Well after the rough year from Bobby loosing his job at the Police troop we have had many ups and downs. Much more downs but who is counting. God has totally blessed us in this year and kept us afloat and blessed our hearts by using some good people! Anyway this past June 25th Bobby began his new career with the railroad!!! He is excited and blessed to be offered this position and is a few weeks in the training at this point. The training last about 4 or 5 months and involves classwork as well at on the job training. Alot he has to pass so we need major prayer during this time that he does well and they like him and all and he will continue in his job! After he has been there 6 months they will reimburse him 80 percent to go to college and get his degree that then opens up promotion and such with the company! :) That is so the plan!
Celeste and the babies are doing quite well! Growing and changing before my very eyes! I cant express how all 3 of my kids bless my heart on a daily basis! All I EVER wanted was to be a wife and mother! I thank the Lord daily for allowing my dreams to come true! YES we still feel we are not done yet with building our family, and NO we are not announcing another adoption YET! It will happen, but now is not the time. So much on my heart for years to come so you will just have to stay tuned to us for several years to see what will come next on the horizon with that! :)
Celeste is working still as a Phlebotomist at a Medical Office building at the hospital and loving her newest assignment and schedule! She is still dating her sweet boyfriend Dallas and active as ever in the Church and ministering wherever the Lord can use her. I am so blessed to look upon her life as a young adult and see her living for the Lord! I am BLESSED and LUCKY and I know it. She is a tremendous big sister to these babies and will fight to the death for them I do believe if the need arose! In addition to all of the above she is also in full time online college working diligently towards her Bachelors Degree for Youth Ministry! I am ever amazed by this young woman of God that is my baby girl! :)
Noah is loving life and summer! He is so into the $1 movie's we have been blessed to attend this summer and I see such growth in him from last summer in this area! He is a sensitive little guy and there are alot of things that other 5 year olds might be able to go and see that just really upset Noah. I am getting to a point where I can watch the trailer and know if it is going to work for me to take him. He also loves the water this year! He and his puddle jumper do great! Sadly we have not been able to go near as often as we would like but I am hoping to go quite a bit the rest of the summer at a local state park that has a pool and the entry is very affordable. Noah is also very into "fwends"! He adores play dates and running into friends at the movie or park or wherever we end up! He loves everyone it seems! Today I saw him stop and hug a random mom! sigh! Luckily she was an ok person and I was right there but I must say that scares me quite a bit that he at times seems to be so lovey and think everyone is a friend. Then on the other hand if we go into a place and he doesn't know someone and they want to talk to him he clams up and gets shy! It is like HOW is this the same kid. One extreme to the other it seems! Noah is so my helper around the house! We have added some small chores and he takes them very much to heart and takes pride in them which is adorable to me! He even will help with things way above and beyond what is his job to do which is nice most of the time :) He is growing like a weed. We have him measured at 40 and half inches and he is 40 lbs at last weigh in. BUT I am told that is probably not an accurate weight because of our bowel issues. They have increased greatly. We will be seeing 2 specialists in August to get some more information about some possible things going on with my sweet Noah so please be in prayer for us as we explore all this and hopefully find the answers we need. We will be starting K4/K5 with him in the fall in our homeschool. He is still developmentally delayed in multiple areas and also still dealing with some hearing loss and all so I am not totally sure how the year will go. At this point my plan is for Math I have a K5 curriculum and for everything else we are doing more preschool/ K4 level things and going from there! I am excited for the coming year and can't wait for all the things I am working on planning to happen! ;)
Jeremiah, my sweet frogie boy, amazes me! He had surgery this summer on his hips and for the first time EVER we did NOT end up in PICU and were only the hospital over night! :) He has grown so much and so some of the improvements he was making seem to have slowed or been lost as he adjusts to this new bigger and longer body! I think it will all come back and then some as time goes on. Feeding wise he does still have a gtube button. But he is now eating 3 meals a day! He has to have it pureed and then thickened! Just recently I started trying "Thick It" rather than baby rice cereal to thicken and I am loving it and he seems to do even better and it does not affect his bowel movements as much. I am also entering a stage of trying to do my own blended foods for him when I do have to supplement down the gtube rather than the Compleat Pediatric he is currently been taking. We have not had any of the packaged formula in about 5 days and he is doing so good with it all. I have so much to learn but I am feeling like real foods will be so much better for him. We have had a nurse for Jeremiah through a program for the past 10 months. I was nervous to start nursing and had many reasons brought to my attention why it would be a goo thing. Some of those things happened and some did not but overall it was a good experience. It came to my attention recently that this program that we were a part of was for children who are totally homebound. Like go nowhere but drs and such. Well, that is not the life we have chosen for Jeremiah. We do not feel it is in his best interest to stay at the house constantly while we go on with life. We go to Church, We go to the park, the science museum, the pool, and anywhere we feel like it. Well, it turns out all this time when things have been charted about Jeremiah and his day the nurse was not allowed to put that such and such happend at the park, she could put what happened but not where it happened. She was to make the notes appear as if he was not leaving the house. Well, when found this out it really bothered me and we began praying about things. So 2 weeks ago we were at Church during service and I felt in my heart a LOUD message from the Lord that YES this is wrong and YES I should not be a part of something that was being done that broke the rules of the program. Of course I knew this and I am ashamed to say that I did not cancel the service the second I found out. Anyway that day I felt the Lord tell me to give my 2 week notice that day. So on a Sunday I texted the case manager and put in the notice. Today was the nurse's final day. I can't tell you the peace I have about our decision. Am I worried about not having any physical help with lifting the chair and all. YES. But I know that this the right thing for our family and God will take care of us! :) I would appreciate prayers for us as we make the best choices and try to give Jeremiah all we can :) I feel like in so many ways after 2 years home that I am still learning what to do for him, how to reach him, how to help him, etc. I feel alot with both the babies that I fail them and I need to get better at this quickly! Another change that is going to happen for Jeremiah is that August 13th he will start going to the local school each morning for a therapy program. This decision was made several months ago after alot of prayer with Bobby and I and some observing and meetings with the school. This is a trial. I am praying it works out for Jeremiah. It finally came down to it in my mind. If our private therapy place called me up and said they wanted to give Jeremiah therapy every day Monday through friday from 8 to 12, work with him with communicaton devices and all his current objectives and more and it was all free, all I had to do was bring him would I turn it down? Well, how I can turn down therapy for a child that so needs it, that so needs as much brain stimulation to increase the length of his life as possible. The teacher in his little class has 28 years experience and a degree in severe and profound children! She probably is WAY better at knowing what Jeremiah needs than me in so many ways. Anyway, I am scared and sad to not have my baby with me all the time, but at the same time I feel like I have to give it a try because I feel like I would be wrong to take the opportunity away from him. Now, if we start having alot of illness or if he does not seem to handle it well then we will have to rethink things. I would appreciate y'alls prayers for him during this time please. Jeremiah is getting bigger and stronger every day :) He is 36 inches tall and 29 lbs now! :) Not bad for a 4 year old who was soo tiny just 2 years ago.
