On our way to Texas!

Relax!

This afternoon I was getting super stressed as I thought about all that I still had to do before flying out Friday morning.  Then, I made a really good choice.  I set aside my entire to-do list and baked chocolate chip cookies with the children.  I think we're all happier now!  :-D  The house smells fantastic, too!  :-)

This morning I took Rebekah and Thomas to the Pediatric Podiatrist for the removal of their plantar warts.  I'm glad we got that taken care of before the trip.  They were hurting them when they walked.  It really went much smoother than I had imagined.  I was happy when the doctor told me that they were really worried when I came in with 10 children but how they were all very pleasantly surprised at how good the children were being in the waiting room without me!  I had Benjamin with me, so it was Stephen, Sarah, Naomi Ruth, Rebekah, Hannah, Samuel, Miriam, and Susanna out there.

Today I finally gave up on the whole idea of getting up Christmas decorations.  This is my first year to miss that.  I'm mostly relieved, but a little bit sad.  Good thing that we're going to a place that has up Christmas decorations.  :-)  This has definitely NOT been a normal year and I'm overwhelmed even trying to just do the most basic of the basics.  I feel much better after giving myself permission to just let it go this year.

Love, Dawn

Update on Benjamin's appointment

There are 3 parts to vision.  I'm sure this is really simplified, by the way.  Anyway, there are the eyes which take the picture, the electric signals that sends the picture to the brain, and the brain which receives the picture.  What we found out today is that Benjamin's eyes are anatomically/structurally great.  That's certainly a huge relief!  For right now they are saying he has Visual Maturation Delay.  Just like some children walk later than others or talk later than others, some children see later.  He can see a tiny bit at this point.  He was able to track the light.  I'm very happy about that.  He's scheduled to go in for another appointment on March 16th.  The hope is that his vision will be great by that point and they will basically check him over and say all is fine and we'll be done with that.  If that is not the case, they will need to do further testing to check if there is a problem with the electrical impulses or with the brain reception of the information.  Please keep us in your prayers that this is just a delay and he will be seeing great soon.  Thanks!

Love, Dawn

Opthamology

Thanks for that tip, Judy!

Today is the big day with Benjamin's Opthamology appointment.  I'm really nervous.  Please pray that it goes well.  Also, the area where the appointment is at is under a severe winter storm warning.  Please also pray that I don't have any trouble on the roads.  I will update with the results of the appointment when I am back home.

I got a lot done yesterday.  In the morning, we picked up our co-op order.  We are steadily storing food away in preparation for these very uncertain economic times.  Right now we've got enough food for about 4 months for all of us, although that would be quite heavy on the bean consumption.  I'd like for us to have a 6 month stock.  In the afternoon, I took all the children to our mechanic to look over the van in preparation for the trip.  Nothing like being with 10 young children in a tiny waiting room with 2 chairs and not much else for over an hour.  WHEW!!!  The mechanic told me I'm one brave mom.  I told him that driving to Texas and back without having the van looked over beforehand sounded worse than that waiting room experience.  Turns out that it just needs one small repair.  Thank God!  We'll get that done on Thursday.  Yesterday evening I headed down to the library and did an exchange of books and videos.  This week the children will be able to watch 2 different performances of The Nutcracker ballet.  We watch it every year at Christmas time and the tradition is well loved by the children.  It will be the first time for our Liberian children to see any ballet.  Unless someone is napping, we usually give our children free reign with our stereo.  I'm sure this year will be like past years where for weeks after watching the ballet, we'll have our Nutcracker CD cranked loud and children dancing to the music.  :-)

Love, Dawn

Chuck E Cheese Photos

These photos were all taken at Chuck E Cheese while there celebrating Susanna's 3rd birthday.

Getting ready

Last night our church had a fund raiser for the youth group by offering babysitting there from 5-10pm.  Aaron and I dropped off all of the children except Benjamin around 6:30, enjoyed a dinner date at Applebee's and then headed to WalMart for shopping.  That worked well and they had a WONDERFUL time playing there.  In fact, when we got back at 9:40 they were upset that they didn't get to stay until 10pm.  :-D

Tomorrow is the big day, the Christmas play!  They had a 2 hour dress rehearsal today.  I took the opportunity to do some more shopping at WalMart after dropping off the oldest 7 for it.  Miriam is in the play, but they said that the sheep didn't need to come to today's practice.  Christmas presents for the children this year are aimed around the idea of providing entertainment in the van.  Driving 1000 miles over 2 days in a van with 10 young children is going to be quite the adventure.  Then we'll turn around less than a week later and do it again.  Woooooooo-hooooooo!  We've also decided that we're going to need to purchase one of those things that straps onto the top of the van that can hold luggage.  It's going to take 3 large suitcases to hold clothes for the 12 of us.  That can all go on top.  Inside the van we'll need entertainment, food, diaper supplies, etc.  

