Christmas 2013

 

 

 

Hard to believe another year has come and gone.  This year was very eventful for us.  We have seen firsthand how God answers prayers.

In February we received a phone call from our Social Worker regarding a newborn baby (well 2 weeks old) that needed a foster home.  It was also revealed that she was a foster/adopt child and that is why we were a match.  They were placing her with us, knowing that we could adopt her, too!!!  We have chosen to name her Hannah Lynn.  So thankful that this happened during Jim’s slow months and he was allowed to take time off and be home as we all settled in with the new adjustment of having a newborn baby in the house. It was an adjustment for me to be a stay-at-home-Mom of two while he was gone on fires.  Thomas is such a great helper and he loves being the BIG brother!!  I know it was an adjustment for Jim, too. 

Fire season was an average season with Jim traveling mostly in California to fires, and one fire assignment in Idaho.  Although this season was average it was also a tragic one.  The loss of 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots on the Yarnell fire in Arizona, hit pretty close to home, with Jim being a Hotshot Superintendent.  The other thing that made this fatality hit close to home was the discovery and use of a Hotshots Prayer that I wrote 11 years ago.  I had posted it back in 2007 on my Wildland Firefighter Wives blog and was tearful when I heard the Mayor of Prescott Arizona read the prayer on TV.  My prayer had become known and read on local and national TV, posted on websites, published in newspaper articles and even read by the lone survivor at the memorial for the 19 Hotshots. I was so honored that a prayer written from my heart over a decade ago had a huge impact on people’s lives during their time of grieving. Jim was selected to do an interview with Ann Curry (Dateline NBC) in regards to Wildland fires and climate change.  While talking with the producers, they discovered that I wrote the Hotshot Prayer.  Ann wanted to interview me on what it’s like to be married to a Hotshot as well as my prayer.  We aren’t sure when it’ll be aired, but should be between January and the early summer months.  We will post it on our blog when we have a date.

Thomas started Pre-K, two days a week this year.  We chose to send him to the Ramona Lutheran Christian Day School, which has been a great program for him and he’s enjoying all his new friendships.  He even got to sing in the Christmas program as part of the Shepherds choir.  We’ve also joined the Ramona Christian Family Schools homeschool group, as we’re beginning our homeschool journey.  He has a passion for airplanes, math and loves to be active.  He got a big boy bike for his birthday and he’s having fun riding it with no training wheels.  He’s only 5 but looks like he’s 8.  He is such an amazing BIG brother.  He loves to help feed Hannah and play with her on the floor.  He calls it “his brother time!” We just returned from our annual Knott’s Berry Farm Christmas trip, where we learned that Thomas has a passion for fast rollercoasters!!  He also enjoyed a special visit from Snoopy, who tucked him in bed at the hotel.  While visiting Santa, Thomas was surprised when Santa pulled the letter out of his coat that Thomas had written and mailed to the North Pole.   It was such a magical moment!! He is such a joy to our family and we love being his parents!! 

We are in the process of moving to Descanso, across the street from Jim’s station.  An opportunity came up to rent the government residence which is a little larger home for our growing family.  It also will give us more family time with Jim as he won’t have to commute anymore.  It will be a change of pace for our family and we’ll have new adventures and friends to meet out there.  

We are enjoying our crazy and sometimes busy lives as parents of two little ones. But looking back through the years at all that God has done for us, we are so thankful for this journey we’re on!! Our prayer is that your family will have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy and safe New Year, too!!  Remember, Jesus is the Reason for the Season!!!

                                                Merry Christmas ~

Jim, Trish, Thomas & Hannah

Two Little Blessings

Two little blessings

sent from above,

Twice the smiles

Twice the love

 

God knitted our family together perfectly!!

Can't believe Thomas is already 5 years old!!  He continues to amaze us with his humor, his love and his knowledge of things.  He is going to Pre-K at the Christian School here in town, and boy do we wish we would've enrolled him sooner.   It's a great program that allows him to attend 2 days a week and homeschool the other days.  Although days can be challenging when he acts his age, but for the most part, being his parents is such a joy and we couldn't imagine our lives without him.

Hannah will be 1 next month and wow how fast that year has gone!!  She is such a happy baby and her life story is just another testimony of how great our God is!!  Her life story is her story but we can tell you that babies usually born in her circumstances have a chance for many problems.  Praise God, she is a healthy, happy baby girl who God placed in our family.  When we prayed about "staying on the possible adoption list" for another year (after Thomas's adoption) we never knew this was what God had in store for us.  It just goes to prove, if you trust Him and wait for His perfect timing, he will answer prayers.  Hannah Lynn completes our family, which God knitted together perfectly!!

