Kellie

I just love my Kellie girl. She is the sweetest child - and I'm saying that when she is 13 1/2. Last week she had and awesome opportunity. Her choir performed at a district choir concert. They were able to perform some numbers with T-Five and hear them sing several songs. The choirs worked with the group all day and one member, Carsten Longhurst, conducted some numbers at the end of the program. He was an amazing conductor. I can't believe how well he had them singing in such a short amount of time. The closing number was a rockin' gospel number with drums, an awesome jazz pianist, and bass guitar. All of the people helped and performed for free.

One other note, Kellie is trying out for cheerleader. She really is good and that's not just momma talkin'. Clinics started today and next week will be the official tryouts.

One Hopeful Moment

One of the things we struggle with constantly with Jacob is a lack of remorse and the fact that he does everything without thinking first. I had him home for several days (partly weekend) and off of sugar for nearly 72 hours. We had dinner after the funeral and there was very little that Jacob could eat. It was hard on him. All around were treats. He resisted them. Later I asked why he had resisted. He said that he didn't want to come home and break down and that he knew I would be upset if he had sugar. This is HUGE for him. He actually thought of the consequences and made a decision based on that. Unfortunately, he went back to school and ate a ton of sweets. We have to start all over again. We found out that he is pre-diabetic and also that the sugar is causing some problems in his brain (hence the impulsiveness). I may have to take him out of school until he is strong enough to say no to all of the sweets.

Someone I love...

...passed away this past Wednesday. My father-in-law, Bud Nicholls, was a wonderful man. He was my husbands step dad but Brent considered him just dad. I want to write another post to do him justice, but I'm just beat.

This is the last post today, I promise

We adopted Mailaya from Samoa in 2004. She was 9 months old. The agency that we adopted Mailaya with came under a federal investigation some time after that. I believe we were contacted first in the summer of 2006. It began with just over 80 federal endictments. Well, this is FINALLY over. We are so glad. Our case was being used in the prosecution and the defense. There were rumors of us losing our children. It was horrible. In the end, the agency was disbanded and 5 misdemeanors were handed down. This resulted in the five main agency workers having a 5 year probation and some other stipulations that aren't completely worked out yet. Personally, I am glad that these folks, who I consider friends, did not have anything more than the misdemeanor. I am so grateful to have Mailaya as my daughter. She brings such love and joy in to our lives!

Kenna's 2

I am so upset with myself. I didn't post Kenna's birthday. Kenna turned 2 on February 10th. It was so much fun watching her and her excitement! She is such a wonderful little daughter. Her favorite gifts were clothes. As soon as she saw them, she had to try them on and parade around. Her vocabulary has really come alive. She sings, dances, and just brings enjoyment to all of us!

An update on the sugar addiction

Well, we're not do so well in helping Jacob with his sugar addiction. I really think the only way he can do it is if we take him out of school for a couple of weeks. I'm thinking I can wait until Spring Break and then he won't miss as much. We were sitting in church yesterday and I noticed how fidgety he was. I couldn't get him to calm down and sit still. I realized later that he was doing it because his body wanted sugar. It's hard to understand, but it's not just a craving for sugar. His body chemistry actually changes when the sugar comes in to his body. He gets a high from it and then his body starts crashing. After a time, you can see his face change, his fists clench, and then fatigue, headaches, etc. His teachers do not take this seriously because he doesn't act up in school. We have had to put alarms on one storage room, the pantry, and our fridge/freezer. I was really worried about how he would react to this. Surprisingly, he is sleeping better. Instead of waiting for everyone to get to sleep so he can get sugary food, he is now just going to sleep. Some of his behaviors are now making sense. He'll get in to my purse and take many pieces of gum and chew them, spit them out and on to the next. I realize now that he thought he was getting sugar out of the gum. Well, the gum is sugar free, LOL. I let him know that a couple of days ago and he hasn't been searching for the gum anymore.

I'm back!

I know I need to change the header, but it will get there. Well, I haven't been feeling too well lately. I did catch everything under the sun this winter. The truth is, I am PREGNANT! It was quite a shock. I'm 13 weeks along right now and feeling pretty good. I have a great chiropractor that our family has used for quite some time. He helped me through the worst of the morning sickness. To my good friend (you know who you are) I have hesitated announcing this for a while. I love you and know you are going through so much right now. Hang in there!!!