One blessed week

SO MUCH EXCITEMENT PACKED INTO ONE WEEK!

-Grace's ARD meeting at our local Elementary School went GREAT!  Thank you for praying!  We were so encouraged to hear that Grace got an 88 out of 115 for speech (which is within the range of "normal") and at this point she doesn't qualify as having an intellectual disability (this will likely change as she gets older because I believe that the older they get the greater separation between their "typical" peers intellectually; however, God isn't a God of statistics, so He can do whatever He wants), so that does not qualify her for PPCD (preschool for special needs children), nevertheless her heart condition does qualify her.  At this point, we are not going to take the PPCD option because we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE The Rise School and second to God attribute much of her development for the way that they purposefully pour into her day in and day out (and having the worlds best teachers/ big brother and sister at home sure helps too :-).  However, it is a blessing to know that it is a great option in the event that God calls us to do something different.  At this point, Grace will receive speech therapy twice a week (with the focus being her articulation) at Campbell Elementary.  God sure did answer our prayers in that it was evident that we all had the same goal in mind, to help Grace be all that He created her to be.  Ok, so those are my words summing up our meeting not theirs, but each person at the meeting seemed to have Grace's best interest in mind.  They also raved about how precious Grace is and how blown away they are by her development.  To God be the glory because she certainly had the odds stacked against her, having been on bypass 6 times and sedated for much of her young life, etc!

-THE MOST EXCITING NEWS OF ALL...  Andrew got baptized today!  To learn more about Andrew's journey to baptism please watch the video and excuse the shaky hands holding the camera, it was a momma overwhelmed with gratitude, trying to hold it together :-).  Also, the reason that you hear people laughing when he gets into the "trough/baptismal" is because he was so small (you could hardly see the top of his head peaking out of the top) compared to the bigger kids that went before him. The presence of family and friends made this special day even more precious!

Abigail and Andrew's name and date of their baptism next to each other on the baptism trough...

Our families (minus the Harrison Family)...

COUSINS (minus Joe)!!!

The three amigos...

Andrew got a new bible with his name engraved on it, an Amor of God statue and accompanying devotional, new movie, and Action Bible...

-David starts a new job this coming Thursday!  As many of you know, since David finished school in May we have been praying about what God has for him and how that fits in to the needs of our family.  We asked God to make His will super clear because it was hard to picture what type of job could accommodate our desire not to have to put the kids in day care after school or during Summer (disclaimer: day care is certainly not the end of the world and we in no way judge those that need to use day care as a great option, it's just something that we have really appreciated being able to avoid for the past 8 years) and that would allow for the flexibility of our sweet wild card (aka Gracie Doo).  We prayed that a job would fall into our lap and God delivered big time on that prayer.  On Thursday David starts a job at The Tenney School in Houston.  It is a private school with a pretty amazing set up in that it has a 1:1 ratio serving kids that need to be challenged more, "learn differently", etc, and it doesn't hurt that the owners of the school are friends from Family Camp whom we adore.  David will be a homeroom teacher, possibly teach an elective, and share some administration related responsibilities. We found out about the job last Saturday, he had an interview on Tuesday, and accepted the job on Friday.  David is very excited about how God is going to use him in this unique learning environment and we have already begun praying for the students and families that he will serve and how God would have him mentor them.  In theory, David should be able to drop Grace off at school before work and be off in time to pick up Grace from school and get home in time to get the big kids off the bus.  Our biggest concern at this point is Grace's health and possible hospitalizations.  It has been a huge blessing that while David was in school he had the flexibility to stay with Grace in the hospital when needed, so if and when that need arises we pray and trust that God has those logistics figured out too.  Will you please cover us in prayer during this transition and specifically pray that Grace would just simply stay well and out of the hospital?

Random picture of David and our manly dog "Twinkie"...

