A Journey

So we are on a new journey, it involves our sweet boy Jonathon, who is almost 8!!  He is a sweet, sensitive, yet impulsive young man.  He has a huge heart and while it has been a challenge at times as his impulses swing out of control, I wouldn't change him for anything in the world. 

I know each child is different, nothing tells me that more than when I say one thing and they all react in completely different ways.  Our journey involves learning how to help Jonathon control his impulses during school, while he is SO incredibly bright, his lack of control causes him to be a distraction in class to his classmates and his teacher.  His teacher is very patient and called me in to talk about it, he was so positive, telling me over and over again how sharp he is, and how his impulsive behavior is not affecting his academics, but affecting the way others react to him.

As a parent, it's hard to hear that your kids aren't perfect, that they aren't making good choices, yet it's my job as a parent to get to the bottom of this and be an advocate for my son and help him on this journey.  We aren't sure of the next step, we are being encouraged to possibly fill out a Connors evaluation which is a form that parents and teachers fill out when ADHD is suspected.  Now-- just those letters bring fear to my heart, probably because I don't know that much about ADHD, but also because it's a label that has so many negative connotations in our society!  It makes me think of kids who are out of control, who are overly aggressive, who are mean, who treat others with contempt....yet none of these things describes my Jonathon.  His impulses are more like making animal sounds in class when the class is expected to be quiet.  He bumps into the wall when his teacher has just asked the kids NOT to walk near the wall.  He bounces up and down on the yoga ball when the teacher has asked the kids to sit quietly on them. He has a hard time controlling his impulses and the teacher is concerned that maybe, truly, he can't control them on his own.

So where does this journey lead us?  For me, it's a huge step of faith to trust that we are taking steps in the right direction.  I want to help Jonathon make goals to help him control his impulses, I want other kids to accept Jonathon the way he is, but most of all, I want Jonathon to accept the way God has made him and be proud of who he is.  I love you Jonathon.

Quite a scare

So we had quite a big scare last weekend. We were visiting with my BFF Jackie who was up here in IL to visit her sister.  We had decided to head over to Rhonda's and all of us would then go to Oaktoberfest and let the kids shine at the zucchini races. We were having a great time, racing zucchini cars that the kids made, singing a little Karaoke, and just hanging out. After awhile we headed towards the stage and food area to get some lunch, Jeff was up ahead with the kid and Jackie and I were hanging back trying to catch up on about 5 years of life.  Jeff took the kids to the bathroom and I went and sat down at a table to save enough space for all of us...I assumed all the boys were with him.  Poor assumption on my part.

Jeff came back from the bathroom and says, "Where is Jonathon?" So I explained that I thought he was with Jeff and Jeff tells me that "No", Jonathon hadn't been with him.  So all of a sudden my emotions flare up, my heart starts beating super fast and we all head out in search of my 7yo.  I was truly praying the whole time, trying not to freak out and watching for his light blue sweatshirt.  Thom was on the other side of the street looking for him as well...we headed back to where we had been racing the zucchini cars, and there is my poor, sweet little man sitting on the curb, with his hands in his pockets and tears streaming down his face.  I was heartbroken.

The short of it is that when we all decided to leave, Jonathon had been immersed in looking for spare change on the ground and didn't see us walk away.  When he got up from the ground, we were all gone.  I praised him for staying in that spot, knowing that if he tried looking for us, he would most likely never have found us.  He said that while he was lost, he found a penny and threw it into the fountain and wished "that he would see us again". 

I hugged him often throughout the remainder of the day.  I praise God that we found him, that no one stopped to talk to him, and that he stayed right where he had been.  This was one of my top scariest moments as a mom...I pray it never happens again, and while we used it as a teachable moment, it's not something that I will soon forget.

Does Fall really have to come so soon?

I know, I'm being a negative Nelly, but I really don't like Fall...because I know it will lead to Winter!  I am NOT a cold-loving person, and so that's why even though I'm enjoying the cooler weather, I know that Fall is here and Winter will be too. Sad.

Biking in Chicago

Cousins

One of my favorite things about being in the States is that the boys get to see their cousins so often!! They are having a blast hanging out and talking Legos and playing swords and other fun boy stuff!

First Day of School

Long lost post from July!!

