2008 Christmas Family Photo

I was supposed to send this picture out with Christmas cards this year but somehow Christmas came here before I knew it. So, instead I post this pic up here for you guys. Not quite the same as mailing out cards. But hopefully next year I will do a better job.

This was the one we were going to send out.

This is just us goofing around a litte. :-)

Have a MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!!!!

I'm A Landscaper!! (Sort of)

So, since I am currently label "unemployed", Taylor has recruited me as a landscaper. I really just mow lawns. The first day working with him was this past Thursday and then I helped him today. I must say that when I stopped working at FedEx I was not sad to not be doing physical labor anymore. But lucky for me, summer is OVER! I do not myself out there in the hot summer days. Ugh!! So, I'm writing this cause I'm so proud that I have been able to do this but I should be giving Taylor so much recognition cause he does this EVERYDAY - even in the summer. Ugh!! Anyhow, I took some pics today of two of the lawns that I mowed and a pic of me with the blower and a pic of me and Taylor at the back of the trailer at the end of the day. Enjoy!

This one is so nice cause it's so green. It makes itself look pretty but I mowed it! Yay me! Actually, about 2 years ago, Taylor and I laid this grass (sod) down. So, I guess I've had it in me all along. :-)

This one is next door to the other. It's a pretty cool yard but there's so many little leaves. All the grass you see I mowed

Here is me with the mower. I'm smiling for the picture but who knows if I was smiling at all when I was working.

And now Taylor and I at the end of the day. I even have the earplugs just like Taylor always has. :-)

I think this may be one of our first blogs in a LONG time that did not have to do with Tyler. Hopefully there will be many more to come. :-) My dad has agreed to watch Tyler one night of the week so that Taylor and I can hang out. We have not hung out just the two of us since Tyler got here (That's 4 Months!!!). Yay for DAD!! :-)

A Change In Tyler's Room

So, I have decided to decorate Tyler's room a little bit. Tyler told me that he didn't like the plain white walls because it reminded him of his dad's house. And since we don't really want him to think about that, I decided to decorate his room a little. I asked for some of his input and then I got to work on it while he was at school. He didn't know that I had started working on it so it was a surprise when he got home. He was really excited when he saw it and he said that he really liked it. He also said that it doens't look like his dad's house anymore. So, here are some pics of what I did. It's not super fancy but it definitely makes the room feel different. And I had NO idea how hard it would be to non-permanently decorate it since we live in an apartment. Here it is. Let me know what you guys think. :-)

This is the best before picture that I could find. I didn't think to take a picture before hand. (Lame) But you can still see that the walls are bare.

Here's the first after picture. Tyler wanted his name above his bed so I did it with stars. Each star has one letter of his name on it. Tyler thought of having the ribbons hanging from each corner of the room. And I suggested the blue strip around the room. He agreed but I don't think he fully understood it until he saw it. And he really liked it. It looks like it's painted but it's A LOT of construction paper taped around the whole room. Above the blue line on the right are 3 quotes that I thought he would like. And below the blue line and to the left of the bed is something on good listening techniques cause he needs to work on his listening.


These two things are right next to his door. The top one is a little thing about character - "Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions...etc until you get to character." The bottom one is a picture that I colored for him and it has a bible verse on it. And the dry-erase board was already there.
And finally, this is Tyler's name on his door. I tried to make it so that it seems like the letters come off the door. I forgot to use the flash on this picture but it actually looks better than the one with the flash because in this one you can't see the tape.

So, I hope you enjoyed the tour of Tyler's room. Oh! I forgot to take a picture of this but we also put paper all over his closet door and we call it the "Wall of Frustration" and Tyler can color, scribble, write, draw, or whatever on it when he's frustrated as long as the writing is always on the paper and he never writes inappropriate stuff on it. So far, he's already used it once. Let me know what you guys think. And if you have any suggestions, please feel free to share because we are trying to decide if we need to add anything else. Other than the blue strip and the ribbons there really isn't anything else on the other walls. So, bring on some suggestions. :-)

Some more "Firsts" for Tyler...

