Different Day-Same Result

2009 SWC District Championships--Day 2The pre-race intensity!
On the line--seeded 3rd

GO!!! 1500M

Mid-race pack on this beautiful 90 degree day!

Drew took it out at about 550M, knowing he would have to try to push the pace early to tire out his two biggest competitors with faster times.

Sammy, here in the purple, again got him at about 50M.

Great race Drew!!

So he is off to state next week in both the 3000M and the 1500M.

Then he got the chance to suit up in a speed suit to race the 2nd leg of the 4 x 400 relay!

Running a .53 second leg for a 400M PR!

A Different View!

Caleb finished 2nd grade today!!

As his treat he was allowed to choose a new toy at the store.

We have limited the amount of war toys in our home and no military looking guns due to the early war and violence Caleb experienced.

But when your son comes up to you and asks for a gun "like Mike has" what can you say but "yes"! Remember, Mike is Erinn's boyfriend in the US Army! Caleb's point of reference has changed from fear to protection!!

So he has his gun and is busily shooting the tree, birds and bugs!

District Runner-Up

2009 SWC District Championships -- Day 1

You can see the intensity on the starting line of the 3000M. Drew with the fastest time and Sammy next to him, who what the state cross country runner up. Friends and competitors.

And they are off!

No one would take the lead, so Drew reluctantly took it.

This pack of 5 ran the first four laps together.
Lots of storm clouds in the sky, but the rain had passed and he was blessed with a dry 70 degrees.

This is a great picture by my nephew from the tower. These four guys ran just like this for most of the race.
The race really started at 500M to go. Sammy started moving and Drew responded! At the 400 they had separated from the other two and it was a 400M sprint to the finish. At the 50M mark Sammy passed Drew for the win with a 9:59.14 and Drew right behind in 9:59.88 All he needed was top 2 to make it to state and he is going. They ran a 59 second last lap!!

Wanted the win, but happy to be going to state!

Dad was in a meeting in San Francisco, eagerly awaiting news of the race! Thanks to Terry for timing so we could get splits that Dad usually does for us.

The legs that carried him through!

The hip number 16 reserved for the fastest seed in the race.

Drew and Coach Piet after a well run race and looking forward to State!

It Will Make You Think

It will make you think about the possibilities of all those thousands of children out there still waiting for homes

It will make you think about the numbers of unborn who may not have the chance to be born.

It will make you think about the many children whom have found new homes and their possibilities

It's good to think about!

An Excavator and A Doctor!

Thankfully the doctor and the excavator were on separate days and for separate reasons!!

Here are David, my nephew, and Caleb on the excavator at our friend's house yesterday.


David was given the opportunity to run the small excavator. He said it was not easy to get how to maneuver it, but he had fun trying.

As you can see he did get a load of dirt in it.


They were also given the opportunity to ride 4 wheelers and go-carts. All boy fun stuff. They had a great time.

Hannah was able to play with her friend all the girly stuff. Then at dinner without mom to stop her she stuffed herself on meat and rolls!! One of the things that can happen with a child with food issues. When she got home last night her stomach was very swollen and tight from overeating. Thankfully she is feeling better today.

As for the doctor, that was for my nephew this
afternoon. He spent the morning with Grandma Mae and was helping with lunch and sliced open his thumb pretty good. Two hours later, when we were still not able to get it to stop bleeding, we took him into the doctor. Thankfully Joy had left a medical release and the doctor was able to close it with glue instead of stitches. Good ending!!

Putting it in Action

My prayer time this morning focused on supplication to the Lord for wisdom and strength to walk this new path of teaching with the children.

And so we embarked on this new journey this morning to give Caleb and Hannah a 'voice'.

No lectures, no frustration, only words of encouragement, eye contact and empathy.

Sounds easy--Not with a child who has learned every button that you have and tries to push them all, while looking at you with the most innocent eyes. But the choice is mine to recognize the pain in those eyes and try to help him find a voice to talk of his feelings, rather than push away those who want to love you because you fear loosing them too.

So we walk through day 1
-being 'present' with them
-empathizing
-looking at the inside
-giving voice

Attatchment 101

We have our nephew, David, staying with us for the next 2 1/2 weeks. He has settled right into being part of the family, he even mowed the lawn for me yesterday!

