Monday, September 30, 2013

We are stepping into the waters of adoption once again



The adoption journey for a special baby has begun

This baby will have our last name and call me momma....


God has called us to adopt again. I will share more about this special blessing in a later blog post but, we all could not be happier or filled with joy that the Lord has chosen us once again to be apart of redeeming the life of a child. This child from birth was doomed to death by those around him all because of his special needs. Thankfully someone cared enough to rescue this child from certain death and now the Lord has moved in our hearts to adopt this special little one.


Just in case you are wondering about our present adoption journey of Papaye and Emmanuel...we are almost to the end and praise God for getting us there. Soon we hope to share that they are home.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Sadly we closed our pools but not before one last swim ( in our clothes - because we felt like it )














 We love our pool time from May thru Sept. and it is always sad when we close them up for Winter. So one evening a week before after dinner we let the kids just jump in with their clothes on ( not planned except my energy level for giving baths that nite was low :) . This spontaneous moment turned into one of our best swimming memories. Ana was here and even she jumped right in with the kids. They made a whirl pool, Joseph was throwing the kids in and everyone had a great evening. Fortunately we have the beach week starting tomorrow so until then we have the excitement of vacation. Then we will move into the Fall.













Sunday, September 15, 2013

A View into Our Week thru Pictures

Looking at themselves thru Paw Paw's shiny bumper




Grandbabies -Milo and Abby home now 5 plus months and adding so many smiles to our family.


Celebrating Leah's 20th birthday


A cool picture she took with her "new " camera



Baby Caleah adding her smiles and joy to everyone



Our last swimming of the season in our pools :( Always makes me sad because we love swimming so much...but it is getting colder. 





Part of our family decided to cash in our Chick fila coupons on Friday nite . Actually 23 of us were there early. We then went to Target and the Dollar Tree to finish the evening. We had a great week of home school, we swam some, closed our pool , played outside in this beautiful weather and we are getting ready for our vacation to the beach :) 

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Some have asked , " How is Gracie doing ?" She is being taught at home now.


This was Gracie on her first day of public school...she was a bit apprehensive but seemed to enjoy it.


Today being taught by Leah at home


To be honest we fully expected her to finish this school year of 5th grade in public school. She went last year in a special ed class and she did fine. We loved her teacher and felt like the experience was very positive for her and us. So when she started back in August we were not at all expecting for us to change our minds but, we did. She came home the Tuesday after Labor wknd.. If you are a friend of mine on fb you would have seen my post and questions about , What is a code orange at public school ? Because Friday, August 30th changed all of that. We had gotten a call from her teacher at school telling us that Gracie was not feeling well and that her ear hurt her. So I sent Cate down to pick her up. As Cate was driving into the school police were following her and they went inside the school. Cate parked and went to the front door to get Gracie and she was told the school was on lock down . That was all the info. she was given. She called me and was very scared and upset. I called the school and the sec. told me , " It is a code orange. " When I asked what a code orange was she replied alls I can tell you is it is a code orange. I told her that I had just gotten a call from Gracie's teacher that she was feeling ill and my daughter was there to pick her up. She repeated, " Alls I can tell you is it is a code orange." Cate said a police officer validated that they had followed her in to the school and she was legit...but they would not let Gracie out. After an hour I sent Cate back up with the pain meds. she had taken so that she could give it to Gracie in the car on the way home to help relieve her ear pain...I said if they won't let Gracie out maybe they will give her the pain medicine. If not I was coming down...Finally they let Gracie out . Now I am not at all against the lock down and think it was the right thing to do...but , we are not comfortable with how they handled our particular situation and not making an exception to the protocol for a code orange is not the place we want our daughter to be in. We don't feel comfortable that the "next time" the adults in charge would make the right decisions about the safety or well being of our daughter....

Also just minutes before the teacher called I had a not so pleasant conversation with the head of the bus transportation office for Berkeley County Schools. Grace was out of school at 3:10 but not getting home until 4:25 or 4:30. This long bus ride was not making her or us happy. I had spoken with the bus driver and aide ( both were very understanding and nice) about it as well. This head person was not so nice. His first comment to me was, " Well you know she is not in her school district?" I said I would love for her to be in the school in our area but this is where Berkeley Co. has sent her...so it should not be my problem but yours. Last year she was home at 3:50 . I also explained that her meds had been adjusted and the lastest I could give her the last dose was 4. He was not at all understanding and made us feel like he really did not care about our situation.

Now some parents are comfortable with all of this ...some friends have even shared their thoughts but for Paul and I it matters most how Gracie and our family feel about all of this. We just are not convinced or comfortable that others who make decisions about our child will make them in the best interest of our child. So we decided to keep her home. We had been teaching her the past 3 yrs and doing very well. If you ask Gracie she would tell you she wants to be home. Life is tough out there for sure and diff. families have to make their own decisions based on their own needs as did we. A peace has settled into our Faith Works Homeschool that was not quite completely there when she was away from us. We are all glad to have her home .




Monday, September 9, 2013

Good to the very last lick and we squeezed lots of memories into this week.



Ava is licking her chocolate pie plate ...as anyone of us would :)



Lots of football, soccer and sharks and minnows....


Laura Jeane and her boys stopped by too.


The Hambricks left yesterday, and so did Jonas. He came home for a week. We had lots of memories made and we sure did squeeze every last bit of summer out of this week...We had food, fun and lots of fellowship but now our summer is officially over...well sort of. We are going to the beach in 2 weeks . We started our official school today...and so far it is going well...Of course we are eating our traditional Stone Soup tonite too.