Olivia's Birth--My Ultimate Paradox

My fourth child, Olivia, was delivered by emergency C-section with only local anesthesia, the kind that is rubbed on your gums for dental work. And even though I felt almost every cut, I experienced God's presence and His peace more than any other time in my life!

The moment I was told that it had to be done, I knew that I had a decision to make. Would I totally freak out or would I totally trust God? I realized that I would only make the situation worse if I lost control of myself, so trusting God was my only option. Once I made the decision, the rest was a piece of cake.

More to come on later post.....

Becky and Nickie

One of the most exciting days of my life was when I first met my sisters. They were 5 and 3 at the time and I was 21. I was thrilled that my parents were adopting more kids. I was the oldest, with 3 brothers, 2 still living at home. I was married and living about an hour away, but nothing could stop me from coming to spend time with my new sisters. I had loved helping to bring up my two youngest brothers and couldn't wait to be a part of Becky and Nickie's life.

After they had moved in, I came to spend a week with them. Mom and I had fun dressing them up and fixing their hair whenever we had the chance. We laughed at the funny things they said and embraced the opportunity to shape and mold the fragile lives. I took pictures of every new outfit, and every new place we took them. Only to realize at the end of the week that I had no film in the camera.

They were coming to our family, after spending most of their lives in foster care.
Nickie was a charmer. She said things like, " I love you Mommy. I say that to all my new Mommies." She always knew what to say to make people feel better.

Becky called our brother Roger, "Mr. Rogers." She spent lots of time singing songs she had learned in previous homes and quickly learning the ones we wanted to teach her.

In the picture, they are the ones on the ends. The toddler in the middle is the sister they left behind, because their mom still had custody of her.

Now they are 21 and 19 and I am so glad that they are a part of our family.

M's writing today

Today, M was supposed to write a sentence using words that end in "y".

This is what she wrote (dictated).

There was a bunny that lived in Daisy Valley. She never got bored. There was so many things to do. She had all the flowers to pick. She had all the animals to play with and talk to. There was busy, dizzy bee. There was dizzy, busy grizzly bear. There was Sammy the mouse. She had so much to do it made her cry.

Teach a Child to Read with Children's Books, by Mark B. Thogmartin

I found this book when my 12 year old was a baby, and loved it. I planned on using it to teach G, but the teaching style did not fit her learning style. Then I used it with L, who liked the reading part, but not the writing part.

Today I started using it with M and we are both excited. Here's the method in a nutshell. The parent picks at or above level reading books for the child to read. Then the parent picks a phonics pattern that is in the book to discuss with the child. The parent and the child list other words that have the same pattern. The child then writes a sentence using a word from the list.

There is a little bit of parent preparation, but I find it is worth it. The book includes easy-to-use record keeping and lesson plan forms. Also, there is a list of books arranged by reading level.

I only used it with L for about 3 months and he made tremendous progress. Then I just had him read books to me for his reading lesson.

We'll see how long I will use it with M. My next post will be her writing from the first lesson.

Mike Huckabee quote

I just saw this on the news. When Mike Huckabee was walking out of First Baptist Church of Orlando, as news reporter asked him, "What about support from mainstream America?"

Mike replied, "This is mainstream America."

Love it!!!!

My Grandma's birthplace

This is the house I wrote about earlier. The house where my Grandma was born, married, and had her first child. My Grandma is 90 years old and says she is happier than she has ever been. She gives all the glory to God and she is such an inspiration to me. In the picture, she is sitting in front of the original front door of the house. The front porch has been closed in so the door is inside now.
My girls are standing next to the child's drawing on the wall that the workers found when they tore off all the old wallpaper. It is a drawing of a house and some childish scribbling. The family thinks that my grandma may have been the artist since she is the youngest child.
My great grandfather owned the local newspaper and this small room was originally where the newspaper assistant slept. The bathroom was outside then, of course.

Later, all five children put their money together to buy their parents the sink. It was put in down low to accomadate the children of the family. The tub is low, too. Before the tub, all the girls took a shower under the back porch. The boys took a bath in the lake once a week on Sunday. The shower and the lake are still there.

Merry Christmas !!!!

The baby Santa is my precious nephew. We had fun dressing the cousins up as Santa. My nephew has a two year old brother who was supposed to be wearing the bigger Santa outfit, but we couldn't get him to cooperate for a photo.

The other picture is the one I wanted to send out for Christmas, but I had problems getting the picture to print correctly.