CHOICES: Marriage and Children

I'll try to give you the short version, let me repeat I'll try to give you the short version............
I (AL) was born with a CRATER in the center of my heart (I won't give you the actual name, its hard enough to say, much less spell) and a defect in my Mitral Valve with the Tricuspid Valve fused into it. The CRATER affected all four chambers of my heart. My brother JD was born with the EXACT same thing (he's about 20 months older than me). This is not a genetically passable heart condition....... or so they said (since my birth, obviously, our younger cousin and JD's youngest daughter were born with the EXACT same heart condition).

When I was 5 weeks old I was FINALLY released from the hospital so that my mom and her parents could take me, my mom and JD (our dad and older brother would stay behind for awhile longer) from Oregon back to California for JD to have open heart surgery. My heart surgery followed 20 months later. Both JD and I spent our first 2 years in and out of the hospital; mom and dad rented a 2 bedroom apartment right next to the hospital and all three of us kids (an infant, toddler and teenager) shared a bedroom. For those of you that know me will understand N's Christmas present request during that time ---- EARPLUGS. It wasn't my talking it was the pitch of my practicing their names... He he he.....

When I was born the doctor that delivered me told my mom that "IF AND THAT'S A BIG IF THIS BABY LIVES SHE'D BE STUCK WITH A VEGETABLE SO SHE SHOULD HAVE ABORTED ME WHEN SHE HAD A CHANCE. NOW SHE WAS STUCK WITH THIS THING." This man WAS my mom's doctor when she was pregnant with me and she changed to another doctor when he told her this while she was pregnant (my mom found out she was pregnant with me right after the Roe v. Wade decision came down); however since I decided to GRACE the world with my presence about a week and a half before my anticipated delivery date my mom got whatever doctor was at the hospital since her doctor was on vacation. My mom's response to him was "DON'T BE TO SURE ABOUT THAT, SHE'S GONNA LIVE AND WILL NOT BE A VEGETABLE AND JD WILL LIVE TOO." My mom also kept telling the Dr.'s and my dad that she was pregnant with a girl and that my name would be AL. They were all convinced that I'd be a BOY (that was before they did sonograms so you did not know until the baby was born if it was a boy or girl). Way to go MOM, see her mother's intuition was RIGHT ON.

Our entire lives JD, our cousin and I have been closely watched, Cardiologist appointments were a regular occurrence in the early years, we then went to yearly appointments. JD, our mom and I lived in Texas but had a Cardiologist on call in California also since we visited there so much. I remember one Thanksgiving eating 2 pieces of HAM and spending several days in the hospital for eating too much salt.

My Texas Cardiologist during my childhood and through my young woman years was the most awesome, sweet, wonderful cardiologist, Dr. Dan McNamara. Dr. McNamara was grandfatherly, he set me down as I entered my teen years and said that even though Texas Children's was a training hospital that I would not be a "tester" and that I would not have people in and out of my rooms when I went in for my appointments, he would monitor which doctors in training would see me, if any. He respected the fact that I was a girl with a developing body and WAS NOT going to have me embarrassed. He also began preparing me for children (some of you are probably thinking, AS A TEENAGER??????). He would tell me that you may have to be in bed for some of your pregnancy and you will have to have a C-Section and explained what that was, he went on to say that when I was MUCH older and about to get married we would re-evaluate this.

What people don't realize is that JD and I are kind of the icons of this heart condition, JD is 34 and I'm almost 33 and there are not many people, if any at all older than us that survived this heart condition. So with every milestone it is a milestone for the medical community.

Dr. McNamara passed away when JD I were in our mid-twenties so we moved on to a new Dr. at Texas Children's (people with heart conditions that they were born with should always see a Pediatric Cardiologist, Adult Cardiologist are not equipped to treat us properly as the way our heart sounds would be HORRIBLE if you were an adult and developed it). Dr. Bricker was the new Chief (Dr.'s McNamara was the previous Chief of Cardiology) so he was the man for us.

