Our Week

I just thought it was cute – she feel asleep holding Patches.  It’s October – which means Jason's favorite cereal is out!!

Lizzy ordered a crystal making kit from Scholastic book orders.  She was so excited to see the crystals forming!

Monday was Parent Teacher Conference.  It went exactly how I expected.  Lizzy is doing great and is a joy to have in class.  Everyone loves Bella and she is doing better and better in reaching her IEP goals.  Joy is a joyful stubborn girl.  We have some work to do in the areas of compliance and self control.  Pretty much sums it up :)

The big girls watched them while I was gone.  The little girls had fun!

Joy and Bella were invited to a gymnastics birthday party.  This was Bella’s first ever party.  She loved it!

Joy loves to eat tomatoes the same way everyone else would eat apples!

Tuesday night I spent in the temple.  I am so grateful that when I NEED help in parenting one of my children, I can turn to their Heavenly Father.  He knows them so much better than I do.   So grateful for this beautiful place and for His divine help!

Wednesday night was Young Women in Excellence.  The girls acted out skits featuring the YW values.  Sammi was Ethel, a geriatric patient who was stealing everyone’s dentures.  Jessi was a Christmas wrapping elf who secretly wanted to be a plumber!  Crazy night! 

Thursday Bella went to see her orthopedic surgeon.  Her leg is straightening out!!  We have had a 7 degree improvement!  There are still years ahead of us, but what great news! 

I had Brother with me, so he had to sit in the wheelchair – he thought that was interesting!

Friday Jessi went to visit the optometrist.  She is following in her parent’s footsteps.  She is near sighted.  Glasses have been ordered.  I think she looks cute!

If you read my post Even in Australia.., here is some follow up.  I am keeping shoes off so he can feel the grass with his feet and we are purposefully putting new textures in his environment.  He is a smart boy.  I know he will rise to the challenge. 

After school on Friday, Lizzy let me know this is the new cool thing – little plastic bands weaved/braided/something into a pattern.  OK.  Good to know. :)

Happy girls after school

Brother loves to feel the vibrations of the dryer!  Extra cuddly.

Joy brought home herself as a star and these great work papers – she got four out of five senses correct, coloring in the lines.  Such good work Joy!  She got an Enthusiasm award from school.  Way to go little one!

Therapy shoots – working on eating, Brother’s got “more” down (his auditory version anyway), vestibular system, and trying to accept cold

Sammi got some amazing mail – her patriarchal blessing came in the mail!  So very exciting!  The other envelope contains her official diagnosis of Asperger's, two types of anxiety, and ADHD.  Amazed me they came in identical manila envelopes and contained such different things.

Friday night Lizzy’s school held their Fall Festival.  Jason and Liz went and had a great time!

While Jason and Lizzy played at her school festival, we had a pizza and TV fest.  Joy insisted on a picnic!

Sammi and I drove up to Dallas on Saturday.  We went up to the FSA Adoption Conference   I got to present on Special Needs.  Great conference!  The part that was amazing to me was the Birth Parent Panel.  Sammi and I were crying.  I loved what one woman said.  She talked about how they all say they had peace when they found the family they wanted to raise their child.  She clarified that.  She said it’s not peace, like a happy peace, but it’s “a heartbreaking peace.”  I was remembering the pain our birthparents went through.  These three couples gave us three lives to love and raise – and I am so grateful to them!

Of course, we stopped at Buc ee’s!  Loved their plaque!

On the way home we stopped at a teeny hole in the wall restaurant in teeny Ferris, Texas for authentic Mexican food – so authentic I didn’t recognize a thing on the menu!   Love it when Sammi laughs!

The girls back at home playing outside on Saturday.

Because we are Kickstarter Backers of Rachel and the Treeschoolers, we got a sneak peek at the newest episodes.  This was their reaction to episode 2.

It’s been a week with lots to think about.  We got an email last week about a baby – were we interested?  We prayed and had the girls praying for the baby and her family.  I put their names on the prayer roll at the temple.  And they chose to parent.  What a blessing for that little one!  We are happy for them.  Getting an unknown diagnosis at birth is overwhelming.  It’s a lot to process as they figuratively bury the child they thought they were getting and accept the reality.  But I was also a teeny bit sad for me.  I guess it’s like being a week late and allowing yourself to hope, well, maybe.  To start thinking of names and what we’ll need to pick up.

So there was that, and Sammi’s diagnosis, and the optometrist that confirmed that if Brother’s optic nerve is gray that it is undeveloped and will never develop.  Never.  Sitting there looking at the computer screen while he showed me pictures of Jessi’s beautiful healthy optic nerve was bittersweet. 

Then there’s the very real possibility of a wedding in May – so we go to the temple and pray a lot.  There’s a lot of excitement coming out of Idaho.  Amazing to me how life just keeps on rolling forward.  People growing up and changing regardless of how often we would like life to just slow down for a moment.

Driving home from Dallas I was thankful for all of the experiences, good and bad, that Heavenly Father has given me to prepare me for this time in my life right now.  Grateful for the knowledge that He has or will prepare me for what lies ahead.  Grateful to know that Heavenly Father has a plan and He is always there for me.