Heaven's Special Child

Author presently unknown

A meeting was held quite far from earth,
it's time again for another birth
said the angels to the Lord above;

This special child will need much love
his progress may be very slow,
accomplishment he may not show.
And he'll require extra care,
from the folks he meets down there.

He may not run or laugh or play,
his thoughts may seem quite far away.
In many ways he won't adapt, and he'll
be known as handicapped.

So let's be careful where he is sent, we want
his life to be content.

Please, Lord, find the good friends who,
will do a special job for you.

They will not realize it right away, the leading
role they're asked to play.
But with this child sent from above, comes

Stronger faith and richer love.
And soon they will know the privileges given,
In caring for their gift from Heaven.
Their precious charge, so meek and mild, in
Heaven's very special child.

My sweet Justin!

Right after getting home from the funeral, I found out that the court had officially "severed" Justin from his birth parents. In 15 days, I will be allowed to officially start the adoption process which will be final in the Spring! We are so incredibly blessed that God chose our family for this little angel.

My Amazing Son

OK, so Monday was the funeral and a very kind and generous person called me on Saturday and allowed me to use her "buddy" ticket for half price to allow a family member to come with me. Dakota really wanted to go see his birth father and he is a great traveler. We set off on Sunday and had no problems getting our flights, etc. We were in Vermont by dinner time and Dakota had an amazing evening of fun with his birth dad. Then the next day was the funeral...I helped prep the food and it was set up sooo beautifully, my family did a wonderful job on every little detail, it is exactly the way Dad would have wanted it to be. Following the funeral, the immediate family had a huge dinner, there were a lot of us and that was fun too. When we went back to the hotel, Dakota's birth father was waiting for him unexpectedly as there was suppose to be a huge storm. They had more fun and Dakota was in heaven! We got up at 4 am to start our travels back to Arizona, our first plane was delayed an hour with technical difficulties, but with determination, lots of running and moving sidewalks, we made it to our connection flight in Washington, DC to Phx...after about an hour in the air, we found out the was a mechanical problem and we were landing in Charlottesville, NC...oh boy! So we landed, the flight got canceled...Well after waiting behind hundreds of people, we found out that they re-routed Dakota and I on different planes and they said since he's on standby he wouldn't get on anyway! Yikes! They recommended staying the night, but my gut feeling thought Wed would be busier anyway, so I said no. We waited for a flight and we missed the flight, they were one seat to short! Dakota dropped to the ground sobbing and screaming, "I'm going to be stuck here forever"...don't get feeling too bad for him yet, there's more to the story! So the flight attendant was beside herself with his wallowing and said, "I'm going to get you out of here." She worked some magic and sent us across the entire airport to a flight back to Penn...the second she gave us the tickets, the "distraught" Dakota jumped up and said, "Yes, it worked!"....Oh my gosh, where did he learn this??? He didn't have a tear on his face... I didn't care, I gave him a high five and off we went running again. So we got on the plane to Penn...at this point we'd been traveling 13 hours and only an hour from Vermont...sigh...we had a long layover and then got on a plane to Phx...this is when things get interesting....Dakota decided to tell the stewardess of our long day and his "fake crying" he calls it....which he is quite proud. The stewardess was so impressed she allowed Dakota to help her hand out drinks and collect trash the whole flight....again, he's in heaven. To top it all off, the pilot invited him up front, allowed him to sit in the captains chair and explained all the everything to him, even adjusted the seat so Dakota could reach the petals. Every flight we were on, he made friends with so many people, interestingly, his name means "friend"...I got compliment after compliment about how smart, cute, and polite he is (I blame homeschooling, except for the cute part, lol). So, there you have it, my little amazing traveler took a horrendous day and made it into a once of a life time experience. I am so amazed, proud, and in awe of him.

We are going to be writing a thank you letter to US Airways...it took 22 hours, but we got home for Thanksgiving. And again, thank you to the generous person who helped us get Dakota on the flight to begin with!

