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| 11/23/2006
Hello! Did you really think I could stay off the computer for long periods of time? I am trying, I really am. :) It is just so hard... Happy Thanksgiving! I hope as you read this (if you cannot stay off the computer either :) you are surrounded by lots of friends or family, love, and good food. I have a few things to be thankful for this year... I am thankful first and foremost to my God and Savior for loving me enough to create me and even more important for loving me in spite of who I am. I am so very grateful that I can walk with Him daily and know that HE is my God, my Father, and that one day I will live with Him in Heaven. I am of course thankful for my husband...when I met him about 11 years ago, I knew that he was the one I wanted to spend my life with. I am so blessed that out of all of the women in the world, God has chosen me to walk beside Mark each day of our lives together. (Though he may sometimes wonder about God's choice :) I am very thankful for all THREE of my children. Hunter delights us with his sense of humor and strong sense of right and wrong (though I am not necessarily saying he chooses the right path EVERY time :). We are blessed to have Lauren with her heart full of love and devotion to her family. And we are so very blessed this year to have Maria home with us. She is an answer to a prayer we didn't even know we had a couple of years ago...we are so thankful that God has given us the privilege to be her Mommy and Daddy. (Remind me of this when all three are teenagers one day...) We are also thankful to family (both sides) and friends...you know who you are. We could have all of the money and material goods in the world (or rather I should say in fantasy world, we could...), but without our friends and family, we would not have the joy and sweetness of the life we have right now. Thank you for walking this journey of life with us! Happy Thanksgiving! |
| 11/22/2006
Just wanted to type while I had a free, quiet moment. I am going to try to stay off the computer and enjoy the holiday with my family, but you know that will be hard for me. :) Just a couple of fun things...Maria came to my school yesterday and wasn't completely freaked out. Lauren was in a Thanksgiving program, then Maria just stayed with me until the end of the day. After the kids left, she even got down and walked around...that is a big thing for her to do. She hasn't ventured out at school before. People came up and talked to her and she talked to them a little. She even let a few people touch her. We have come a long way. Oh, we have so many new words in our vocabulary...finger, apple, and numbers! Lauren was counting to ten, and Maria was over there repeating every number she said. Then they counted to 10 in Spanish too. I was just amazed. She also can name all major body parts which is a favorite game for her to do. I know there are many more words, but of course, without her repeating them OVER and OVER and OVER in my ear, I can't think of them. :) Oh, Congrats to THREE of my friends who all exited PGN yesterday! I am SOOOO excited for you! Better go before the family realizes I am not there. That is when chaos breaks out. Oh, who am I kidding...that happens when I am there. :) Talk to you soon... |
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| 11/24/2006
Hello! Hope your day is off to a fun start. At least better than ours. Maria is a little...grouchy. She has dumped a box of cards out, so we told her she will need to pick them up. An hour later, she is still "working" on it. Oh, it could have been done in ten minutes, but we have run through a whole gamut of sidetracking events along the way, with crying fits interspersed. I don't know if I spelled that right, but I don't have a dictionary available. This is when it is tough being a parent. The easy thing to do would be to just pick the cards up for her. But thinking long term, we know that we have to let her do it. (Obviously we would only do this is if we knew she was completely able to at this age...) Our Thanksgiving was good. She is handling family pretty well. And she handled the food VERY well. She LOVED the turkey. We also found out what a moocher she is. Even when she was done and down from the table, she would very sweetly go up to others and say, "What's that???" which is her way of politely saying she wants something. Of course, nobody turned her down, so her lunch ended up being a very long event. She was quite full afterwards. It was good food. Better get back to the cards. She is so close to being done if she spent as much time picking up as she did crying about it...typical kid. |
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| 11/25/2006
Well, the cards did get picked up...it took about an hour and lots of tears along the way (I won't say which one of us that was :) We thought she might learn a little something from that (like "If you get something out, you pick it up...") Last night right before bed, what do you think Miss Maria was doing? Getting cards out! Thankfully we caught her early in the process. :) You might think she is actually blood related to me as hard-headed as she is... Oh, let's see, some new words. "Look!" She loves to show us books and tell us that. "Box" and "cards"...she learned that yesterday. "Dog" She said that before the dog appeared near her and she freaked out. "Water" which sounds more like "Wawa" "TV" and "Pistachio". There are actually SO many words now I have lost track. I am amazed. When we brought her home, Maria did not really communciate at all rather than with screaming and crying. I was very afraid that it was going to be years before we heard words from her. I am so pleased with her progress. I actually think she is about where Hunter was at this age. (He was slow to talk; trust me, NO longer :) Another change I have noticed is with Maria and her baby dolls. When we first brought her home, she was quite rough with them. I don't think it says anything about her home before us. I just think she was a little angry about all of the changes in her life. The other day I was watching her play so tenderly with her baby dolls...we are getting there, a step at a time.... |
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