

We are glad for the opportunity to see her again so soon too.

Thanks Michael for making the sacrifice of time with your wife so soon after returning home.

In the picture above Erinn is on the far left next to Brian and Jen, Devynnes parents, then Brenna, her sister and Devynne, then her grandparents.

Family Updates

Since life has been continuing to move at record speeds around here....

I thought it would be a good time to do and entire family update!

So we will start with the littlest treasure.

Hannah has been growing like a weed and we have enjoyed watching her find her voice in groups of adults and show off some of her famous humor!

She is loving dancing to her new videos and reading short readers on her own.

We are experiencing some interesting reactions to the loss of all the older siblings and me being gone for 2 weeks. Praying she will soon feel some stability again.

Caleb our charmer.

And as we are finding out our man of the arts---drawing, dancing, drumming, drama---notice all the "d" words.

David and I will have to try to find a way to help him stretch himself in these areas---God only knows we are very lacking in these areas--LOL

Caleb is enjoying his 3rd year of football as a defensive back.

He is looking forward to trying school in a different way this year--by video.

This picture of Drew was taken while he was counselor at the Steens Mountain Camp. He loved it.

We totally enjoyed having him home this summer, though we saw little of him between work, sleeping, friends and running.

Drew came home with Mono---hence the many hours of sleeping trying to give his body a chance to heal. Think he may have finally kicked it after 4 months.

He is back at school and in his own appartment.

Pray for him and the many other students you may know away at school. Pray they may stay strong in their faith, that they may shine brightly for their Lord.

We were sad to say good-bye to Erinn back in July as she and I drove 3 days to get her and all her stuff there!

But we are thrilled to announce the homecoming of our son, Michael, home from his tour of duty!

Just yesterday!

They are beyond excited to begin thier new life together.

A few months in Texas then on to their posting in Hawaii.

Pray for them and their adjustments in the coming months.

Danielle and Ryan are doing better than ever in Santa Barbara.

Ryan is loving his new job and the opportunities he has there.

Danielle continues at the Reagan Ranch, learning and growing.

They serve together in youth ministry at their church and are very involved there.

They were recently blessed with a trip to Washington DC for a friend's wedding and ran a 1/2 marathon for their 1 year anniversary.

They may be looking at their own deployment in the coming year.

Pray for them to continue to grow and trust in the Lord.

This wonderful man the Lord blessed me with---I wonder sometimes how I was so blessed.

David did a great job watching the kids while I was away. He shuffled and juggled when situations at work left him unable to take time off.

Work has really kept him on his toes lately and we are praying for some smooth waters.

Also his arthritis is in a major flare right now and he is moving in a lot of pain. But moving he needs to do to keep his body from locking up. Hence you see the problem.

The lack of major exercise also causes him to be somewhat down, so we are praying for some insight into what can be done to help.

Because he is on a first generation drug, they do not know what the long term affects will be, kinda feels like a guinea pig.

He will be having a full body bone scan soon to determine how bad this flare is and what if anything might be done.

All when school what done and we thought life would calm down for him!

Me----well I am learning thankfulness in a whole new light.

I am learning to trust in the providence and sovereignty of God at a whole new level.

I am learning to be a willing piece of clay molded into the likeness of our Saviour.

One very small step at a time

Trusting that He knows what is best and being thankful for even the ugly because it is all from His loving hand.

This has been a journey that many days I would have liked to miss, but knowing the end destination is worth the climb.

So there is the quick update on the clan.

Though we may be spread far and wide, we are still family, and where there is family there will be love and prayer and support.

God Bless you and your family too!

Last of Texas Pics

One of our days in Texas, Erinn gave me a tour of Fort Hood.

We enjoyed the 3rd Armored Carvery Division (ACR) museum.

I really enjoyed learning the long history of this brave group of men.

We wish you all home safely and soon!

Memorial to those who made the ultimate sacrifice. May we never forget.

We were also blessed to visit the 6th floor museum in Dallas.

This museum is located at the spot where JFK was assassinated.

Here the X marks the spot where he was shot.

This is the window from where the shooting took place.

And the memorial to John F. Kennedy

I have always loves bronze statues!

My little sister Sandi and I with some of the long horns!

But there was a lot of them. On a normal day there would be water running down all of this, but they were cleaning that day! What a smell! And in the 105 degree weather!

There was a small cemetery next to the sculptures.

To my surprise we found this monument to the soldiers who fought for the Confederate States of America.

I forgot how far east I had come.

Here you can see Robert E. Lee and "Stonewall" Jackson.

The first stone I saw that so surprised me.

We saw this quote of the Newspaper office.

It would be great if all the news services still followed it.

Erinn with her cousin, Colby.

And Erinn with her cousin, Micah.

Micah would only give us a growl face, so Erinn did too.

The cattle drive in old town Fort Worth.

Texas Trail of fame markers in the sidewalks.

A Texas sized burger on a very hot and sweaty day!

Just some fooling around!

This is how we ended many of our hot days.

Though the pool was warm, it was wet!

This is my sister, Sandi, and her oldest, Colby.

Texas!

We finally made it to Texas---My first time and Erinn's new home!

Erinn's first day in her new home, notice the lack of boxes!

She did a wonderful job, setting up a beautiful home for the next 6 months.

We took two days to do all the moving and did it is shifts as it was 105 degrees everyday.

After we got her fairly settled in it was time to do some sightseeing!

I love history!

So our first stop of course was the Alamo.

What a delight.

Me with Drew's boyhood hero, Davy Crockett.

San Antonio was beautiful.

A kind family offered to take our photo so we could both get in.

I loved reading all the history.

May we NEVER forget the sacrifice people through the ages have made in order to establish this wonderful country we live in.

We were told to make sure we did not forget to do the river walk.

It was beautiful to see all these lovely canals wandering through downtown San Antonio.

I must say it was very muggy, but awesome never the less.