It has come to my attention via email and facebook and questions asked again and again, that I haven't necessarily done a STELLAR job of keeping y'all up to date on our lives, kiddos, children, ministry, etc. This post is my attempt to remedy that in an efficient and concise way (as it turns out, no two words have ever described me less).
So, without further ado, here are some questions and answers for y'all. Warning, this is long because, again, efficient and concise aren't really my thang. You might want to grab some coffee, or a diet coke and some cheese dip, and put your feet up.
How is Caden doing?
Well y'all, I've been wary of even saying this out loud, let alone putting it down in writing . . . but Caden has been doing much better on all fronts. It's like he just decided that he was one year old and it was time to grow up and start sleeping and eating. Granted, he still has a long way to go with his eating and he is still working with a feeding specialist every other week. However, at least he doesn't refuse and gag and choke on every bite. I'll take my victories wherever I can get them, right?
As far as sleeping, Caden has also been doing MUCH better on that front (which maybe is because he's eating more?). And by that I mean he only wakes up once or twice every night. Which is still less than ideal, but much less zombie-inducing than his every-two-hour habit was.
He goes back to the cardiologist in another month-ish (we need to call CHOA and check on when it is - because we're so organized). We will know more then about his heart function etc, but as far as we can tell he is doing wonderfully. His scar is fading, and he is the most active little one year old boy. It's exhausting and cause for rejoicing all at once.
Oh and, he took his first steps a week ago, which completely blows my mind - my little miracle baby. He still limits himself to four or five steps before dropping to his knees and taking off in a crawl. But I know before long we will be chasing him all over the place! Also, he loves music and dances every time he hears anything resembling a beat.
There's actually more ministry questions and updates and such that I want to let y'all know about. And I know I warned you that this was going to be a "great big" post, but it's getting a little unwieldy. However, I have some more frequently asked questions I wanted to try and answer, so I'll do another FAQ post soon. Which means that now is your chance! Do you have more questions for me? Things you've been dying to know but cant find answers anywhere on this haphazard and unorganized blog? (welcome to the story of my life, by the way) Feel free to leave questions in the comments or send me an email (Becca1612 at hotmail dot com), and I'll answer as many questions as I can in the next post!
So, without further ado, here are some questions and answers for y'all. Warning, this is long because, again, efficient and concise aren't really my thang. You might want to grab some coffee, or a diet coke and some cheese dip, and put your feet up.
How is Caden doing?
Well y'all, I've been wary of even saying this out loud, let alone putting it down in writing . . . but Caden has been doing much better on all fronts. It's like he just decided that he was one year old and it was time to grow up and start sleeping and eating. Granted, he still has a long way to go with his eating and he is still working with a feeding specialist every other week. However, at least he doesn't refuse and gag and choke on every bite. I'll take my victories wherever I can get them, right?
As far as sleeping, Caden has also been doing MUCH better on that front (which maybe is because he's eating more?). And by that I mean he only wakes up once or twice every night. Which is still less than ideal, but much less zombie-inducing than his every-two-hour habit was.
He goes back to the cardiologist in another month-ish (we need to call CHOA and check on when it is - because we're so organized). We will know more then about his heart function etc, but as far as we can tell he is doing wonderfully. His scar is fading, and he is the most active little one year old boy. It's exhausting and cause for rejoicing all at once.
Oh and, he took his first steps a week ago, which completely blows my mind - my little miracle baby. He still limits himself to four or five steps before dropping to his knees and taking off in a crawl. But I know before long we will be chasing him all over the place! Also, he loves music and dances every time he hears anything resembling a beat.
How about Jayci? What's the update on her?
Jayci is nearly four years old now. I seriously can scarcely believe that fact, but it's true. She is in the most delightful, enjoyable phase right now. Cheerful, helpful, hilarious . . . and far less temper tantrums than ever before. And I say that with humility and joy, knowing that it's ALL a phase and that I probably have very little to do with her current level of fantastic-ness. Not to mention, she is a fabulous big sister to Caden, kind and helpful. AND she adores all the kiddos and loves them well too. Ok, I'm done bragging now, my apologies for that.
One thing we would love your prayers for regarding Jayci is figuring out what we should do about school for her. Our neighborhood school is seriously lacking in some areas, but that doesn't mean it's not an option. We just want to be wise, following the Lord's leading, protecting Jayci's heart and future, and doing what works best for our family and ministry too. You know, no big deal.
Who in the world is Zack? And does he live with you?
It has been brought to my attention that many of y'all were confused about Zack, who he is, and why he is in nearly every picture of our family. Zack is one of two boys we mentored for the last five years, and he spent the summer living with us. He came to camp with us, working as a "CIT" (counselor-in-training), and I wish I could adequately describe what a joy it was for me to see him as a leader, growing in his faith, encouraging other kiddos, and loving on my own kids. It is my dream that one day Caden will be as wonderful a young man as Zack is. Seriously, y'all.
Remember how one time, forever ago, you said you were going to adopt? Is that still happening?
Yes, my friends (good memory, by the way), we are still planning on adopting. In fact, I'm pretty sure Adam is ready for that now. And by "pretty sure," I mean he told me: "I'm ready when you are babe." Unfortunately, I cannot even wrap my mind around adding another person to our chaos right now. I think I need a few nights of good sleep before I start tricking myself into thinking I have everything under control and I can TOTALLY handle another child. . .
When we do adopt, the plan is still to adopt domestically through DFCS. But that's pretty much all we know at this point. Don't you worry your pretty little heads though, I'll totally keep y'all posted.
What's going on with your ministry right now? In fact, what IS your ministry?
Well, Adam and I started a non-profit mentoring program in our neighborhood last year. It's called Blueprint 58 (because it's based on Isaiah 58) and we are officially a 501(c)3, meaning we're all legit and tax-deductible and other stuff I dont really fully understand. The plan from the get-go was to spend some time getting to know our neighbors and our community in order to better understand the needs of our neighborhood. We also planned to partner with the local elementary school to start matching mentors with kids in the fourth grade there. Unfortunately, when we moved in, it was right around the time of the APS cheating scandal, which our local elementary school (Gideon's) was pretty heavily involved in. So that meant they had just got a new principal, and we had lots of trouble getting approved by the school to partner with them for mentoring and tutoring.
Just when we were starting to question what we were doing, if we had mis-read the cues and our hearts, if maybe we should take a different approach . . . Adam got a random phone call a few weeks ago telling us that the Atlanta school board had approved Blueprint 58 (our non-profit) to work with our local schools. That call, combined with some help from our awesome church, and a new principal at Gideon's who is excited about working with us, has reinvigorated what we are trying to do, and started the ball rolling on what I think is going to be a really good thing for our neighborhood.
The plan is to start by mentoring one fourth grade class. And it just so happens that one of the 4th grade classes has an awesome teacher who wants to work with us, lots of the kiddos we know are in the class, plus one of the kids who comes to church has already been matched with a mentor. All that to say, we feel like God is moving things forward for our ministry and in our neighborhood. Despite lots of kids moving away over the summer, our house is always crowded and we met some new neighborhood kiddos as we walked lots of kids to school every morning while they didn't have buses the first few weeks of school.