A Ministry that has touched our hearts

Don't worry, we aren't planning to adopt any time soon. We aren't even 'allowed' (per an agreement between Chad and I) to talk about more kids until the twins are 2 and even then it'll have to wait b/c Chad will still be working nights! Ha! I love this ministry, though, and while we can't handle another kid right now we can help families that can! Thanks for watching this video and feel free to pass it on!

UPDATE: I can't figure out how to shrink this embedded video so you can see the whole frame. Sorry, Click this link instead if you want. http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=9b08ab7214bb71b4b33e33&skin_id=1602

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Noah took his first step tonight!!!! He did it 3 seperate times, just moving one foot forward while he stood all by himself!!!!!

Not The Same

Word to the wise (or to the exhausted parents just trying to get the dishes done and go to bed)...If you run out of Dishwasher soap, DO NOT use dish soap instead. They are not the same. Even if you think, "I'll just use a tiny amount b/c it'll probably get sudsy", DON'T DO IT! Not only will sudsy water be covering your floor in the morning, but your dishes still won't be clean! *Sigh*

Heaven or Hell?

(This is Zeze looking out our front window at all the action. He's brought his drink, his snack and a toy and put them on the window sill so that he doesn't have to miss a thing!)

They have been digging up my front yard/parking lot for the past two weeks in order to install a new septic system and leach field (or whatever it's called). There is an enormous excavator and dump truck, a medium-sized excavator, a mini excavator, sometimes a crane, a jack hammer, a couple of skid-steers, the poop truck (this is what Kai calls the septic truck) and a very large DEEP hole 20 feet from our front door. Every day I have to usher all 3 boys past all these "BIG TRACTOR, MAMA!!!" (Zeze exclaims this at least 10 times every waking minute of the day...it's like having 100 boys screaming, "BIG TRACTOR, MAMA", at me all day every day, but it's really just Zeze and Kai....I hate these big tractors!)...anyway, I have to usher the boys past all this to get Kai to school and then walk back again with the twins, then load the twins up, yet again, 2 hrs later, to go get Kai from school, only to walk past these "BIG TRACTOR, MAMA!!!" for the 4th time in three hours with 3/4ths of us still in our pajamas. While this is a huge pain in the, ah...bum, for me, these are heavenly things for boys to see ALL THE @#%@##& LIVE LONG DAY!!

It is driving me, and my mommy neighbors, CRAZY trying to get to our cars with all of our boys in tow. You can hear, "Don't go near the edge. Get off the rock pile. No, you can't take rocks with us in the car. Fine! one rock. No, that's not poop it's a tree root. Yes, you can kick it. Don't touch the excavator! Don't go near the edge! Yes, it's a big hole and it's for naughty boys who don't listen!(my neighbor said this to her boys...hahaha). Yes, it's a big tractor. Please, keep walking. Please, keep walking! Noah is dead weight in my arms and you've seriously GOT to KEEP WALKING! Leave the workers alone! You can't wait for the tractor to drop the dirt. The man is not going to move the digger while we're standing right up along side it. Keep walking! No rocks in the house. "....FOUR TIMES A DAY, PEOPLE! The only thing that would make this project more exciting for all our boys is if they were filling this monster hole with candy or puppies or something!!! As it is, rocks and dirt and cement slabs are pretty exciting, or maddening depending on who you talk to!

10 seconds

I could hear Kai and Zeze playing downstairs today and I heard the most amazing and rewarding thing! Here is their interchange...

Kai: "OWWW, ZEZE, THAT HURT ME!!!"
(I'm holding my breath at this point waiting for the hitting and screaming to start)
Zeze: "I'm sorry, Kai."
Kai: "That's OK."
followed by happy playing sounds.

1st - We've been working with Kai a lot about telling people when he doesn't like what they are doing to him instead of screeching unintelligibly. He did it!!!

2nd - Zeze apologized without ANY prompting or time-outing from me! AMAZING! And, he spoke a whole sentence SO clearly!

3rd - Kai, yet again, verbalized and said it was OK!