During one of my last appointments with Dr. McNamara, he discovered that I was developing another heart condition, Cardiomyopthy (the form I have is called ASH, I was in the very beginning stages). By the time I began seeing Dr. Bricker my heart condition ASH had just crossed the line from the beginning stages to actually having ASH. The positive with this is that I am checked every year and I already due to the heart condition I was born with (and having NO COORDINATION, God knew I did not need any of that) I am pretty limited with my physical activity my ASH is developing VERY SLOWLY...... (FYI, I just had a checkup and they see no-difference from 4 years ago when it was noticed that I went from the beginning stages to actually having ASH).

Well when A and I were engaged he went with me to see Dr. Bricker; Dr. Bricker called me when I called to make my appointment (I had told his secretary that I was getting married and wanted to discuss babies) and said, come in and bring your fiancee. After my appointment, he (Dr. Bricker) said I know your a Christian (wow, I had never witnessed to him and so I wondered "did Dr. McNamara put that in my chart?") and I'm a Christian and I want to ask you something"........ I said, "yes, sir," he continued, "I have twins just about your age, a son and a daughter so I'm going to tell you exactly what I'd tell my daughter if she had your heart condition, ok?" I said "ok" he went on to say "You need to ask yourself if you are being a Godly wife and mother, to knowingly and willing bear a child that may have i) the heart condition you were born with, which we can fix; ii) the heart condition you developed which if they are born with they will die; ii) Tourette's (which A has), iii) Duschene's Muscular Dystrophy (my cousin had just passed away with this) and lastly MELAS (I won't even explain this one, just know its NOT GOOD)." He went on to say, "you will be in bed for your entire pregnancy and IF you live you may spend the rest of your life in bed. If your child is born with a several of these things, they may need to be medicated but may not be able to due to other ailments. Also, you will definitely have a C-Section but what if you die while trying to have a baby and leave A alone to raise a terminally ill child. If you want to do this, I'm behind you 100%, but I want you to know the facts." I looked at A and then at Dr. Bricker and said "thanks for being honest with, however I feel that if I tried to bear a child I'd be testing God. God has been awesome to me and I'm not going to test him, what do I do?" Dr. Bricker told me that with my heart condition that I could not take birth control (which I was already under conviction that if I could have children, I needed to have them and then get my tubes tied, no birth control). So I either needed to have my tubes tied or a Hysterectomy, however since I was 28 and had no female issues, I was looking at the tubes tied. Dr. Bricker also said "this does not mean that you can't be parents, there's Adoption and Surrogacy and like I said I'm behind you 100%, whatever you decide."

The decision to have my tubes tied was the easiest decision I've ever had to make, because I knew deep in my heart that my children were going to be adopted. God kept me from death's door many times over my life and I knew in my heart that I WAS NOT, I repeat WAS NOT going to test God Almighty. My mom prayed for JD and I to live and God answered that.

When we left the doctor's office I said "A my children will be adopted so if you want biological children then leave me now." He said that "he was NOT leaving me." I said "Adoption is not new to my family (my parents adopted my older brother N when he was a teenager) but it is to yours and your parents clearly want biological grandchildren." Andy said "well they'll have to get used to it, I've loved you since the 2nd grade, I always wanted you and God gave me my hearts desire, I GET TO MARRY YOU and I'm not letting you go." Yep, he really said that, I told him, "if you just made that up, remember it and keep telling me that, I like it." To this day he says that he did not make this up, that it took him until he was older to realize that what he felt for me was love.... We were getting married AND ADOPTING BABIES...... I was soooooooo excited.

On a side note, we did not find out Jay's daughter had the same heart condition until after Andy and I were married (another confirmation for me and Andy, after seeing Sydney with tubes coming in and out of her that we DEFINATELY made the right decision to adopt).

God has blessed my family in so many ways, Jimmy (our cousin with Muscular Dystrophy) went home to be with Jesus 9 years and 3 days after he took his last step (that’s another WONDERFUL blog), he lived many years longer than the Dr.’s anticipated and Jay, Walter, Jay’s daughter Sydney and I are living proof that you can survive a CRATER in the center of your heart.