Our goal is to be totally ready for the trip by Thursday evening.  Friday morning I'm flying down to Florida with Benjamin.  My Grandma is 88 and is dying of cancer.  I'm going down to tell her good-bye.  That will be hard, but I am so glad I am able to go.  A friend blessed me with the plane ticket.  Thomas, Sarah, Naomi Ruth, Rebekah, and Hannah have all seen her this year while visiting my parents in Florida.  She'll get to meet Benjamin this trip and I look forward to getting pictures of the two of them together.  Our last trip down there as a family was when Susanna was a baby.  She won't get to meet Stephen or Samuel, unfortunately.  Anyway, I'll fly down Friday morning and will return Sunday afternoon.  Then Monday morning we're on the road to Texas!

Samuel was shocked to discover yesterday at lunch that we all have the last name Hall.  He thought that was his name because he came from Liberia.  :-D  We went around and all said our full names for him and by the time we got to him, he was so flustered that he couldn't remember his own name.  :-D  Speaking of lunch, feeding our family is quite the endeavor.  I have found that generally to make sure there's enough food, it works best to make the recipe to where it says it serves 16.  Between 5 normal hungry children, 3 children making up for lost time after starvation, and Thomas (11) already moving into the bottomless pit stage, they eat enormous amounts of food.  Just recently I was thinking about how when Aaron and I first got married, I used to like to make recipes that served 8 and then would carefully divide them into 4 portions and freeze 3 of them so we'd have meals ready to go in our freezer.  I would have had a hard time imagining at that time that 14 years later, that same amount which seemed like so much food at the time, would be half of one meal.  :-D  Good thing I like bulk cooking!  Now I couldn't serve even one meal if I didn't.  ;-)

Love, Dawn

I'm glad that so many of you enjoyed the photos!  :-)

This week the children have been learning about one of the sadder aspects of country living.  Something has been successfully attacking our chickens and we've gone from 13 to 10 in the last few days.  The one found dead this morning was named Golden Nugget and was like Thomas' baby.  We'd had her since she was a gangly bigger chick and he dearly loved her.  Yes, I know we're talking about a chicken, but children can bond to about any kind of animal.  Anyway, he loved carrying her around in his arms, sitting at the picnic table holding her and petting her, and even bringing her into our enclosed porch to sit on the wicker couch and love on her.  She adored him, too.  He went out this morning to feed them and gather eggs and found her body ripped in two right inside the chicken coop.  :-(  He came in all shaken up and has been sad since then.  

We're in the midst of a bunch of doctor appointments right now.  Last week we had Naomi Ruth, Susanna, and Benjamin's well child check-ups.  Miriam had hers this past Tuesday.  She's now 41lb (69%) and 44 inches (90%).  Everything looked good with her.  One question our doctor asked me took me a little off guard, though.  She asked, "How is everything going with her autism?"  I told her at first that I wasn't sure how to answer that and then thought a bit more and finally said, "About how you'd expect with autism."  That seemed to satisfy her.  I'm not sure what she was looking for.  Today I brought Thomas (87lb) and Rebekah (50lb) in for their appointments.  Just out of curiosity, I had Hannah weighed, too.  She and Rebekah have been the same weight or super close since they were tiny.  Hannah also weighed 50lb.  :-D  Anyway, this was for plantar warts.  I'd tried all kinds of natural remedies and over the counter stuff, too.  Well, she checked them out and said that they were out of her league.  We're now seeing a podiatrist next Wednesday to remove them.  Lovely!  At least the feet should be healed and in good shape for Christmas vacation.  We are heading out on the road for Texas on Dec. 22nd.

Last night the children had another practice for their Christmas play.  The big performance is this coming Sunday.  Hannah has now become one of the African dancers and she's just thrilled about it.  :-D  This evening, I'll be dropping Sarah and Hannah off at the church to practice the African dance routine and then heading with Benjamin to a Christmas party with my Bible study group.  Aaron will pick them up when it is over.

Here at home, they've been busy creating and practicing their own Christmas play.  Sarah is Mary, Samuel is Joseph, and Benjamin is Baby Jesus.  Thomas and Stephen are the wise men and Susanna is the wise woman.  :-D  Hannah is a shepherd, Miriam is an angel, Naomi Ruth is the inn keeper and Rebekah is the inn keeper's daughter.  We have enough children for our own production.  :-D  Once they are ready for the big production, I'll take photos of them and share here.

I view life skills as a very important part of our homeschooling.  This week I've been teaching Thomas (11) and Naomi Ruth (10) how to make bread from scratch.  They both think its really neat and we're all enjoying the fruit of their labor!  Naomi Ruth has even learned now how to grind up the wheat using our electric mill.  Talk about yummy and healthy!!!

Love, Dawn