25 months old

Thank you all for praying

Thank you ALL for praying for my sister. I thank God for your prayers. Her cancer is anal Cancer and it is near the sphincter. He Dr. said that it has been growing for about 7 years. I had never heard of a cancer like that. Her treatment will be radiation and chemo everyday during the week, with the weekends off. Her port needs to be prepped before the week begins and fixed to have some relief for the weekends off. This is not going to be pretty for her as she will experience negative symptoms from the treatment. Her ride to the hospital is over and hour and they have a brand new car. Her Dr. told her after a few weeks of treatment she will absolutely hate him. Please continue to pray as she is so angry. Please pray that she will come to peace with God through this process. This is so upsetting to me as I have lost my mother, sister, aunt and uncle to cancer. My mother and sister were very young when they passed away. This is not a nice disease. It is furious. God is in control and I will look to him to watch over her as she will have to endure horrible side effects from the toxic medications on her body in order to kill the bad cells.

Please pray for my sister who starts Chemo this week

Pleas pray for my sister as she has colon cancer and will be starting treatments this week. She has pushed the family away emotionally and is not really talking to me. Her daughter is acting the same way. It is so bizarre that they made it a point to tell me about the cancer and treatments and now they push the family away. Please pray for all of them at this time. Pray for me as I am just appalled at how they are acting towards our family.

Joshua had his annual Early Intervention Evaluation and he will be receiving services in PT, OT, and speech. He will continue to have private PT and OT. He is progressing in all areas, but still needs some catch up time. He is walking up a storm and it it such a blessing to see him up and about! He gets scared when we are in large crowds and seems to have sensory over load during those times, but if I hold him, and let him know he is safe, he calms down. I will be working with all the EI team on his sensory issues in the coming months. If anyone has any suggestions, email me or post. Thanks:)

Almost 24 months and 1 year home!

In five more days Joshua will be 2 years old! In six more days will mark our one year Adoption Day! It is hard to believe that a year has passed since Joshua was put into our arms forever! We are planning on getting together with family to celebrate his Birthday and Adoption Day next week.

Joshua is wearing orthotics to help his flat feet and to help stabilize his hips. He seems to be walking better since they were put in a month ago. He is receiving EI services in speech and PT, and private OT, and PT. He is really starting to catch up!

I hope to post some pics next week:)

23 months and 11 months home

It's hard to believe that it's almost a year since we brought Joshua home. He is walking, and doing a lot of word mimicking. We have cut his EI OT but are continuing his private OT. He is exploring his world which is amazing since when we brought him him he was incapable of doing so at that time. I thank God for all of his progress and all of his wonderful therapist who have helped him. I feel so blessed to have them in his life. Next month is his yearly eval with EI to see if he will qualify for services for the up coming year.

Joshua has been letting me know when he has a wet or stinky diaper. He can barely talk yet he puts his hand on his nose then touches his pants to let me know. I am quite surprised that he doesn't like his diaper wet and lets me know at such a young age. I am really hoping that this is a sign that he will be potty trained early in his second year. :)

He says the word "No" a lot to let us know that he doesn't approve of something. How children learn that word so early I'll never understand. I keep trying to teach him "yes" but that is not catching on, well at least that is what he may want me to think???

Free Easy bakeware while supplies last

You only have to pay for S&H- reasonable

http://www.easybakeware.com/valueoffer.aspx?gclid=CN-g0p-ujZoCFRCdnAodcXZ3Pw


Let me know how you make out!!

22 months old and 10 months home

Joshua was 22 months the other day and he has been home for 10 months as of yesterday. He still in Early intervention for Speech, Physical Therapy, and Occupational Therapy. He also goes to private in PT, and OT. He has his one year evaluation for EI in June and most likely will not qualify for services in PT and OT as he is right on the cusp of a 25 percent delay. Qualifications for EI is a 25 percent delay or more. He is at an 18 month old level for PT and about the same for OT. He is language is really picking up and he is mimicking everything these days! If he keeps learning new words he probably will not qualify for speech either! I am so thankful for all the prayers that you all are doing for him, and thankful for God for giving us grace and allowing Joshua to catch up!! He has come so far in 10 months, it is truly amazing! He is doing well with his attachment issues. We see an adoption attachment specialist and she has really helped us to help him. He is happy most of the time and is starting to tease us back when we play. The girls just love him to pieces. I took some pics a few minutes ago and you can see them below. He is holding his dog that he was so scared to touch or get near a few months ago. It's has become his favorite toy!!

Firsts- First time that Joshua= alomost 21 months old

When I think of children doing their firsts, I think of walking, running, teeth etc. Joshua is our sixth child and we have never had a first like we did today. My husband, the triplets, and Joshua went food shopping tonight. While bringing in the bags of grocery's I see Joshua trying to pick up a heavy bag as if he wanted to help. I quickly found a light bag and discreetly placed it near him. He found that bag shortly after and picked it up and started walking towards the refrigerator and lifting it up towards the fridge as to say "this goes in there". He placed the bag next to the fridge and proceeded to get another bag and repeated several times. It was so cute to see our little guy trying to help us out. It was adorable!!!