So, on Sunday we drove down to San Diego and Tyler got to experience the beach for the first time. He got excited as soon as he saw the water while we were in the car. We didn't really plan on swimming due to the water being pretty cold. We kind of just rolled up our pants and went in knee high and we played a little bit of tag in the water. Unfortunately, that resulted in Tyler face planting in the water :-). I guess he was use to running in the water... but it was pretty funny. And he wasn't phased by it and he just kept playing. Here are some pics of us at the beach.

Can you see his excitement? (I know... it's kind of dark shadow over his face)


This is before he face planted. :-) We had a lot of fun. :-)


All three of us before we left with coastline behind us. It was a nice day at the beach. :-)


Us with our friends (newly engaged friends!!), Jon and Emily, who were so kind as to take care of us in San Diego. They ALWAYS are such great hosts when we go down there. :-)

So, Tyler's other first was yesterday. Not that anyone really wants this kind of first, but he had his first surgery yesterday for his hernia. It was only about an hour and everything went absolutely smoothly. Although he woke up from the anesthesia just crying. He said he wasn't in pain. So, I think he just didn't like the feeling of being under the anesthesia and still feeling out of it when he woke up. He woke up stunned that it was over already. But... he stopped crying as soon as they gave him a popsicle. Here are sine pics from surgery day.

I just thought he looked so cute in his hospital gown! :-) He looked so tiny when he was walking around in it.

This is obviously before the surgery since he's still smiling. Afterwards it was the opposite.

And here's a picture of his lovely little war wound!

So, there are Tyler's firsts this week. Hope you enjoyed as we did... not that the surgery was enjoyable! Thank you all for your prayers. Please keep it up as they help us get through each day.

Surgery

For those of you that were not aware, Tyler was found to have a minor hernia at his phyical in the beginning of October. It took a long time but his surgery is officially going to happen this coming Monday, November 24th. We have to check in at the hospital at 7:15am. This hospital kept postponing and rescheduling the surgery which was very frustrating. But now it is official and I will be glad to get it over with. The surgery is supposed to be a fairly simple surgery but we would still appreciate your prayers. Tyler absolutely HATES hospitals, doctors, dentists, etc. So, please pray for the day to go smoothly from the beginning. Tyler is glad to be getting the surgery done with but I know he's very nervous. I hope they give him his anesthesia with a mask and NOT a shot so that he does not flip out. If it is a shot, that will be a battle in itself. So, please pray for all aspects of the surgery day to go smoothly. Thank you SO much!! :-)

Halloween Pics

So, on Halloween we went to our church's Hallelujah Party (For those of you that go/went to Immanuel or Trinity, it is just like Harvest Festival or Halloween Happenin'.) We tried to do a bit of a theme of "Cowboys and Indian" - Can you guess who was the indian? Well, Tyler absolutely loved his costume. He wants to wear the boots and the hat everyday. And for my costume, I actually had from a couple of years ago when I worked at the Boys and Girls Club. I drew up what I wanted, bought the material, and my mom was so kind as to make the costume for me. At first Taylor wasn't going to go so we don't have a lot of pics of him in his costume but we have plenty of Tyler. Here are a few pics of us in our costumes:

He was totally in to being a cowboy!

Here a few of Tyler and me just goofing around:

Here's a pic of me and Taylor. He was not really in to the pics and unfortunately did not get a pic of Taylor & Tyler together. Too bad cause that would have been cute.

So, those were our Halloween costumes. I think I had more fun dressing Tyler up than anything else. Maybe we will have to remember to take many random pics throughout this month since Tyler will be off track and home from school all the way until December 1st. I'm not even sure yet what to do with that. So, far it has been good so I hope it continues that way. Thank you all for your support.

And just a reminder that Tyler is tentatively scheduled for surgery on November 14th for his hernia (basically waiting for court approval for anesthesia). So, if you remember to pray for him as he goes through this. He half scared and half wanting to get it done. Until, next time, have a wonderful day, night, week, and month!