My Dad

My father went to be with the Lord on November 18th, 2008. It was the worst day of my life, but a relief for my Dad who had been suffering too much for too long. He was denied the lung transplant and was taken off of the life saving equipment on November 17th, he passed away a day later surrounded by family. My brother helped him every step of the way.

He died of something called Alpha One deficiency. It is a rare, genetic disorder that doesn't allow your lungs and liver to function properly. It dramatically reduces your lifespan and there is not cure and the only treatments are experimental. Unfortunately, my brother and I have been diagnosed with Alpha One as well. If my father hadn't suffered so long and fought so hard, he would have never been properly diagnosed and we would have never known. With this knowledge at our young ages, my brother and I will be able to do preventative care and will qualify for a lung transplant if needed because we knew in time. My Dad was diagnosed way too late and he was so incredibly sick. He was 49. In the last year of his life he had the most amazing relationships with his love, Bernadette, and was very close to my brother, Bill. He became incredibly close to friends and his mother. He became a Believer and he changed the course of many of our lives. His fight touched many, many nurses, dr's, etc.

I have seen God's work through my Dad the past year and all the miracles that happened. He accomplished more in his last year than many do in a lifetime. I miss him terribly.

To learn more about Alpha One, you can go to: http://www.alphaone.org/

Here is a picture of my siblings at my Dad's funeral, it was a beautiful, hopeful celebration, just the way my Dad wanted it. (left to right, me, Bill, Melissa)

Luau!

Abigail turned 2 on November 17th and Justin turned 3 on November 4th...so we had a birthday luau in celebration of both of their birthdays. Everyone wore something "Hawaiian or Beachy" themed. It was a really fun party. I have so many great pics, I don't know what to choose! Here is a picture of the cake with flip flops! We have Abigail eating cake! Justin tasting cake (fyi: he is tube fed and not used to tasting cake!) Abbey got her first "baby" and it actually took her breath away, then it got better, she got all kinds of "baby equipment"...

It's been a long time!

It has been a long time since I posted...I am so sorry! Towards the end of October, we found out that my Dad who has been quite ill with lung disease was in the ICU and may not survive. So, I flew to Vermont and spent a week with him and family waiting for a lung transplant in Boston. I was in Vermont for Halloween, but the kids and Tim dressed up and held down the fort. Dakota was a vampire and although we don't have a picture, he looked awesome! I spoke to him on the phone and he said, "Mom, no one knew what I was, they kept saying I was 'Dracula'..." Once I explained it to him he was quite pleased. Here is a picture of my Dad and my brother and my brother and my grandmother in the hospital.

Milo update

Milo is home now with his mom and siblings (and twin of course) and he is breathing without oxygen. He has been out of the hospital a full month now which is a miracle in itself. I will keep you all updated!

Homeschooling: Week Six!

We are plugging away with our homeschooling despite various distractions! We have been studying the patriarchs of the Bible and the kids picked their favorite and Dakota wrote about him. Kaylee has started reading "starter" books, she is just flying with it! Dakota has been focusing on math with money and struggles a bit with counting quarters while Kaylee has been mastering place value. They are both spelling like crazy and working very hard on their handwriting and Bible verses. It's been difficult studying with Abigail underfoot, I thank God that she will not be "almost two" forever!

Abigail, so pretty!

My little baby Abigail is getting big...she is turning two in the next month, it is bitter sweet as we are sure she will be our last and our youngest!

Abbey in Glasses!

This was the funniest thing, Abbey comes flying around the corner pushing a shopping cart wearing Mr. Potato Head's glasses...I'll let the pictures tell the rest!

Dakota's Music Concert

Dakota attends a weekly enrichment program for homeschoolers. In this program, he learns art, science, computers, communication, music, and physical education. They had a music concert recently. It was absolutely adorable! During one of the songs, the choreography was for the kids to put their arms around their partner...poor Dakota was partnered with a child two times his size who really didn't appreciate Dakota putting his arm around him! Dakota was shoved but picked right back up where he left off, smiling....oh, to be that innocent again!