-Our best friends, the Glass family, are moving to Knoxville, TN where Bryan will serve as the lead pastor at Berean Bible Church.  We have known for a while now that God had big plans for their ministry and that would probably mean a move, but it is more real than ever before as their departure date approaches.  Abigail and Ju Ju have been best friends since they were born and have the type of God honoring friendship that you can only dream about, so you can imagine how difficult this transition will be for them especially.  When Abigail prays for them at night she will often times break down in tears because she know how much she will miss Ju Ju, until next summer when we (Lord willing) plan to visit them.  However, it has been such a great glimpse into the heart of the Lord as we look back on how He has been preparing our hearts for such a time as this.  Abigail and I worked out with an exercise group in our neighborhood this week and it warmed my heart to hear her talk about how she's grateful that God has been looking out for her and Ju Ju by allowing Ju Ju to be homeschooled this past year (prior to that they were each other's everything at school) and called us to a new church a year ago, all things that meant they were forced to allow God to teach them how to make new friends in those areas and look forward to the weekly play dates that we scheduled. She recounted how much harder it would have been if they had to just leave and they got ripped apart after 3 years of Elementary School together, seeing each other every Sunday at church, vacationing and camping together, etc.  There is no question that we will miss every single member of the Glass family deeply because they are really like family to us, but we have been able to praise the Lord for the calling He has on their life and ours (we remind the kids often that while God is calling them to Knoxville, He has a calling on our lives too, here in Sugar Land).  They haven't even left yet (not until the end of this month), but we are already counting down until next summer!  As a parent, it is heartbreaking to see your child's heart break over her best friend moving, but I'm learning an important lesson in parenting too...  as much as I just want to fix or take away her feelings, allowing her to grieve and grieving along with her while always pointing her to God's bigger plan and heart is the best thing that we can do for her because her sadness is an appropriate response to the genuine love that she has for Ju Ju.  Please pray that we will usher them well through this transition as it continues to unfold and of course for the Glass' as they embark on this new, amazing journey!

-Lu Lu (my mom) is in town from California this weekend, so we have been busy having fun...  a highlight was going to the 49er game with the kids (the big kids that is :-).  We love the 49ers, especially since Lu Lu has been a season ticket holder since the 70's and continues to fly up north (she lives in southern California) by herself to attend all of the home games with her single season ticket, that's commitment.  However, Andrew was the first to express his feelings that it's hard to root against the Texans because we like them too (especially JJ Watt).  Nevertheless, we had a great time!

Grace is off to school on Thursday!  Will you please pray for a smooth transition to her new room?

THANK YOU, VILLAGE!!!

Snapshot in time

Hope each member of our most precious Village is having a great summer!!!  It's hard to believe that summer is almost over, so we are filling our days with playdates and lots of family fun.  Here are some of the highlights over the past two weeks...

PLAY DATES, FAMILY FUN, and a special BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION!!!

Besties sleep over...

Family fun at the Houston DASH game...

 

 
Fun at the park...

 
Waterpark with friends...

 

Celebrating Papa's birthday!  Gracie got him an "I Love Homies with Extra Chromie" shirt!

More playdate fun...

Girls day (and Andrew :-) waterpark playdate...  

 

 

This is such a fun time stage with the three amigo's (Abigail 7, Andrew 6, and Grace almost 3 years old)!  

We have told Abigail and Andrew since they were itty bitty that they are best friends, praise the Lord they've bought it.  It is such a blessing to see the way that they nurture and value their friendship and yet are very different people in many ways.  Here are a few examples:

Abigail- doesn't own any toys because she would much rather do something athletic outside (although she will serve her brother by playing with him and his toys despite the fact that she doesn't have a whole lot of imagination to put behind the toys), she loves playing soccer (especially scrimmaging with her daddy), going on bike rides, running with her mommy or daddy, watching American Ninja Warrior, doing math, playing board games, serving Grace, but she especially loves teaching her in every opportunity possible (David and I SO appreciate our little mommy in training :-), she falls asleep listening to Christian rap music every night, she's not a girly girl (her least favorite color is pink), but she loves to wear long/maxi dresses.

Andrew- He makes it very difficult to declutter and throw away toys because he can find a way to utilize any and all toys (even Grace's toys for that matter), he likes to play outside, but is much less tolerant of the heat, his favorite sport right now is swimming (maybe it's because he can escape the heat in the pool :-), he still values snuggling his mommy (thank the Lord), wrestling with his daddy, he is notorious for finding ways to be crazy/silly with Grace (this can be trouble because Grace loves to copy him), he always seems to be bouncing off the walls and flipping onto furniture (not always gracefully and coordinated though), he hates tank tops no matter how hot it is, he seems to know random facts about any animal, his imagination can be problematic when going to sleep at night because shadows come to life in his mind, so we pray every night for God's peace and courage; speaking of prayer, he has this amazing way of knowing exactly what to pray for even when you haven't given him specifics, he's very inquisitive, he goes to sleep listening to worship music, but always wants to make sure his music is set to skip the Christian rap songs because he thinks some of them sound spooky at night.

