Wow! Nine months since my last post. I knew it had been a while, but wow, that is a lot longer than I thought it had been. I feel this post is a bit out of the blue and even a month past the event. But, I will share anyways.
This year, we spent Christmas on a cruise ship in the Pacific. My mom took my family and my sister on Carnival's Inspiration to visit Catalina Island and Ensenada, Mexico. It was a wonderful, relaxing time once on the ship. Unfortunately it didn't start out that way. The night before we left, we found that our van wouldn't start and it wasn't the battery. Early the next morning we had the van at the mechanic who said he thought he might know what the problem was and there was a possibility it could be repaired in time to take it to LA. Just in case we reserved a rental. An hour later, we find out that something is wrong but not sure what, so we had to get the rental. Taking two cars to LA we did arrive in time to board the ship and even have a snack before the ship set sail. We praise God that the van decided to act up before we left home and not on our way to the ship.
Here are a few shots from our Christmas vacation...
I am not sure how many stuffed animals the kids brought with them, but every night they were part of the towel folding display :)
Shopping in Ensenada. This was the low pressure market. They kids did not like the bartering market where the vendors shoved things at them trying to get them to buy.
The boys in front of Long Beach as our ship was heading out (I didn't get the pics in order very well)
The younger three liked the water slide for short periods of time. It was pretty close to freezing water and the air wasn't too warm either.
Jathan and I in Catalina Island
View of our ship from Catalina Island.
Paige, Clay and Jathan did a little rock climbing while on Catalina.
Legos are a huge thing at our house. An activity that I happily support. You can't go anywhere in our house without finding a Lego piece. Hopefully you didn't step on it barefoot! The Lego magazine was introduced just over a year ago, as well as Lego.com. What a marketing genius. With the magazine came the realization that Legoland is not that far away and even better each issue has a free child ticket with the purchase of an adult full price ticket! The wheels had been turning in their heads on how we can use these free tickets since the children outnumber the adults. But they didn't have to figure for too long because in November, Grandma told them that their Christmas gift was to spend a week down in Carlsbad visiting Legoland. This was a dream come true.
So last month, mom and I drove the kids down (Jathan was able to join us for a couple of days). We spent 3 days at Legoland, a day at the beach and a day swimming in the pool. We had a condo with plenty of space + a kitchen. We had a great time.
I have to admit leading up to the trip I was a bit nervous because we had struggled so much with Drew on past trips. The meds seem to help him, but still you just never know. We packed a stroller to carry water bottles, snacks and lunch. And to carry Drew. He will be 7 next month, and looked way too big for the stroller, but you know what? It helped a huge amount. He cannot distract himself, so when he is tired of walking, that's it. He won't walk anymore without a fight. It doesn't matter what exciting thing we are headed to, he cannot concentrate on anything but how tired he is of walking. So into the stroller he went. I battled in my mind thinking "he is almost 7, we are not asking much of him" "He can physically do this, there is no reason he has to be in the stroller" "Are we making it worse by enabling him?" But at the end of the day, we had a peaceful time at Legoland. So, all I could say is we did what we needed to do to make this a pleasant trip. And it was!
Monday, the day Jathan joined us at Legoland was a rainy day. We got wet, but we only had to share the park with 500 people. That made up for the rain.
and every other holiday that has passed since I last wrote.
My intentions were to blog more once the adoption was finalized. I realized how hard it was to blog and post pictures when I couldn't write much about MacKenzie or post any pictures of her. It didn't seem right to leave her out. I hated cropping her out of photos or leaving some of the best ones off because she was in it. So I told myself as soon as the finalization happens, I will post more again. But then I had completely gotten out of the habit of posting, so that of course didn't happen. Well I would like to say that my New Year's resolution is to post more, but it isn't. I hope to. But I going to focus more on spending time in the Bible, spending more quality time with my family and growing patient as I parent and teach my kids at home. I would love to write more. It is kind of a journal online. But I know it won't be my priority.
But today I AM blogging. So here goes...
MacKenzie's finalization did happen in November. We are so grateful! Thank you to all who prayed. The relief that was felt when we walked out of that courtroom was huge. A seven year old knows when she doesn't share the same last name with you. She notices when the social workers come to check on things because she doesn't legally belong to you. And she notices when you say that you are the foster mom to the nurse in the hospital, because legally that is what you are and for insurance purposes it has to be straight. So when it is adoption day it isn't just a relief that we don't have to answer to the county anymore. We invited a few friends to celebrate with us at the courthouse and afterwards with dinner.
A couple of days after MacKenzie's adoption we headed to Death Valley National Park to camp over Thanksgiving. It was so freeing to be able to leave town without calling the social worker and to get to go into Nevada without having to have a judge approve of it. We had a good time. I didn't realize how beautiful a place with the word "death" in its name could be but it sure was.