Tyler's Siblings

So, yesterday, we flew to Sacramento and back in one day. When this trip was first planned I didn't think it sounded so bad but when we got back home we were completely exhausted (at least I know I was.) I actually didn't even make it to the bed and passed out on the couch. I don't even remember the last time that I was so tired. But, it was definitely well worth the trip. We flew out to Sacramento to see Tyler's brother (Dillon) and sister (Laney). Dillon is 10 yrs old and Laney is only 5. It was Tyler's second time being on airplane. His first time was about 5 months ago with his social worker the first time that he flew out to visit his siblings.We actually met them in Auburn, which is about an hour away from the Sacramento Airport. We met that at the most beautiful park ever! It was so nice out there we contimplated the thought of moving there someday! Interesting, huh? Well, anyhow, the visit went really well with his siblings. Tyler played more with Dillon than Laney but I guess that would be expected. Here are some pictures of our trip and of Tyler with his siblings:

All three of us before we took off from Ontario.
The flight attendant was kind enough to take our picture. :-)


Tyler, Dillon, and Laney. Of course Tyler couldn't but do a weird smile.


Tyler and Laney. Isn't she just too cute???
But for some reason she didn't really want to smile. Probably cause this was taken as we were about to leave.


Tyler and Dillon. They are kind of opposites. Dillon is way more mellow than Tyler.


And this was the last hug before we left. I just thought this picture was pretty cool.

Also, I would like to add that we received the paperwork to start the adoption process today and we would greatly appreciate your continued prayer through this process. Tyler knows that we received the adoption paperwork and he also very excited. He's telling us that he is ready to be adopted and he is okay with not seeing his birth mother once that is finalized. (But I do think that feeling wavers whenver he sees her.) So, we thank you so much for all of your support and continued prayers.

A Rough Week

So, we are barely halfway through Wednesday and we already had a rough week. There is so much going on with Tyler right now - both physically and mentally. Let me give you a little dose of what is going on:

Monday: On Monday afternoon, Tyler had a one-hour monitored visit with his birth mother. When I first picked him up from his visit, he seemed to be perfectly fine just like he usually is after his visits. But once he got home something else happened. He started working on his homework and as he started to get frustrated he started to get upset. Suddenly he started telling us "You guys hate me and you don't want me here!" That led to him have a serious tantrum and packing his bags. He literally packed up all of his clothes, books, toys, hygiene items, etc and told us "I'm leaving and I'm going to be a homeless hobo." He threw all of his papers all over the room and was ready to leave. When we told him "We care too much about you to just let you leave. Something can happen to you out there." He said didn't care. When we would not allow for him to leave, he became assaultive. He even started saying he hates God and that he wanted to go to hell. This incident lasted for about two and a half or three hours or so. Once Tyler stopped and realixed that he didn't want to go anywhere, he then began to panic because he thought that they would start hitting him. When we told him that we wouldn't do that, he just responded with "That's what my dad use to do so that's what you will do!" We just kept telling him that we love him and that we forgive him. It then took him another 45 minutes just to realize that we were not going to hurt him and that we forgive him. But after he was able to calm down, he started to clean up his mess (which he didn't finish before he went to bed). Then we prayed together and he asked God to forgive for everything that he had done that night.

After talking to him the next day, he explained that he acted that way because his mom hurt his feelings. At first he couldn't express how she hurt his feelings but then we had him write it in his journal and then talk about what he wrote. That was kind of pushing his emotions (which made him a little bit upset) but he was able to talk more about what made him upset. Believe it or not, Tyler tried to tell his mom about Jesus. He asked her if she knows Jesus and she actually said "Yes". During the visit Tyler prayed with her and he said "Thank you Jesus for dying on the cross for us." When he said that, his mother said "What does that mean?" After talking to Tyler more, he said that he was upset because he didn't believe her when she said that she knows Jesus. Tyler's teacher and I discussed this a little more and we think that he can't understand how someone who says that they know Jesus could have treated him the way that his parents treated him. And that would make sense. Let's just say that when that night was over, we were exhausted.