He is turning 21 months next week. He is really coming along in his physical therapy. He is walking up and down the stairs holding on, squatting to pick up a toy and back up again. He will be getting sized for orthotics this week as his this should help with stabilization of his hips. His arches drop when he walks and he is unable to stabilize his hips as he should. Please pray that sensory wise this will not affect him in any way.

He is also really showing such great eye contact with all of us. He seems so settled in. We work on bonding and attaching daily even though things do not appear on the surface that they are a problem.

Godd news!! The Guatemalan family has enough money

The Guatemalan family has enough money to lay their father to rest thanks to everyone! There is even enough money to be able to move to better living quaters. Below is the GOOD NEWS UPDATE:


*** UPDATE on the xurek familia******* PTL!Share
Thursday, February 26, 2009 at 6:50pm
I have to thank you all so much for the wonderful response to help the Xurek Family.This is the family of seven children whose father was murdered last week.
We have, thanks to all of you, now received enough money to cover the cost of the funeral and cemetary costs, the family will now not be in debt and paying interest. The mother wanted to move to live with her parents. She was scared to stay living alone.Her parents live on a rented piece of land and they have built their own little shack there.They did not have room for the family to live in this tiny space. So the mother asked us if we could help her with a few pieces of tin sheeting so that the family would have a shelter to be able to live with. Well, thanks to all of you, they will now have a wooden one room house built with a cement floor and an outside kitchen. We also think that there will be enough money to buy them a bed and there is enough money for food for them for the next few weeks. We will try and get the rest of the children sponsored to go to school. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you have done for this family. It is a terrible tragedy that they have suffered but your kindness and caring hearts have really helped them from being in a dark pit of despair. You are really an amazing group of people.As soon as we can we will send you photos of the new structure for the family and give you updates.Mil gracias,Sharon

Sharon Smart-PoageMAYAN FAMILIES
Panajachel, Guatemala C.A.
Web: www.mayanfamilies. org E-mail: mayanfamilies@ yahoo.comTel: 011-502-7-762- 2490
Mobile: 011-502-4-511- 0456Skype: sharoninpana


www.mayanfamilies. org

URGENT help is needed for a family in Guatemala

I am copying this URGENT post from a friend of mine. Her blog has more details on this story from Guatemala. Her blog site is http://www.journeytocara.blogspot.com/


The original story comes from this site below, and it is heart breaking. This is one of many heart breaking stories out of Guatemala.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009
URGENT help is needed for a family in Guatemala

Repeating this with some photos and 2 additional links: http://www.mayanfamilies.org/News.aspx?id=711

and http://www.mayanfamilies.org/News.aspx?id=713

If you can help in any way, even a dollar can help if we all pitch in, please do so. Please pray for the needs of this family to be met. Thank you.

Saving money at your local Drug store using coupons and rebates

There are so many blogs that teach you how to save money using coupons. I just started using coupons and taking advantage of rebates at Walgreen's and Rite Aid. I used the in register coupons, store coupons, rebates, ad manufacture coupons to save and get free items. It is amazing that I got two free shampoo/conditioners this week. I went to two different stores to do that!

If you choose to get a gift card back from Walgreen's they will give you an extra 10% back. Then you can use the gift card the next time you shop and not put any money out of pocket!!

I also found a ton of free manufacture coupons on the web that I can down load and use. I also found out that the magazine All You March issue has a ton of coupons and you can get two free trial issues without giving a credit card. I read that All You has the most coupons than any other magazine out on the market. You can only get it at Wal-Mart or subscription http://www.allyou.com/general/newsletter-signup/index.html

Want a FREE sub from Quiznos?? Go to the link and sign up and they will send you a coupon. They are giving away FREE subs.
http://www.millionsubs.com/Reg.php?x=1
Thanks to the link from Frugal is Fabulous

Hi/Lo Thursday Please PRAY for ABBY THIS WEEK?

This post is part of "Hi/Lo Thursday" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check out their blog to read everyone else's "Hi/Lo" posts and for a chance to win $100.


NOTE: I am posting this, not for the 100, but to ask to PLEASE PRAY FOR ABBY THIS WEEK.

We often think that we have problems, and troubles, but if you see this family going through all that they are with their precious daughter ABBY, you realize that there are things more important than trivial ups and downs for our own lives. Abby has endured more suffering in a few months than we have in a life time. I praise God for getting her through the treatments, but we need your prayer and intervention. Pray for healing for Abby and strength for her faily.

Joyful Reunion -40 years later

Hi/Lo Thursday

This post is part of "Hi/Lo Thursday" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check out their blog to read everyone else's "Hi/Lo" posts and for a chance to win $100.

Threat to homeschooling-Children will have more rights than parents

There is a threat to homeschooling. This is a serious threat as there are policies in place already. Under the United Nations, a child will have more rights than a parent. Homeschool will no longer exist if this goes through here in America. There are other policies that are to take place if we someday govern by the UN rule. You can also read about the UN policies on UN web site in addition to the article below.

http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=87929

I don't know if there is anything we can do about this. If any one knows, please post.