How does one get Cabin Fever in sunny Florida?? L had her second cochlear implant  on Friday 2\1. To try and keep her healthy prior to the big day, I kept her home for a week. Then we stayed home this week except for her therapy session. I was counting the hours until I could actually go somewhere, when....... cough, cough "Mommy, I don't feel good!" What?? No, one of my precious children can't possibly be ill!!! Poor little A was running a 101 degree temp last night and 100 degree temp this morning. Not only does she have a bad cold, but she also has an abscessed tooth  A spent the morning on the couch, while I spent the morning trying to corral L into the classroom. To make life a little easier, I gave in and we had a short school day! Thankfully, we had a refill left on an antibiotic prescription from the previous abscess.

I have to share a great story - we have been working hard with L on the concept of 1 & 2. While playing Candyland last week, I would say whatever card was drawn..... 1 green, 2 yellow, etc. It was L's turn and when she drew her card, she looked at it and said (YES!!!!! SHE SAID!!!) "who re" as she held up 2 fingers  She had a card with 2 red squares!! I about fell off of the chair! I gave her a high five and she gave me a big hug. The miracle of communication

I, like the majority of the population, made some New Year's Resolutions. Don't ask me why because I never keep them  

1.  Lose weight - well, haven't lost BUT haven't gained either!
2. Spend less time on the computer - that depends on what day of the week it is
3. Don't yell at the kids - hey, I do great on this when I'm home alone
4. Spend less money - this one I've kept so far. I'm not a coupon clipper, but have started and it is paying off. I started saving $15-$20 a week at the grocery store!! This past week, I set a record!! Drumroll please..........$41!!!!! Hubby was really excited about THAT shopping trip!

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Ah! Christmas memories! Where do I start? What was the best present? Let's see..... I remember peeking around my bedroom door as a little girl, anxiously waiting for my Mom to call me out to see what Santa left; our first Christmas as a husband and wife; our first Christmas as a Mom & Dad. They are all such great memories

The greatest gift though, came from a complete stranger. A family that we have never met and  probably will never get to meet. A gift that they gave on this day four years ago -  December 24, 2003. Below is a post from last Christmas Eve:

On this date in 2003, a family took their 3 y\o little girl for a ride. She must have thought they were going on a trip since they ended up at the long distance train station. How excited she must have been! But, wait.....where are the suitcases?

Did they tell their daughter to wait on the bench while they bought the tickets? Did they tell her they would be right back that they were going to the bathroom? Being the obedient little girl she was, she sat there and waited.....and waited.....and waited. Finally, the local police were called to help find her family. The excitement of the "trip" turned into fear as she could not hear what everyone was saying around her. Her trip ended at the local orphanage, never to see her family again.

But.......we serve an awesome God! He watched over this little girl, keeping her wrapped securely in His loving arms - protecting her.

It is now Dec. 24th, 2006....... the little obedient girl is sitting quietly like she was told to. This time, however, she is sitting with her forever family as they sing praises to our Heavenly Father.

Thank you to the birth family for loving your daughter so much that you wanted her to have a chance at life, to have the opportunity to hear again, to have medical care and an education.

Thank you to God, for protecting her and guiding her forever family to their new daughter. Thank you for the privilege to be that forever family!

Even though we didn't "receive" this gift until September 11, 2006, it was left for us on Christmas Eve. What an awesom present!

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 On a cold December day half-way around the world, a mother made the heart wrenching choice to leave her newborn baby girl, her little mouth misshapen by a cleft, at the main gate of the local quarry. Did she hide behind the bushes to make sure her baby was found before she froze? Or did she have someone else take the baby? We’ll never know. We do know that she was found and taken to the local orphanage where she began to thrive.

At the same time and same city, another little girl was turning two years old. She wasn’t able to hear the celebration around her for she lived in a world of silence.

Fast forward one year to December 2003 – the little baby quietly celebrated her first birthday surrounded by other children waiting for their mommies & daddies to come for them. The other little girl just turned three, but her family was also about to make a heart wrenching decision. A few days later, on December 24^th, the family went for a ride to the local train station. I could just imagine the excitement she felt, as she anxiously thought about her trip, while sitting on the bench where she was told to wait. Soon, that excitement turned to fear when she discovered that her family was gone. She couldn’t even cry out for them as she never spoke a word. She too was found and taken to the local orphanage.