We are continuing to learn how to navigate through life with prenatal alcohol exposure. The charter school that we are working with is absolutely wonderful. They have set us up with speech therapy and occupational therapy for Drew. He goes every other week for both of those and then daily I work on things at home with him. The special ed teacher guides me along as I teach Drew at home, offering wonderful support and encouragement. Every other week we see a psychologist. She is working to help Drew with his rages. I am not sure if it is helping, but I do feel like it is helping Jathan and I know how to handle him better. We still have really, really hard days and sometimes the bad spells go on and on. But God continues to give us respite through other people or just Drew having calm days himself. Parenting Drew is a new world. We fight daily with figuring out what does he have control of that is sin and he needs to work on, an obedience issue and what is something that he has no control of. We had a glimpse at how the wiring in his brain messes up when one evening he couldn't remember his own sister's name. It saddened us greatly, but I think it was good for us to see. It truly is an invisible disability. Drew looks completely normal. And when he is around other people, most of the time he can act completely normal. Even for Jathan and I, we have to remember the brain damage. I am seeing it more and more with school. But it is so hard when his frustration results in raging. Which it can so often do. It is hard to focus on helping him when it feels like he is verbally abusing me. Yet it isn't Drew saying these words. But when we can get him down from a rage and we have to do it, he cannot calm himself down, he is broken. God is sanctifying us, but I have to admit, I feel like I fail more times than I succeed. I break more times than I care to admit. So we are constantly on our knees. We came to a point in December where we had tried everything from nutrition to psychologist but were only seeing things get worse. So we went back to the psychiatrist we had seen at the beginning of the year. The result is that Drew is now starting on meds. I have to admit that I struggle with this. I feel like maybe I failed somehow. I am one that does not like to take medicine for anything. But our home had become a place of constant tension where we were constantly walking on eggshells so we wouldn't set Drew off. Quite honestly it was not a pleasant place to be for any of us. So when we went into the office, the doctor acknowledged all we had tried and said that maybe it was time. I walked out relieved, scared and feeling a bit defeated. We are going slow, continuing all that we did before, because we do not want this to be long term. Are we getting results, it is hard to say yet. The dose is so low. I stop and think so often, what am I doing to my son. At the same time he is miserable himself, feeling completely out of control. We can most certainly use your prayers if you think of us.
I went more into detail than I planned on, but then again if you follow the blog and really want to know how things are going, you need to know the background. I am reminded daily of God's love for me. I don't deserve it at all. But his son, Jesus Christ, purchased my forgiveness and Christ's righteousness covers me. I am in awe when I think of the work that was done on the cross. Christ conquered sin. His work is finished. And God is still working in me.
August 1st was our 13th wedding anniversary. Thirteen wonderful years with my best friend.
My mom was visiting from Indiana, so we left the kids with her and ventured up to Kings Canyon National Park to hike to Mist Falls. The hike totaled 9.2 miles, mostly flat with a 600 foot elevation gain at the end, but it wasn't bad at all. Every bit of the hike was beautiful. So I got to spend the day with my most favorite person doing one of my most favorite things! I am a blessed girl!
This is our drive through Sequoia National Forest.
Now for the hike
We reached our destination: Mist Falls
Lunch, not a bad view
We walked a little closer to the falls and sat on these rocks for a while. It was quite loud with the water raging next to us, but so relaxing. We had a huge snow pack this past winter and now it is all melting causing the rivers to rage, which is both beautiful and dangerous.
We drove home and found our kids had made a shadow puppet show similar to what Paige and Clay learned about in Williamsburg. So that was our evening show after a pizza dinner (one of my favorites) Anniversaries look different now that we have kids. I look at them (the kids) and think of how they are one of the many benefits to marriage.
I think God for our marriage and Jathan's godly leadership and love for me!
In the middle of May, Jathan had a conference in Estes Park, Colorado. The kids and I got to tag along. It was so much fun exploring Rocky Mountain National Park and the surrounding area. After Colorado, we headed to Kansas to visit Jathan's sister and her family. Here we were able to attend our nephews graduation. On our way back to California, we stopped in New Mexico to visit our friends from our days in Indiana. I wish we could have stayed with them longer, we had a wonderful time, two nights just wasn't enough. Finally home again the first day of June. We had a great time, but there really is nothing like sleeping in your own bed!
Snow is not on the list of some of my favorite things. But it sure is beautiful up in the mountains. The picture below is in the morning after a snow fall the night before. The older three and I went on a bird walk with a local naturalist at the park. It was so interesting and beautiful.
The weather forecast said no snow, well that isn't what happened. We were not prepared and being from a place that doesn't snow we really didn't have much at home that would have prepared us anyway. So off we went to the thrift shop and for $35 we came away with 5 bib overalls, 4 coats, 4 pair of snow gloves and 3 pair of snow boots. For another $30 we got a brand new but on clearance pair of water proof hiking boots for Clay that will last him a couple of years and hopefully his younger siblings too. Everything was sized larger than needed so we will hopefully get many years out of them. (except my bibs, I am hoping not to grow too much myself!) They will come in handy as we venture up to the Sequoias to play in the snow.
In the picture of Paige, we are over 2 miles above sea level, that is the highest we were able to drive in the park.
