|
zactly
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Name: zactly
Interests: cooking, gardening,sewing, bread making, organic foods, and health/nutrition
Occupation: homemaker, helpmeet
Message: message me
Member Since:
7/27/2006
|
|
| 2009 has been full of computer troubles. Thanks to the tax refund, I think our troubles are fixed. Now, why does a mother ask her children to do certain things. Let's see. Here are a few occurences from this last week. 1. You guys go pick up the back yard, especially that snow shovel behind the play house. hhhhmmmmm...... fast forward to the next day when the snow storm moves through and buries the snow shovel in the back yard. Now, friend husband is upset because he can't find the snow shovel to get the sidewalk and driveway ready for church tomorrow. aaahhh, yes. I suppose 3 family members with regular shovels will work, but not as efficiently as the snow shovel would have. 2. Please go put your big fats and plastics on correctly before bed. ....a few hours later... mom takes a certain night time potty trainer to the restroom before she retires, to find that he has once again put his plastics on inside out. This means all the absorbant material is on the outside and the plastic repellant part has done a lovely job of repelling the urine onto his sweats and bedding towel. uugghh! .....the next night after the same bedtime request ..... mom goes in a few hours after he goes to sleep to find a certain someone with NO training pants on at all. This, of course, does not keep one dry either. aaahhh yeah. 3.You guys do not throw things in the house. One would think that cement would be quite difficult to dent or make holes in. Contrary to popular belief, a 4 yr. old boy can put a 1 inch hole in their home's wall by throwing a squirt bottle lid. Go figure. 4. I know you all are excited when the family gets new things, but you must be calm. ---After less than 24 hours, the CD machine is jammed in the new to us van by a certain 9 yr. old boy who shoved a CD into the slot when there was already a CD in there. Yes, this did lead to one mother and 2 butter knives probing/fishing to get the 2 lodged CD's out of the machine, while friend husband was at work. Some motivation might have been involved in my speedy CD recovery. hhmm, perhaps wanting to decrease the amount of complaining coming from one head of the household member. ---let's try the new zip cord extravaganza. This fun adventure requires that either 1 adult or 2 older children be strategically placed to stop the participants at the end of the cord trip. Now, it has been demonstrated that if the stopees do not stop the cord traveler; the traveler( if they do not have a strong grip and good coordination) will be propelled onto the ground face first at a rapid speed. Yikes!!! Thank you Father for good lip blood supply(which results in fast healing)and the invention of super glue for the outside of the lip area. I seriously doubt that info. would have qualified us for the family of the year award from a certain European country's adoption ministry. O.K., I could go on; but you get the point. The Hannah's live in a fun-filled type atmosphere and we love every minute of it. Hope you all have a great week. blessings, Vickie | | |
|
No, don't worry. I am not going to start bombarding you with a lot of orphan stories or needs. I do, however, feel the need to share this story about V (also known as Alexis). She is a very kind-hearted girl in an orphanage in Russia. She is 10 years old. She is known for being very obedient, smart, and always helping or standing up for the younger children in her home. Besides a leg length difference and strabismus, she is totally normal.
For awhile, Alexis had 2 best friends(more of a sister type relationship) to live with. Over the last 2 years, those 2 friends have found their forever family and been adopted. After the first friend left, V began sneaking over to the 2nd friend's bed to sleep together each night. To avoid getting into trouble, this was done after the caretaker left the room. The day the 2nd friend left, V cried on the shoulder of the new adoptive mother and begged her to, "take me too, please take me too". Over the last year, she has pretty much given up hope on getting a family. Her one big disadvantage to being adopted is that she is older. Being special needs, whether physical or mental, puts you at a disadvantage. If you are older, that is another strike against you.
V is getting ready to enter a new phase in her life. She has gotten to the age where they will transfer her soon to the institution. Once you enter the institution, you will never get the opportunity to be adopted again. Here are a few statistic.: The children who age out of the system in Europe are turned out on the street, most of them will become prostitutes, involved in drugs, end up in jail or dead. Sorry to be so graphic, but it is true. The special needs children, like V, are sent to spend the rest of their lives in a mental institution. 90% of the children that are put in the institution die within the first year. It is not a place any of us would want to be.
There is a very kind, generous family in New Mexico willing to adopt V. They happen to be the proud parents of one of her best friends from the orphanage (Katie Aunna). Over the years they have adopted several children. Some are grown and living on their own. They have been blessed with children from the U.S., Ukraine, Russia, and Serbia(the same home our 2 children came from). They so desire to bring V home forever. They are willing to make all the sacrifices required for adoption and raising a special needs child and have lots of experience in this area. With Russia there are many grueling requirements. Tons of paperwork, expenses, and 2 trips of being away from your family . Lots of unexpected problems and delays along the way. Duane and Trisha Gartner (http://journey2rfamily.blogspot.com)are able to come up with most of the required money to bring V home. They just need help raising $5000. Any amount can help, and it is tax-deductible. If you are able to spare any extra, please consider helping V. This little girl has really touched my heart, and I so want her to be with her family. Her time is quickly running out.
thank you,
Vickie
| | |
| Hi,
I just wanted to share some of the accomplishments going on around our home. Let's start with Dan (3 ).
