Carving Pumpkins...Gracie loved it

Our little rabbit... chewing on her carrot bag :)

Mady has no teeth yet... she is 4 months and has started to drool and teeth. My bio. kids all got their first tooth at 5 and 6 months. I was babysitting her Friday nite because Keith and MK went on a date. My kids and Ava went with Paul to play soccer like we do most Friday nites. We eat dinner after they come home and so Mady and I were making dinner... She was on the island and a bit cranky... until I gave her this bag of cold carrots. She loved sucking on them.

Mady will soon be eating solids....

She certainly has her midline... she always claps her hands together and everything goes into her mouth... she even found her feet today. They tried feeding her the baby food they were giving to Andrew... she liked it.

Laundry...How we do it all

I came out of my room this am and the boys were ironing their clothes for church :) I love that they can do all the domestic chores equally like their sisters. We have no big issues with our laundry and you notice the emphasis was on how WE do it. Our children are required to bring their dirty clothes to these hampers . They are mostly empty because the kids have not changed into their pjs tonite but usually every nite they are overflowing...We have a rule you wear pants for 2 days (unless they are dirty ) and we wear our pjs more than one nite. We only change our towels once a week....We wash our bed linens once every 2 to 3 weeks -

We have a chore chart that includes someone taking all the clothes down to the laundry room in the am., a person who is in charge of keeping all the clothes going thru - from washer to dryer and carrying them up to our king size bed... where a pile or mountain is made by the afternoon. Then the folding clothes crew ( 4 people) fold clothes and places them in the kids rooms where they belong... then at nite when Paul and I tuck in kiddos you have to have put all your clothes away... If they are left out we will either ask you to do it or if you need multiple reminders we quietly collect them into a black trash bag and you might not get them back for days, weeks or months. Usually with one time of putting them in a trash bag that stays in our closet gets them over the lack of being able to get their clothes in the proper places ( either drawers or hampers). If you are given someone elses shirt or clothing item it is your responsiblity to find out who it belongs to and give it to them- so an excuse of ," It's not mine " does not allow you to throw it on the floor...

With this system we have no issues with the kids and our laundry. Our chore teams rotate weekly... so everyone gets a chance to do it. We even have 1 person a week who is responsible for ironing daddy's shirts or pants that get wrinkled . We keep a basket under the ironing board to put his clothes in that need ironing... and this is done on Wed. and Sat. am...with an empty basket left for the next person...

Dr. Standard- is bigger than life to most of us...thank you and to your family !

Today Dr. Standard, his wife, Ashley and their 3 kids and a mutal friend, Barbara came over . They brought lunch and many things that Ashley had collected from their friends and sponsers for our family... We were so blessed by their visit today. We enjoyed their visit and the kids felt like it was Christmas with all the new sports equiptment, clothes , shoes books, toys, furniture they brought. It was made even more special that we were all able to "play" with Dr. Standard and his family. He is our peds. orthopedic surgeon who treats Mya, and Luke. We have known him since 2006. We have also recommended him to several families who have adopted children with orthopedic needs... He is a doctor who really cares and walks the walk of his compassionate heart along with his very sweet wife, Ashley. Thank you is not even enough of an expression of our gratitude for your gifts, your family time, your efforts and your friendship and mostly your support of our family and our precious children.

It was a wonderful time spent with you all and Barbara . We are so thankful for your medical expertise in helping our children to have a more "normal" ability to walk. We are grateful for the love you shared with us today and we hope to be able to spend more time with you and your precious family.

Luke was never suppose to walk...or live

This is our 9 yr old son, Luke. He was adopted from Ukraine in Oct. 2004. I have shared about all of his medical needs before... He was born with no palate and a bilateral cleft lip, he has a heart condition and has had one open heart surgery 3 weeks after we brought him home- he had a hole in his heart ( vsd) and his aortic valve was prolapsed thru it - this was repaired but has been leaking moderately and he needs to eventually have his aortic valve replaced. His r leg was folded like an accordian to the middle of his back and his l leg was webbed and his l foot was clubbed. He also had a myloceal in his spine... all of these have been repaired or are on going... he was one of our children who if we had not adopted him would not have lived. We went to 5 diff. orthopedic surgeons and 4 of them all recommended for us to amputate his r leg. We did not have a peace about doing this and so sought out a 5th opinion... we were sent to Dr. Standard at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland- the Rubin Institute for Advanced Orthopedics. We were so glad we did this because as you can see Luke not only did not have his leg amputated but he walks, he runs and he plays football and even soccer... It was a lot for him to overcome and after 17 hrs of surgery to release and straighten his leg and it was put into an external fixator which he had on for almost a yr and he had his l leg done as well... with lots of therapy and hard work he was walking a yr earlier than expected at age 6 and he is alive.

These were taken today when our surgeon, Dr. Standard and his wife Ashley and their 3 children came for a visit along with our mutal friend, Barbara.

An update on Andrew eating solid foods....

Well after a week of forcing him to eat yougart and banana mushed and warmed up as well as having to hold his arms down and listening to him yell.... he will now eat a whole jar of baby food and enjoys it ! Not to bad for our sweet , little guy who hated anything new being offered on a spoon... His posture is still leaning to the side ( just like they fed all of his bottles to him in Bulgaria) but we will work on that after we get him eating a variety of baby food... and then maybe table food... I really did not think he would do this for at least another year....