I am not sure if you all remember the posts I did about my little niece, Kayla who was born about 12 weeks early and weighed only 2lbs. 13 oz.  I posted a picture of her when she was a few weeks old.. Kayla Maria coming home..  Well, this week we have finally been able to see her again!  Todd and Ayishih are visiting with their kids.. and it is so wonderful to see Kayla.. tiny but FULL of energy! 

Below is a picture of Todd & Kayla...I will try to add some of the whole family later..

Yesterday we FINALLY got pictures of my parents with ALL of their 20 grandkids!  That was a feat.. in the boiling HOT temperatures.. with humidity like a sauna.  However, with all of that.. the kids still did a marvelous job and co-operated very well!  Below is one of the best we got out of the "millions" we kept clicking!

We have had the privilege of giving two of our children purity rings this year so far!  This is a really special time to us and we LOVE this tradition.  First, James, who turned 16 in January, received his on his birthday.  Everyone was surrounding him as he opened up our letters to him and then the box with the special ring inside.  With our first daughter, Heather, this was a surprise event.. however, it is no longer and ALL the children are looking forward to getting their rings now! James' ring was really neat as we searched far and wide for something suitable for a guy.  His has the Hebrew words printed on it.. "Keep thyself pure".  He really loves it and wears it all the time.  For those of you interested in seeing what it looks like... here is the link Purity Rings .

James reading our letters.. (Foreground: Rebekah putting on salad dressing..)

James putting on his ring as his brother, Josiah, looks on (dreaming about his day to come!)

There it is!  The LONG awaited for ring!  (Rebekah still eating! )

In my next post.. I will have pictures of Hannah's special day.. :)

Until then,

Denise

Okay.. I am going to try again.. get back to blogging.  So watch for it..

I have such wonderful things to blog about.. so I have decided I just need to try to do it and not think about it!  SO..... just to catch everyone up..

~ We are now full swing into July...sadly for me.. I really would love to have a longer summer.  The weather has been so wonderful this summer.. I feel totally blessed!

~ Our four oldest kids are at Youth Camp this week.. so I have the six younger ones at home with me.. it is amazing how sometimes it is easier with more kids than less!

~ We just finished our last Homeschool Convention, in Chattanooga, for this year.  We were at 5 this year.. and really LOVED doing them!  After this past convention, our son, Josiah, said.. "Mom, I made 13 new friends!"  Our timelines are slowly but surely making their mark in the homeschooling community.

~ We recently got through all five birthdays that fall within about 6 weeks of each other!  May 24th, June 14th, June 20th, June 25th and July 7th!  It felt like a whirlwind.. but we had great fun with them!

~ Our daughter, Hannah, received her promise ring for her birthday this year.  It was a special event.. I will have to post the pictures up about that.  Her brother, James, also got his back in January.  All the kids are psyched about getting their rings!

What I am looking forward to..

~ My brother and his wife are coming up from St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands.. that is where they live.  We have been enjoying their two older kids, Kaleb and Keziah for several weeks now.  My mom went down and brought them back up.  Now we look forward to Todd and Ayishih coming in August.. we will finally have ALL the clan together.. all 20 grandkids!  Will be definitely doing some pictures!

~ Our deaf church will be celebrating our 11th year Anniversay... cannot believe it has been that long!

~  John and I will be traveling to Florida in August where John has been asked to teach a Discipleship Seminar.. we look forward having a little time together then.

Well, kids are running circles around the kitchen, living room and dining room!  They have cabin fever due to being inside too much.. rain prevented our morning walk..   So they are choming at the bit to leave for church tonight! 

~ Denise

Well, it has been a while.. my daughter, Heather, puts me to shame.. she blogs consistently and I have just procrastinated forever.  Not that we have not had many things going on.. these are just a few things that have happened since my last blog..

1) Our deaf church 10th anniversary..

2) Josiah coming down with chicken pox...oh no!

3) All the kids in quarantine waiting for the chicken pox incubation period...

4) Two weeks later.. James's first symptoms show up.. then Rebekah.. then my nephew..then.. well, to make a long story short.. within 4 days.. eight kids were down with chicken pox!  That was a time.. they all got them pretty bad.. with my oldest, Heather, and the youngest, Jeremiah, having the easiest time of it.  James had probably almost 1000 bumps..his face alone.. maybe 200 or so!  Those two weeks were a time we will never forget.  The whole time I was not sure if I would get them or not.. my mom did not remember if I had them and my sisters did not remember having them either.  Praise the Lord.. I did not come down with them.. but I was expecting them every day to show up!