Ok.... next blog, our Adoption Journey and then after that I'll blog how we got T (pray that by then we'll have a Court date for our Adoption). By the way, this IS the short version.

AL

Josie - THE DOG

This is Josie (A.K.A. Josiah Beth when she's in trouble and sometimes known as simply THE DOG).

She's got the best disposition and since T came into our lives she became very PROTECTIVE. She growls at anyone that walks by our house (thankfully they can't hear from the street). She runs to the door when someone knocks on it and sniffs them out before she barks or licks them. Josie even growls and barks at us (with the tale just a wagging) every time we come home or get silly or make one of T's toys go off over and over again (he he he). Se finally figured out she has a growl and howl in her.

She loves T, she follows him everywhere (well almost everywhere, if you remember from one of the earlier posts she ran the other way when T crawled into her crate).

Christmas 2004 A and I wanted a dog, he wanted a Golden Retriever and I wanted a 20 pound dog and we did not want to spend 100's of dollars on a DOG. It was the Saturday before Christmas and we went on the "search." Several hours later we headed home with nothing; we decided to go home eat lunch and then set out again.

It was as we turned into the neighborhood three puppies and a dog ran in front of us and I said "Oh puppies, I know where the big dog lives those must be her puppies, let's go to their house." Well we found out the "big dog" was possibly the daddy, however the mommy was no where to be found, they found her on the highway and before they could find her owners she was pregnant. Shortly after she delivered the puppies she got out of their yard and they never saw her again. Well they were obviously looking for homes for the puppies so we took the only one who would pay attention to us. The vet figured we got an 8 to 10 week old MUT. With what she looked like we thought she would get 60 plus pounds, however, she is a tiny MUT, only 40 pounds. She looks like a Lab, German Shepherd, Collie; those are all big dogs (bigger than 40 pounds) so no telling what she is. She's got the webbed feet and disposition of a lab, however the bark is WAY too deep for her size.

We eventually took her to Doggie School and she graduated; Doggie School ended in September 2005 and we did not "see" improvement in her behavior until December and then about the time we got T it appeared that Doggie School clicked with her. A's Uncle giggles when we talk about Josie and her obedience training with getting on the bed. Sometimes Josie sneaks on the bed when we are sleeping and one of us will wake up and say "Where are you supposed to be?" She promptly gets up and gets off the bed.

Josie also gets grounded on occasion, for her grounding is to THE CRATE. While she goes without incident (99.9% of the time, as soon as I say 100% she'll misbehave at this tomorrow) to the crate on the days that we both work. When she is bad, we'll tell her go to the crate and she'll immediately stop whatever bad thing she's doing and sit down, she knows that's her last shot and if she does not straighten up its to THE CRATE she goes.

Josie got her name because we could not think of ANYTHING for her and then I said "Josie," and A looked at me and said "JOSIE" with this strange look. I said well we already have 2 cats (the missing link, Silas will be discussed later) so Josie and the pussycats. For any of you animal lovers, let me know if you know what she MIGHT be...... I've included 2 pictures as one shows how long her LEGS are..... She's all LEGS.......

AL

The Life of Our Party

Well, well, well, we survived our first SICKNESS...... we've had sickness before, however, it only lasted a day or two.... This SICKNESS started on a Wednesday and lasted until the following weekend (a week and a half)....... We even had to call in backup, BOTH grandma's that live here (Mawmaw and Memaw as Nana lives near Dallas)....... Ear Infection and Teething. Thomas has had ear infections before, however, I think his body adapted better to the Antibiotics he had before rather than the Antibiotics he's taking this time...... She switched Antibiotics as his fever kept coming for 5 days (Wednesday - Monday), of course Saturday is when he FINALLY acted like it was an ear infection (no sleeping, HIGH FEVER); so we went to the doctor on Monday and chilled with the grandma's until Wednesday. He chilled with us both (we both happen to be off) on Thursday; actually he really chilled with A as I had a Dr.'s appointment that lasted FOREVER (we got there at 9:30 and left at 2:30). T and daddy looked at the fish and all the pretty pictures in the hospital as my appointment was at St. Luke's in the Medical Center.