Last night a friend from church invited both David and Caleb to come hang out with their kids for a few hours, at the last minute they decided to take Hannah along too. That left me home for a couple of hours all alone!! What to do?

I had been planning on doing my ironing while watching a movie with Hannah, but the change of plans allowed me to watch one of the online adoption videos I have been wanting to watch.

What an unexpected blessing the night ended up being!!

We had been seeing some attachment issues that needed to be dealt with, but were really at a loss as to how to proceed. Neither of the kids have any of the real big outward signs of attachment problems, but they both really hold things in and get the deer in the headlights look(fear) often. They are also extremely afraid of failing, so they will avoid doing things so they don't fail. Then they end up in trouble for not obeying or following through and I really feel it all stems from these attachment issues.

So last night I was able to watch the first video you will find at this site http://www.irvingbible.org/index.php?id=1581 I found the link to the site from the blog 'A bushel and a peck' that you can find on the sidebar. I love how as each of us share our thoughts and insights others can learn from our research. So I now pass on this wonderful site to others who may be struggling in this area.

I have 2 pages of notes I will work on digesting this morning and have already been praying for strength and consistency to follow through with these practices to help my newest treasures work through the fear and loss that they came to our family with. Hopefully I can post more later as we work through these new waters.

What to Study?

This picture is of Danielle in the gallery she has had the opportunity to help create. She is standing in front of the interactive timeline table with Governor George Allen and Attorney General Edwin Meese.

I post this mostly for those of you who are seeking to direct older children in their education.

Danielle has always loved history, she has read biographies, historical fiction and non-fiction histories since she could independently read!

When she first starting thinking about colleges and careers she tried to pigeon hole herself into and education that would provide a job and give an easy answer to all those asking what she was going to do.

In high school she wrote a paper on being a dietitian and did interviews, I can remember when she got done she was very sure she did not want to do that.

When she started college, she decided on teaching, so she could study history with a career in mind. After a few teaching classes and an in-class practicum she knew teaching high school and below was not for her!

I remember very distinctly the day she called and said what am I supposed to do? We talked and discussed the issues--her way of making decisions.
And I finally just said, "What do you want to study more than anything?"
Without a hesitation she said, "History!"
When you took out everything else, her love was history was the answer. Funny that it is what she always has loved!
So the question was, "Danielle, do you trust God enough to follow your heart and trust Him with the results (job)?"
The rest is history--pun intended!

We had many people question why Danielle was studying history, what would she do with that kind of degree. Danielle chose to walk in faith, study what she loved and trust God to lead in how she would use that education.

Danielle was one of only two in her college graduating class that had a job lined up on graduation day. God does go before us! She has been blessed with a job that allows her to live daily studying history!! She is involved in teaching all ages how this history impacts our lives even today. And she loves it!

Now we watch Erinn traverse the same road!! She has always loved studying history and different cultures. Anthropology? What do you do with that degree? At this point Erinn has no idea what the road holds two years from now upon graduation, but let me tell you we are excited to find out what God has in store as she walks this road of faith!!

Anyways I just wanted to encourage you to find what your kids love and help them develop that love and watch the Lord lead!

Delight in Him-
Donna

Fire Update

Thank you for all your prayers for our daughter, Danielle. A few have asked how she is doing, so I thought I would update you this way.

Danielle choose to leave the area for the weekend, just to get away from it all. She headed to San Diego with a friend and had a great weekend. When she returned on Sunday the evacuation order for her neighborhood had been changed to an evacuation warning and she was allowed back home. At this point I believe the fire is 50% contained. As for being sick, as soon as she got out of the area her stomach settled down and her headache went away. She thinks it was likely nerves from being in this situation again.

We would both like to thank you for your prayers, it is hard to be newly on your own away from home in this situation and hard to be a parent so far away from helping. It has been good for both of us to watch God move in so many 'Christian family members' all over to step in and physically help and also lift her up in prayer. Isn't that what the body should be!! We are thanking the Lord for his gracious provision!!

1 Corinthians 12:12 "For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ."
and on to verse 26 "And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice in it."

