First Day of School

I have mixed feelings about school starting. Part of me is thrilled that I finally may be able to accomplish some things around the house, but I dread the whole morning routine of trying to get everyone out of the door! We were able to get everyone to bed pretty much on time last night, but that still didn't matter to Ben. Both Peter and Ava were already in our bed and got up pretty easily. Ava was up and ready to eat breakfast and Peter was up and ready to have some chocolate milk. I woke up a groggy Ben and carried him into our room...he was very upset that it was still dark outside. I put him in my bed, turned on the t.v. and brought him some chocolate milk to ease him into the day. For the last couple of years that has been our morning routine for school. The boys would get in our bed and drink CM while watching t.v. Ben pretty much just uses that time for more sleep....today was no different. Once they were up, everything went pretty smooth. They got dressed, we took our annual pictures and headed to Ava's school first.

For some reason, the flash didn't work when taking the boy's pictures.

Ben went to morning asembly without a problem. He has been going to this school since pre-k, so he knows the routine. He is not one to let you know if he is anxious, but he did finally admit yesterday that he was a little excited about going back to school so he could see his friends.

Peter has been excited about going back to school; he loves school and misses his friends...especially Abigail. I took him to his classroom and he put his book bag away, found his seat and got started on the puzzle on his desk. I was glad to see that he was seated next to Charlotte, the sister of one of Ben's best friends (Leo). Peter barely even noticed when I left.

Ava was all smiles here, but it didn't last. She got very upset when I dropped her off. It broke my heart to see her crying as the teacher's aide took her away. The boys got very upset too. Peter started to cry and asked me why I was making her go to school on the first day. They were both so sweet. I know that she will have fun and like school once she gets into her classroom, but a part of me worries about what she was thinking when I dropped her off. I wanted her to know that I was going to be coming back to get her. She has gone through so much in her life and we are the fourth place that she has lived (as far as we know) and I want her to understand that we will always be her family. I don't know if she really knows that.

Summer Fun with Virginia

My sweet niece, Virginia, is here and the kids are having such a good time with her. When we are home, I actually hardly ever see them...they go down to the playroom and play for hours. Sunday we went to White Water and we all really had a good time. I didn't bring my camera, but if you've ever been to White Water, you know that some of the sites you don't want to remember (I just don't understand why every pregnant person now feels that they need to wear a bikini). Anyway, the kids were cute and they loved the rides.

Kati happened to pack two dresses of Virginia's that Ava has so I dressed them alike for church on Sunday...they looked so cute. What was even cuter though was Peter and Virginia holding hands walking into church.

We had a pretty busy day yesterday too. Ava has a door plaque on her door that I made that Virginia liked so after Ava's speech therapy, we went to the craft store to buy some stuff to make one for her. Virginia and Peter also bought some crafts to paint. On the way home, we stopped off at the drug store for some milk shakes and then off to Blockbuster for some video games and movies. So last night we did crafts for a while and then the big kids went downstairs to play and watch movies with Derek while I put Ava to bed. I forgot to mention that I also brought out the play-doh for Ava to play with. So right now, I think that every room in our house is a disaster area. You always hear people say that with each child, you become more and more relaxed about what they do. Well, she is definitely the first one that I have let play with play-doh in the living room. It dries up and actually comes out of carpet pretty easily. It is not like it is any worse than all of the danimal/gogurt spills that the living room rug has suffered. (please call 2 hours in advance before stopping by)

I just got up and went into the boys room to tell them something and they are now grouping all of the stuffed animals and putting them on Peter's bed. Peter has a lot of stuffed animals...he has quite a large Care Bear collection. They are having so much fun so who cares that they are making a mess and that I just saw Ava walk by with green play-d0h in her hands.(please call 3 hours in advance before stopping by)

Today we are going to take it easy and just hang out by the pool. Maybe I will clean up later.

Our Wall Art

Peter wanted his on here too

Look Who Has Glasses Now

Isn't she the cutest thing?!

We took Ava to her follow up eye doctor appointment this week and she is now wearing glasses. The last time that we went, the doctor told us that she was far sighted, but just outside the normal limits for a child. He didn't think that she needed glasses at that time, but wanted to follow up in a couple of months to see how she was doing. It seems that she crosses her left eye when she tries to focus, this is called accomodative esotropia. Ben was given glasses (and patch) for amblyopia and anisometropia. Really big words which mean that his eyes were seeing unequally and the brain was starting to favor the better eye. I never knew that there were so many long words to describe eye conditions. I was hoping (for both of them) that their vision would be corrected easily and they wouldn't need glasses long term, but it looks like they both will be wearing them for years. They both look really cute in their glasses. I wanted to take a picture of them together, but was only able to get Ava to cooperate tonight. Ben has had a few things not go his way tonight so he is not in the greatest of moods. On top of that, he just got home from spending several days at one of his favorite places, Jim and Donna's, and he is exhausted!

