A Season of Change

This fall marks a season of great change for our family! All three of my children are embarking on new adventures as they each start new chapters in their lives. I do not want to forget this time in our lives together so before everybody headed out, we had a little family photo session that I wanted to share.

My soon to be college girl... spreading her wings and learning to fly!!


Grant starting an exciting new chapter in his life and starting his sophomore year in high school. He is making some incredible and mature decisions in his life and I am very proud of how hard this young man has worked to get himself where he is now.


She likes to think her mom knows nothing... and I may be lacking in some brain cells that have slowly been lost to all the challenges these children have blessed me with... but I am so excited for this new chapter in our life as mother and daughter... becoming less the person who tells her what to do with her life and more the confidant who supports her in her decisions as a young adult.

One baby girl is already lamenting the fact that Sissy is going away and will not be home every day to kiss goodnight. How blessed are they to be sisters??


I love my family... just the four of us...

So, without any more words... here are my three greatest blessings in my life.

Favorite Foto Friday #105 - Happy 15th Birthday Grant!

Thank you all so much for your comments and private e-mails regarding my decision to take my blog private. I am so touched with all the stories that you have shared with me and feel honored that so many care about my family and have been touched by our adoption journey. I really have mixed emotions about closing it down, but feel it is the right thing to do at this time in our lives. I hope that sometime I will be able to make it public again once we find a better flow in our lives.

In the meantime, for this week's FFF... I want to wish a very Happy 15th Birthday to my son, Grant. He turned 15 on Wednesday, September 30th and we were fortunate enough to be able to celebrate with family and friends at his favorite Japanese Hibachi restaurant. I forgot to take my camera to his celebratory dinner but did manage a picture before we left of him opening his birthday gifts at home with his little sister by his side...

It is definitely my favorite foto of the week even though the flash went off in the fireplace screen and is slightly out of focus. Oh well... it has two of my three favorite people in this world in it! More pictures are on Morgan's camera but she has lost her cable to download them, so this will have to do!!

As I announced earlier this week... this is the final FFF that I will be hosting on this blog until further notice. Starting next week, you will find the FFF linkup on Hannah's blog! I know she will take really good care of everybody there!! Please be sure to leave her loads of comments thanking her for hosting as well as how much you love her AMAZING photography skills of her gorgeous children!!!

Here is MckLinky! I hope we have a great turnout this week!!!



I will post some pictures from our trip to Guatoberfest when we return next week! Sophie~Bug and I are so excited to spend time with the many wonderful families we have been looking forward to meeting in person!

Love, Hugs and FROG (Fully Rely On God)!!

Bye Bye Mr. Appendix

Add one more medical mishap down for Mr. Grant... he had to part with his appendix Tuesday afternoon after a bout with appendicitis. Luckily, they were able to do it laparoscopically and he is healing up just fine with a little help from T*lenol 3! I did not take my camera with me to chronicle this moment in time for him (he can thank me later).

Calgon... take me away!! Will I ever have the time to blog again?? ha ha

Um... yeah... life is ALWAYS crazy at our house...

Have you wondered what I have been up to the past couple weeks? Just posting FFF and a Wordless Wednesday and never really responding to my sweet Tags by my friends?

As you can see by the picture of my boy... he always manages to keep my life interesting and never dull. Grant has to be one of the most accident prone children that you could ever know of. And the drama that surrounds each week is such that I could write a book and you would probably hyperventilate trying to keep up with it all.

Our latest adventure began last Friday night. We were enjoying some fun days of summer with some wonderful friends visiting us from PA. My big kids had spent the day with their dad helping prepare food for the HUGE local orphanage picnic that is held every year. Grant even met his new "girlfriend" there that day, so maybe that is what made him lightheaded and a little off balance. But... after he arrived home, he rode his bike to a friend's house to wait for him to come home and hang out. Apparently, while waiting, he decided to walk along a low retaining wall (about 2-3 feet high) beside their driveway and lost his balance and fell into a shallow ditch. He doesn't remember falling but what he does remember was yelling and waving his arms for help. Luckily, a passing motorist (and guardian angel) saw him and pulled over to help. Grant was unable to move his legs and the gentleman called 911. I received a call on my cell phone from the 911 operator and was able to get to his side in about ten minutes.

To make a long story short... the ambulance took him to the hospital where the trauma team was activated and it was a sea of doctors and equipment that would scare the hair off a cat. They even sent the chaplain in to stand with me during his workup, which was a little unnerving. He went through x-rays, CAT scans and MRI's to determine what injury he had... and luckily, within about 5 hours, he was able to start wiggling his toes and eventually move his legs. Apparently, he either bruised his spinal cord or pinched a nerve near his neck that temporarily caused his legs to "go to sleep". We spent the night in the PICU as a precaution and then moved to a regular room where he was able to walk out of the hospital on Sunday afternoon with just a neck brace for two weeks.