 God blessed us with two wonderful boys, but I had a strong desire to add a daughter to our family. I prayed, begged, pleaded and cried for 3 years for our little girl. I asked God to take away the desire if it wasn’t His will, but mine. The desire just got stronger.

 In February, 2004 God showed us our new daughter . She was 14 months old and lived in an orphanage in Hefei China. We started the paperwork to bring her home and finally left for China in November. On the 23^rd, we met our newest family member – Alanna Lynn – the baby left at the gate of the local quarry. On Thanksgiving Day, we visited the orphanage where Alanna spent the first 23 months of her life.

During this visit, the sweetest little girl with pony tails sticking straight up on her head captured my heart. When we left the orphanage, she was standing at the top of the stairs waving bye. Oh, how I hated to leave her there. I made a silent vow to her, as tears fell down my cheeks, that I would be back for her one day.

 We safely arrived back home with our new daughter and adjusted to life with a two year old. Many days I thought and prayed about the children left behind, especially the little girl with the pony tails. I often found myself looking at her in the pictures we took, remembering her precious smile.

 About nine months later, I got the desire to adopt again. I would look at sad face after sad face on the waiting children lists. We viewed several files, but none of them just grabbed me and said “Hey, it’s me. Your daughter!” In the meantime, I had talked to several agencies about finding the little girl with the pony tails. They all had the same response – no name, birth date, or information. You’ll never find her!  I continued on the quest of finding our daughter, all along praying for the little girl with the pony tails. I was starting to think that maybe another child wasn’t in God’s plan for our family.

 One day, I went to a waiting child list of an agency that we had reviewed a file of a beautiful little girl, curious to see if her family had found her. I waited as all of the pictures came onto my computer screen, when the most precious smile appeared!! It was the little girl with the pony tails! I called the agency to find out, if in fact, she was from Hefei. When they confirmed it, I yelled “She’s our daughter!!” Twenty-one months from our first meeting and my vow, God reunited me with our daughter, now known as Leah Jade.

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Let's see if I can get through this post! I've started this entry three times now and was never able to finish it

Our school year is moving along. We went on our annual trip to Gatlinburg\Pigeon Forge for Thanksgiving.  the trip was.......interesting! It was the first family vacation since L joined us. All six (seven if you count our 12 y\o toy poodle) piled into our Honda Mini-van and headed north. Everything was going fine for - the first 30 minutes!! D decided he was going to practice being a back seat driver and we quickly discovered Dad doesn't play that game  We got that all cleared up, then 30 minutes later, I hear coming from the third row:

 "are we there yet?"

"No, honey, we have a ways to go yet."

"But I'm hungry. Very, very hungry."

"A, you have your milk to drink and snack to eat in your hands."

"I have to go potty!"

"We'll stop in a little bit."

"How long is a little bit?"

By this time, hubby is wishing he had some valium and I'm wishing I had some ear plugs! Overall, vacation was fun. L & A experienced a lot of things for the first time, including our tradition of eating a footlong corndog on the sdewalk in Gatlinburg

As usual, this post has been interrupted.....grrrrrr. Maybe I'll have the chance to do a post one day, some day (hopefully!).

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I am involved in a ministry called Seeds of Hope that was started by another adoptive mom. We are kicking off a new program to match older girls in a group home with Pen pals here in the states. The girls (11 of them) are all orphans, all have a special need of some type, ages 14 - 18, residing in a home called Helena's House of Hope - founded and ran by an American Christian and his Chinese wife (just opened Sept.1). Helena's House of Hope is located in Jiangsu Province, PRC. Most, if not all of the girls, have lived their entire life in the orphanage. These children have a special place in my heart as we have two daughters from China, and both have special needs. This very easily could have been them,

I immediately thought of the older girls involved in homeschooling. What a great opportunity for them to share their life with a girl their age and similar likes that lives in China. Terry (the founder) is teaching the girls English so this is a great opportunity for them as well.