The Boss (Grace)- LOVES school, her family, and dogs.  As a family we find ourselves talking like Grace because she is forever cracking us up with her antics and funny sayings.  She is full of love, hilarious, and all kinds of stubborn at times.  David and I have been humbled and challenged with altering our parenting style to best match our little Gracie's personality because the parenting style that worked for the big kids does not produce the same results for her :-).  For instance, we are always having to think on our toes as to how to help her feel empowered (like it was her decision) when it comes to obeying.  A small example of what I mean is the process of getting her to walk from the car to the house.  She loves to be rascally and stand by the car with a squirrelly look on her face, as if she is trying to decide if she's going to run the other direction or not.  Instead of requesting and then threatening her with a consequence if she doesn't obey and come inside like we asked her to (because it didn't take us long to learn that... that rarely works), we give her two positive options.  For instance, do you want to stomp to mommy or hop to mommy?  She loves to feel empowered and will more often than not obey, but she ALWAYS keeps us on our toes!  We are far from having it all figured out, but in God's strength and with the help of her incredible teachers at The Rise School, we are enjoying the ride and beyond grateful that we get to be the mommy, daddy, brother, and sister to our Gracie Doo.

Some other Gracie Doo antics that we love...  Second to her family, her favorite thing to do is sing and listen to music, anytime David and I walk out of the bathroom she cheers for us "Yeah Momma, pee pee in the potty!," she loves to sing (especially in the microphone) and can often times be found singing Amazing Grace, talking about Elmo, or calling everybody in the family trying to convince them to come play with her in her bed when she should still be sleeping early in the morning.   Her favorite TV shows are Elmo, Hi-5, Barney, and anything with dogs in it, she is always trying to convince us that she needs to wash her hands or brush her teeth; this germ-a-phobe doesn't hate the fact that a reward for her is to wash her hands!  Here are some random pics of our silly little girl over the past two weeks...

Grace lovin on Tucker...

Grace started private PT last week...

We have our first of many ARD meetings for Grace at our local elementary school this Wednesday, will you please pray that the Lord will align our hearts and minds as to what is best for Grace.  Thank you, Sweet Village!!!  

Fun Videos...

I have done a terrible job of taking pictures lately, but I do have some great videos to share with you...

I was out of town for a few days this week and while it was hard leading up to my departure (lots of tears from the kids) we all survived and God gave us plenty of "hugs" along the way.  One sweet "hug" came on Wednesday night of my meeting as we were headed to a team dinner.  I was starving, there was a last minute change of venue that led us to a Mexican restaurant (I'm one of the few people on the planet that doesn't particularly like Mexican food), so inside I was feeling bummed because I was eager to feed on yummy food.  Shortly after sitting down and searching the menu for something that looked remotely tasty, my counterpart pointed out that someone was waving at us through a window right next to me...  Wouldn't you know it was a precious little boy with Up's!  I also happened to be wearing my shirt that read "I love homies with extra chromies."  I flew out of my chair with excitement to meet a new friend.  I spent the next 20 minutes chatting with Wyatt, my new 9 year old friend with Up's, and his parents.  As I've mentioned before, there is an unspoken camaraderie among parents with children with Up's (it's like your instant homies because you share a secret... while others may look at us and feel sorry for us, only we know what a crazy awesome roller coaster our lives have become).  I returned to my seat with joy in my heart and I was pleasantly surprised by my reasonably yummy dinner.  I took a picture of Wyatt because I knew it would make David jealous to know that I met a new friend with Up's, but I'm not posting his picture only because I didn't ask his family first, but picture a handsome little boy with freckles and a surfer haircut.  Love him!!!

David did a great job of keeping the big kids busy to minimize the tears of missing mommy.  They went to a fun park, bowling, etc.

The reason that Andrew is holding his hand like that is because he dropped a 12 pound bowling ball on it.  I thought that he would need an X-ray, but praise the Lord he didn't.  Not the kind of text you want to get when you are out of town :-/

David knows how much I love getting pictures of the kids when I'm out of town, so you can imagine how much I loved getting this video of Grace doing her rendition of one of the Family Camp chants...

Grace had her last day of school in the Yellow 2 room on Thursday. I was so sad that I couldn't be there for her last day, but maybe it's for the best because it would have broke my heart to say goodbye to Grace's AMAZING teachers.  I seriously feel like these teachers are part of our family because of the way that they tirelessly serve and bless Grace (and the rest of our family) each and every day.  Grace talks about her teachers all day everyday, so their legacy will live on :-).  I took Grace to get donuts this morning while the big kids were still asleep and she was telling me that Mrs. Carol needs donuts too (Grace will even accidentally call David, myself, or the big kids Mrs. Carol when she's asking for something).  Anytime someone complements her hair she tells them that Ms. Irma did it, and I love hearing her say Ms. Tiffy's name (it's what she calls Ms. Tiffany).  The Rise School is unlike anything we could have ever dreamed up)  We couldn't be more grateful that Grace LOVES, LOVES, LOVES her school and that we get to be a part of the Rise family!

I wish I had a picture of Grace's last day of school with her teachers, but since I was out of town, David dropped off/picked up from school that day, soooo the thought of taking pictures was never in the realm of possibilities.  That's ok, the worlds best daddy can have a get out of jail/doghouse free pass :-).