The worst part of this experience was that his dad did not even make it to the hospital to see him. I could write a small novel about how much disappointment this child has had to endure at the hands of the person who is supposed to love him unconditionally. But, that is a novel for another day and a "Get Real" post that maybe someday I will have to sit down and write.

Grant is feeling just fine... just slightly annoyed that he must wear this brace for another week. Me, on the other hand... literally exhausted. This child has earned me every gray hair on my head that I must now go get re-highlighted every 8 weeks.

Anybody want to top that? I think in my former life, I must have coined the term "Parenting isn't for wimps"... and this boy would be the poster child.

OFF TO CAMP!

Today, we dropped Grant off at camp for two weeks. He was so excited to be going and could not wait to get there! This is his fourth year going and he always has a great time!

We took some pictures of him and his doggies before he left today... here he is with Tucker.


And with Nacho.


And the obligitory picture in front of the sign, which is always embarrassing to my kids for me to take for some strange reason. Could it be because I stop my car and put my hazards on and make them jump out and pose while cars are coming up behind us? I don't think so...


Sophie and Grant at the water pump outside his cabin. She misses him already and keeps asking when we are going to go back and pick him up.


And a picture with his mommy... and, yes, he is taller than me... when did that happen?


Miss the little bugger already!

Haircuts and Earrings and Permits, oh my!

A little catch up from our BUSY week!! Grant finished up school last week, Sophie is home for the summer with our WONDERFUL nanny and Morgan has had final exams all this week and finishes up school today! Summer is finally here! The weather has started to become beautiful and I feel as if we have not had much of a chance to enjoy it yet, but looking forward to it before it becomes so stifling hot outside!

Tonight, Sophie got her third haircut of her life! "Aunt" Julie gave it to her and she looks so adorable with a few inches taken off for the summer. She was so excited to get her hair washed, cut and dried in the hair salon! She sat so still and looked so cute, I just had to take pictures (you know me)! Here are the before, during and after pics!







It was a big week for Morgan too... not only did she turn 16 and have final exams and her summer volunteer position interviews this week, but it was also time to get her DRIVERS PERMIT! Oh my! I cannot believe that MY CHILD is old enough to be behind the steering wheel of a car! While I know she is responsible and for the next 6 months, has to be with an adult 21 or older while she learns (she will also take Drivers Ed), it makes me a nervous wreck to think she will soon be driving away from home and I will have to hold my breath and pray until she arrives back home safely each time. I hope her guardian angel is ready to start working overtime!

She leaves for a vacation in South Carolina with her friend, Olivia, and her family today after school. She will be gone ten days... soaking up the sun on the beach and visiting colleges on the way down. I am going to miss her but know that she will have so much fun! Boy, giving your child "wings" is hard!

As a surprise for her birthday, I took her out to the mall after her birthday dinner and let her get her cartilage pierced in her ear... this was something she has been begging me for for a really long time and I have always said no. I have to admit, it does look cute and I have told her no more piercings on her body!! Of course, I embarrassed her by pulling out my camera... but that is a mother's prerogative right?




We will have her Sweet Sixteen birthday party in June with a friend of hers... Oh boy!

And, lest I forget... Bug also got her stitches out on Tuesday. She was SO BRAVE! Two nurses came in to hold her down and she just laid there all by herself perfectly still while the doctor cut her stitched off. He says the scar looks great... I thought it still looked a bit scary, but he IS the Plastic Surgeon, so I will hope that what he thinks is good will be for her...

This was taken two days after they were taken out... and the healing is going nicely. Just a little bruising still around her eye and a red mark in the white of her eye. It is amazing how fast they heal!



I also had pictures done of all three kids a couple weeks ago and have not had a chance to post them here... I think they turned out really cute!






And my favorites of each of the kids by themselves...

Morgan - age 16


Grant - age 13


Sophia - age 3


Have a wonderful weekend!!!

Confirmed!!

I promised a little catch up in our crazy, busy family. Last Thursday, my baby boy made his Confirmation. He has been preparing for it for two years in his Evening Religious Education program that he goes to every Wednesday night. I have been so surprised to see how serious he has been about his preparation.

Last Thursday was the big day. Grant chose Christopher as his Confirmation name as he received a St. Christopher medal for his First Communion and has been wearing it ever since. He says that St. Christopher has protected him this long, that he hopes that he will continue to protect him as he grows.

During the procession into the church (looking very serious)...


And after... notice the Chrism (oil) on his forehead. One of our dearest friends in the world, "Uncle Gilly" was his sponsor.


Father Dan with Grant at the reception.


Something you do not notice in these pictures, but is there, is a clavicle brace. Grant fractured his clavicle last Wednesday at his growth plate. He slipped while putting instruments away in band class and his arm was caught in the bars of the storage locker and yanked his shoulder pretty hard. I have made enough trips to the orthopedic in the past month and I hope this trend is over!!!

Life with two teenagers and a toddler keeps me hopping to say the least!! I struggle many days to keep up, but moments such as Confirmation for my son, who has had to deal with too many struggles over recent months,reminds me how blessed I am to have these three children in my life.