Evauated Again

Danielle is being evacuated--again. She is getting the last things in her car now and heading out.
She is still determining where she will go as many people in Santa Barbara are in the same place and those who are not already have houses full of evacuees.
She would covet your prayers as she also woke up sick this morning.

Psalm 78:53a "He led them safely, so that they did not fear."

Quick Update

Heading out to Drew's last track meet before districts. He is just running some speed work for fun. Actually he will be part of a 4 x 100 team. The distance runners always take on the throwers in one race of the year. Should be fun to watch. The weather is nicer, so looking forward to being outside for a while.

Caleb is back to the marathon school days, so we have seen lots of the inside of the house this week.


Hannah's speech therapist was amazed at how well her speech was going after a two week break. Interesting that she could notice that much of a change. Her dentist pointed out yesterday that she has very porous teeth and will need some extra attention to keep them cavity free from this point on. Fun!


Erinn is feeling so much better! Praise God! She is busily working on catching up with her school work she missed. Lots of multi-media stuff for her minor classes.


Danielle is running around smoky Santa Barbara again. At this point she is not under evacuation orders, but she does have most of her irreplaceable things in her car at this point. Pray for the many who have lost their homes and who are waiting to hear of theirs. Pray for safety of the firefighters (I believe some were caught in the fire and burned last night). Pray for weather changes to help bring this under control soon.

And on this World AIDS Orphans Day, remember:


Over 15 million children worldwide have lost one or both parents to AIDS – equivalent to the number of people living in New York, Paris, and Bangkok combined. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, over 12 million children have been orphaned by the pandemic.Experts believe that millions more orphans remain unaccounted for in India, China and Russia. By 2010, the number of AIDS orphans worldwide is expected to reach at least 20 million. (Stats borrowed from a friends blog)


You can find out more about World AIDS Orphan Day here http://www.worldaidsorphans.org/


And a wonderful site about adoption of an AIDS Orphan from the HIV to Home site here
http://fromhivtohome.org/

Sutter's Fort

David and Caleb toured Sutter's Fort while in Sacramento this weekend. Caleb is the perfect age for this kind of hands on learning about the old west.

Look how intently he is watching this man start a fire?!? Didn't he see that all the time in Liberia? Maybe it is taking him back?

Tools! What little boy does not like tools. I bet some of these were somewhat familiar with what he saw in Africa.

While there, they met up with Drew's track team taking a tour. They are all waiting for the shooting off of the cannon.


And here is the cannon ready to be shot. So glad that Caleb does not jump and grab us at the sound anymore.

Do you ever think how much we take our safe lives for granted? Do you think what a precious thing it is that your children have never known running from bullets? And what about those low flying jets, do you ever wonder if bullets will come raining down from them?

Just some thoughts to think on and be thankful for today. And lift up an extra prayer for all those families around the world who deal with these things daily.

Sacramento Meet of Champions

Sacramento Meet of Champions 2009Drew racing the 3200M
Does it look like he gave all he had?

He ran a 9:24, but missed that national qualifying time by 4 seconds.

To go so far and miss by so little! Here he discusses the race with Coach Piet.

Congratulations son on another season PR!

Good Visit!

We had a great visit with Danielle. With Erinn sick we got so few pictures, she always has a camera. Sorry we missed so much, but the time was great.

We did limit her dress choice to two, at least for now.

Hannah is now in sister withdrawal, with Danielle gone and Erinn closed away trying to catch up. She is presently out back trying to get the dog to play house with her!!

Life Update

Thought I would first update on where we have been!

The biggest reason I was not blogging the last few days was because of Erinn's health. Due to the flu panic out there, I thought it best to keep it quite that she was ill. She was tested and found to be negative for that nasty virus going around. Just a regular old flu bug that really took hold because she was so worn out from school and work. She has been off everything a week and is now on antibiotics for bronchitis and the flu symptoms are all gone.

We are very thankful she is on the mend and no one else got sick. Pray for her as she works back into school and tries to catch up.

The second reason for not blogging is that my wonderful anxiety seems to prick it's nasty little head up when the stress level goes to high. So have been doing battle with that for the last few days, not really a good time to write much. Thankfully that seems to be settling down for now too.