He's getting back to his little silly self now, A taught him a new phrase "Uh Oh." It's so cute. Tonight the neighbors were showing us their new puppy and T looked at it and went "grrrr;" smart kid, that's pretty close to the sound our dog makes.

I've included one of the pictures that we had taken on Sunday. All of his pictures turned out wonderful this time.....

Love to all - AL

MR. PRESIDENT

I found this picture on the internet..... it made me laugh, poor
President Bush, apparently this baby did not care that the President of the United States of America was holding him/her. Well this is when the President was visiting Germany so let's say, the child had no idea who's arms he/she was in.....

Acts 2:38

Ok all --- I've heard this story before and its pretty good.....

This older lady was entering her home after a Wednesday evening church service when she realized that a man was in her home. She began screaming Acts 2 38, Acts 2 38 and the man got on the floor and said "don't hurt me, just call the police." When the police arrived the arresting officer asked the man why he got on the floor and said just call the police, you could have very easily over powered this lady. The man told the officer that the lady kept saying that she had an AX and 2 38's. The officer laughed and said, no she was saying Acts 2:38...... Acts 2:38 says.......

Peter (said) to them, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the holy Spirit."

You Gotta Have FAITH

This is Faith ---- she is my baby...... People kept telling me that once a husband and especially kids came the animals would become unimportant, I believed everyone about my animals with the exception of my bond with Faith..... It was very true about our other animals (yes I meant ANIMALS, we only have two animals NOW, one went away when T came to live with us, but that's another blog). Don't get me wrong, I love our dog, however, she is DEFINAELY 2nd fiddle to T and then FAITH..... T outweighs Faith every time.

I got Faith in December of 1997 when she was 5 1/2 months old, she was ABANDONED at 8 weeks old. The animal clinic thought she was SOOOOOO sweet that they decided to keep her as the VET KITTY until they could find her a good home, only they did not think it would take until she was 5 1/2 months old. So I guess you can say I did my 1st Adoption as a single mom. She follows me EVERYWHERE (even if it's just with her eyes, or sitting on the floor right outside of the door I'm behind), she is 100% FAITHFUL and OBEDIENT to ME and about 75% Faithful and Obedient to A. She knows when I'm sick and that's when she does not leave my side. Ok for those of you who take mental notes you may be thinking, "she used that OBEDIENCE reference again, what's up with that." Thank my mom for that one ok not necessarily my mom, however our Pre-Teen Camp Theme was OBEDIENCE my 6th grade year. My mom used the "What is the definition of OBEDIENCE" in a ton of discipline issues through my teen years and it kind of STUCK in my brain, can you tell?

Faith has been with me through 3 moves (she did not make the move to mine and A's apartment when we first married, as my mom saw NO REASON for A and I to pay the pet deposit for a kitty that is FIXED and DECLAWED and is SOOOOOOO GOOOD) so she stayed with my mom for 10 months. I went over almost every day at lunch to be with her. This time apart did not change Faith's love for ME OR MY LOVE FOR HER........ I personally think that keeping Faith for a bit longer was my mom's way of getting over the death of her kitty Daphney.

A's brothers were over one day and went on how Stupid Faith was as she did not respond to her name my response is "she does respond to her name, FOR ME." Then I asked Faith, "right Faith, you just answer me." Of course she ANSWERED me, so A's brother's kept trying and then A said "and sometimes she answers me, right Faith?" And Faith responded to him. All A's brothers could do was laugh.....

Faith and I have been through thick and thin, roommates (Tanecia and her kitty Sweet Pea who looked exactly like Faith and the short arrangement with OLLIE the CRAZY cat), moving in with my mom and her kitty Daphney, my marriage to A and all of the animals, visitors AND NOW BABY we have brought into our home; she's my rock..... she greets me every morning and every evening and anytime in-between. When I turned the computer on tonight she promptly sat down on the desk next to me and then the dog annoyed her so I made her leave the bedroom to go to HER ROOM. She just returned to our bedroom and promptly made her way to stand right next to me.

