December Catch Up

Our December was jam-packed, so I tried not to be on FB or our Blog as much as possible in order to get as many quality moments out of the month as possible. There were lots of things to keep us busy: three birthdays in a month's time, two Gotcha Day Anniversary celebrations, play time, schooling, illnesses, surgeries, head injuries, Christmas with all its' beautiful celebrations, prepping to launch a new business (more on that in another post), etc.

So, here's our story as told through pictures:

 Andrew is in that animal's mouth!

 Daniel LOVES airplanes!

 The three birthday children:

 Cherish is the love of each of her brothers!!

Time with Nanny and Pappy:

Derek, Andrew, and I had a BLAST(!!!!) sliding down these ice slides over and over again!

We were just walking along the streets of Orlando,

and these two ladies joined us:

 Cherish had a tie-dye birthday party with Brownie Sundays as her dessert of choice:

Sammy had his birthday celebration, which included a Brownie Sunday just before bed. It was his last sold food for two weeks.

The next morning Sammy had surgery that took care of four problems at once. Two surgeons worked together to put Sammy under anesthesia just once. Therefore, there was only one recovery time. The recovery time was supposed to be two weeks but ended up being about three weeks long.

Uncle Paul and Aunt Kelsey stopped by for a visit and brought the children a Gingerbread House to decorate. That surely helped with being housebound for the three weeks.

During those three weeks of Samuel's recovery, we finished up school for the semester--completing 43.5% of our school year. I was very proud of the children!

In addition, our neighbor looked out for Andrew and his need to be outdoors, so he was invited to go fishing with their family several times:

(Picture compliments of Cheryle)

During that time of recovery came two very serious head injuries for Daniel--both of which should have (could have) broken his skull. Crucial Care said just to watch him, as he had had too much radiation from when he had CT Scans following his stroke.

Having not even had his head felt by the staff at Crucial Care, but showing no symptoms of severe trauma, we simply waited.

Now, however, his skull feels like it has healed with a break that has had bone heal over it. I can't explain it, but it is WEIRD!! I can't wait for him to be seen by his pediatrician!

(Sometimes I put a helmet on the child just to give my heart some rest from his constant falling! He could give me a heart attack!)

Part of our Christmas celebration included an Advent Calendar that our church put together. It was fabulous!!! Each day our children ensured that we had time to complete each day's study and activities. We all loved our time together working through the Advent Calendar, and we have made it a point to make it part of our family's Christmas tradition.

Speaking of traditions, we went out caroling on Christmas Eve again. We had a blast walking around our neighborhood singing. We were actually joined for a short time by about other three families! We laughed so much and came home wishing the night wasn't over.

Christmas morning dawned, and the children found lots of gifts provided by some very special people! Special thanks to those who gave gifts to our children! What a precious blessing you have been! We pray for you and ask God's blessing on you!

After about three weeks of needing to stay close to the house, we broke free! Out we went to spend some time outside, enjoying nature:

Though December was hard, with very little sleep and lots of pain for the little ones, we made precious memories and stayed close together in the moments. Through our time together, we have reached a new level of bonding. If nothing else, that was the jewel that I am most thankful for.

Thank you for praying for us, Dear Ones. Life has been difficult with someone sick pretty much every day from August through to the end of December, but now health has returned to our family. We are enjoying life one day at a time.