I can't believe I forgot to post about Sophia's broken arm!!!  It was such a big event for us!!  So one Sunday morning in July, Sophia apparently fell off of a little baby armchair onto her left arm.  I went to pick her up from Sunday school and she was crying, though not that much, so they mentioned that she had just started crying but the lady who handed her to me wasn't sure why she was crying.  It was a weird cry, one of those cries that you just know something is not quite right.  So we got her home and I went to change her out of her dress and noticed that she wasn't using her left arm!  I called Jeff into the room, showed him that she was unable to move her arm, and off we headed for the ER.  We stopped by the church to try to find out what had happened, as we knew it was something that happened there and that was why she had been crying.  Everyone had gone home, except for the Childhood Resource people, so they called up some of the workers and that's when someone mentioned that they thought she had fallen out of that little chair.

In the ER they did xrays and thought that maybe it was just dislocated (nursemaids elbow) and so the ER NP attempted to put it back in...Sophia was crying and the NP did it 3 times and it obviously wasn't working. After about 15 minutes of being out, she came back in and tried to get Sophia to use her arm, she coaxed her with a popsicle, but instead of trying to reach for it with her arm, she reached for it with her foot!! At that point the NP said she suspected it was something more than a dislocation and splinted up her arm and told us to see an Orthopedic specialist on Monday. 

Monday I called Gillette Children's Hospital and they got us in right away with a specialist.  He looked again at the xrays and couldn't find a break, but he also said he was sure it wasn't dislocated because of the pain and the fact that she STILL wasn't using her arm at all.  He said he suspected a hairline fracture in the cartilage of her elbow and ordered her to have it casted. 

Sophia picked out a lovely PINK casting material and ended up having to wear her sweet little cast for 3 weeks...it ruined her time of swimming, going to the lake during Family Camp, and not to mention what an ordeal it was to give her baths!!  She survived though, and about 5 days after getting it casted started using her fingers and then her arm.  It healed well and we are so thankful, once again, that we are near good medical care!

Wheaton, IL

We arrived in Wheaton on August 16th, and began moving things in to our lovely, fully furnished 3 story duplex!!  It's part of the Furlough Homes Foundation, a ministry of College Church here in Wheaton that provides homes for missionaries on furlough.  It's just perfect.  It has everything we could need inside, it's 2 blocks from the boys' school, so we can walk everyday, and there are tons of MKs (Missionary Kids) for the boys to play with who also live in homes similar to ours. You can see in the picture that we were completely loaded down...the Tahoe has 2 bikes on front and 4 on back, plus the car top carrier and full of suitcases in back!!  It was soo fun to travel together, we also had our small Toyota Corolla packed to the gills as well...I drove that with 2 kids while Jeff drove the Tahoe with 2 kids.

MOVING DAY!

I need to catch up on some other posts, but I'll post quickly to let everyone know that we are moving to Wheaton, IL tomorrow!!!  It's a new season for our family, one where all the males in the household will be going to school and the girls will stay home!  We are super excited and basically have the cars loaded up and ready to go!!  I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Medora

Mini golfing with the family

My ball definitely wasn't supposed to land on the cart path! Oops!

Bully Pulpit's signature 15th hole

Golfing with my mom at Bully Pulpit

After spending some days in Colorado and Douglas, we headed to Medora to spend some time with my parents. 

This girl is in love with her shoes!

 

 

Summer

I love summer.  I love the warm weather.  I love wearing flip flops everyday.  I just love summer, and I've loved watching Sophia experience things with her senses--feeling grass on her feet, smelling the flowers, tasting lots of fresh fruit, and watching the birds and other wildlife we've seen.

Snow in June???

We headed to Colorado in June to catch up with some supporters and visit a couple of our churches. While we were there, we went to a wedding in Winter Park...imagine our surprise that there was STILL snow on Berthoud Pass!!!  The boys thought it would be fun to throw snowballs at me...however as they ran around gathering snow, they all started feeling sick because of the altitude!!  Fun times!

Canada 3

Canada 2

Canada

So we got invited to spend a few days in Canada with some friends...it was to be a quick trip up there and back, but with a few days for relaxing and fishing in between.  It was such a great time!  We went with our friends, the Heinschs, and their 3 boys.  I'm telling you, those 6 boys spent 90% of their time in the freezing water--either catching crawfish, swimming, kayaking, or fishing.  They had SO much fun!  I especially loved the deck over the water, and was excited to catch a sunrise there one morning.  We had some rain, but for the most part it was super good weather and an excellent time! 

Heading to the border...it was an old factory building!

Waiting in line to get into Canada

Sophia