I thank the Lord for His mercies that are new every morning!!

George W Carver

I just finished this book this morning. I must confess I knew very little about George W. Carver before I started this book. I am now thoroughly amazed by this man of faith who chose to live his life for the Lord and give his gifts to the world. What a challenge.
I look forward to reading some of his actual writings next. And finding some beginning biographies to read with Caleb and Hannah. I think in reading of this man, I can encourage Caleb to further reach beyond what he thinks he is able.
Happy reading!

Pictures Done!

We were able to get our family pictures done yesterday-yeah!!

You have to understand that for our family pictures have been quite a drama for the last 10 years or so. Anyways our photographer was great with everyone. We took them all outside and think we got some good ones. Look forward to seeing them tomorrow or Monday.

Today is Danielle's last day home. She and I with Hannah's help will hit a couple of bridal shops today.

David, Drew and Caleb are headed to Sacramento after Caleb's football game. Drew will be running in the Sacramento Meet of Champions this evening. It will be his only chance this year to race a 3200M.

Pre-Picture Shopping

Tomorrow we will have our family pictures taken by a professional, a first for us. David has usually been the family photographer, with great results I must say, but due to the increase in our family size and the variation of skin color we have had trouble getting one where we all are looking good at the same time! Plus it will probably be the last one with our family before it grows in size due to marriage.I was reading on another blog I follow about their shopping trip to get the family attire for the same thing, I laughed at her comments! I am not laughing now. What an experience! Mostly with adult daughters and myself all seeing a different thing!

I think we are happy with our finds, and not what any of us had in mind to start with. Danielle, Erinn and I will be in dressy, shiny shirts (the silver and purple), David and Drew will wear white shirts and black vests, Caleb has a polo shirt and Hannah a purple dress in the best match we could find to Erinn's shirt. And we will all wear jeans and black shoes to dress it down and make it fun. I think it will work. Look forward to seeing the results.

Catch Up

Danielle is home and life is very busy!A quick update.

*Danielle may have found the perfect wedding dress--Yeah!!

*Hannah got her hair beautifully braided by my friend, Rebecca. I took her daughters hair out, I think I have the much easier job!!

*Drew ran at the Oregon Relays and got a new PR in the 800M. 2:04

*Caleb will finish his Alert Cadet Basic Handbook tonight.

*Erinn has the flu!! Praying with the scare out there, that is all it is!

*And this is the normal look at my house when Danielle comes home!!

*I love having older kids, and I love having everyone under the same roof for a while!!

A Child of Trauma

I have posted about educational issues I deal with, with both Hannah and Caleb, just to give an idea of some of the things we deal with on a regular basis with our schooling. Since the kids came home, I have researched educational issues for both of them and am sometimes overwhelmed with what they will face and the daily challenges we will encounter as a result of past trauma and pre and post natal malnutrition.

Some of the new reading I have been tackling is from the Post Institute, to be found at: http://www.postinstitute.com/ After reading an article this weekend on trauma and the development of the brain I gained a little insight into how the kids stress systems (my words) are working constantly in the fight, freeze, or flee. I had never seen the 'freeze' put with the others and I think that was what really clicked for me, because that is exactly what the kids do. Put any small amount of stress, real or perceived, and they totally freeze up.

It was explained that the portion of the brain that the part of the brain that receives the stress or threat develops prenatally, whereas the part of the brain that tells how to regulate that stress or fear develops in early childhood. So if there is too much stress and not enough calm, parental influence in those early months, the ability to regulate the stress response does not develop properly and the child lives in this constant fight, freeze or flee, without the ability to decipher whether a situation is serious or not.

So from what I can gather the idea is to help the kids live in as stress free an environment as possible to allow that portion of the brain to develop. What I am still working on, is how much this can repair over time, or will this be a constant factor for them.

Now understanding all of this, imagine trying to produce a totally stress free environment for children who live with so much real and imagined fear, added to the top of this that they are still dealing with attatchment issues and you have an interesting deliema. For now we are trying to reduce the number of questions, not raise our voices and smile even though you feel like saying "why?" in a very loud voice with frustration on your face.

Hope to post more on this later, but my mind is in overload and I need some time to process all I am learning.