How it all began

As I watched Jimmy with Elijah the other night, I thought of how it ALL began with Jimmy. Our family that is. I didn't know that Jimmy was going to have Down syndrome when he was born. When Jimmy was born with Ds, everyone was surprised! But oh, how that beautiful little blue-eyed boy lit up my life and still does today!! To me, he wasn't really any different than any other little boy. He could do all the same things, it just took him a little longer to learn. Fast forward 17 years to 2004, the year Jimmy would be turning 18. I had two teenage sons and feeling a little sad that they had grown up so quickly. My boys were so rewarding to raise and I really missed having little ones in our home. Then adoption crossed my mind again. It had been in my heart for years but I really never seriously considered it until that year. I did some research and found so many beautiful, children from countries all over the world needing families. The more I researched international adoption, the more I learned the fate of the disabled children in orphanages once they reached the age of four (institution, with an 80% chance of not surviving their first year there). I knew then that I needed to bring one of these precious children home into our family. A child with Down syndrome. I began to get excited as I started imagining another little set of feet running through my house again. And before I knew it, I was looking into agencies and deciding on a country. Jimmy turned 18 in November 2004 and I began my homestudy in December. By June of 2005, we had Caleb home (at 2 years, 8 months old)and our lives were changed forever! What a little spitfire he is! And such a cuddle bug! He does run through the house but instead of hearing the sound of little feet, it sounds like a herd of elephants!:) He is so full of energy, smart and funny! And boy, does that kid keep me on my toes! It's never boring around this house....Caleb is busy, busy, busy!
Feeling like our family was not yet complete....a few years later I began thinking about adopting again (more like longing to adopt again). And this started the process in 2008 of bringing home another son with Ds. Our little Elijah came home in 2009. Elijah came home at the age of 2 years, 9 months (funny how close in age Caleb and Elijah were when they each came home) and what an answered prayer our little peanut is! Elijah and Caleb have become inseparable and also little partners in crime. And I wouldn't have it any other way! But I have learned, that when I hear a little giggle coming from Elijah that I better check to see what Caleb is up to! LOL!
So as I watched Jimmy with Elijah the other night, I look back and see how God's plan for Caleb and Elijah all started with Jimmy many years ago.




Thank God for this gift, His gift.
No language can praise it enough!
2 Corinthians 9:15 MSG

Say Cheese!

Okay, this is what I get for trying to take a picture of Caleb tonight! He's such a funny boy!

I love this silly face!:)

The JOY in little things

I am always delighted by the way my boys with Ds take joy in the little things in life. Or what I would call little. Like when Jimmy hears a funny noise and starts cracking up or when Elijah gets so excited to see Elmo on TV that he turns and gives me a big kiss! The other night I told Caleb that we were having spaghetti for dinner and his eyes lit up! He asked "And sauce?" I replied,"Yes" and then he asked "And cheese?" and I said "Yes, with sauce and cheese". Then he got excited and yelled "YESSSS!" (Just for the record we always have sauce and cheese on our spaghetti, so this was nothing new.:) But his reaction was so darn cute! And you should have seen his face when I put the bowl of spaghetti down in front of him! He smiled and said "WOW!":) I just love this little guy so much and I love the way he gets so excited for spaghetti!! I need to take a few lessons from my boys and stop and take JOY in the little things more often!

Polar Plunge 2010

Today we went to our first Polar Plunge. It was a lot of fun and really neat to see how many people would jump into ice cold water to support the Special Olympics. We had a nice, sunny and mild day for it though (35 degrees). Caleb was bummed because he REALLY wanted to jump in the water too.:( Here are some pictures and a short video of Ben and his buddy Kyle's plunge!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

**The widget for the Polar Plunge will continue to collect donations for the Special Olympics even after the Polar Plunge is finished. Thank you Theresa:)

Polar Bear Plunge

Click on the title above to donate:)

Ben is going to participate in our local annual Polar Bear Plunge. It's an event that supports the Special Olympics! Please donate and help Ben reach his goal of $500!




Thank you and God Bless!

Sesame Street Live

Today I took Jimmy, Caleb and Elijah to see Sesame Street Live. It has been many years since Jimmy has gone and he really wanted to go again. He kept bugging me to get tickets, so I finally did. I tried to keep it a surprise, but I couldn't because everyday he kept telling me we needed to get tickets! So I broke and told him! That's one of the things that I love about Jimmy, he gets so excited over things!
Caleb before the show began, telling me that he wanted the curtain to open.

Elijah was very excited while waiting to see ELMO!

Caleb, giving Mommy a kiss. He's such a Lovebug!

Jimmy looked so cute with a big smile across his face! You're never too old for Sesame Street! I was pretty excited to be there myself, and the smiles on my boys faces made it so rewarding!

Caleb and Elijah being silly before the show.

Look at that expression on Elijah's face when he saw Elmo! I love it!!

Mikey

This is our dog Mikey. He doesn't get enough kuddos for just how special he is. This dog is the most loveable, patient, playful, funny dog I have ever known. As you can see from the pictures he is also very gentle with my boys. He is a "Gentle Giant". I say this because he weighs 100 lbs. which is large for a Golden Retriever. We were told his grandfather weighed 135 lbs.! He is such an obedient dog too. I give him his bath in the bath tub and it's not as hard as it sounds. It's actually quite easy, since he eagerly walks right in and jumps into the tub! How many dogs do that? Some of you may remember the pictures I posted in the summer of Caleb and Mikey playing with the water in the backyard. Caleb throws the water into the air and Mikey jumps up to catch it. This creates a lot of laughter from Caleb. At first, Elijah was a little intimidated by Mikey's size and by the fact that he was well, a dog! A very big dog! But as you can see, that has changed and Elijah climbs all over Mikey and Mikey just lays there.:)