First Farm Experience!

Last Saturday, Andy and Beth took the kids out to the farm to ride horses and 4wheelers and see the small fish in the tilapia farm.  I got a much needed rest and some time alone!  Hope fell in love with horses at first sight which was at a fall festival at First Baptist shortly after we brought her home.  She screamed so much to keep riding that we had to leave.  Needless to say, it wasn't long until she had her own horse named Gypsy.

We were not sure how Lena and especially Will would respond.   They were both a little tentative at first but came around and as you can tell by the pics seem to be quite content and enjoying themselves.

The even liked riding the 4 wheelers which was very surprising for Lena, because she doesn't like loud noises.  All in all, the report was favorable that Lena and Will both did well with these "first" time experiences and they are ready to go back!

An update on Will's ear surgery:  The surgery went well on Sept. 8.  The dr. cut from the top of his ear to the bottom (behind his ear) and used super derma bond rather than stitches.  As the derma bond comes off, it looks like wax.  While we can't see any, his ear has packing in it that will be suctioned out on Sept. 30.  The packing basically causes him to be completely deaf in that ear which leaves him with one ear that has mild to moderate hearing loss.  However, this has not stopped him from asking his routine million questions per day, so we have been doing a lot of shouting at the Birchfield house.  The nurse says that we should see (or hear) a big improvement when the packing is removed on Sept. 30 and then they will recheck his hearing in that ear 6 weeks later.  If this surgery is successful, then the other ear will be repaired in about 6 mos.