It has been another bitterly cold week here in our neck of the woods!

I love how much focus it gives us on school and inside projects!

I consider bitter cold winter days a gift when you live on a farm!

After school on Monday, it was an office day for me.

I spent over five hours working at my desk that day – a big chunk of it during nap times.

Trying to get insurance approvals, working on adoption post-placement paperwork, and a lot of time was spent on getting Eliza her medication in pill form.

I am just starting to get a system in place to keep track of ALL of this. I bought an 8 1/2 x 11 spiral bound calendar to sync with the calendar on my phone, a pink (for Eliza) and blue (for Tate) highlighter to highlight and then be able to see all of their appointments at a glance, and a filing system to keep all of their insurance authorization letters and medical records straight.

Wouldn’t you know it, that little pill that Tate started taking, that prompted Eliza to want to swallow her medicine instead of wearing a patch, is full of lactose. Eliza cannot have lactose. We are not sure if she had dairy milk as an infant in her region of China and if that is the reason her tummy gets so upset with it, or if it is because of her sensory processing issues. In my research I found that kids with sensory processing issues are usually sensitive to foods and other things – which in Eliza’s case is dairy milk, eggs, and dyes in foods.

I called many manufacturers on Monday, and not only could I not find anyone who made this pill without lactose, but every other brand had dyes in it as well. I did talk to some lovely people!! One man spoke the Lord’s blessing over my hard work – and it made my day to hear the Lord’s name spoken this way to me by a stranger on the phone.

In the end, I contacted the pharmacy in our area that compounds medication, and they made Eliza’s medication for us without lactose, dyes, or really any yucky ingredients at all! We are so thankful. It is not quite the financial savings we thought we would have from the patch, but it is good. I was worried about Eliza being able to swallow her pill, because of the shape and size, but she has not had any problems with it! (in the photo on the left is a mint that Eliza swallowed for me, Tate’s pill is in the middle, and Eliza’s pill is on the right) She is only three years old! Way to go, sweet baby!!

Isn’t it so neat how my celiac diagnosis almost ten years ago prepared me to be able to be a strong advocate for Eliza’s sensitivities? It comes so naturally to have to work hard at paying attention to ingredients!! God is so good!

School was super fun this week!! I think I have as much fun as the kiddos!

I captured in photos just a glimpse into our school week!

We read about moons, and then I used a white crayon to draw all of the moon phases on index cards. Lane, Tate and Eliza painted black water color paint over them to see which moon phase was hidden on their card. So fun!

We are still studying snow, and so we made a snowy scene on a window with contact paper facing sticky side out!

The littles are working on number recognition and shape recognition this week. We used a die one day to count and then mark numbers – this was their favorite activity, I think!

Oh my goodness, has it been COLD! I do love the bright blue skies and the sunshine that those bitter temperatures bring though! My three youngest monkeys start each morning in the same place! And it only took three photos to get Tate to hold still and look at the camera!!

Thursday morning when it was eleven below zero, Tate and I headed out early. Tate had an appointment for a speech evaluation. It was a huge blessing! The therapist is pretty sure we will not win the insurance battle to meet with her weekly as she hopes we will, but she filled my mind and hands with things that I can do here at home to help Tate in this area! So far it has been loads of fun, and Tate responds to it very well!

Tate would say what each picture was, and the therapist would reward Tate with a fish. Once all the evaluating was done, Tate got to play the fishing game with all the fish he earned. He loved this!

While the therapist gathered information and things for me, she let Tate play articulation station on an Ipad. I am hoping to find a way to use this app at home – it was awesome!

Friday is our grocery and cleaning day! I love Fridays! I love everyday!

We did some serious, serious deep cleaning yesterday. It was so needed!

We filled the mud room with a huge load for Good Will, and a stack of blankets for the warming stations in our city.

Last night we had a little flood! From the laundry room to the basement! Thankfully we caught it and were able to get it cleaned up.

After that it was date night! The littles were sleeping and we shooed three other kiddos upstairs! Then Blake made some Mahi Mahi and Swordfish! It was a great date! I want some more fish! It was so yummy! We joked that we would eat the way we did last night in about 20 years! It was awesome and needed, but I like the chairs at our table FULL! Eliza calls it “the whole circle!”

And just like that, another winter week is behind us!

The sun is staying in the sky longer these days, and I know in just a flash we will be running around outside barefoot again!

Happy weekend, everyone!!

We have had another full, full week! Of lots of good things! We have been focusing on the “best yes” for our days. I love thinking of things in terms of the best choice. Sometimes a good choice is not the best choice for our life here with two adjusting littles!

We ended last week with a haircut for Eliza, a play date at David, Kayla, and Clyde’s place, and a date night for Blake and I! Date night turned out to not be the best choice for Tate’s sake, as we had a sleepless night after we returned back home. I am still super glad we went on our date, as time is my love language, and Blake knows it and works hard to give me one-on-one time with him!