Since T is becoming more mobile (and Faith is realizing that he has little hands that she does not want pulling at her) we decided to give Faith a new Haven (the GARAGE). She now has her own door to HER ROOM..... no dogs and no little boys can enter unless A or I let them in...... She tolerates T WAY more than Josie.

When you meet Faith it is best to not approach her, let her SNIFF you from a distance and then she'll come to you.......

She rules our Animal Kingdom, Josie may annoy her and Silas (our kitty we had to get rid of) my have tried to drive her CRAZY, however they know, Faith was here first and ultimately SHE RULES HER MEOW IS THE FINAL WORD (ok meow).

AL

ONE DAY LATE - Do you know what yesterday was?

You're probably saying, "NO, what was yesterday?" WELL I'M GLAD YOU ASKED --- Yesterday was T's 6 month anniversary with us..... YIPEE..... Ok now you may be asking, "what specifically is the significance of T's 6 month anniversary with us?"

As you all know we live in the GREAT State of TEXAS which requires that in an Domestic Adoption a child live with the family for 6 months before an adoption can be finalized. T's ADOPTION CAN BE OFFICIAL ANY DAY. Can you hear/see me jump for joy?????? My baby is almost officially and truly MINE, ALL MINE (ok Mine and A's and OUR ENTIRE FAMILY'S).

Please pray for us as we wind down this "waiting period." The birth father stated in March that he wanted to fight us for custody, however, no one (no attorney, CPS worker, Judge, NO ONE) has heard from him or his Legal Aid Attorney since May.

We are so blessed to have this precious angel in our lives, please continue to pray for us.

Love to all - AL

T's FUN - PART 2; GROSSING MOMMY OUT

As I was writing in my blog earlier this morning, T was sleeping away - or so that's what he wanted mommy to think...... all the while he was conspiring to GROSS mommy out and Josie slept like a log on the bed (where she's NOT supposed to be and where she is again, but that's a blog for a different day). Josie usually hears T when he makes a move and she makes a run for his door and stands at attention and if we don't immediately respond, she'll pace until we do. We'll discuss her punishment later..... he he he..... they are already working together to conspire against THE ADULTS (aka, mommy and daddy), HMMMMMMM.

Ok even though I was writing earlier about T learning to pull his diaper COMPLETELY off and that he was NOT allowed to have a shirt and diaper only, mommy thought she'd give him another shot, pulling the diaper COMPLETELY off was a FLUKE, right??????? That's what I told myself. and well obviously I was WRONG, SO WRONG. I will not GROSS everyone out with the details (all of you mommies and daddies can probably get the visual), lets just leave it at mommy just gave T a bath, brushed his teeth (DON’T GO THERE). THEN scrubbed down his bed and his sheet, comforter and bumper pads are in their first of probably 3 washings; somehow his TIGER and PACIFER were saved (I know why - these are two of his favorite things). T is dressed with SHORTS over the diaper, I'll put his shirt on right before we leave, hopefully he won't figure out how to take his shorts off before we leave..... anyway he's already had 2 explosive diapers for today (ok, one explosive diaper and one explosive every where else), surely he won't have a 3rd (RIGHT?). THE JOYS OF TEETHING. He's hanging out in his playpen finishing up his pre-lunch bottle.

All he could do was smile and laugh at mommy as I GAGGED..... oh no, I just looked in the playpen and he's pulling at his shorts....... obedience training of the KIDDO kind, what fun. Josie was much easier to train, she figured out real quick, if I misbehave they'll put me in the bad place - THE CRATE........ It really works threatening the dog to go to time out or to sleep in THE CRATE (by the way, we do follow through and Josie knows when she may definately get punished so if she's told to sit and not move SHE WILL, on most days).

I LOVE being a mommy...... I'm sure someday I'll laugh at this episode in T's life - ok I already am. A and I are so lucky to be THE parents of this precious little boy. God is so awesome for giving us this MANNA FROM HEAVEN, for those of you have not heard that story, I'll blog it soon, its AWESOME just like our GOD. Thank you to all of you who have prayed for parenthood for A and I.

