Catch Up

So here we are months and months after LEVI's adoption and I remember I have a blog. Things are good. Luke is doing wonderful......WONDERFUL! He is sleeping, he is laughing and running and he is happy. It has taken a lot of work and a lot of amazing people and doctors but he is finally getting the help he needs. He loves our new house and town but he still struggles with leaving our old house behind. It really bothers him that OTHERS live there. Luke is a wonderful big brother and he loves HIS brother.

Levi is doing well and we could not be more blessed. He is so quiet, content, happy, determined and healthy. Even with all of his struggles he is doing amazingly well. In part he has a big brother to mimic and he did not come from an orphanage setting as our first baby did. Once Levi started to progress we really saw what it was like to parent an attached child. Parenting an attached child is EASY!

Both boys bring so much joy to our home. And speaking of home Wes now works from home three days a week and that.... that has been a HUGE blessing to me! Actually its been a HUGE help to Luke and Levi. They love knowing that daddy is home and he will come out of the office at lunch time!

We are gearing up to plant our garden and get our chickens!

Things are good...... what now? More adoptions? More fosters? We don't know but we do know that God will lead.....

OURS!

In 14 days this sweet pink face will be ours FOREVER!

The New House

After the move and a lot of hard work we are almost settled. It took much longer than I thought! We had a lot more work than we thought but its looking good around here. Our land is beautiful and I feel like I am on vacation when I look outside. The kids love it and can run and run and run! Luke has had a very hard time adjusting as we suspected and even baby J has struggled but each day we move forward. The closest shopping is about 25 minuets from here so that has been my biggest adjustment but we do have a dollar general :o)We have found a nice church and met some great people. Small town living is definitely for us.

Baby J will be ours for good on August 20th!!! That is our most exciting news for now :o)

I am studying chickens, goats and donkeys for our future mini farm!I will post some pictures soon!!!

And so we begin!

We did it!! We sold our home and bought a house just outside the small town of Elsberry MO. We will have a larger house and 6.5 acres for our kids to run. I am going to get chickens!! We are very excited and overwhelmed. We are trying to prepare Luke for the upcoming changes to our lives. Best of all our debt has been decreased by over 85,000 and we have more bedrooms to help sweet foster children. God is so good!

Potty Training

It has been a long time in the making but two weeks ago ( after years of trying everything we knew) Luke got up and started using the potty. He had NEVER gone on the potty before because it was so scary. He has had one accident and he is so proud of himself.  It was all on his time and nothing we ever said or did had anything to do with this change?? Thank goodness that is DONE!

The good..

I always seem to post about the hard, the trauma and the not so great stuff however there is so much good.

Today has been one of those great days. Luke wanted to have a PJ day and since we home school we CAN and we did! He has been the perfect angel that lies beneath all his early childhood trauma. He has loved on his brother and best of all me... We have been reading, playing trains, cars and play dough. I love my Luke so much and I am so happy when he is who he is and nothing is in the way of that.

When I had a meeting with his play therapist she informed me how much everyone there has grown to love Luke and his funny, unique personality. She said they love how he hugs everyone and is such a caring little man.

This kid lights up my world!!!

Thanks Giving, Christmas and the New Year

We have been very busy around here, all is well and (accept for all that trauma stuff I told you about)
our holidays were wonderful.

In the New Year we plan to do three things:

1. MOVE!! About an hour from here to at least 4 acres so that our little boy can run and I can have chickens!

2. Homeschool. Yes I am going to spend every moment of every day with my son and I will teach him everything he needs to know. With the help of my Lord because he is the one that put it on my heart.

3. Adopt.... yep it looks like everything should be final by spring. Luv our baby J!!

Here are my catch up pictures!!!