Arachnids are what we are into this week- spiders

 

We are studying spiders this week and God decided to help us :) It was foggy outside early on Monday . The air was full of water droplets and as I walked out our front door to go to some doctor appts. very early I saw hundreds of webs. I called to Leah to come out with my camera and to take some pics for us....She did a great job. I don't even really like spiders but I think the ones she took pictures of are really neat looking. By the time the sun came out you could not see very many of them. I actually went outside that nite and started to "talk" to them :) because I knew they were there- You just could not see them like we did with the fog outside.

This is what we do when it is raining outside :)

 

It has been raining hard all day long here...So for part of our school we did our exercise video. It makes me smile watching them....but every day we need to " move it , move it " as they say.

Care to guess where we were Sunday ?

This is the inside of one of the cargo planes at the air show we attended Sunday morning. It is a free activity which is great for our family and if you go Sunday morning it is not crowded- which is another great thing when our family goes out :)

They had their faces painted. They made cards for vets at the VA hospital.

 They had grey hounds and of course my kids love dogs so this was a favorite.

This is the group putting their shoes back on.

Lots of smiles on the jumping toys....

Here we are waiting at the bus stop for the shuttle to take us back to our vans...We rode on school buses and for my little ones this was a hit too. I love how simple pleasures ( riding on a bus like Gracie does is such a big thing). It was beautiful weather and we were home in time for lunch since it was not so crowded Sunday am.. We have gone later in the day and we would have waited in long lines for the kids to get to do the activities so with our huge family we sometimes have to navigate our trips out like this...but it works . You will notice that 5 of the kids are missing....they had commitments at church and Jacob had to work.

Celebrating Jacob turning 21- An older child we took a chance on

 

We have adopted 25 children. Our first adoption was 27 yrs ago when we brought home Abraham from Mexico...He entered our family as the 5th child....We then continued to build our family thru 2 more bio. children ( Mary Kate and Ben )....then we did foster to adopt in 2 diff. states ( not planning to share about that experience here )....and then we kept praying for more children. The Lord answered our prayers in a mighty way :) Jacob was the first of the 24 children the Lord has given to us in the last 10 yrs.. He was just 11 yrs when he came. He is from Vladikavkaz , Russia which is in the Chechyna region- the Caucasus mountain area ( a very beautiful part of the southern tip of Russia , right by Georgia). We were in Russia for 23 days finishing his adoption along with Isaac and Lily. Jacob was in the older kid's orphanage and it was a rough place, a very sad place for a child to be in. All around the orphanage were refugees from Georgia since they were less than a mile from the border. He first came to America in Nov. 2001 with a host program. He was one of 4 children who did not get picked by a host family- ( We had not even met him then). We were thru our foster family training and waiting for a child. In June of 2002 we had some extra money . We had been planning a
"midlife" trip to Alaska. We went away with some old college friends of ours to Deep Creek Lake. We had a wonderful time of fellowship, sharing and fun on their boat. God sort of presented 2 choices to Paul and I- One was to live like most of our friends who were empty nesting and invest in things to enjoy while moving towards retirement ( what does retirement even mean) or invest in the life of a child. We asked about Jacob and the other children and the rest is history....We have never regretted our choice. Jacob had severe scoliosis and he has had 3 major back surgeries at Johns Hopkins. The curve in his back was 103 degrees and he lost 50 % of his lung capacity in his r lung because of it. He has struggled to overcome some interests that we disagree with ( mostly influenced by his life in the Russian orphanage) but he has overcome them. It is such an amazing journey to watch your child begin to understand the value they are to God, and to desire to have a relationship with Him. This day we celebrate the life - 21 yrs of Jacob. He is an amazing and sensitive yg. man whom I love to call my son and I cherish his life being in mine every day. Happy birthday Jacob.

Gracie's first day of school....

Gracie had her first day of public school yesterday. Here she is waiting for the bus...a bit apprehensive. From what her teacher shared she had a good day. Although this am she was certainly not herself even before and after her medication. She delayed eating and going to the bathroom for as long as she could which is her way of control sometimes. I know she reacts to new environments and it will take time for her to adjust....We are hoping that it is a very positive experience...and if not we will bring her back home. I do have to say though  the school officials and transportation have been exceptional in their effort to help make this work for her and us. Kudos to Berkeley Co. Schools so far.

Andrew update

I wanted to share an update quickly about Andrew. He had his EGD and did fine with it. It showed that he did not need to have his valve dilated at this time. There were some nodules that were new...Not sure about them but Dr. K biopsied them along with other tissue to check that the H Pyloria has not come back and for food allergies- both of which have been negative before. We should know by next week the results to these. He also had a blood draw today to check one of his meds...He has started not to sleep thru the nite and has been up sometimes from 1 am to 7 am...more times than he is sleeping thru the nite until 6 am.. Also he has had more periods of irritability. Checking his theraputic levels of the medicine helps to determine if we need to change the amount we give to him. He had been stable and sleeping for months so he may need it to change.....Thats all for now.

Andrew is having an EGD and dilation procedure - please pray

Andrew is having an EGD -endoscope and dilation of his pyloric valve once again tomorrow am early at Johns Hopkins. He has done well except for one time when he got a croup like cough afterwards. We are hoping for continued good news for our guy. He has suffered alot with his GI issues and it seems like this is working well for him. We have to be in Baltimore at 6 am...a 2 hr drive :) After I spent most of today at Sinai for a checkup for Mya and Luke with our favorite Doctor Standard. He was impressed with their legs and their next surgeries are still on hold which is a praise.