Paige and Clay got to take an archery class where we were staying. The younger two weren't old enough. We stayed at the YMCA Conference center and it was wonderful with activities and classes for the kids. Most everything was free except the archery, but that was only $3.
While passing through Denver on our way to Kansas, we stopped at Casa Bonitas, a very unique Mexican restaurant. I can't say the food was much to write home about, but the entertainment on atmosphere was worth the trip. Cliff divers, flame juggling, skits, caves, pinata. It was a lot of fun.
While in Kansas, the kids not only saw their cousins, they also got to spend time with their grandparents who also came to watch the graduation.
In New Mexico, Jill and I took the kids up to Santa Fe for the day to do a little sight seeing. We saw the oldest church and oldest home in the US as well as some cool shops. In the picture below, bricks are being made to restore the oldest church.
Homeward bound. Crossing the Mojave as soon as we get into California. This is our view for a couple of hours.
It is time to finally end this long drawn out series on our cross country trip this summer. I really did not intend for it to take so long, but it did, I haven't been as good about posting as I would like. Oh well, it is what it is, so here is the final destination...
We made it to Indianapolis! After being on the road for about a week and a half, we arrived at Jathan's parent's house. They had a sign and streamers welcoming the grandkids, specifically "M", but they did add the other three to the poster board in smaller letters. It was quite the welcome, none the less.
During our stay in Indy, the kids got a lot of grandparents time, playing outside in the big yard, and riding bikes. "M" learned to ride her bike without training wheels while visiting the grandparents. Paige has been into Monopoly and had heard stories of how much Grandpa liked to play, so that was something on the agenda that they were able to accomplish.
Besides seeing all the family and friends, I was very much looking forward to the kids catching lightening bugs. I had really hyped it up. Around here there aren't any lightening bugs. Growing up it was something I looked forward to every summer. The ritual of getting your jar with holes poked in the lid, getting sprayed down with Off, and then making the mad dash into the yard once you saw the first flicker. Our jars would be full of them. We would put them on our nightstand when we went to bed and watched them light up as we fell asleep. Of course in the morning we would wake up to a jar full of dead bugs, but that was fine with us, we were ready to do it again the next night. I couldn't wait for the kids to experience this. So on one of the last nights in Indiana, we were going to catch lightening bugs. We got the jars, we sprayed the kids, we were out and waiting, and then nothing. Once in a while we saw a flicker, but it was usually too high to catch or across the yard and we couldn't find it once we got to where we thought we saw it. The kids were getting frustrated, I was frustrated and between four kids and three adults, we ended up with 2 lightening bugs that wouldn't light once we put them in the jar. I was crushed, probably more than the kids, but they were pretty disappointed. So that dream didn't quite get fulfilled. As of now our kids do not share my excitement over lightening bugs, but we tried, and that was that.
During our time in Indy, we were able to connect with several friends from both Lafayette and Indy. Thank you Jared, Becca, Dave, Whitney, Brad and Carrie for taking the time to come over to visit us. Thank you also to Anissa for hosting us for a play date and Chris and Heather for having us over for dinner. It was so good to see familiar faces during our time there.
Believe it or not, I didn't get any pictures of the kids with their grandparents. I spent most of my time taking video, so the time is recorded, but not to put on the blog. Oh well. I am also finding it hard to figure out what to put on the blog, because most of the pictures have "M" in them. I started to try to crop her out, but I hate doing that. So anyway here are a few pics of our visit with friends.
Eventually our time in Indiana had to come to an end. We were thankful for the time we had with family, but it was nice to get back home.
This time we didn't have any plans to stop and see anyone on our way, so we made reservations in NM for a night of rest. We left Tuesday night and arrived at our motel in NM on Wednesday afternoon. It was a long time in the car, but we made the most of it with books on CD and just enjoying the landscape once we could see it in the morning. We stopped in Texas at one of their rest areas and got a kick out of seeing their Texas shaped BBQ's. It was a pretty stop and I got a good picture of the girls. After I had them stand a little ways in the grass to get a good shot, Jathan pointed out the sign that said to stay off the grass because of rattlesnakes. Yikes!
The kids decided that "Cars" was the theme of our travels. They loved all the Route 66 signs, so when we got to our motel in NM, they were thrilled when they discovered we were actually staying on Route 66. We even got to have dinner at one of the original diners.
On Thursday, we headed out again. After a bit of time in the car, we stopped at the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. It was a nice little park to stop for a time to stretch our legs and see a few sights.
After that stop we started for our last long leg of the trip and arrived home early Friday morning. Oh it was so good to get to our house and get to sleep a few hours in our beds.
We had a great time traveling, but the old saying is definitely true...
Hi, my name is Melissa. My husband, Jathan, and I have 4 beautiful children, 2 by birth and 2 by adoption. Jathan is a pastor and I am a stay at home, homeschooling mom.
You will find me writing about my kids, my husband, God, adoption, homeschooling, our travels, life events and everything in between.