4th - Kai let it go and didn't carry on screaming and crying and yelling for me to come down and give Zeze a time out...which often is the other scenario to this interaction.

What transpired peacefully in 10 seconds could easily (and often does) become 1/2 an hour filled with time-outs and mean mommy voice. Thank you, God, that my boys are learning to interact like actual people and less like rabid squirrels! It was so nice to be "thanked" through a moment of manners and good behavior...all my efforts ARE sinking in!!

Dance Lessons

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A Little Fun

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October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month, so I'm including this link to let you meet a woman with DS that lives on her own and has her drivers licence! Thanks for learning with me, friends! :)

Down Syndrome Awareness!!

October is National Down Syndrome Awareness Month!!! Help spread the word to end the use of "R" word (ie retarded) in everyday language. 'Retarded' is such an outdated and hurtful word that is completely inappropriate to use as an insult or just in terms of someone/something being stupid, lame, ridiculous etc. You guys can help me change the future for my sweet Noah by learning more about DS and spreading the word. Visit http://www.ndss.org/ or ask me questions...I love talking about my amazing little boy!! Thanks, friends!!!

ok, ok!!

The commenting natives are getting restless! :) (see the last 2 comments on my previous entry by clicking here)

Not much news lately. Kai was puking all morning, every half hour. He was finally able to keep a little juice down and then a cracker and then toast, etc. I asked him this evening if his belly still hurt and he told me that his hurt belly went down through his body, out through his leg and down the drain. I guess that means he's feeling better!

Fever

Dance Fever, that is!

Labor Day Weekend At Nan & Grandpa Chet's

This is a montage of the kids riding on a train for the first time. We go by this little train every time we go up to see Nan and Grandpa, but this was the first time that Kai was willing and able to ride it. Zeze and Kai were SO excited to ride this train! The rest of us were kind of along for the ride. :)

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This is Kai and Chet walking down to see the green tractor. Big excitement as Kai was willing to first sit on the tractor by himself and then take a ride with Grandpa. In May (not gluten/dairy free) he wouldn't even go near it b/c it was too scary. This time he rode around for about 20 mins!!!! Yay, Kai!!!!

Look at the smile on his face! I'm so proud of him!

CatFishing

Potty Talk

More Catch-Up Pictures

Kai's first day of Pre-School 2009! It was a much easier transition for everyone this year. Click HERE to see last year's experience!

Wolves around the kill (ie bowl of blueberries). They were shoving fistfulls of blueberries into their mouths. At the end they all had blueberry juice and seeds running down their chins and bellies. It was a feeding frenzy! :)

Zeze will climb on almost anything. He's got great balance and can stand straight up on this toy!

My silly little Zeez. He is totally into this orange hat or any hat for that matter. He wants to wear hats all the time! He is also extremely happy here b/c he has scored 3 off-limits items: Kai's toothbrush, baby Tylenol and Kai's Nuk. Zeze is in heaven!

Kai and Zeze being monkeys.

Noah doing his Peek-a-boo routine...he's such a funny little kid! Oh, he also signed "music", "water", "Stop", "No" (along with the head shake) and "yes" all for the first time this weekend! Such a smart boy, too! Even pneumonia can't slow this kid down!

pNOAHmonia

Case Study:

20 month old male presents

Father pushed to have son seen today. Parents say that the only thing identifiably wrong with him is that he slept until 10am this morning and went back to sleep right after eating breakfast. Mother said, "He seemed fine yesterday, but seems "off" today."

Parents report No fever

No vomiting/diarrhea

Eating/drinking well

Bright Alert Responsive

Coughed 2 or 3 times last week.

Sounds a little bit stuffy, but no nasal discharge and no cough presently.

Child has Trisomy 21 and a repaired AV Canal.

Physical Exam:

Axillary Temp=97.9

ENT all look normal.

Lungs sound clear.

Heart sounds normal

Slight petechia (red spots) on abdomen.