Now T and I have to get ready for Sam's and grocery shopping. Maybe Mawmaw (my mom) can join us, I may need backup. On the days that A goes to his early morning Bible Study and works while I stay home I often wonder how SINGLE PARENTS do it (like my mom). JD and I were very young when my parents separated and eventually divorced and we had NO FAMILY here and had lived here a very short time. God gave us some wonderful friends during that time and over 80% of them are still our friends; God also gave my mom a wonderful job she still has with KLM so we were able to fly away anytime and mom was able to fly THE BACKUP CREW (Grandparents) in frequently (I remember spending 3 weeks with my grandparents in Oklahoma and then they'd drive us home and stay several weeks; we'd fly to our grandparents in California for the weekend). God Bless the SINGLE MOM and SINGLE DAD.

Maybe we'll wait to tell daddy about our day when he gets home so we can see his face, rather than tell him when he calls to say he's on his way home.

Love to all - AL

The FUN life of T

T loves to have FUN. His version of fun is a little different than mommy and daddy's version of fun. However, his version, usually makes mommy and daddy laugh.

This week, T figured out how to pull his diaper COMPLETELY off (no more sleeping in a night shirt for him, p.j.'s and/or onsies are his night attire) and crawl into the Dog's crate (A had to crawl in and get him) and continued to do his favorites wipe his face and let the dog lick his hand with one or both of them belching in the process (I know that's gross, however, T is ALL BOY and Josie is a DOG), crawl all over the dog, pull at the dog and of course pull all of his toys out of the toy box. He also recently started patting the wall in his room when he wakes up, just another way for him to say "COME GET ME." He also likes to attack Josie's (AKA: Josiah Beth when she's BUSTED) bowls. Josie just stands back and barks and howls when her bowls are being investigated by T, however, with the crate, A said that Josie ran and hid. Silly dog, I guess she thought T was going to start making her go in the crate..... HE HE HE HE

We are working on obedience right now; teaching T not to belch will come later, when etiquette lessons officially start. He's doing great with obedience, however, Josie's bowl is just too tempting, but we have a plan to end that attack, a plan played out VERY soon.

A's cousin Reg has a favorite T moment, if I'm in the car and on the phone with her T starts "talking" until I turn the radio up for him to hear...... He likes music on the radio, no talking and the louder the music is the better. This makes Reg laugh everytime. Actually this is kind of a strange one for T as he does not like loud noises, I guess the beat of the music is different than other noises for him. Thank goodness he slept through the storm the other night and the FIREWORKS.

I was asked about T's video choices and we have tried EVERYTHING (Baby Guinness, Baby Einstein, Praise Baby, Baby Elmo, Hermie and Veggie Tales). Praise Baby is his favorite, mommy and daddy voted out Baby Elmo and on occasion we can slip in a Baby Guinness or Baby Einstein (however, he sometimes protests them).

I must end this blog, A is at work and T and the ANIMALS are napping. Maybe one of my next blogs will be about the animals of our domicile.

Love to all - AL

P.S. Please pray for A's cousin Reg, she was hospitalized yesterday, we are thankful that it appears that her problems are not the baby, however, she was dehydrated, even though she's drinking a TON of water. The baby's due date has been changed from January 29th to February 14th. The Doctors also determined that she is pregnant with ONE baby, not TWINS like many of us thought. Her husband has been unemployed since February, 2005, he is the primary bread winner in their home, they have two sons, one will be 3 in August and the oldest is 16.

NAPS and Birthdays for A AND America

Yesterday was not only the 230th Birthday for our Country, it was the 30th B-Day of my sweet Hubby.