I took a picture of his room, with all his bags filled with clothes and with some papers still on the floor. This is after he had some time to clean up:


Tuesday: Tuesday was a relatively decent day until Tyler went to bed. About ten minutes after he went to bed, he came back out saying that his stomach hurts. For those of you that don't know, Tyler has a hernia. Up until last night it was a painless hernia. He is going to need surgery but we are waiting for court appropval so that the hospital can give Tyler anesthesia. Originally the doctor was not too concerned about waiting because Tyler was not feeling too much pain and after examining Tyler, he saw that the hernia could be pushed back in. He said he usually concerned when it can't be pushed in. He said that we will know that it got worse if Tyler feels pain or starts throwing up. Well, last night it happened. Tyler really started to feel pain and at about ten last night he started throwing up. It was not good. I felt so bad for him that he was in so much pain and throwing up. That was a rough night for us because he couldn't go to sleep.

Wednesday (today): As of right now, Tyler is on the couch watching a movie (his third one today). I decided to keep him home from school considering that he has a hard time just walking around. So, he has been laying down all day to help ease the pain a little. There's nothing draining about this day, but it's just kind of sad that he has to lay in the house like this all day. This has been so hard for him because he usually is running around non stop. Here' s a pic of Tyler laying on the couch watching "Hook" which he loves:


So, this is our week so far. Please pray for us! It is going to be a long rest of the week. We love you all!

LEGOS

LEGOS... Enough said, right?

Tyler's First Concert

So, I took Tyler to his first concert last night and can you guess who we went to go see... BarlowGirl!

I don't know if that would be a weird first concert for an 8-year old boy but he absolutely loved it. He was rocking out! And I completely enjoyed it. The band is not only singing great songs but the speak the truth of the Lord. Their concerts are not just concerts... they are live testimonies of their relationship with God. They play songs they wrote, they play worship songs, they share about ministries that they are supporting, they read scriptures, they have an altar call those that want to give their lives to Christ and those that need prayer. I think that Tyler did not listen to the words to the songs too much since he was so busy being the air-guitarist for the band but he did recognize some songs he heard on the radio and he did sing along with the worship songs he knew. Overall, I think it was a great experience. Below are a couple of pictures of us at the concert and a video of Tyler rockin' out on the air guitar. I apologize as the video is kind of dark.

Our next concert is supposed be tonight in Irvine. We are suppsed to see Third Day, Jars of Clay, and Switchfoot. It all depends on his behavior and how much homework Tyler has. So, we shall see.... But an overall great first concert experience. Yay!!

I.E.P.

Individual Education Plan... otherwise known as an I.E.P. This morning we had an I.E.P. meeting for Tyler. The purpose was to set up a solid foundation for Tyler and to set appropriate goals for him to reach academically and socially. While I was not really looking forward to the meeting, it actually turned out to be a wonderful experience. Tyler's previous I.E.P. experience through the Beaumont School District did not seem to go well. They seemed to think Tyler was crazy and they appeared to have given up on him. But when we went to this meeting this morning at his school, Bryn Mawr Elementary, in the Redlands School District, it was an absolutely pleasant experience. The I.E.P. Team (which consists of us, the social workers, the principal, Tyler's teacher, and a special education counselor) is all on the same page. They are completely supportive of keeping Tyler in his Special Day Class because the structure of the classroom is exactly what Tyler needs. Everyone was compassionate and understanding of his history. Everyone seems ready to do everything necessary to help him succeed. Everyone was positive and ready to move things forward for Tyler. This meeting was an absolute blessing! Praise God!

Soccer Mom

Yup! I'm officially a soccer mom! I never really thought that would be me but I am! This past week we signed Tyler up for Upward Soccer at Immanuel Baptist Church. For those of you that don't know what Upward Soccer is, it is basically a youth soccer league with it's focus on Christ. I really think it is a great program. They do it for basketball, soccer, and cheerleading for boys & girls from Kindergarten to 5th grade. I love it. I actually helped coach the first season of Upward that they ever had at Immanuel (which, of course, was basketball) and I absolutely loved it. One of my best friends, Grace, and I coached together and we felt absolutely blessed to be a part of it. So, when Tyler said his favorite sport was soccer, we didn't want to pass it up. So, now Tyler is playing for Team Sparks, practicing every Thursday and playing a game every Saturday morning. During halftime, one of the pastors comes and does a short message for the kids. For our first game, we had Rob Signs, and he of course incorporated a magic trick with his message. And coincidentally, he chose Tyler to be his volunteer. I really love being a soccer mom! Here is some pics of Tyler for soccer:

This is Tyler just before we left for his first practice.

