Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Events in the News
Over the last few weeks there have been several events in the news that have saddened our hearts.

First of all, we are immensely saddened by the loss of lives and souls in the earthquake in China. For those of you who are wondering, this is not the area we are going to for the first few years. However, seeing the pain and suffering on their faces and knowing the terrible trauma they are going through just wrenches our hearts to the very core. We have had a love for these precious people placed on our hearts and it is horrible to see their suffering.

Secondly, words cannot express the grief we felt over the news of the death of Steven Curtis Chapman's daughter Maria. We have been lifting them up daily. I cannot imagine the loss of a child, much less having to deal with the fact that another child is suffering too because of the accident and the way it happened. Many of you may remember, but SCC's adoption foundation, Shaohannah's Hope, provided us with a grant to bring the bwins home. He is one of the biggest promoters of adoption that exists. Now, one of his precious adopted daughters is gone. The good bit of news is that she had trusted Jesus with her heart and made a personal faith decision just weeks before the accident. She is now with her Eternal Father. (BTW, he is the writer/composer of "Cinderella". Here is a link to the video. The song was based on their two youngest adopted daughters- Stevie Joy and Maria. He tells the story behind the video after the video. It is heartwrenching to listen to at this time.)
posted by 6blessings @ 5:43 AM   0 comments
Friday, May 23, 2008
Wrapping Things Up Around Here
FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
August 2007

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL
May 2008

Wednesday was the kids' last day at school. They have officially completed their year. Everyone did very well academically. Below are some pictures of their awards assemblies.

E and Z with all of their awards.
E: Readers are Leaders Medal for over 116 reading points, Top Music Student award, A/B Honor Roll, Oklahoma State Reading Award
Z: Readers are Leaders Trophy and T-shirt for 194 reading points, Top Music Student award (E and Z were the two from their class picked for this), A Honor Roll, Oklahoma State Reading Award, Spelling Bee Grade Qualifier, Outstanding 4th Grade PE Student, and three other PE awards (Their school does various contests in which the kids can break school/grade records. Z was the top fourth grade girl in pull-ups. She did 15. She also set the record in hula hooping at 40 minutes. This was also a school-wide record.)




H: President's Award for Educational Excellence (This is actually from President Bush. It requires a 4.0 grade average, citizenship, etc. Only 20 kids out of around approximately 330 in their school received this award.), Oklahoma Middle School Honor Society, Top 8th grade Math Student (trophy)

J: Spelling Bee Grade Qualifier, Oklahoma Reading Award, Readers are Leaders Medal of Achievment, Outstanding 2nd grade PE Student, A Honor Roll, PE Award for the most pull-ups for boys in the 2nd grade

In addition to wrapping up school, the gymnastic season is over and we have pretty much finished up our involvement there. State Gymnastic competition was the first weekend in May. All 3 girls did really well. As you can see in the pictures above, E is in a cast. She has a stress area in her left foot, near the big toe growth plate. She had been in pain a lot leading up to the State Meet. She had been unable to practice much at all. However, she gave it all she had and ended up as the State Level 6 Vaulting Champion with a 9.525. She also placed 3rd on Beam with a 9.7. H wrapped up her final year well too. She was State Runner-up on Beam with a 9.6 and State Runner-up on Floor Exercise. She placed sixth all-around in the state. Z was very consistent as usual and wrapped up her year well also.

Bwins update: We saw a geneticist on the 12th. He diagnosed them with FASD. Yesterday, the 22nd, we went to a child psychologist who did her field research in FASD with Native Americans in Alaska. She was incredibly helpful and will be doing further testing with the boys and giving us direction for their future. She is the first person we feel like has expertise in the area and has already helped a ton.
posted by 6blessings @ 6:58 AM   3 comments
Monday, May 05, 2008
Thank You
I wanted to say thank you to all of you for all of your help. All of your info was quite helpful. The most helpful posts were the ones from those of you who know where I am. I felt so alone. No one I knew could understand what I was going through. No one understood. Here is part of a poem I found that expressed my feelings so well.

I am tired and I can't bear it, I think I will break,
surely no one else lives like this
No one else has these FAS days.
It must be me, a problem in how I chose them to raise.
Maybe I don't punish enough maybe I am to short on the praise
OH Please someone help me, tell me it will one day be okay.
Tell me what to do right, what never to say.
I am lost in a world I have so few skills to live in
I don't know what to do. I feel like I have no friends.

I no longer feel this desperation. I know that there are others out there that do understand. I also have accepted the gift God has given us. At first, I was in denial that they had problems. Now, I realize that they probably have many problems, much deeper than I ever imagined or thought. I kept thinking love would make it all okay. Now I know that love helps but may not cure all and have accepted what has been given to us from above. I will continue to love them just for who they are and will entrust them into God's hands.

Now I know that they are different...special. I have to deal with them differently than the other four. I have talked to many people over the last few weeks. I have heard a lot. I have made a ton of calls and so has my mother trying to get this figured out. Basically, I don't think we'll get a diagnosis before we leave. FASD is such a new area that many don't know a whole lot about. Therefore, it is very difficult to get into the doctors that do the testing.

We have found one child psychologist who will do cognitive and neuropsych tests on them, but she even said she can't diagnose it. I have talked on the phone and in person to several "special needs"/special ed. professionals. Here's some of the info I gleaned from just telling them the behaviors they are displaying.

First of all, they feel that we are dealing with not one, but multiple issues. They feel that there is some FASD (somewhere on the spectrum). One said that the things they were displaying sounds more like drug babies predominately, with alcohol mixed in. We know their mom was involved with both drugs and alcohol. It has also been highly suggested that we are dealing with RAD, still adjusting to the language (which the above complicates), failure to thrive (in their first 5 years), and multiple learning disabilities (many due to the above).

All in all, I don't know where we will go from here. I don't know if we will have them tested by the child psychologist if that's all she can tell us. I also don't think a lot can be accomplished diagnosis-wise before we leave. Therefore, I have decided to learn all I can about the issues and get as much advice as possible, esp. on educating them since I will be their teacher.

When all is said and done, I feel a lot better just being able to accept their difference and know that there are others alongside me. I am willing to do whatever it takes to give them the best shot at life as possible. I am dealing with everything a lot better just knowing that I am not alone in this, that there are others who deal with this every day too and can understand that even though they look normal, they are not. I am learning how to love them in a deeper way and have a different outlook on who they are. My expectations are lowered, not because I don't have high hopes for them, but because they are not able to go to the level I once thought. This helps everyone in the long run.

I will continue to learn and love. Thank you to all of you who helped. Keep it coming.
posted by 6blessings @ 5:00 AM   3 comments
 

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