New Found Cute Photos of the Boys

Summer 2006
Ben is 5, Peter is 3













I love our bug man (Richard). I know that is odd, but he is a really nice guy. He is from our town, but, until recently, he lived about 30 min. away. He has moved back to the area and the last time he was spraying our house he asked if our church had a website. I knew that we did, but I had never even looked at it. We have a pretty small church and we are pretty active in it so I never really felt the need to look at the website to see what was going on. After finding the website, I found some of the cutest photos of the boys at VBS over the years. I remember the first year Ben went to VBS and how much fun he had, especially during the games. This was our first year at the church. Everyone there was wonderful and welcomed us with open arms. It is a very small church, most of the members have been going there all of their lives and almost everyone is related. They have never made us feel like outsiders, but have included us as if we were family. Moving to this area has been challenging for me at times. I don't know what I would've done if we would not have found this church.

Thank you Richard for leading me to our website and old photos of the kids enjoying VBS. It helped me to value what I do have here in a time that I really need it. I have been feeling really down and home sick lately. We just got back from visiting some of my family at the beach and it really made me want to move near them. I still wish that I could have some of my family around and I would really love to live near them. It would be wonderful to be able to see my sister's and their kids on a regular basis, but right now that is really not something that we can do. I am just thankful for the wonderful friends that I have made at Mt Zion.

VBS 2004

Ben LOVING the freeze game

Ben loves that his dad helps with recreation

This is the only picure we have of Peter that year. He is sitting on Lisa's lap across from Morgan on Christine's lap.

VBS 2006

Ben loved digging for treasure

Our group of "Treasure Seekers"

Lexi and Ben wrapped in newspaper

Derek and Jonathan demonstrating the game
Lexi and Ben as partners
Peter making a silly face
The younger group gets to dig for treasure too. That is Morgan next toPeter...she is still one of his favorites at church.

Blowing Bubbles

Peter and Morgan

Unfortunately, no psychological testing is done on the leaders

VBS 2007

Peter joins Ben with the older group

Derek and Johnny

Doing the VBS "moves"

Patricia, Carol and Susan...I would love to know what they are looking at

I just thought this was a funny picture of Kim...I'm sure she will love to see this here!

The Twins

I am so happy to post that Jonathan and Susan have their little girls. As you can see, they are adorable. Check out Susan's blog for more photos. Congratulations J and S....we can't wait until you all get home.

Ava Showing Off Her New Birthday Presents

Ava got two birthday presents in the mail yesterday. She got the cutest little dress from Aunt Magi. Magi got the adorable hand made dress from Robin, a waiting mother who is sewing to make money so that she can go to China to get her daughter. When I showed it to Ava, she wanted to put it on immediately so we put it on over what she had on. I didn't get any pictures of that lovely combination, but we did put it on today and she posed for pictures outside. She loves to put on pretty clothes.







Granddaddy and Grandma Nora got her a new tricycle. We have a tricycle but she can't really do it herself so this one with the push bar is great (it saves mom and dad's backs). I didn't let her see the tricycle until today because I didn't want her to know it existed until we had it put together and we were ready to ride. We put it together while she napped this afternoon so we could surprise her with it when she woke up. She was very excited when she saw it and instead of riding it, she has been pushing it around. Right now she prefers to push it. She had a lot of fun with it today.





As you can see, I have no pix of the boys. They left yesterday to go to the beach with Derek's family. We are going to meet them there next Wednesday night, after the twins come home.

It Has Been Awhile

I have been meaning to post forever. A lot has gone on since I last posted - the boy's field day at school, mother's day, Ava's 4th birthday, Ava's christening, etc... I keep meaning to post and then when I get behind, I feel to overwhelmed to even start it!