Here's how our day went, T woke up at 5:15 and fell back asleep at 5:30 until 7:15 got up had breakfast, a bath and got his teeth brushed for the 1st time (Daddy was convinced that this would not go over well, however, T loved it). By this time it was 8:30 and T was ready for his morning nap, he slept until 11:15 so mommy and daddy ate breakfast, daddy watched t.v. while mommy balanced the checkbook, played on the internet and took a LONG bath. Then when T woke up he had lunch and played awhile and seemed tired again at 12:30 so it was back to bed for his afternoon nap, he slept until 3:15. Mommy and daddy watched a little t.v. and took a nap also. We left at 4:30 for our SONIC run and then met up with A's parents to go to my Aunt Helen's house for a party with about 20 family members from A's side and my side celebrating A's B-Day, my cousin's B-Day and of course our Country's B-Day....... The party was over by 8:15 and we headed home and T was down for the night before we even got home. A went to the neighbor's for fireworks while mommy, Josie and Faith went to bed. I'm exhausted just thinking about all that NAPPING.... he he he. I hope you all had a great 4th.

Our schedules are so varied right now it was such a blessing to just get to spend an entire day TOGETHER.

Love to all - AL

Survival of the kiddo kind...... and adults too

The Week of Firsts is FINALLY over....... T and Mommy survived his first week of day care. He did great except naps, he sat in his bed and looked around, such an inquisitive child (I love it). Mommy however, is still a little emotional about Day Care, surprisingly Daddy is doing better with it (ok not better, he stays away from day care as much as possible). A and I muddled through crazy work weeks and a meeting with our Attorney (hopefully T's ADOPTION will be final in August or September). August 23rd or September 6th would be awesome as my Birthday is August 23rd and T's 1st Birthday is September 6th. There is no way that T's Adoption could be final on A's Birthday as it is JULY 4th..... that's right a day of celebration for the entire U.S. Oh yes and T is the KING of his room, it's birth to 18 months, he's one of five with two teachers. However, he's not just one of five kids, he's the ONLY BOY. Four little girls, 6 months, 7 months, 10 months and 12 months. T will be 10 months on the 6th.

For those of you who don't know, T has a favorite video, Praise Baby, it's 30 minutes long and someone had given us the video version. When we retained custody of T it was obvious that he was allowed to watch WAY to much TV as an infant (he would stare at the TV at 4 months old, so we kept the Entertainment Center CLOSED until he went to bed). About 6 weeks ago we started letting him watch this video every morning while we finished getting ready and then we sampled some other videos, nothing compares to it, HE LOVES IT and it helps to increase his already great mood. Well somedays he was able to watch the video more than once and so the video started acting up so LIFEWAY came to the rescue, they ordered the DVD set of 3 for us and it came in this week. He's already seen all three and LOVES all of them.

My brother's daughters survived.... the oldest her first week of Camp without DADDY and the youngest her first week of VBS at a different church without her big sister.

A's Dad survived his 1st week after hip surgery, we talked specifically about this on Friday night and he said that over all it was a good week, a few bumps in the road for he and A's mom as she had to in his words DO EVERYTHING....... On the negative side A's dad loves to do the grocery shopping and he was not up to that (OBVIOUSLY) so his A's mom had to go which kind of upset A's dad as that's "HIS THING."

D & H survived their wedding..... Poor H what a trooper, she hurt her foot pretty bad last week and somehow managed to keep VERY HIGH HEEL SHOES ON not only through the wedding but through the reception and all of the dancing. I think some serious foot soaking was in her future.

Well I hope you all survived the week, A and T are so pooped out they are taking a morning nap along with our fur balls (Faith the cat is 9 and Jose the dog is 18 months) and they are all SNORING.

Love to all - AL

Prayer Requests:
1. Our Adoption
2. Allendale Baptist Church – the road (F.M. 1314) next to our church is being widened
3. Andy’s cousin Reg – Pregnancy due January 2007
4. Karen – she’s going to school and working several jobs and her twin nephews have Cerebal Palsy, one has been fighting Mono
5. Ben, Allison & Nathan – they are pregnant with #2 and are re-locating back to Texas; Allison and Nathan will be alone in Colorado through the end of August
6. The Wells Family – birth of quintuplets, death of son (one of the quintuplets) and the growth of the four daughters; also their older daughter Reagan as mommy and daddy are gone, see their website for specific needs www.savethewells.net.