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Things are looking a lot brighter around here! Thank you Jesus!! L is doing so much better with her school work  Her handwriting is improving every day along with her cutting skills. We still have a little problem with following directions, but I'm sure that is due to her lack of language. We're up to the letter G and the number 5. We added colors this past week and started with "red" - mainly because it is easy to say  We also started with our Audio-Verbal Therapist and had a great first session.

D is plugging along with his hs course load. He's 16, has the teenage mouth, but he is such a great brother\son\grandson\great-grandson. I took him to Gainesville to help my dad unload a trailer full of my grandparent's  belongings (they recently moved them down from Ohio to live with them). He never once complained or asked for anything in return. D would watch baseball & football with his Great-Grandfather and have a good time. He can carry on a conversation about sports, politics, wars, etc.... His sister's adore him and do things for him that they can't (or won't!) do for me. One day, I was trying to work with L on something and she just couldn't get it. I was getting pretty frustrated when D said, "She knows you're upset. Let me work with her." Not only was she able to distinguish between 1 & 2 items, but he had her doing colors too!

M is..........being M  Here it is, Saturday morning, and he is doing schoolwork that he didn't do during the week. He drives me crazy!! M is very smart and just doesn't understand why he needs to learn certain skills (diagramming, algebra, etc...) "I'm not going to need this when I'm older!" He is really enjoying Apologia's Biology, especially the experiments - except the one where we grew pond life with a boiled egg! Warning - find a place OUTSIDE to do that one! He chose Cooking as an elective (hands on, no textbook!) and made some wonderful brownies. He even made designs on the plate with 3 different sauces (chocolate, butterscotch, and strawberry) and placed the brownie in the middle.

A continues to love her preschool. She is 4 1\2 going on 16! She knows everything but is at the age of asking "why?" ALL of the time. Then she confirms the answer with you! Guess we have another auditory learner on our hands.

I want to thank EVERYONE for all of the encouraging comments you leave for me! I appreciate you taking time out of your busy days to visit and respond.

     I entered to win the writing instruction program
     MY Access! Home and the SAT Prep Pack
     on the HSB Company Porch!

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I have been checking out a lot of other blogs lately to try and get the hang of this. In doing so, I have come across some great info (just haven't come across on how to make my blog more interesting yet!). I also discovered that I haven't discussed our style of homeschooling yet. Here we go.........

We started out schooling at home with school desks and the whole classroom thing. That lasted for about two years  Then I started to get a little more brave! We added unit studies and tried the notebook approach. We finally started to have fun in school  I know the traditional style works great for some...... it just didn't work for us.  We enjoyed going to the Greek Fair when we studied Ancient Greece, doing our Zoo Book when we studied animals and visited the zoo, etc.... The real biggie was going to China while doing our unit study on China! Now that the boys are older, it's getting to be more of a challenge.

This year, D is doing: Teaching Textbooks for Alg. 2, BJU US History, Apologia's Human Body, 150 Great Books & Movies As Literature, CLP's English, Spanish 2, Political Philosophies by Bluestocking Guide (semester 1), SAT and College Prep Course for the Christian Student (semester 2) and Words of Wisdom - a study of Job, Psalms, & Proverbs.

M is using: BJU Pre-Algebra, CLP's English, 150 Great Books & Movies as Literature, Drive Thru History with extra projects from Dinah Zike's Big Book of US History, Apologia's Biology 1 and Words of Wisdom - a study of Job, Psalms, and Proverbs.

With L, I use a hodge podge of various websites (Enchanted Learning, first-school, soft school, ect). I would LOVE to get her to the point of lap books. I think the hands-on would be good for her.

Speaking of L, she responds to her name now - Praise God!!!!!!!! She is not quite 6 months old hearing age. She "babbles" up a storm and is being more vocal. L & A took swim lessons last week and did great. Day one, L was crying and A cried on day 2. By day 3, they were both swimming under water and loving it

So, this is all probably way more than you wanted to know!

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Being a homeschool family, it was only natural to bring L home to school, too. I prayed about what to do - send her to 1) hearing impaired K-5 class with the ps 2) mainstream in a small Chrisitan school 3) LD K-5 class or 4) homeschool. I kept hearing "homeschool". I thought "all right, God! We can do this."