I did take Ava for her 6 month follow up at the adoption clinic. I did not have a very positive experience. The evaluation with the social worker went well. Ava is attaching very well and I think that we will continue to see progress in that area. She has come a long way. The OT visit didn't go as well. They think that she should be farther along developmentally then she is. I don't think they see much improvement over her initial visit. She thinks that her development doesn't match her history. Her history being that she was in her biological family for the first year (which we can only assume b/c she was not abandoned until she was a year old) and being in foster care for the majority of her life before us (she was in the orphanage for about 6 months, during that time she had heart surgery). I look at that short little life as having quite a few traumatic events...who knows how that affected her. I saw a different doctor this time and I wasn't crazy about her. I think she must be a new graduate (I looked this up...finished residency 2007). She almost acted like Ava wasn't even in the room except for the physical exam...even then, she didn't really interact with her. I didn't care that much because I knew this was a one time visit. What bothered me, was that she wanted to get an MRI and do genetic testing. They made me feel that Ava was mentally deficient and that I shouldn't expect much from her. I don't know if they meant to come across that way, but they did. I calmly left their office and when I got in my car I immediately called the director (she is also an OT) at the treatment center I take Ava to in Atlanta. She is also the person that did her initial evaluation and has treated her until recently. I tried to stay composed, but of course, that didn't happen. She was really surprised by what the adoption clinic had to say and said she really didn't agree with this. Neither she nor Ava's PT (who was next to her when I called) felt there was any urgency to get an MRI at this time. She also brought up the fact that Ava has had a nut shell in her nose for who knows how long and just had adenoid/tonsil surgery two weeks ago and how this could've been affecting her. I felt so much better after talking to her. I know that she is not going to tell me things to make me feel better. In fact, that is why I called her first...not Derek. I am not paying her to be my friend. I know that if she thought that Ava would not get "better" she would tell me...it is her job. It was a very long and emotional two hour drive home from the clinic. No matter what happens with Ava's development, which has come a long way, I love that little girl and I am so glad she is my daughter.

The day after our trip to the clinic, Ava had her regularly scheduled OT and speech. I asked them if they had heard about my phone call, but they hadn't. I told them about my experience and they were really surprised. I have been working with the same speech therapist for awhile and she really thinks Ava is doing well. In fact, last week I was feeling a little down and I said that I was worried that Ava would never talk and she reassured me that she would. She has told me every visit since her surgery how much better she is doing in therapy. She really thinks that her hearing has improved. Her new OT also thinks Ava is doing well. She said that they see a lot of kids and they usually know when kids are going to be ones that take off. They really feel positive about Ava. And again, I am not paying these people to be my friends!

Well, that was a lot longer than I expected and I should probably re-read it, but I don't feel like it. Just keep my sweet little Ava in your prayers.

On a completely different topic....many of you have probably already heard , seen on Oprah or Diane Sawyer of Randy Pausch and his Last Lecture. If you haven't, watch it on You tube or listen to it on your I-pod. He is very inspiring and entertaining. He also has a great time management lecture, which I know the title doesn't sound very enticing, but it is really good.

I also just read a great book, The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, by child psychiatrist, Bruce Perry. He is an MD/PhD that specializes on brain development and children in crisis. It is a book explaining how trauma or stress affect a child's brain and how he has helped treat several children.

GULF SHORES

These pictures are from Spring Break - this is Ava with her cousin Sera and Uncle Jim (Sera was not crazy about Ava being on her daddy's lap.

Peter and Sera at the beach

My three kiddos

Ben is such a sweet big brother

Ben "helping" at the Gulf Shores Zoo

This beach thing is exhausting

Mom and her first born...both NOT morning people

FIELD DAY AT ST JOHNS

Peter at field day...Abigail, his good friend, is next to him

Ben and one of his best (and sweetest) friends, Leo

PARTY AT THE HORSE FARM

Daddy and Ava at a birthday party
Ava and Peter having fun in a hammock



ST JOHN'S AWARDS DAY

Peter got two second semester awards: The PE award and an award for having his artwork displayed at the annual catholic school art show
He got The Responsiblity Award for the first semester...I'm not sure if I posted that so I thought I would go ahead and put it here. He loves school and is such a good student.

MOTHER'S DAY

Ava having fun with some of the gifts

Happy mom with her family

Grandmama with most of her grandkids (Terry was celebrating his anniversary in the Bahamas)

The grandkids with there favorite aunt...Donna!

AVA'S CHRISTENING

Ben was happy to have a "job"

Ava with her grandmama

AVA'S BIRTHDAY

Beautiful girl turns 4


AVA BEFORE HER TONSILECTOMY/ADENOIDECTOMY

Before Valium

After Valium (you need to check out one of the videos below)

CENTENNIAL PARK

I just think she has the cutest bottom in this picture

fun with dad

HAPEVILLE

They put up butterflies all around Hapeville....they are beautiful.

VIDEOS

Video one is the soccer game that we played at the end of the season with the kids. It was parents against kids. I finally found my playing level...U8 (kids 6-8)

The next one is of Ava blowing out her birthday candle. Ben being shirtless can be explained here.

The last video is Ava on Valium before her surgery. The doctor said that she was giving everyone high fives in the operating room.

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