"Gotcha Day"

September 17th was Justin's "Gotcha Day"...this is an important day in adoption, it is the day we "got" Justin. We celebrated with an automatic bubble blower that blows 1000 bubbles a minute! Needless to say, it was a hit!

Best Daddy Ever!

We had bought the kids a large playground set last year but then it got way to hot before we got a chance to put it up. This Fall, as soon as the temp was around 100 degree's, Tim slaved and sweat outside in the heat for over ten hours putting this massive contraption together. The kids were so excited and absolutely love it. Within a few days, the temp came down quite a bit and they have been enjoying it oh so much! Within two days, Dakota taught himself how to swing. He is very proud of himself!

Jamie's First Pair of High Heels!

What can I say? Jamie is sooo stylish, this is her first pair of heels, she had no trouble at all prancing about in them either!

A response...

Hello All,

I just want to respond to some comments I have been getting...the first is, "I don't know how you do it..."

I want to say, I don't do it alone. I have an amazing support group that picks me up when I'm down, feeds us when we are hungry, supports us when I am weak, and are my dearest friends! Thank you to my support group for providing your time, prayers, meals, and love. I couldn't do it without you. I also have the most amazing respite provider on the planet! Letty is here with us three days a week and she is just a ball of loving energy who takes over the house, lends a hand, an ear, anything I need and even tells me when to go to bed or take a bath. I couldn't do it without her! I have my church, who continues to strengthen me and currently recruited over twenty volunteers to come and rock Milo so I could spend time with the other kids. My best friend, Rachele, who reminds me of everything I'm forgetting, picks up anything I need, comes over at a drop of a dime, and is always there for me and my kiddo's. Then of course, my husband, who is the most hands on, fun dad I have ever seen and comes home from work and tries to pamper me and meet my needs, never worrying about his. And, most of all, I have the strength that none of us can possibly understand and that is God's strength. I feel His love, courage, passion, and I know I'm doing exactly what I'm suppose to be doing.

I've also been getting a lot of "I could never do that..." My support group can tell you, neither can I! It wasn't more than a month ago I couldn't get out of bed over missing my last foster placement. It hurts, it hurts more than anything. And caring, loving, and nuturing a sick baby as if he is your own is the same way. I'm dreading the incredible pain I am going to experience. Milo slept on my chest all morning, I smelled his little baby smell and felt his little sighs. I love him as much as anyone could and can and I can't do this any easier than anyone else. I'm choosing not to use that as an excuse to not help. Does that make sense? However, I haven't lost foster children, but rather gained "extended" family and made great friends.

With that said, I have to share how absolutely honored I am that the parents, the State, and God put enough trust in me...little ol' me!...to care for children that need the best of the best of care. What did I do to deserve this honor? What makes me so special that I get to love these amazing, beautiful children? Why am I so lucky? I get to see miracles on a daily basis...can anyone comprehend that? Real miracles, every day!!! How can I not be thankful? I want to pinch myself, I'm just in awe...

I can not do this alone, it is taking the whole community. Why is everyone helping me? Loving me? What makes me worthy? The whole thing just blows my mind! I couldn't last a minute without all the support of each and every one of you reading this. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you, thank you, thank you! You are my heroes, you are making my dreams of helping children come true!

Let's brag about Jamie...

I got a call the other day from school that Jamie is doing excellent! She is participating now in Kindergarten specials like PE, Music, and Art, wow!!! She is also spending a large part of the day in an "academic" special ed room rather than just the "sensory" special ed room. This option wasn't even "on the table" last year, she is just knocking our socks off!

The progress she has made since she moved in with us in March is nothing short of a miracle! Praise God!

Vibrating chair...

Here is Milo's first time in the vibrating chair. He likes it and is showing interest in the bubbling fish. It plays soothing music and gets Milo out of the crib...

Milo's teddy bear...