Pulse/O2 Sat = 148bpm and 99% (normal)

Doctor says child could just have a bug which would cause the discomfort and upper respiratory noise and the rash. Parents seem very concerned and anxious though nothing significant is presenting except that child seems "off" to them. Doctor suggests bloodwork and if that looks abnormal to proceed to an xray. Parents agree to bloodwork and mother requests an immediate xray. Doctor asks mother what she hopes to see/find with an xray. She doesn't know as it doesn't appear to be pneumonia, but she still requests an immediate xray.

Bloodwork: Normal

Platelets normal (Petechia can be caused by low platelets and other scary things).

WBC normal indicating no infection.

Radiographs/Xray:

Right sided Perihilar Infiltration (ie crappy fluffy looking lungs on xray...ie pneumonia).

Results:

Doctor says it's possibly viral pneumonia (as opposed to bacterial) but will start on antibiotics regardless. He says that a mother's instincts really do count for something and looks amazed that we caught pneumonia before any concrete signs presented (cough, fever, crackly lungs, etc.)

All I have to say is, "Thank you, God!!" We had NOTHING to go by except a feeling that Noah wasn't doing well and that he slept late. Kind of hard to go to the doctors with nothing to show and to basically ask for bloodwork and radiographs. When we got in the car Chad and I got the breathless shaky feeling when you realize you almost got hit by a car, but didn't. Then you get that nervous hysterical kind of laughter when there is really nothing funny going on. As some of you know, we were in the hospital 2x this past winter for pretty bad pneumonia that cropped up after merely 1 or 2 days of Noah having a simple cold or slight fever. We are so thankful to God for making Chad so in tune to Noah's behavior this morning and that he didn't pass it off as Noah just being overly tired or just coming down with something (which is what I was thinking). Chad urged me to get a doctor's appointment. Also, once I was on board I insisted on a radiograph when all my medical training, Chad and the doctor all said this was an unnecessary diagnostic due to lack of signs. If we hadn't gotten the chest radiograph we wouldn't have found the pneumonia for a couple more days. God let Chad and I be aware that something was wrong when, in any other child, nothing appeared to be wrong. If we had waited 2 days for the fever and bad cough to crop up, I am convinced that we would be facing a week-long hospital stay for pnuemonia....during a week when Chad will be starting work for 12+hrs a day. God also gave us a doctor that was sensitive and responsive to our intuitions and didn't berate us for being hypochondriachs or whatever, and God gave us an actual Radiologist to read the films a few minutes after they were developed...that has never happened for us. We always have to wait days to hear the official report while the Pede waffles with uncertainty.

So, again, we say, "Thank you, God!" instead of "God, why does Noah get so sick? Why do our lives suck so much?" That's a big change for us!

As I've said before, I've been realizing that our lives are probably not going to get easier as far as the health of our children and the ease of raising them. However, Chad and I are learning to see and understand that, instead of removing troubles from our path, God might choose to help us through them. I used to be pretty pissed at this concept, but now I am starting to take comfort in it. I'm not fully sure yet why that comforts me, b/c I still think that if God would remove our struggles things would be so much better. But I have an inkling that He's doing His crazy 'God thing' and trying to draw us closer to Him. Even that opens a whole new can of worms about suffering and God's plan, but I won't let myself go there. Right now, I am comforted and it's been a long time since I've felt that way.

Noah has pneumonia.

We caught it before anyone would ever detect it as pneumonia.

We are not (and hopefully won't be) in the hospital.

We have affected the things we could change and are not mourning the loss of the thing (pneumonia) we can't change.

That's huge for us! We are very thankful!!

First Fish

Kai and I went fishing with our neighbors 2 weeks ago at the little river behind our houses. It's a perfect spot for little kids to learn to fish b/c there are tons of small very eager fish that bite at the worms as soon as they hit the water. Kai caught 2 fish!!!! It was very rewarding fishing for the 5 little boys that were there. Kai was so excited and really loved fishing. He was so cute too; If he reeled in his line and there was still the worm on the hook, he'd shout, "Look! I caught a worm!!" Never a sad moment with that outlook, unless the fish eat the worm off the hook and there's only a hook left! It was really fun and I'm looking forward to doing it again. Here is a cell phone picture of Kai's first fish. I tried to circle it since it's pretty small and hard to pick out from the background.

