Massive Update

I've been away for over 9 months now. A lot has been happening in our family. I thought it might be a good idea to bring everything up-to-date before I plow forward.

Micah is still doing well. He played soccer in the spring and spent most of the summer swimming. He's really making great progress in OT and we're seeing his start to eat more and more. In fact, a few weeks ago Micah finally allowed food to touch and ate his first ever peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Since then, he's eaten one nearly every day.

Hannah finished up preschool and plowed right on into full-day kindergarten this fall. She's still dancing and playing soccer. She's also reading and writing up a storm. One of our biggest challenges is that because everything comes so easily to Hannah, she thinks she can do everything without us. It's hard to keep her challenged and grounded at the same time.

Jason finished up his year at public school hoping he was going to a new school. After his last day though, we got a call from our first choice school and found out that Jason got IN! This was the school we really wanted him in and what a difference it has made. My son is confident, learning better social skills and behaviors and has mad amazing progress academically. He reads constantly and his writing is getting so much better. He played flag football with them this fall which was awesome. Jason hasn't been able to do a true team sport in years.

Andy had back surgery a month after I last posted. They fused his S1/L5/L4. Four days in the hospital and 3 and 1/2 months off work. He's feeling 100% better since his surgery and is so much happier. He's looking to finish school soon so he's researching masters programs.

As for me, I pretty much took care of everyone. The kids, my husband and sometimes my parents. My life changed a lot when Michael died and then even more as the summer progressed. I learned a lot about myself and am mostly just putting my all into my job...mom.

Random Friday

I decided that since my life is insane and I'll start dedicating Friday's to those random bits of stuff that don't make a full post.  And really, my life and my Fridays are usually pretty random.

I think the biggest news of the week is my computer woes are soon to be solved.  I've been doing everything on Andy's laptop, which while functioning well, is not set up with my calendar, contacts and other bits of info necessary for me.  Well, TODAY, Andy is buying and bringing home the new family (MINE!) computer.  And get this....it's a MAC!!!!  My mac died last fall and I have been making do on a pieced together Winbox for about a year now.  It's going to be great to be home again.

Micah continues to just make me both smile and cry all at once.  My baby is growing up FAST.  And the list of things he is behind on continues to dwindle.  He's such a BOY and a big one at that.  OT continues to go well and he is making great strides socially in preschool.  My only gripe is the potty training thing.  I don't think it's happening anytime soon.  He just doesn't KNOW when he has to go and has very little sensation when he does.  It's getting better, but I am really tired of paying for diapers.  Especially since they decreased the number in the box.  Ugh.

Hannah is just growing up to be such a neat kid.  She's still working hard on learning to read and write.  I'm constantly being given note and cards she made and am asked to help her read things she sees around her. This morning she copied "The Cat in the Hat" for a title of her drawing.  The drawing was of a cat IN a hat. And she talks ALL the time.  I'm told this is a trait she inherited from me.  All I can say now is..I'm sorry.

Jason's had a pretty good week overall.  We've had some miscommunication concerning homework and I think we need to change how his assignments are sent home.  He's working so hard to keep up in class, but I don't always get the full story at home.  Ah, the joys of language processing disorders.  I think the greatest thing is that he isn't taking his anger and frustration out on me any more.  He's starting to use some of those strategies we've been teaching him for dealing with his feeling on his own.  Things aren't perfect, but we're making progress.  He's a really fun kid too.  Very creative, kind and a joy to be with.

Andy is working really hard.  His boss is offering him a lot of overtime to make up for the statewide pay-cut our governor gave us.  The money helps, but it makes for long days for the both of us.  At home he's been trying out this cool swirled paint technique for the latest guitar he's building,  After a successful sample, he painted one of the kids pumpkins and a light switch.  Who knows what he'll paint next.  I think he'd do the front door if he could.

Prairie Peddler Festival

Last weekend, we joined Grandma and Grandpa Fenner, Aunt Paula and cousins Leonard and Allie at the Prairie Peddler Festival in Butler, Ohio.  Despite my initial fears of losing the kids in the crowds, it turned out to be a really nice day.  We took a real horse drawn hayride through the woods, the kids rode some ponies and we spend some time listening to some bluegrass music.  I was also able to score some homemade, natural jams, butters and soaps and Andy found some awesome honey from a local bee-keeper.

Due to technical difficulties I wasn't able to post the pictures, so I am doing them now.

In all it was a fun day.

Recovery and More

We're feeling better...finally.  I have to say that the flu is not much fun.  We've avoided it in recent years, but I guess this new strain is coming around earlier.  It's pretty possible that this is the H1N1 flu everyone has been so freaked out about, but as the Health Department is no longer testing and the doctors are simply telling you to stay home unless you meet certain criteria, we'll never know.  Either way, it was a bad case to have and we all feel thoroughly whooped.

I also think we may have over done it a bit today.  Andy has been painting the wood exterior of the house for about a month now and the weather has not been cooperating lately.  Today, he felt well enough to get the first coat on the front and garage door trim and I have to say, it looks great.  Jason even helped his dad by painting everything that didn't need a ladder.  Jason did a pretty good job although I don't think those clothes will be used for anything other than paint work again.

