October Update

It is almost Oct. and we have much going on.... First we have been sailing along with our homeschool.... I challenged some of my children to get thru their math books and get up to their grade level and 2 have done a full book and are moving up one grade level .... woo hoo. The little ones are perfecting their reading skills and this is always a much better time after the initial beginning... we are in the swing of things as they say. We studied butterflies and I will post a pic of us releasing the ones we watched thru the stages.... New life is always exciting around here.

Speaking of new life... I was going to NC to visit my daughter, Jenn and her family on Sept. 14. Her church was having a baby shower for her ( She was due Oct. 10). She called at 2 pm and said she thought she was in labor and she was.... Ezra was born early Sat. am... healthy except for some jaundice and 4 weeks early. Her first ( Ella- now is 22 months was born 5 and half weeks early while we were on our adoption trip). So I was glad we did not miss Ezra'a birth. I was able to help out and we rejoice in this precious life.

We also have another "grand" daughter- Ava who was born on (my husband- her pawpaw's b-day) and she is almost now 9 months old.... We also have 2 grandsons born to our oldest daughter. With the number of kids we have we could have lots of "grand" babies :)

We are still waiting for our approval letters from USCIS and have escalated our request for them to adjudicate them ... as one of our children may age out. Anyway we have a peace about it as we know the Lord is in control... It is hard to think that the children have to wait longer.... without us because of our gov't red tape... the USCIS is not my favorite gov't entitiy to work with.... I think they are very insensitive to the needs of children and adoption.

We are looking forward to the cooler weather and all that it brings... campfires, pumpkins , hot soups, and falling leaves to play with.... I love the change of seasons and so do the kids.

We had our daughter, Anna at the teen cleft clinic at Hopkins and are very happy with their next recommendations... We will begin working on her jaw surgeries in a yr.... Our next surgeries will be for Luke's cleft and another nose and lip for Joseph's cleft. We have not had any surgeries since Luke's leg in April and the break has been nice.... Now we start once again... but the changes are amazing .

Luke is continuing to amaze everyone... He walks . It is so hard to imagine him not being able to walk upright and we are so grateful to Dr. Standard for his work with children like Luke. The Lord has gifted him with the skill of a surgeon and a heart of compassion.... We have been blessed by him and his team.