1. I was thrilled when he ate his first hot dog today. Yeah Dan!!!! He has some sensory issues, so this is big with him. He has always had issues with any type of firm roundish food in his mouth (peas, hot dogs, green beans, etc.) He mastered the vegetables several months ago --although he does save them for last, out of protest. Too funny. That's o.k. As long as he eats them, we don't mind. Now he has conquered the hot dog. Yeah!!! I know typically hot dogs are not the most healthy food, but we buy the all beef ones without any hormones/nitrites/nitrates in them. The importance of this issue is that he is overcoming some of his sensory issues. That is great!!
2. He has started to try to mimic a few sounds correctly. He started his sound therapy last week, and it seems to be helping. Yeah, getting closer to talking.!!
3. He now is using his spoon and fork to eat with and drinking out of a straw. Super!!!!
4. He is running( sort of a mid-speed lope, but hey that is great.)
Hoping he has more success with the toilet training this yr, we'll see. I would even be thrilled if "#2" could at least be done solely in the toilet.
Now for Daniella(7):
1.She is very close to being at a 4 y/o level with her memory work. Yeah, that is almost a 2 yr. growth in just 4 mths. Super!!!
2. getting joy out of life-- Last week we had a warm day. We all went out and flew kites. Daniella took off running down the sidewalk with the kite following close behind. After a few seconds, I yelled to her. "Daniella, it is flying." She turned her head to see with a big smile on her face and kept running. Then a couple of seconds later, she yells, "Wow!!!". We all got a good laugh out of it. We all need to find the joy in the little things like her. Children are such a blessing. They help remind us to enjoy life. Thank you Lord for allowing Matt and I to have such blessings (children) in our lives.
til next time,
have a great day,
Vickie | | |
| Hi,
Sorry for the delay in posting. I have been unable to type on my computer for a month now. I didn't realize how dependent I was on the computer. Well, I'm glad to be back. My withdrawal symptoms were very painful. :)
Christmas was a big hit with D & D. We had a total of 7 of them. Yes, I know--overkill. Each grandma and great grandma want their own, so our Christmas events are spread out from Oct.-Jan. with most of them being the last week of Dec.
With the first one, Daniella was very excited. She spent most of the day going around saying "Christmas, Merry Christmas". I asked her what Christmas was, and she very excitedly stated, "I don't know, Merry Christmas." After we went to the first Christmas with gifts and food. (2 of her favorite things in the world); she knew why the rest of the children were excited. It was a great 1st Christmas home for D & D. I just loved watching their excitement and thankfulness for everything. What sweeties!!
New Years was not real eventful. Matt and 4 of the children made it to midnight and drank some sparkling grape juice. Mama snuck off to bed at around 10:30p.m. (hehehe) I knew if I said I was going to bed, there would be loud protesting; so I just disappeared until morning came. Now, I decided that since I haven't gotten to get a full nights sleep for the last 8 months (hence Charlie--8 mths. old)it was o.k. to miss out on the midnight action. Next year will be different. We usually like to go to Oklahoma or Alabama for our church's New Year's gospel meeting. We all come together at about 11:30 p.m. and sing in the new year . All the voices singing hymns together, is just beautiful. The children's favorite part is staying in a hotel and swimming in the indoor pool.
We are all glad 2009 is here. The day after Christmas was quite difficult. We put plans into action in 2007 to move to the family farm, but Matt was unable to find a new job in 2008. We were able to keep up with the 2 house payments for a yr, but then added expenses came(therapies, food, etc.) with adding Dan and Daniella to our family. Please do not misunderstand me. We certainly prefer to have D & D than the farm. We do not blame them in any way for our added expenses. We were just not able to "have it all", so we chose to just stay where we are for now. Maybe the Lord will say yes to moving to the country later. There were a lot of tears as we packed up our belongings and tried to cram them back into our original home. It was great to have a vacation home, as such, for a year. We are thankful for that. God knows what is best for us, we just have to be faithful and let Him lead us.
guess I better go for now,
blessings,
Vickie | | |
| Hi all,
We got our first snow of the year here. Of course, the children were excited. This was Dan's first time to play in the snow. Not sure about Daniella. After worship this morning, fun was had by all. Until................................
Truman decided to knock over the girl's snow ball tower. This led to Zarah pushing him. Followed by Jack pushing Zarah down and rubbing her face in the snow. Then came Baylie to defend Zarah. After some hair pulling and shoving, they both ended up on the ground. Next came Zarah( our informant) into share the story with me. Let's just say it was not one of my proud mom moments. I do like when the children stand up for each other, but this nice family brawl was not appropriate. Big sigh. A perfect example of why we have character study in our school curriculum. May need to increase that subject to twice a week, huh.
Now, back to the title of this post. So we are sitting in church services this morning. We were singing "Bringing in the Sheaves" . The children were doing a lovely job of singing out. I took a moment to enjoy Truman's (3 y/o) sweet voice. I noticed on the first verse he sang, "bringing in the sheep" and the third verse "bringing in the sheets". Too funny!!
Daniella goes for her 2nd evaluation with her neurodevelopmentalist this week. She has improved so much since we started this program. I am so glad we found out about it. It will be interesting to see how the appointment goes.
| | |
|