Milo loves this brown, snuggly bear his mom gave him at birth. He loves to hold onto it while he sleeps. He uses a weighted blanket to help his sensory issues and muscles. The tubes you see are feeding tubes, a monitor for heart rate and oxygen levels, as well as, continuous oxygen.

Milo's space...

Here is Milo's space, formally known as the kitchen nook...He is in the middle of all the action. We want him in a central location where I can see him at all times. He has many, many machines and it is our prayer as the weeks go on each and every one of these machines disappear as Milo gets stronger! He has his own rocking chair space as he has up to three "rockers" aka "angels" who rock him and cuddle him and pamper him! His increase in movement and positioning has lowered his needed for uncomfortable suctioning!

Introducing Milo!

This is the newest member of our family, I'm proudly introducing Milo! He is almost six months old, has long eye lashes, blue eyes, and curly hair.

Here is his close up photo. He is an absolute angel. Milo is taking on the fight of his life against severe brain damage. He has prayers coming from coast to coast and even further.

The prayers are working! Please continue.

Week Five: Mesopotamia

We are studying the area of Mesopotamia since that is where it is believed that Noah's Ark landed and he started life over again. The kids colored and labeled their own maps and decided to make the Red Sea the color red.

They were about to label (without looking at a cheat sheet) the Mediterranean Sea, Nile River, mouth of Nile River, delta of Nile River, Red Sea, Caspian Sea, Madagascar, Egypt, Africa, Atlantic, and Pacific Ocean...

We are studying the Tower of Babel and the city of Ur.

Math

For Math, I work one on one with each of the kids in a Montessori type style...we are learning hands-on concepts, there are very little worksheets. Here are pictures of Kaylee working on math. We work on a big placemat. When we learn a new concept, we have a CD of songs and we sing songs about it, Abbey likes to join in for that part!

This is a picture of Kaylee learning about place value...

Abigail: Cleaning, her way or no way!

I got Abbey her own little broom and dustpan since all she wants to do is copy Mommy and that means clean, clean, clean!

However, Abbey decided that after carefully sweeping under each chair and the table that rather than put the food particles in the dustpan, she would eat them! Now, I couldn't convince her to stop, but really, can I complain? She got the floor cleaner than any of the other kids have!

Jamie's first day of school! First Grade watch out!

Jamie has to wear a uniform to school, but she makes anything look so cute!

Welcome to the First Grade! Jamie rides to school on the bus and stays all day! She is doing a wonderful job.

Justin: An artist? Maybe!

Justin made his first piece of artwork the other day. His pincer grasp and hand control has improved so much I decided to pull out the markers and see what he could do. He rose to the occasion, as always, and held the marker better than I ever could have imagined! His work is beautiful and he has drawn several more since then!

Science: Weather

Dakota is doing a really neat science program where he read literature, Dakota? Read? Yes! And he is loving it! After reading a variety of literature (not simply textbooks, actually no textbook!), Dakota does hands on experiments to reinforce the concepts. He's really enjoying it. We are currently studying weather and it's a great time with the monsoon! Here is a weather vane that we made and it is still holding up in our back yard!

Justin is hitting the road!

A little over a month ago, we got Justin a "creepster crawler." This is a device that allows you to work on crawling even if you can't hold your head up. Justin is more than ready to "get up and go" in his mind so this was the perfect solution. A few weeks ago, Justin would merely inch around the entry way and dining area for up to 15 minutes...well, today he is blasting from the front door to the kitchen sink in that amount of time and going for 30 minutes! He is so proud of himself. Here are some pictures of when he first got the "creepster" and hopefully I'll have video of him now loaded soon!

Week Four: Creation Through Noah

This week we got to work on a familiar bible stories which was really fun, Creation and Noah's Ark. The kids looked up how large Noah's Ark really was and went down the street and measured it out with Daddy and TaTa...it was much bigger than we all expected! Then we read several different variations of Noah's Ark and compared and contrasted them to the biblical view.