You know all of the times when you think - Gee, did I hear God right? Is THIS what He wanted me to do? Well, I'm at the point   The last few weeks have really been a challenge.  There have been days when she & I both walked away in tears. Everyone keeps telling me that I'm doing what is best for her. Really?? Then why is it so hard?? We do have our GREAT days when I think "YES!! She gets it!!". Then......... back to square one. I've had to re-think my approach and go back to pre-k. We returned to pre-writing exercises, fine motor skills, etc. What really gets me upset is trying to figure out what they did with her for 7 months in ps last year  L doesn't even know which hand to write with or how to write on the paper - let alone write anything that you can make out. WHAT HAVE I DONE???????

D is doing awesome this year  He is really enjoying Teaching Textbooks (and I am too!). At least I don't have Alg. 2 to worry about. Oh...... the M we all know and love has been found!! I knew he was in there somewhere. In his defense though, he hasn't been feeling well. He (we!) has been battling major outbreaks of eczema. We have been to 4 different doctors in the last 3 months and I think we have found the one!! She had him cleared up in a few days. Praise the Lord! A continues to love school and all her new friends. Every day when I pick her up, her teacher tells me how smart she is. The other kids don't even get a chance to answer anything because A knows all of the answers! My goal is (was) to have L caught up enough that I can teach her and A together next year. The way things are going, A will be way past L

Welcome to our crazy homeschool days!

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Unfortunately, I'm not talking about three kids down for the night  Three school days down and only 177 more to go!! WOOHOO!!!!! Our school year has had a good start. M has three 100% in a row in Pre-Algebra and has actually been ready when I yelled "School Time!". That's a big accomplishment right there. He has also been playing with his sisters without being asked to!! All right....who IS this child and what happened to my M??

A loves her new school and wants to know every morning if she's going to school. They have snack when I drop her off at 9:00, lunch at 11:30 with pick-up at 12:00. I WOULD love a school like that

D is doing well. We're using Teaching Textbooks for Alg 2 and he really likes it. He got a 100% on his first try!! Keep up the good work!

L is........... used to her teacher last year just doing whatever L wanted! Well, Momma doesn't play that game! We did the same coloring sheet 3 times before she got it - A a with an ape - A was to be colored black, a was brown. She just couldn't get it! We also did our writing practice, fine motor skill excercise, and played Memory with numbers. We also work a lot on our hearing & speech. Hopefully, once she is understanding what she hears, instructions will be easier. I've added "Following Instructions" as a subject! If anyone has suggestions for a hearing impaired child, I'd greatly appreciate you sharing

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As I was working in our new homeschool room yesterday, I looked out the window and saw a family of deer grazing in our backyard. Momma was standing watch as the babies munched on the grass, not straying too far away from her.  Earlier, she had them stay in a big shady area near our property line while she went about her morning "chores". As I sat there enjoying their presence,  I got thinking..... how does she do it?? Her children were being so good, obeying her without a second thought. How did she convince them to stay under the tree until she returned? I sure wished I could have asked her what her secret was as my "peacefulness" was broken by two little Chinese girls storming into the room

As soon as I can figure out how to add pictures to my blog, I'll post one of the deer

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Well, another school year is approaching and I'm ready (I think!!). A little bit about our family first.

Hubby and I have been married for almost 18 years (in October). We have two biological sons (D is 16, M is 13) and two daughters from China. I brought L home in Sept. 2006 at 5 1\2. She is deaf and received a cochlear implant in March, 2007. A is 4 and we adopted her Nov. 2004. She was a cleft baby. Our homeschool journey began when we moved next door to a homeschool family. We (the boys and I) approached hubby about homeschooling. "Absolutly not", "No way, no how!" were his responses. "Well, let's pray about it" I told the boys. A few weeks later, hubby was willing to give it a try!! So our journey began. The funny thing is, whenever I feel like throwing in the towel, hubby says "Absolutly not", "No way, no how!"

With the addition of the girls, we have added onto our home. Our new "classroom" is finished and I'm moving in! I have this week to pack up the shelves of books and closets of art supplies, then un-pack and organize the room.

This year will also add the challenge of homeschooling L and teaching her to hear. A will be going to Pre-K at our church in the mornings then home in the afternoon. Add a junior (with a teen attitude) and an eighth grader (that doesn't understand why he needs to know this stuff!!) and that makes up our Crazy Homeschool Days!

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