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!