Family Update

It has *almost* been two months since my last post.  Wow!

We have been busy with many different things.

There are many many many photo blogs in the works so keep checking back.  I know there have been crickets chirping around here for a while, but another blog blitz is coming soon.

Since it has been so long since I have blogged I thought I better do a sort of a newsy post to get people up to date on our lives in the last few months.

I have been busy working on an adoption event.  This has taken away a lot of my blogging time, but the event is over and I have more free time after bedtime.  I am excited to use some of that time blogging once again.  The event was a great success.  This year we added a camp like experience for the children which was wonderful.  All of the kids had a great time and we are already making plans for more fun things next year!

Since my last post we have hosted my parents once and Brandon's parents twice and Brandon's sister's family once.  We have also traveled to spend an extended time with Brandon's family.  (See what I mean about A LOT Of photo blog posts coming)

For each of our hostings or trips we have kept things a secret from the kids.  Oh how special it has been for them to be surprised.  It has been awesome for us too because the lead up to vacation is usually very dysregulating.  We are continuing the trend with all of our upcoming family visits!

This summer both kids did VBS!  They both enjoyed it.  I helped with the really little ones and Brandon was a part of the skits.  It was an entire family effort.  It is such a special week for everyone who is a part of it.

M did Safety Town this summer and learned all about street, fire, stranger, electrical, gun, poison, water, bus etc etc safety.  It was an excellent two weeks.  I wish T could take it right now!

M is doing T-ball this summer.  He plays for the Tigers and loves to go to his games each week!  He is great at throwing.  He really prefers to be pitched to, so using a tee is a challenge, but this is what is available at his age.

T and M are both in Summer School.  M goes a couple of hours 5 days a week.  T goes a couple of hours 2 days a week (but not the same two as M... which is why I have not blogged).  Summer School is such a huge blessing.  It provides me with solo time with each kid and also provides them with a routine they are used to.  Our community has one of the best summer school programs around.  Next summer M will be eligible for the full offering of classes.  He can take different art classes, sports classes, swimming, music, languages etc.  I am so excited for this for him.

Sadly I have stopped writing down my daily blessings in my blessings journal.  I even made my first thousand in exactly 4 months so I was on pace... but it also became a idol and a task and the joy was gone.  Now to develop the practice of expressing my thanks to God in the moment!

I have been successfully tracking our dinners since February which is really helping me answer the daily question of what to make for dinner and the frequently asked question about what we actually eat in our family.  We eat well.  I am so thankful for Pinterest so I can actually find the recipes to make again at a later date!

I recently started tracking M's sleep as well.  I write down all wake ups and times of them etc.  It is very interesting to watch his sleep patterns. I think this will be helpful as we meet with therapists etc.

Speaking of therapists, we are most likely in the market once again.  We are excited that we are going to be meeting with a specialist at our area Children's Hospital and are hopeful that she will be able to refer us to several therapists in the area.  Trying to find a therapist who understands complex developmental trauma (I mean REALLY understands it) is so very very hard.  We need an expert to help us find and expert!

Church continues to be filled with joys and blessings.  It surely isn't perfect, no church is.  We are seeing God do some pretty awesome things and it is a joy to be a part of it.

The kids have both been very healthy which is a huge blessing.  The tonsils out were the ticket to M's sore throats.  I am so glad that chapter of life is over.

T's dance class takes a break for the summer so she isn't dancing, but that doesn't mean she has stopped wearing dancing gear!  She is a princess and her wardrobe reflects this.

We continue to treasure your prayers as we deal with the trauma that both of our kids are working through.  We would currently love prayers for less aggression for each of our kids. Please also pray for M's relationship with Brandon.  Please pray that T would embrace using gentle touches.

I got back on Faceook a couple of months ago, and it is really taking away too much time... again...  Because of this, I am going to be cutting back again soon.   I don't think I will take a two month break or deactivate my account, but I have been pondering weekly check-ins so I can read PM etc.  Sadly our new Mac has this "great" feature where it remembers my password even when I log out of FB.

I look forward to the many posts to come because blogging is such a blessing to me and it is such a joy to see the photos of the kids and to remember and reflect on the great moments we share as a family!