All three kids had a blast playing together this weekend, when I went to check on them to see what they were up to (besides the disaster that they created in Andrew's room), here is the sweetness that I witnessed...

The Ross Family Worship Band!

Hope that didn't bust your eardrums, but it's the heart behind it that counts, right :-)?

Much love to you, sweet Village!!!

Now off to watch some Special Olympics (insert squeal)!!! 

The Rise School has talent...

Grace's school had the most awesome talent show this week where each class (there are a total of 10) performed as well as some individual acts.  Here is Grace's class...

Grace is the one with the orange shirt and pony tail.  She was thrilled to have her mommy, daddy, bubba, and tither there to watch her.  I'm just grateful that she didn't knock out her little buddy sitting next to her with her instrument :-/.

Since I'm still not allowed to pick up anything more than 15 pounds for 3 more weeks (due to my recent hernia repair), which unfortunately includes Grace :-(, we took the opportunity to take the big kids to the beach while Grace is still in school (that way I wouldn't have to chase her down the beach, lift her up, etc).  We had a blast! 

Lastly, the highlight of our week was when Andrew's Pine Cove counselor "Singa" came to visit us during his less then 24 hours of free time between weeks.  This is one special guy to our family!

Grace sure knows a Pine Cove counselor when she sees one (even if it's out of context and not at camp) because the second she saw "Singa" she gave him a hug and was excited to read a book with him!  Those of you that know Grace well know that she doesn't warm up to men easily, not even her Papa Toot and Uncles!

This was the one time this weekend that Grace would get close to Papa Toot and I'm pretty sure it was because he served her some of her favorite ice cream, she temporarily let her guard down and showed him some love.  

So, Grace (aka- The Boss) is the Family Camp chant police in that every time we say grace before a meal she immediately follows "amen" with "OOOOOOOOO" with her hands above her head...  this is how one of the Family Camp prayer chants begins and she sure does make sure we do it before or even during every meal and if Abigail tries to sit down for the chant, Grace will say "top" (meaning stop) and tell Abigail "up" while pointing to the floor next to her chair.  What she wants is for Abigail to jump up and down for the chant like we do at Family Camp.  There are a number of other chants that she also loves to do, but I won't bore you with those details :-).  

This week, I will be out of town for a few days for work and as I've mentioned before, it's always tough on the kids when one of us (especially their momma) has to be gone, so will you please pray for their little hearts to handle our time apart well?

Sweet snuggles...

Grace does this crazy face when she's trying to make us laugh...

Thank you for being our Village!

Randomness...

Abigail had a nasty virus last week (fever and pink eye for 5 days), so she missed her last swim meet of the season, but we were so proud of her for having a great attitude about it.  On his last meet, Andrew swam his best race so far.  We couldn't have been more proud of his second place finish for freestyle!  We always talk to the kids about our expectation being that they try their very hardest (in God's strength) and have fun.  It always makes my heart smile when I see Andrew sitting on the ready bench with his head bowed and hands folded, praying.  Remember, Andrew is our kid that loves to play, but he isn't the one that wants to push himself too hard, so you can imagine how precious it was when Andrew rushed to find me right after his race to show me just how hard he was breathing from pushing himself so hard.  It's been neat to see him find a sport that is worth exhausting every bit of his effort for :-).

I love these two pictures that the Geysers photographers captured...

I had hernia surgery on Thursday, which went well, I'm just less than thrilled that I can't lift anything greater than 15 pounds for 4 WEEKS!  That is super hard when you have a Gracie Doo that weighs 25 pounds and doesn't understand why her mommy can't pick her up :-(.  I also have a whole new appreciation for the important role that our core/ab muscles play in our everyday life from sneezing to getting out of bed.  This taking-it-easy thing is for the birds!

One more random thing...  David and I love to work on our marriage (hence why we attended a marriage conference a few months after getting married :-).  I have read a number of different books, devotionals, etc about marriage and I have to say that the book I'm currently reading is called "Praying for your Husband from Head to Toe."  This might be my favorite book so far because it gives you the opportunity to cover your husband in prayer literally from head to toe using Scripture as the foundation for each prayer (you can even insert your kiddos names in many of the prayers).  I wish that I could buy each of you this book and send it to you, but since that's not realistic I just want to encourage you to make a $10.00 investment in your marriage.  If you take the challenge will you please let me know how you see God moving in your marriage (specifically your husband)?

Just one more random thought, I promise... check out these awesome shirts that I just purchased for our family! WE SURE DO LOVE HOMIES WITH EXTRA CHROMES!!!

That's all for now... love you, Village!