Catch Up!

Early August: Zeze and I went blueberry picking. That 22lb boy probably ate 10lbs of blueberries!


Our first trip to the amusement park! It went great! The kids loved the rides and had a great time. I am sure it would have been a disaster if Kai were still on gluten/dairy. Kai wouldn't go on the rides until he saw Noah and Zeze go on one first. Then he did it and was hooked!

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Kai's first time ever on any sort of amusement ride!!! This is the twins' second ride!!

Hit play to watch the video.

Did you sell your kids and get a new car?

This is what our neighbors jokingly asked us when they saw us get out of our little Mini Cooper this weekend with no minvan and no children in sight! Freedom!!! (I think this car could fit inside our mini van!) Anyway, it was awesome! We brought the kids down to my sister's and brother-in-law's house for the weekend, left the van with them and rented this fun little car (another generous gift from family)!!! We came home and were without children for 2 nights and 2 days!!!!! This is the first time we've left all of the children to do something fun. We've left them for various hospital stays throughout the past 19m, but none of those were too fun or restorative. On Saturday we went to this awesome gluten free bakery and grabbed lunch and sandwiches for the road and headed up to Popham Beach, Maine. We have vacationed at Popham Beach with my family for the past 3 years and totally love it up there. We went to the State Park Beach and read, napped and walked without having to deal with kids crying about the wind, the sand, the waves, the cold water, they can't walk any more, "can we go back to the car", "the sand it too hot", etc. etc. It was awesome! Chad and I talked a lot about how to change our situation/life so that we don't stay in such a crappy place (emotionally) and don't ever get so low again. We have inserted mini get aways each quarter, a separate day off for Chad and I once each month, a date night together at least once a month and random other little things to take back our life from this constant pummeling we've been taking. We started having family meals today too and the kids responded really well to it! Hopefully it will get even better and meals won't be the crying/whining/fighting/food throwing/time out-ing event it usually is.

We are not in a better place yet, but we have found the trail marker to it and have started on the path, hopefully. Please keep praying for our bedraggled little family. The path to a better place starts out on a knife edge and feels very precarious...so easy to fall off the path. I think as we force good rests into our lives amidst the hard things that keep coming, that the path to a better place will feel less precarious and will be a little easier to follow. If I stay on the mountain path analogy, I think Chad and I have been trying to sprint up this mountain of hardship and just get to the top where everything will be better. However, we keep coming to another steep stretch of the trail and there is no end in sight, or so it seems. So now we have to re-strategize because sprinters can's sprint through a marathon. They have to become long distance runners and pace themselves and in our case, rest alongside the trail, eat some yummies and maybe even set up camp for the night. So that is our new strategy. We are starting to accept that we are on this mountain and that we may have to climb for a long long time...we've got to start looking around at the path we are on, see if there is anything worthwhile to see, sing some good Deerfoot songs when moral gets low and occasionally ask passersby (ie our families/friends) to carry our packs for a little way. It's kind of embarrassing to have somebody carry your pack when they've got their own pack, but we have gotten to the point where we are freezing cold, soaked, tired, hungry, disoriented and need the help. It was kind of nice to have family give us provisions, carry our packs and let us rest this weekend. Thank you!

Now for some fun pictures! Here we are in driving our fun little car up to Maine

Here we are at the gluten free bakery.

We forgot to take any pictures at the beach, but that really was the best part of the day.

Here are the 5 boys (our 3 plus 2 of our nephews) eating breakfast and getting car racing quizzes and related physics lessons from uncle Tom. The kids were really loving this!

Another milestone!

Noah has reached another milestone!!! He can now pull himself up to a stand unassisted at the train table (I looked over and there he was just standing there playing at the train table!), in his crib and I caught him going up the stairs by himself. He got up 2 whole stairs by himself!! He's pulling himself up to open drawers and throwing out all the contents. He's really loving standing!! Here are a couple of pictures!