Updates

Hannah has been changing so much so fast lately.  Today, I felt a new tooth starting and her bottom tooth is already been popping through.  She's really close to crawling, she scoots pretty good all over and she loves to play tummy time!!  She likes to jump in her jumper and laughs a lot at her silly big brother, Thomas.  She smiles a lot and is talking a bunch.  It's all baby babble but it's such a great thing to listen to.  She's growing out of her clothes faster than she wears them.  Her newest favorite discovery is frozen grapes.  She sucks the juice out of them through a baby net holder.  It's really a great invention.  I've put pears, green beans, and now grapes in there and it locks in so she has no way of getting the actual food, just sucks the juice!!!  It keeps her happy for like 20-30 minutes.  She loves her bath time, splashing the water and grabbing the toys.  It's nice that fire season has slowed down a little and Jim is able to be home more to see Hannah grow up.
Thomas has gone from a little toddler to a little boy.  He's really smart, loves airplanes and he is eating us out of house and home.  He's having fun going to big boy school 2 days a week.  We've started homeschooling this year, and this little boy loves math!!  He did 5 pages today in his workbook.

UPDATE:
The court process to finalize the adoption has had many similarities to Thomas's adoption case.  We haven't had any birthmom visits since June, so we see the social worker monthly, just so she can see how Hannah is doing.  Today's court case was to terminate parental rights of the birthparents.  Some appeals were filed, so that didn't happen today.  The outcome will be adoption, but these birthparents keep doing things to stall the process from moving forward.  Our next court case is in 6 weeks, so we will just pray, wait and keep loving this growing little baby girl.  Please continue to pray for this process and I will continue updates when they happen. 

Our new journey of homeschooling

Today was the first OFFICIAL day of being part of our homeschool group.  We have a park day every month where we meet and share important dates, cirricculum and other important stuff.  I am so excited to start this journey and once we get it really moving, it'll be fun bringing Jim on board to help during the winter when his schedule slows down.  Our first field trip will be to Julian to a "behind the scenes" look at how they make the apple pies, then we'll head to the orchard to pick apples and pears!!!  So much fun :)  Thomas is so excited to have so many new friends!!

He's starting his 3rd week of school at the Ramona Christian School, which he attends 2 days a week.  He's enrolled in Pre-K there but we'll be homeschooling at Kindergarten level.  The two full days at school gives him time to learn other things, attend chapel and sing songs.  It gives me 2 days to get things done around the house as well as Hannah's weekly physical therapy appointment.  We'll be busy with that school as well as the homeschool group.  They have family nights, special dinners and events there, too.  So our lives are gonna get busy, but it's just the beginning.

Through this whole experience of adoption (fostering), raising our kids and now being able to teach them, is such a huge blessing in my life.  I'm so grateful for my extremely hard-working husband who provides for us and allows me to be a Stay-At-Home-Mommy.  We are so blessed!!!

We have a court date coming up for our process with Hannah.  We haven't had any visitations since May and so we're hopeful this will help speed this process up.  Please be praying for our upcoming court date (Sept 30th).  She is growing so fast, trying to crawl and loves to babble.  Jim and I think we heard her say "Dada" the other day.  I would love for her to say "Daddy" first as he is such an amazing Daddy!!!  She is loving the new foods we're introducing to her and she's gaining weight like crazy.  She loves her big brother, and can laugh so hard at his crazy humor.

First day of BIG BOY school

Yesterday was Thomas's first day of "big boy" school.  He misses the cutoff for Kindergarten by a few weeks, but we're not going to crush his spirit.  So he's going to Pre-K at the Lutheran Christian School, and he knows it as big boy school.  We are going to homeschool part-time as well as have him attend 2 full days a week at the school.  He is such a smarty pants.  He can do work in his Kindergarten workbooks no problem.  I have a feeling we're raising Doogie Howser #2.

