Another Day on the Lake!

June 14, 2014

Lena

Hope contemplating

Lena strolling her baby

Lena checking on Hope

Will jumping off hi dive by himself!

Hope jumping off hi dive with Dow

Just a sweet pic

Hope's 7th B'day!

It is hard to believe Hope is seven years old and headed to First Grade at Eastwood in August!  As all children do, she started looking forward to her birthday six months ago and she loved every minute of her special day.   Thanks to everyone who called, gave her a gift, a card or a birthday hug!  A big thanks to Paige Morrow who made lion cupcakes after I waited to the last minute and to Vicki Parma who helped with the kids so I could run birthday errands Friday morning.

Hope loves steak and on her birthday, she got a big one!

One of her favorite gifts - thank you Nicole Pinkham

Will got a little something special

So did Lena

Hope really didn't want to eat her lion cupcakes because she loved them so much!

Lena, Hope and Will

Trying to blow out the candles but the giggles were getting in the way!

Update and Special People!

As I mentioned earlier, we discovered that Will has holes in both eardrums, so off he and I went to Children's on Wednesday.  We saw Dr. Audie Woolley, pediatric ENT and had a hearing test on Will.  He has mild to moderated hearing impairment in both ears - bad enough for a hearing aid if he had no further intervention.  Of course, we will try the surgery route to patch the holes but you can only do one at a time and there is a time period of 6 mod. in between surgeries.  His first surgery is scheduled for Sept. 8.  He can't swim for 6 weeks after surgery so we wanted to wait until after summer.  He also has a heart murmur so we have to get that checked out this summer before surgery as well - poor fella!  But he just takes it all in stride.  I think he sees everything as an adventure!

Two people have been such blessings in our lives and God brought both people into our lives in a unique way.  The first is Dora Stan who is from Romania.  She and her family have been in the US for a number of years and is fluent in both English and Romanian.  I was at Ann Amster's house one day and Rebekah Tankersley comes over and we started talking about the Will and Lena.  The conversation turned to language and Rebekah began to tell me about Dora.  We had lunch last summer (2013) and when we finally got the children home, Dora came over.  She and Will communicate beautifully and can even talk by phone.  I call Dora and ask her to explain something to Will on the phone and she gets him to tell her back so she knows he understands.  For example, Dora explained to Will how church would be the day before his first Sunday.  She has helped us soooo much!  She has also helped the children understand why we don't want them doing certain things and Will has been able to share some of his feelings and fears with her that we otherwise wouldn't have know about.  Thank you Dora for all your help and your sweet spirit.

Dora with Lena, Will and Hope

The second person is Pat Amerson.  We had looked for someone to help for quite sometime, because we expected the children home so much earlier.  We had not had any success.  While Hope and I were in Moldova, Jeanne Tuley spent a day with us.  She was in Moldova on a mission trip with her church.
She told me about a lady that had worked with Jay and Scarlet (her son and family) for years and was looking for another family.  Little did I know that Andy was talking to Jay about Pat while I was in Moldova.  Mrs. Pat started working part-time before Will and Lena came home and now she is working full time.  She loves the children and has been very patient with them!

Mrs. Pat with Lena and Will

Lena blowing bubbles

Will blowing lots of bubbles

Lena on her first zoo train ride

Will and Hope

Trying to pet the goats

First trip to the Montgomery Zoo for Will and Lena

Lena's Sunday School Debut!

Lena did great in SS today!  This was her very first time in a structured classroom setting.  She was very serious but interacted appropriately and even created her first Sunday School art work.  A big thanks to Mary Ruth Wolf and the other teachers in her class.  Will, on the other hand, had a melt down when I took him to his and Hope's class.  As a result, he ended up sitting on the floor with me in Lena's class.  Will is having a hard time separating from me other than with family.  This is an issue we prefer to deal with rather than the opposite, so in a strange way we are thankful for it.