Well, there you are the update! I know its long but there is probably alot I forgot to put in that I should have! :) Now, let me find yall some pics from the past month or 2.
Jeremiah LOVES to go! :) He almost always (unless he is having a totally unresponsive day :( which are fewer lately) smiles when we take him outside or when we put him in the car seat! :)
Noah in OT one day. He is getting better with the special earphones and cd's that play while he is working. This is our family in potato heads! :) heehee
More OT
Smiling Frogie :)
Bobby and I had the Nursery one night :) Jeremiah loved being outside during the playtime and hearing the kids play and feeling the little breeze there was on his face :)
Some of the kids will come up and talk to him :) This is my friend's daughter Noah! She is such a compassionate little thing :)
Noah looked so cute to me this day :) Wish this shot came out better.
$1 movie fun! Breakfast Picnic during the movie :)
Noah packed to go to the hospital for an unexpected surgery. He is so happy here, little did he know what the following few days would hold for him :(
He is so big!! :) He wanted to take his own suitcase :)
Waiting for me to get Jeremiah out of the van and in his wheelchair :) Such a big boy :)
his good friend Josh came to see him before surgery :)
so blessed to have friends come by and bring stickers and things for him to do :)
hugging his elmo before surgery. he is not asleep but groggy and sad. :(
Showing Sissy his boo boo from the iv. I ADORE this picture!!! So sweet!
more $1 summer movie fun with friends :)
Love his hand on his friend :)
look at his head!!!! :) holding up so strong!
sweet siblings :)
Noah is sooo into dublo blocks now! I can't wait to get him some more :) He is showing off what he made! :)
my beautiful frogie boy! :)
Big smile! :)
Father's Day 2012 :) Daddy and his boys! :)
Fathers day 2012
Father's day 2012
This picture cracks me up! The school loaned us an ipad for a bit. Noah has become SOOOO attached to it. He calls it "my pad pad" LOL Well he is gonna freak when I have to give it back. I will say an ipad is so on my list for both boys!!! I can't tell you how much Noah is learning from all the apps and Jeremiah too! :) so wonderful :) Jeremiah is actually entered in a contest to prayerfully win one! praying for that!
My amazing friend Tina and her sweet princess! :) I was blessed by Macaroni Kid Shreveport and the sponsors thereof with some wonderful blessings and this was taken the day they came and brought it all :) Tina helped them pull off the surprise :)
Mini family reunion! :) Noah hanging out with cousins :)
Love to watch my kids together :)
Look how long my boys are! :)
Noah at VBS with Aunt Michelle!
This day was soo funny! First day of VBS and I said let me get your picture! He began posing like he was American's Next Top Male Model! LOL
is that post not hilarious?? :)
another similar :) cracks me up :)
another shot with Aunt Michelle :) Love his beautiful smile :)
I LOVE THIS!! He is telling another little boy to SHUSH cuz the leader was talking! :) heehee
Jeremiah is getting so strong that when his tone was really high and he would lean forward we would have to put the chest strap on his chair. Well when we did that he was pushing against it and almost hurting himself bad so they had to change it to a different kind! Jeremiah decided to sleep through the guy fitting it :) heehee
to cute seeing Noah with the kids :) I loved coming each day for the closing time and seeing all he learned during VBS each day :)
Jeremiah loving the music too :)
He really liked this song! :)
Noah got a happy package from friends!! :) He loves to get mail! :)
this was tooooo sweet! :)
look at that smile :) LOVE :)
He LOVES stickers and sticker books! :)
Daddy with some stuff from the railroad!! :)
Our family the night we were blessed with a catered and served to us supper! I can't tell you what a sweet blessing this was!!! It was given to us by Catering by Yvette as one of the sponsors of Macaroni Kid Shreveport who blessed us with so many things recently! I can't wait till we are finanically back on our feet! I will be using this catering service for sure again for us and I will also pay it forward and gift someone else with a night like we had! :)
Well, I have tons more pics of the last couple months but I am sure yall are tired of this post by now so I reckon I will close. Please leave me a comment and let me know you are reading! :) God bless!
Until I post again, the babies I sent kisses in the wind so many years send you all, our friends, kisses in the wind!