Dakota is working on in depth bible studies of each story. He has to look up verses, completing missing parts, doing a crossword, and word search. He has also been doing independent book reviews and research. This week he researched pangea and the layers of the Earth and drew models of each. Here are two awesome websites on those topics: http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/dynamic.html and http://www.math.montana.edu/~nmp/materials/ess/geosphere/novice/activities/planet_earth/

Dakota is picking up a lot of grammar through his reading and writing as well. We were comparing two stories, "The Three Little Pigs" and "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs." When talking about the conclusion, Dakota decided to write that "The three little pigs lived happily ever after." I was pleasantly surprised to see the quotation marks, something I had not taught him you needed when quoting another reference. I asked him, "Why did you use those quotation marks?" He replied, "Moooommmm, you are suppose to use them when you take words out of another book, or if you are talking." Then he rolled his eyes at me...of course. Then I said, "I know Dakota, that is great work, I just had never taught you that..." His reply, "Mooommmmm" (eye roll again), "I reeeaaaddddd you know." Of course, my mistake!

I have introduced Shiller Math to both Kaylee and Dakota. Kaylee is starting at the beginning as she is in Kindergarten and Dakota is skipping through quickly to make sure we didn't miss anything he needed last year. Shiller Math is really neat, it is all done on a cloth mat on the floor. There is very little written work and no drilling. It is manipulative based, hands on, concept finding math. The kids really love it and love playing with all the "math stuff". You can find more info at www.shillermath.com. It is a spiral type math which means that it introduces a concept and then comes back to it over and over again. This is much different than studying the same thing for weeks on end. With this method, there is no time to get bored and you don't forget what you studied at the beginning because it keeps coming back all the time!

Week Three: King Tut and the Ten Plagues

Well, since we'd been learning about mummies, we had to research King Tut, the most famous mummy of them all! We had a great time learning about buried treasures and discoveries. We also learned in depth the Ten Plagues God sent to Egypt to convince the pharoah to free the Israelites. The kids sure thought that pharoah was a little slow! They drew a comic strip about the Ten Plagues and they were very funny and cute! Dakota did an in depth study of Passover, what the original Passover was and how it is celebrated today.

Week Two: Mummies and Pyramids

Well, you can't study Egypt without the Mummies and Pyramids, can you? Oh, it was fun! We read, "Mummies in the Morning" and it's non-fiction companion guide by Mary Pope Osborne to set the stage. The we learned about the process of making a real mummy and why the Egyptians made them! We learned all about Egyptian beliefs and compared it to our own Christian beliefs. We explored pyramids and all their wonder. Then the really fun part was when we made our own mummy out of newspaper using the outline of the kids!

We started by ripping up tons of newspaper, this was fun all by itself! Then making a paper mache glue mixture, Daddy traced the mummies body and then the kids went to work. The mummy became part of the family, he ate with us, watched TV with us, and read stories. He is in the library of our house now just waiting to make his debut on Halloween!

I can't tell you how many odd looks I've been given by visitors who are greeted at the door by our mummy! It's still just as funny every time someone notices him standing there!

Week One: Ancient Egypt and Moses

We started off in early July with studying Ancient Egypt and Moses. We wanted to learn all about Moses's life, so that meant learning all about Egyptian life! We discussed irrigation, the Nile River, transportation, the type of dress, hairstyles and hieroglyphics.

Here is how we made our 3-D Map. First, Dakota drew a picture of Africa and

Madagascar onto a thick piece of cardboard.

Then Kaylee and Jordan worked hard on mixing up the salt dough mixture. Once it was ready, they carefully laid down the clay mixture within the boundary lines. It was important to draw in important features like the Nile River and Atlas Mountains. With Daddy's help, the kids made topographical features. Kaylee then built the labels while Dakota put them in the proper place, without a map I might add! When it was looking good, the kids had to set it aside and wait overnight for it to dry. Then, the really fun part came: painting and labeling!

Our Family:

This is the only picture in existence of all six children! Including Jordan who we fostered for a year and has now moved on to his forever home.

All the children posed beautifully...however, not at the same time!