A boy with a little attitude

Had no problem making friends from the beginning

On a side note, Hannah is also growing like a weed right now.  She is really trying to crawl and can roll all over the floor.  She is trying to talk and babbles a lot.  She has started to develop a little personality and it's fun to watch how she's changing each day.
Please be praying for us as the next court date is next week.  Tuesday will be the court hearing to terminate parental rights.  As we know from Thomas's situation and have heard from our SW that this doesn't always happen quickly and is usually appealed by both or one of the birthparents.  That doesn't mean that God can work a miracle and make our judge see the benefits to terminating rights sooner.  All things are possible with God.  I will fill you in next week after court.  (PS- I get to go with the SW to court, so be praying for me, too)

Jim has been gone a lot this summer.  It seemed slow at first, then boom it got busy and it seems like he's been gone more than home the last 3 months. 

Yay for healthy baby!!!

Hannah had her 6-month Well Baby Check-up today and is doing great!!  She is 15.5 pounds and 26.5 in. long.  She's in about the 75th percentile for her age group.  So given her rough start, the doctor feels she's right on track and doing great.  He's impressed with her rolling, sitting, laughing and personality in general is happy.  She got a few more vaccinations today, and barely cried.  He said he can see some teeth pushing through, so that explains her random fussiness.  Other than that, he's happy to see her growing and moving forward.  Looking forward to seeing her for her 9-month check-up in a few months. 

She is loving her foods that she gets to eat now.  Her favorites are squash, bananas & chicken w/ apples.  He said I can slowly start to introduce other foods to her, as long as they aren't nuts, hot dogs, candy or grapes.  And she can start to enjoy a little water and some 100% juice.

So thankful that God blessed us with yet another healthy child, despite her beginning. 

Two months...a lot of changes

I can't believe it's been 2 months since I've posted on the blog.  The kids have changed SO much in 2 months.  Hannah is now enjoying baby food like chicken & apples, bananas, green beans, squash, etc and she's really gaining weight now.  She's rolling on the ground a lot.  Rolls from back to tummy and tummy to back.  She likes to sit up with help and she loves to spend time sitting in her bouncy chair.  She has really discovered her voice and makes a lot of cooing and other noises.  She loves to blow bubbles, now since she's teething, too.
Thomas starts Pre-K in a few weeks.  He's excited to start a new school and a new chapter.  I will begin homeschooling him, 2 days a week, and he'll go to his school 2 days a week.  He's sure a smarty pants!!!  The boy knows so much about airplanes and jets.  Right now, he's really loving the Blue Angel jets.  Most people who meet him for the first time, can't believe he's only 4.5!!  He's half of Jim's height and he can sure eat a lot, too.  He has turned into a little fish in the swimming pool this year.  He has no fear of swimming down in the water, diving or the deep end.  He's really doing a great job!!
Well this momma is tired, but I wanted to keep our blog updated.  Sorry it's taken me so long.

Update on the process

We are so happy that God has answered another prayer of ours!!

We are moving forward in the process to adopt Hannah.  At this phase of the process we were waiting to get a new Adoptions Social Worker, who will be with us from now until the finalization.  I heard that we'd get a social worker out of the office that's closer to us.....North County.  I told Jim, it probably was a slim possibility, but I was praying that we'd get the same Social Worker that we had with Thomas's case. 
Well yesterday, I got a phone call from (caller ID) the County of SD.  So I answered it and heard a very familiar and friendly voice on the phone.  It was Sarah, Thomas's social worker.  She was calling to tell me that she was our adoptions worker with Hannah.  I instantly got chills up and down my spine.  An answer to prayer!!!
We are so excited that Miss Sarah is part of this process again.  She made Thomas's adoption process so much easier and she always had encouraging things to share with us.  What a relief!!!  Jim & I talked about how this will make this process seem easier.  We've always said Miss Sarah was part of our family, since she was Thomas's social worker, but now she really will be a BIG part of our lives, as she's the social worker for both kids!!!! 
Our next court date is in September, so we'll just be patient and do weekly visitations with Hannah's birth mom. 

Hannah has reached the 12 pounds mark and is changing a lot.  She now has a distinct laugh and she has a tickle spot that can make her smile!!  She's already wearing 6 month clothes and stretching out length wise.  She gets every other week baby massages.  She loves spending time with her Daddy, too!!

I apologize for not blogging more often, but it's gotten a little busier around here now :)
I posted a bunch of blogs today.  Hope you enjoy catching up!!

May is here.....almost summer time!!

I don't know why but I love these pictures.  Hannah was asleep and Jim fell asleep while Thomas was watching a TV show.  I guess Daddy's lap was so comfy, that he fell asleep, too!!  It was a nice way to end a day, with everyone sleeping peacefully.

Thomas has loved doing this ever since he was little.  He loves to help Papa do yard work especially when it involves the tractor!!  Papa is getting so brave at letting Thomas drive (in 6 speed) according to Thomas.  They were going fast!!

