The World Keeps Turning.

We finished our first month of schooling...and we are looking forward to working our way through month 2.

Kimberly has turned 3 and therefore has stopped all of her therapies.

Dante is fully enrolled in a special needs classroom and loves it.

Sunny has turned 13.

Today is Amelia's 11th Adoption Anniversary.

Nikita bought a puppy that is just adorable and sure to keep her busy.

And the world keeps turning.

I am so thankful for our life, our home, our amazing children.  Alexander in college, Zachary in the Navy, Nikita contemplating her future, the triplets doing so well at home, Dante in school, Leif rocking our world daily, and Kimberly making sure our world revolves around her.

God is good.

Girls' Night Out

In the six weeks since my last post, we have been busy just living life.

Kimberly now pushes up to sitting by herself, and loves to go outside in the sunshine.  She still just crawls on her belly, but since she is over 20 pounds now that belly is a lot to lift up!  She is off formula and on goat's milk, and her weight has gone up...it is so nice to see her filling out.  The fresh milk is so good for her!

We thought we had a sinkhole in our back yard, but discovered instead it is an early 1900's septic cistern, with timbers the size of railroad ties over it, covered by 10 inches of dirt--- we never knew there was a 9 foot diameter 5 foot deep hole under our ground--- until one of the beams gave way and we suddenly had a hole.  Jamie and Zachary filled it in and have covered it back up.

Last week Jamie and I escaped for 2 days, going up to his parent's cottage in New Hampshire.  We took Amelia and Leif with us and had a wonderfully relaxing time, and even stopped at Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory on our way home.

Next week is our Georgia trip!!  Micah and Amelia have been practicing relentlessly for the USA Gymnastics Special Olympics Championships in Marietta.  Sunny is on the same team they are on, but when the coach asked for team members who would like to go, I did not suggest Sunny.

I know they are supposed to have fun at Special Olympics, and anyone with a disability can participate, but I expect my kids to earn the right to do some things.  And I feel that Sunny did not earn the right to go to the Championships.  She can be quite stubborn at practices, and even at last year's Summer Games she had to be cajoled into doing her floor routine.  I think she does that on purpose, and enjoys being coddled and the the coaches wheedling her into participating.  (The amazing coaches certainly have more patience with her than I do, because at last year's Summer Games I had to fight the urge to march down onto the mat and tell her to do her routine now or go change out of the leotard.)

However I realize this means Sunny is missing what is sure to be a weekend full of fun, with the plane ride, the hotel, the restaurants and the actual event!  Nikita certainly has made it known she know she is missing out on all of that!  (Nik loves any chance to travel and see new places.)

So last night Nik and I took Sunny to see Disney on Ice.  She had not seen all of the Disney movies that were represented, and never uttered one word the whole time we were there, but I know she had fun....she has had that silly fairy hat on ALL day today!

God is good!

Our Ultimate Field Trip, Part 2

Monday morning we left Pennsylvania and headed for Maryland; our goal was Antietam Battlefield.  In anticipation of this trip, Nikita spent the first three weeks of September studying the Civil War, and this battle in  particular. 

It was a two hour drive, and once there we viewed the inside exhibit with artifacts, then walked around the field outside.  It is sobering to think about how many men (along with woman and children) died at each other's hands in such a short period of time.  To look out at the fields and know that the photos we had just seen inside were of these same fields exactly 150 years ago really brought it home to us. 

Of course, we were in our second day of driving and also took some time to shake off some of the energy that was building up.

We took a small two lane highway from Maryland to West Virginia where we had lunch at Cracker Barrel.  The hostess was raised here in Massachusetts!

After lunch we were back on Route 81 headed to Luray, Virginia.  The ride was absolutely beautiful.

We went to Luray Caverns, where we did not actually even go into the caverns!  While I would have loved to see the Awesomeness of God's Creation on display, I was not going to pay $24 a person to walk through being told they are millions of years old, when instead we could have the hands on fun of the giant Garden Maze and the Ropes Course.  It was such fun!

 (Leif is in the above photo.)

 After all this fun, we drove another hour or so to Harrsionburg Virginia, where we spent Monday night.Tuesday was all about driving, 6 hours down to Fort Jackson.

  We checked in at Weston Lake Recreation Area, a part of Fort Jackson.  Here we would spend the next two nights.  The cabin was beautiful, and right on the water.  Wednesday morning we would be seeing Alexander for the first time in 2 months and 9 days!  Jamie was unable to join us on this journey, but his Dad flew down and stayed at the cabin with us.

Part 3 will feature our time with Alexander!