This is Tyler doing a goalie kick. (I guess that's what it's called. Not too sure) There are no goalies in this league, just an open net... Interesting

Very Handy

I just wanted to share this little tid-bit because it has been so handy for me. I bought these little sandwich tupperware things to put Tyler's lunch in and I just really love them. I got the idea when my friend, Heather, came over with her kids and she had put their sandwiches in there. I thought they were just great and had to get a couple for Tyler's lunches. He's been putting a PB & J sandwich in there everyday for school and it fits in lunch box just right with his drink and fruit and chips. It's little things in life that can put a smile on your face. Sorry to bore you but I thought they were cool.

First Day of School

So, the first day of school for Tyler has finally arrived. It has been long overdue for about two weeks now. For those of you that don't know, there was some serious confusion with the school district and his enrollment was put on hold. So, we all originally thought he was gonna go to school on August 13th but that got postponed until today (September 2nd). That's almost 3 weeks difference. It has been quite difficult but he finally got enrolled at Bryn Mawr Elementary School and it looks very promising. Taylor & I got to sit in the classroom to observe the teacher and students and we are very impressed. We are confident that this teacher will be able to handle Tyler's behavioral problems. So, first day of school was a big success. Here is a picture of Tyler before he left for his first day of school. He is wearing all new clothes that my good friend, Lori, was so gracious to buy for him. Thank you Lori!

Amazing August (this might be kinda long)

Well, I have almost not written a new post for the whole month of August. It is not that there is nothing to write about, more that there is so much going on. There have been some ups and downs but thankfully more ups than downs.

August 1st - Well, my last post was on August 1st. It was the day that we told Tyler that we were going to be his foster parents. For more on that, look at the post before this one.

August 2nd - Let's start with my last day of work. August 2nd was officially my last day of work at Childhelp. I was filled with mixed emotions. I was happy to say that this was my last day knowing that the result would be that Tyler would be coming home with me within the next week, however as the day went on I started to get sad thinking about the fact that I will not be able to see my boys anymore. Many of the kids acted up during the longest 14-hour day that I have ever worked. But then towards the end of the shift, I think it really started to hit them that I wasn't coming back because they started to get really sentimental. They started talking about how much they are going to miss me and I almost cried because I really miss a few of them too. I actually miss more of them than I thought I would. But my staff made my last day very special. They bought me a card and everyone signed it and they bought a cake. It was pretty cool. Here is one of the pictures that one of the kids gave me as a Good-Bye card. It's from one of my primary residents, Christian. He is the only kid there that knows how to spell my name.He wrote: Terecita the Worker, Me the Kid.
Then he folded it up and on the outside it said. To: Terecita, From: Christian, I LOVE YOU! This was such an emotional day. I really had to work hard not to cry.

Another kid, Enrique did a cool card that I haven't had a chance to scan yet. But it has 3 parts to it on each section of the card. It goes like this:
Front of Card: "By Tiarctta. I will miss you the moste.
Wher are you"
Back of Card: "There you are."
Inside of Card: "Thats to far a waya. I will miss you."

I thought that card was pretty funny when I first read it. Some of the kids also gave pictures of themselves that they knew that i liked. It was amazing.

August 4th - This day I had scheduled for my friend, Heather, to come over with her two children so that we could have lunch together. In anticipation of not having a lot of time, I asked her if it would be okay to just make a frozen pizza with some fruit and she so kindly said yes. Well, when I was gonna go to the store on this morning to get the pizza, I walked out of my apartment to see that a gigantic tree branch had fallen on top of my car. Believe it or not, in this picture, my car is underneath this tree branch. The branch goes all the way from the front to the back of my car. It's pretty crazy.

When the tree branch was removed, my car had to be taken to a body shop for estimates and repairs. One bonus to this: I've been driving around a 2008 Chevy Colorado ever since this happened. Actually a nice truck and it gets pretty decent gas mileage...very interesting. My renter's insurance actually pays for the rental vehicle (Renter's Insurance...Definitely a must have if you rent an apartment or house...Just a side note).

