A little of this, a little of that

It's been a ridiculous amount of time since I last wrote. And I am going to try REALLY hard not to apologize for that... but it will be difficult. To any of you who have faithfully checked in on us to find that nothing has changed...thank you for your caring interest in the goings on of our very small world. It is because of these very goings on that I have been distracted- marvelously distracted. And for that I cannot apologize. I refuse to neglect real, here, in the moment life, for cyber life. Bu thats not to say I don't miss you all and I have missed writing and talking with you. So again, thanx. Hope you're still along for the ride.

As I said we've been keeping busy with a little of this...

A little of that

Spending lot's of time doing this with my sissy and her kiddos...

Never quite getting enough of that with cousins/best friends heading to Asia...

And already desperately missing this, now that she's on another continent.

Now that we have said good bye for a few years, to a precious part of our family and my best friend,

We have been trying to stay distracted doing stuff like this...

with a little of this thrown in...

On top of a bunch of that...

Shep loved a bunch of this... (his nurse, Susan, who has been taking care of Shep since his days in the PICU, gave him a bath out on the porch with his brothers one day)

Then there's always enough of this to go around...

Which likely inspires things like this...

And we're always soaking up cousin time like that...

And this... cute runs in the family:)

But it's not all fun and games around here. We are also gradually starting school. I was so intimidated by the discipline and routine that it takes to be successful at a thing like homeschooling that we have spent this past month getting a good morning routine going (breakfast, dressed, chores for all-including mom- bible and prayer time together) and we'll add the bulk of Aslan's subjects in a couple weeks from now. I just new that if I expected to all of a sudden develop a day filled with structure AND accomplish schooling Aslan, when in general we just hang out and get stuff done in a very unstructured manner- I was setting myself up for failure. So that explains the "gradual" part.

And I have to admit... I lied... it's actually been TONS of fun. TONS. And in a little over a week we will officially start our Kindergarten year by kicking it off with a weekend vacation ahhem, I mean, field trip to the beach (yeah, you can do that when you homeschool). While there, we will go to a few museums, ride the trolley, go to the aquarium and take a river boat tour. It's really important to me that his first year in school feels like a big deal...even if he is staying home for most of it. I also wanted to take this trip to celebrate how we want learnin

g to look for our family. We want to do more than just learn, but explore and have fun. And we want to do lot's of our learning and exploring of our world ... together. So off we will go, grandparents included, for the weekend then back home to start the year.

Aslan has already made it clear that he is ecstatic about starting kindergarten at home.

Aslan: "mom." "You know what I am most excited about with starting school?"

Me: "what, honey?" (thinking for sure it will be something like "snuggling with you and reading books...or "the many priceless memories we are making, mom")

Aslan: (matter of factly)

"riding the bus."

Hmmmm. Apparently my ability to educate my children is already in question...

We also spent this week celebrating my soon -to- be- kindergartner's 5 year birthday! I'll post more pics soon, cause there are lot's of fun ones. We had some friends over and asked that instead of bringing gifts for Aslan, they would bring some things we knew the kiddos at the orphanage in Haiti needed. So instead of gifts that would only add to excess, we got to open gifts like shoes for a bunch of beautiful little girls and clothes for the babies and TONS of dishes. Then Noah and I will take them with us when we go next:) We also had jewelry there for the mommas to shop. This particular jewelry is some of my favorite. It is made by some women in India and all of the proceeds (after paying them, thus providing fair wages) go back to the orphanages in India and Haiti. I mean really. As far as I am concerned...2 of my favorite things (jewelry and loving on the needy) have combined their forces to make for a very good time and a very happy me. I mean really...it's for the orphans. Just trying to do my part:)

Check it out Chunky Junk.

All in all, life has been more normal in the past few months than any other season since shepherd's birth. With the risk for illness way down, I can go places with all three of them and I have grown accustomed to driving locally. We have had a greater sense of freedom and normalcy and I am trying not to dread the fall/winter season as it threatens to steal this normalcy from us. But no season steals anything from us. This winter will be what our loving Father has planned for us.

For now, I will continue to live in the moments I have with all of these people so precious to me.

Also, to end on a promising note- at Shepherd's last cardiology visit, the echo showed the most encouraging images we have yet to see on his heart. They were so encouraging that the doc said he would ok us to not see him for 4 more months! Usually it is 4 weeks! The narrow area on his aorta is actually growing as he grows, which is best casae scenario but totally unexpected. Praise God! Besides that, we are doing all we can to get Shep lot's of fat and nutrition in his diet. Can those two go together in one sentence? Actually yes. A typical breakfast now looks like one egg (from our chickens) beaten with heavy whipping cream, scrambled in organic butter, with a tiny bit of sea salt and some shredded cheese. Anyone for the Shep diet? We are also venturing out to make his formula homemade, to get way more nutrition in and good, healthy fats. So far, he is doing great, despite his great affinity for mesquite BBQ chips. What?!? It's genetic!

He is also picking up his sign language beautifully, actually "talking" way more than our other kids did at this age. You literally only have to show him a sign once and he's a maniac with it. He has a vocabulary of about 15 words that he uses frequently, which is great for a 16 month old. And best of all, he is never frustrated, nor are we with his lack of any vocalization. We honestly hardly notice that he doesn't technically have a voice. He communicates so clearly that there isn't a huge sense of loss...and he's way quieter than your kid in church:) Though just as ACTIVE.

Thank you all so much for continually praying for our little guy and caring enough to keep up on how God is providing for our family. I can hardly believe that we are this far into our journey.

And being the faithful encouragers you all are, please join with me in praying for a 6 week old little girl named Jordan. She is dear to my heart because she is the firstborn child of one of our dear nurses. She was recently diagnosed with (naaahh, I won't bother with the medical terms) similar airway defects as Shepherd has. Her treatment will be different but please keep her and her family in our prayers. She has many complications to over come (ahhem, for God to overcome)It is much appreciated, friends.

Till next time....