 We went to the mall as a family, just to get out of the house.  Thomas loves to ride the train there and he wanted Hannah to ride it for the first time.  So I sat in a car with Thomas & Daddy had Hannah behind us in a car.  We are so blessed to have such wonderful kids!!  God answers prayers, in His time, in His way.  Thank you God, for our answers!

Look who I caught playing with Papa.  So special to have these pictures!!

Tennessee trip to see family

 We took a short trip back to Tennessee to see Uncle Buddy, Aunt Kim and families.  It was so different traveling with a baby this time, not just a child.  Thomas did really well on the airplane, especially when the stewardess brought him a juice and crackers. Our flight there was pretty crazy.  We were flying into thunderstorm / tornado watch weather in Tennessee.  As we were descending into Nashville, you could see lightning everywhere.  Thomas had his window open and we were looking outside, when a huge lightning bolt struck the wing of our plane.  It was bright, loud and the plane bounced a bit!!  The pilots did a great job landing us safely even though it was pouring rain.  It was a true thunderstorm.  Warm, lots of heavy down-pour rain and lightning everywhere!! 

Enjoying a free continental breakfast at our

Hannah & Aunt Kim.

Hannah & Nana

Hannah was talking to and giggling with Daddy & Uncle Buddy

If Thomas ever tells you he knows what whiskey smells like, it's not because we've given him any (LOL) but he got to go with Jim & the rest of the family on the tour of the Jack Daniel's distillery in Lynchburg, TN.  Hannah & I had to stay behind, because they said it wasn't good for the baby to breathe the smells of the whiskey vats. 

It's not what you know but who you know!!  Uncle Buddy is a member of the JD's squires.  He has a land deed to part of the property, which he owns.  There's a back room (where only the squire's can access) that has lots of JD memorabilia, and stuff other squires have sent in.  You can see in the background the carving of JD made by the Zac Brown band.  There's bottles that survived hurricane Katrina, and stuff.  The table with all the whiskey is all the bottles of special editions.  The guy sitting next to Jim (black shirt) works at JD and shared a lot of history behind stuff.  Many neat stories to listen to.

Our trip home was LONG!!  We left Tennessee early in the morning, had a layover in Chicago, then a long flight home to San Diego.  Thomas was sleeping under his blanket on the plane he was so tired.  He's done that ever since he was a baby......hides under his blanket when he sleeps.  Kind of cute !!

This is what it looks like flying over Des Moines, IA at 30,000 feet.  They were having some stormy weather.

Our final Seaworld Trip (after 3 yr membership)

Family photo with Cookie Monster, Elmo  & Abby

If you look at the top of the picture, you'll see Jim & Thomas with their hands in the air!!  Thomas finally was tall enough to ride the roller coaster.  They rode it like 5 times, he loved it!!

That's the baby Orca Whale at Seaworld with the adult whales in the background.  Can't believe how big a 2 month Killer Whale is. 

Thomas's favorite show at Seaworld (for 3 years) was the Sea Lion & Otter show.  We always tried to sit up close and we'd get close up visits like this!! 

Daddy & Thomas riding Elmo's flying fish for the last time. 

Thomas is growing up so fast!! He's only 4.5 but he's going on 10!!

Thomas loves his Daddy!  He takes every chance he can get to dress like his Daddy, too.  Hannah & I were walking behind them one day, and I couldn't help but smile and take this picture.  This picture says it all.

Thomas & I went to the Farmer's Market and they had a little petting zoo and pony ride.  Normally I don't let him do those things, but he was so excited to see the pony.  I can't believe how much of a big boy he looks like on the pony.

 

Family visits

 We had a nice visit with our Oregon family Easter week.  The weather was beautiful and we had lots of opportunities to play and visit.  The kids are all getting so big, and this year Hannah was welcomed by her cousins with lots of love and kisses!!  

Cousins Faith & Hannah, spending some quality bonding time.  Faith was ready at almost every opportunity to hold Hannah!!

Nice family afternoon at my parents house.  The kids were all running around and playing, while the adults had a lot of good laughs and shared old stories. 

Aunt Cristy finally got some time with Hannah.  Hannah is so blessed to have such wonderful cousins, Uncles & Aunts!!

Enjoying an ice cream at Grandma's with all the cousins!!  (Gracie, Thomas & Faith)

No better way to end the night, than a good ol' tickle from Uncle Jerry!!