Eliza just amazes me! This is her second haircut since she has been home, and this time she sat on her own, even though at first she was terrified of the height of the booster seat! So brave, sweet baby! She also talked non-stop, which amused everyone else there!

While we were there, the rest of the kiddos were up the street at Kayla’s, and then we joined them there too.

I stopped to take this photo on my way to meet my Friday night date! I could not believe how light it still was at 5 p.m.! A promise of things to come!

Blake and I enjoyed dinner together – which was in the food court of the mall and out of our cooler. What can I say? Life with celiac disease takes some creativity! And it was a lot cheaper than eating out anyway! We walked through some stores and then went to a coffee shop to research some things and talk.

Saturday brought some seriously warm temperatures! I was hoping a bird would not fly through this cracked window because our screens are not in! But we couldn’t resist the fresh air.

With Blake home Saturday, we decided to start teaching the little two about their medical life. It is hard to know what to say, when to say it, how much to tell them….but we felt the Lord guiding us that they need to start having an understanding of why they spend so much time at doctor appointments. I had literally told Tate every single thing that would happen to him at his last sedated appointment in Madison the afternoon before we went to the appointment. Blake and I saw how good this was for him, and how much it changed the way our day went.

First we showed Tate Eliza’s back, and then we showed Eliza Tate’s back. We had them repeat the words Spina Bifida, VP Shunt, and Scoliosis. We talked about how fearfully and wonderfully they were made – exactly the way God wanted them to be! We also talked about what those scars are that are on their backs. That is when Tate was trying to see his back. So I took a photo of both of them and showed the photos to them. Their processing of all this was such an amazing thing to witness. We will keep sharing with them, and teaching them as we go!

Eliza’s scar from her spinal surgery after she was home in December 2014. It is her only surgery so far.

Tate’s scar from his original spinal surgery in China, we believe when he was three months old. Tate has five other surgical scars already as well. He has not had any surgery since he has been home.

Monday we had a post-placement visit from our local caseworker! We look forward to these a lot. Eliza and Tate were watching for her to arrive! This photo really shows just how little our sweet boy is.

Tuesday was the day of the blizzard. So cozy, and lots and lots of school accomplished that day. For public schools a big snow storm is a no school day. For our school, a big snow storm means a lot of time for school that day! Lane made the letter “K” on our geo board for the storm named Kayla.

We are always very glad to see our plow guy show up!

School was fun this week, as usual! These guys just love to learn! And I love to teach them! I only took a few photos of our school time this week.

Directed activities.

We read books about snow, learned about how snowflakes form, and then made some snowflakes!

We were super blessed, after a long wait for the test results, to learn that Tate will not need surgery to untether his spinal cord right now! The results of his sedated bladder test showed no indication of a tethered cord! SO thankful the surgeon wanted to repeat that test! The test is based somewhat on what Tate feels. The first time we had it done, he was just home from China. It was very hard to communicate with him then. This time it was very easy to understand what he was feeling. We are so thankful!!

We did just find out that Tate needs medication to help his bladder. Eliza does too. Eliza wears a patch for this, and it costs $896 a month, of which we pay $100. The first time I gave Tate a mint, he took a drink, threw his head back and swallowed it! When I was told he needed this medication I knew we could order it in the pill form for him, which costs $10 a month. Well, our spicy girl was not going to be out done, so she asked me to let her swallow pills too. I gave her a mint (top in my hand in the photo below), and she took a drink and down it went. The pill is much smaller (bottom)! Bye, bye patches, hello pills!

On Thursday the mailman delivered a HUGE box full of love! From the sweetest friends!! It was SO fun to open it and feel that love pour over us!! The blankets are amazing! The littles have been dragging theirs around ever since! And Blake and I now have the funds for another date night!! SO SWEET. Thank you dear friends for blessing us so!! We love you!!!!

I did make it to town yesterday. The road off this ridge was beautiful! Don’t worry, I stopped to take the photo!

Addie Mae left very early this morning to spend the weekend at a retreat! There are several girls there that she knows, and I am sure she is having a great time!

For the rest of us, Friday is cleaning day!! I have the cutest, most willing helpers….and I love how much they have embraced being a part of our team! Also, while we were cleaning that produce drawer, Tate was naming all those veggies in English!! We are having a speech evaluation this week, and although I do think he (and we) need some help in this area, I bet he shocks the therapist with how much he has learned in six months!!

And there’s another week! And another entry in our family scrapbook!!

So much I never want to forget!!

Hope you all had a great week too!!

Happy weekend, everyone!!!

*thank you to everyone who is inquiring about precious Delainey. I do not have any updates at this time. Please continue to join us in prayer.