August 5th - On this day we were able to schedule a day pass with Tyler so that we could hang out with him for a little bit before we actually got to take him home for good. There was two big reasons for this visit. One was to help Tyler get through the anxiety of waiting for the move. The other reason was so that my mom could meet Tyler before she left for the Philippines (she left on August 6th) for 3 weeks (and returns on the 28th). So, we took Tyler to our apartment so that he could see his room for the first time and we went out to lunch with my parents. It was a good time. Here are a couple of pics of us in Tyler's room on his first day of seeing his room.



August 7th - So, moving on through the week to Thursday... the day that we are expecting Tyler!! Now, while we are waiting for Tyler to arrive, I get a phone call from the insurance company stating "You're car has been declared a Total Loss." Basically, that means that the car is worth less than the cost of the repairs. So, just shortly before Tyler is scheduled to arrive, I receive the news that I am no longer going to have a car. At the same time I also find out that my car was previously declared a total loss and was salvaged, which means I can't get full value from the insurance company. Well, that was a lot to take in at that time but I pretty much had to put that in the back of my mind because we were about to welcome into our family an awesome boy..... So, moving on to the overwhelming Joy!

So, this very same day, we welcome Tyler into our home. It was a pretty crazy day of getting Tyler unpacked and settled and documenting all the items that he brought with him and signing some paperwork. There was lots of hugging and laughing and more hugging and rejoicing and more hugging! It truly was a blessed day!

Now, I am fully aware that I said to look for pics of this day but I am realizing now that we were so involved with welcoming Tyler and helping him get settled in to his first day that we didn't take any pictures of this day. I do however have a picture of him sleeping in his bed on his first night. I also have a pic of the first morning when Tyler crawled right in to bed next to Taylor. I tried to get up really quick to take a candid picture of this because I thought it was so adorable but Tyler was paying attention and smiled right as I took the picture.


August 9th - This day we had a little get together at the park where we invited some friends and family to come out and meet Tyler if they haven't already met him. Quite a few people came out and showered him with love and everyone welcomed him to our family and community of friends just as if we had birthed our own child. It was so awesome. Thank you to everyone that came out to meet Tyler and show their support on this day. And thank you to everyone who has also been praying for us, supporting, and writing references throughout the whole process. You have no idea how much it means to us!!

August 13th - This was the day that Tyler was supposed to start school at McKinley Elementary School but there was some mix up at the Redlands School District. So, ever since this day until now, Tyler has been at home with me and I have been trying to still give him educational work. I have been able to teach him to write in cursive, we've been working on his print writing, his reading, his math, and we have just started to tackle multiplication. In addition to educational stuff, Tyler also learned his first Bible verse during this week. And as of today he has memorized two and is working on his third one. This is a video of the first Bible verse that Tyler has learned.

"The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid." - Psalm 118:6

August 15th - This was an interesting day. The week before this day we had taken Tyler to the Summer movies in the park at Brookside Park in Redlands. At that time he met this kid, named Jonathan, and they decided they wanted to be friends. They met because Jonathan cut in front of us in line and then they started talking. Well, by the end of the night, we met his dad and swapped phone numbers. Well, now that brings us to August 15th. On this day they called and asked if we wanted to come to the movie in the park early because it was Jonathan's birthday and they were going to have a cake for him and stuff. So, we went and met them there. It was so crazy because this kid actually threw his party favor at Tyler, hit him, kicked him, and slapped his cheek and Tyler STILL calls him a friend....Talk about turning the other cheek. :-) And then the funny thing is that after Jonathan slaps Tyler in the face, Tyler responds with, "Wait, I'm gonna share Jesus with you." Taylor and I thought that was amazing. Jonathan didn't want to listen but Tyler sure tried. We were very proud of the effort.