5) Just when the incubation period ended for all the kids.. Heather was horse-riding and fell off!  She really gave us a scare.. she had a concussion which caused her to forget many things for a couple of hours.. and also we were afraid she had broken her hip.  After a trip to the emergency room and getting an IV drip with Demarol.. then X-rays..the doctor, who was surprised himself, told us there was no broken bones.. she did damage her sciatic nerve though and was on crutches for a while and not able to drive for about two weeks.  We are very thankful that it was not worse. 

6) Our little Jeremiah.. had to get his two front teeth pulled.. this was very traumatic.. maybe more so for me than him in some ways.  For some reason his teeth has been.. like wearing away.. and after visiting two dentists.. they discovered that they were decaying.  He has never had a bottle.. does not drink juice at all.. and we do not eat lots of sweets.  Having 8 children with never a problem like this.. this was not expected at all.  Well, they suggested we just have them pulled to save him the pain when the decay got to the roots.  This was a very hard ordeal.. because he did not weigh enough for them to give him medication to make him groggy.. and they do not put them to sleep.  He was in what they call a "pedi-wrap".. and I could not go into the room with him.. but I sat in the waiting room with tears running down my cheeks.. because I could hear him from time to time crying.  It only took 20 minutes.. which was a blessing since they had prepared me to wait for 30 to 40 minutes.  Jeremiah slept all the way home and then was like nothing ever happened since!  I never had to give him any pain medication after getting his teeth pulled.. it was something!  He has always been a happy baby.. but he has even been more so since then.. so it makes us wonder if he did have some discomfort before. 

Well, that is some of the things that have been happening.. and of course, there are the other little details like.. trying to get into the routine of homeschooling, keeping up with the house, getting the kids back into band and starting piano lessons.. not to mention the responsibilities with the deaf ministry. 

I know this whole blog sounds like one big excuse!  I hope to get back into the routine now.. so maybe you all can give me some prodding! :) 

Soon I plan to be adding some pictures.. updates of our front porch.. hubby is doing an awesome job!  Maybe will post some of our chicken pox episode.. with the kids permission.. of course.. :)

Until later..

God bless! 

We are so excited.. this year is our 10th year of the Deaf Church Ministry.  We LOVE our church and the people we call family there.  Heidi was born the summer that we started meeting separately for "Deaf Church".  Before this time.. we were in the hearing church with interpreters. 

Many people wonder what the difference is between just having the deaf in a regular hearing service and meeting separately with all the teaching done in ASL.  Well, it is a BIG difference!  Our size increased from 8 to now having an average of 30 to 40 every service.  The deaf began to gravitate to where they knew the Bible was being taught in their language.  So much is lost during translation from a hearing speaker and then through an interpreter.  Of course, if this is the only option available.. it is better than having nothing. 

Our services are very different than a normal hearing church service.  Everything is done in ASL and reverse interpreted for the hearing.  John will allow everyone to read the Scripture at the beginning so there is a "down time" because the deaf cannot read and look up at the same time to see what is being said.  Hearing can read along with a pastor as he reads.. this is different for the deaf.  Then he refers to his Power Point presentation a lot during the sermon as it is visual.  Before we got the projector he wrote almost everything on a white dry erase board.  We have more interaction from the audience than a normal hearing service as well.  Most people who visit our church for the first time.. love the format and often come back to visit.  These are just some of the things about our service that is different. 

God is good and has blessed us with some very precious people to work with.  Many of our people.. in fact more than 80% of them come from broken homes or have encountered many things in their lives.  We have seen so much that God has done to work in their lives and bring them to Him.  I sometimes just look around on a Sunday morning or Wednesday night and tears well up as I see the changes that have taken place.  We have learned so much and grown ourselves as we have worked with this ministry. 

There are some pictures of our precious church family uploaded in my Yahoo photos.. if you would like.. take some time to enjoy them if you would like..

Here is the link.. http://photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos

Until later.. God bless!

Our special speaker for our 10 year Anniversary.. is Ronaldo Feliciano.  He pastors a deaf church in Florida.  This is the Feliciano family.. beautiful huh?!

Everyone is excited about Jeremiah's first time to receive his blessing...

All the kids watch as the Jeremiah receives his blessing from Daddy... precious memories being made!

J

John prays for Jeremiah... after the blessing..

Snezhana introduces her family during our Bible Study for the deaf on Wedn. night.  Her brother in the blue shirt is signing, the girl with white shirt standing next to him is his new wife... and Snezhana's dad is in the white shirt next to her.

It was nice to meet Snez' real dad from Russia... her first time in 6 1/2 years and us first time ever! 

It looks like he already aged a few months.. but he is still as cute as ever!

Here is a before picture.. Jeremiah was starting to look like a girl.. but it was hard to cut those cirls off..