August 17th - On this day Tyler got to sit in "Big Church" with us during the evening service. We weren't quite sure how well he would be able to sit through it but he did. It was pretty cool. He did everything that he saw others doing. He may not have understood why but when he saw us raising our hands to God, then he would raise his hands and when we would stand up, he would stand up. He loved singing praise songs and he was very excited when there was a song that he knew. Then during the message, he pretty much sat through it all without talking. Only a few times did he talk and it was just to point out something that the pastor has said that made him excited. And then at the end of the service, the pastor invites anyone up that needs prayer. Tyler went up there twice. First he went up to one person and asked them to read the Lord's Prayer to him in his Bible and then pray together. Then the second time he asked a different man if he would pray for us (his parents), that God would take care of us and that we would not take him back to Childhelp. We totally lit up when the man told us the reason that Tyler went up there was to pray for us. And then after the service, Tyler ran up and down the aisles collecting all the little plastic cups in the back of the chairs from communion. He seems so happy to serve.

August 18th thru August 21st - This was a bit more of a trying week for us. Tyler was getting pretty anxious and pretty stubborn. He knew that he should have been in school already and was getting upset because it hadn't happened yet. I must admit that I was getting pretty anxious about him starting school, too. This week he has been doing a lot of testing and being very stubborn. Pretty much attempting to refuse to do any assignments, attempting to refuse any foods that he does not like (ex. vegetables with dinner, tomatoes in sandwich, oatmeal in the morning, etc.). He has wasted a few days away just being rebellious. If you remember, please do pray for us as we go through this journey with him. And for any of you that are already parents, we welcome any advice that you may have to give. We do struggle a lot with the fact that he is already set in some ways that he didn't previously realize were wrong. But we do believe that he truly has the heart to want to change that. So, please pray for us as we truly learn patience ("long suffering"). :-)

August 24th - This was a very big day for us. Tyler made the decision to be baptized! For those that don't know, about a year into working at Childhelp, I was blessed to lead Tyler in a prayer to receive Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Tyler really seems to understand what that decision means. He does struggle everyday with thoughts that it is just too hard to do what is right - but we have all been there and are still there. But yesterday, Tyler made the decision to get baptized. We made sure that he also understood the importance of this and he was able to tell us the reason to get baptized. Now, whether he fully understands the words that he said is between him and God. But I think he has a pretty good idea of what it means. Here is a picture of the pastors praying over Tyler before they baptized him and then a picture of him coming up out of the water.
In addition to Tyler getting baptized yesterday (August 24th), Taylor also decided to get baptized again. He came to a realization that the first time that he was baptized he didn't fully understand the importance and meaning of what it was. So, he also felt led to get baptized. So, I have a picture of Taylor speaking with the pastors before being baptized but then my battery died to my camera when he was actually getting baptized... Bummer. Here's the picture of Taylor talking to the pastors.

So, I think that pretty much catches everyone up. I'm sure there are little things that I have left out here and there but I guess you get the idea of how the month of August has been going for us. And I'm pretty sure you're probably tired of reading about us now. But all in all, this month has had a few bumps in the road but mostly praises. YAY GOD!!

P.S. I started writing this all the way back on August 14th and never really finished it. That is why it says that it posted on August 14th. But I really posted it on August 25th. Kinda weird.

The Day Tyler Found Out!

Yesterday afternoon Taylor & I met with Tyler's social workers and his therapist. We brought him in so that we could tell him the good news. This is some video that we were able to shoot. Unfortunately we weren't quite prepared. I wanted to get the look on his face when he first walked in the room and saw that it was us but the camera didn't turn on fast enough. This is just a two-minute snip of what was an hour long gathering. But here it is:

Another wonderful thing that was missed on this video is Tyler did not forget to thank God!! He proclaimed that he had been asking God for this every night and he finally said yes. It was absolutely beautiful! We are happy and excited and overjoyed! Again we thank you for your continued support and prayers through this absolutely wonderful process!


In addition here are some pictures of us on the day we told Tyler the great news!! There aren't too many since we were too busy interacting. But his social worker also took pictures too so hopefully she will email those to us. Here are a couple:

This is our first family picture! We took this just outside the administrtion office at Childhelp.


This is Tyler yelling at the top his lungs. He's yelling "YAAAAAA!!!"

Still to come... Pictures of the day that Tyler gets to finally come home with us for good! Look for those after August 7th, the new date of his arrival!