Hannah is making a turn for the better finally.  Yesterday we realized that she was developing a secondary infection from the flu.  We got fairly aggressive with the liquids and the steam to get the stuff in her chest moving.  No more fevers and she's coughing up whatever was in there.

Micah continues on his journey to be a TV Zombie.  It's hard to keep a really active boy like him still when they are sick, so I let the TV run for every hour we have been awake.  I took Hannah and him in a brisk walk around the block while the guys were painting.  I wanted to get them both moving and some fresh air.  Although the leaves are just now starting to change, it was neat to see the beginnings of fall. That and about an hour of playing with the neighbors was all it took to tucker them both out.

All in all, we feel better and are climbing out of the pit we've been in for the past few days.  Back to life we go.

Ground Zero

I am a fairly proactive mom with my kids health.  We eat well, take vitamins and make sure to wash our hands frequently.  We even get yearly flu shots.

Apparently, this year we were too late.

We ALL have the flu.  Every single one of us has spent the last 2-3 days in abject fluish misery.

The house is a wreck, toys are everywhere and I am frankly just too tired to care.

The scary part is that the kids are feeling better and we aren't.  

I'm sure by Monday things will be looking up...or at least I hope so.

I hope.

Disney Day 1

Our day started off around 3am after a not so restful 4 hours of sleep. We finished off that last minute stuff and woke the kids around 3:45am. Yes, you did read that right. Jason was a bit hard to get up and Micah was very grumpy and shaky. But Hannah woke up, realized WHY we were up this early and starting talking and getting all excited. Thankfully her enthusiasm spread to the boys so by the time we got to the airport at 4:20a, everyone was awake and ready to go.

This was the kids first time flying and they did great. I brought extra stuff for them to do but never needed it. We left Columbus at 6am and landed in Orlando at 11:30am after a layover in Chicago. One priceless moment came when we landed in Chicago and Micah cried out as
the plane touched down and started to break "WE'RE NOT GONNA MAKE IT!!! WE'RE NOT GONNA MAKE IT!! He got the passengers around him (and us) all laughing so when we landed in Orlando, he cried "OH NO! WE'RE GONNA CRASH!!!" I have no idea where he gets these things. After being up since 3:45, Hannah did dose on the flight from Chicago to Orlando, but not for more than a few minutes at a time. The boys never just fall asleep so we just kept on powering through.

Our first stop of the day after picking up our rental (Really, does it have to take THAT long?), we headed over to the Downtown Disney area. As this was our first trip, they kids starting screaming their excitement at every sign and bus and Mouse Earred object they saw. It was a good thing. :)


Once parked, we headed directly to lunch at the new T-REX restaurant. Since we knew the evening would be very Princess themed, we wanted to give the boys something as well. The restaurant was very cool with animatronic dinosaurs and really neat themeing. Every 20 minutes or so the restaurant experiences a "meteor shower" and the sound effects get loud, the animals come alive and the lights go dark and flashy. The kids LOVED it, but it did get a annoying to Hannah after a while. I think she was happy to go when the meal was done, although Jason could have stayed and talked to the moving animals for hours. Yes, I did say talk.



After lunch we decided to do a bit of shopping before Hannah's appointment at the Bibbity Boppity Boutique. We hit the Lego store which was super cool and then headed over to The World of Disney where the boutique was located to check in. While we waited to be buzzed, we did a little shopping. Micah found a Buzz Lightyear laser gun that he just couldn't part with. Seriously, couldn't. He has a blue squirt gun at home that he carries everywhere. We had to leave it at home, so he, apparently, has found a suitable replacement.


We finally decided to pick up a little thing for each of them which became a bit more trouble than it was worth. They were very hot and very tired by this point and with so many amazing choices, they had a hard time deciding. (Except Micah who had a death grip on the gun since he picked it up, lol) It took a while, but Hannah picked out a small music box and Jason a stuffed Simba.

During all of this choosing, it came time for Hannah's appointment. I stayed with her and Andy took the boys back to the Lego store and then to Once Upon a Toy. Sadly, I had the camera so we don't have any good picks of the boys becoming "Certified Lightsaber Technicians" as they learned to build their own.

At the boutique, Princess Hannah was given the royal treatment by her "Fairy Godmother." She got her nails painted, sparkly make-up and stick on jewels for her cheek. Her hair was drawn up into the coolest 'bun' and she was given a crown and a sash. With her dress completing the picture, my travel weary little girl was transformed into a beautiful princess. For the rest of the day, people of all ages would pass her and tell her she was beautiful or something similar. She took her role to heart and curtsied with a smile to nearly everyone she saw.



Finally, we regrouped and headed to check into our condo. Windsor Hills is literally right off Disney property which will be so super convenient this week. And the condo is very nice. The kids room is Mickey themed and the master has a very comfortable looking King sized bed. We rested there for a couple hours and let the kids cool off and wind down. Micah, who would not nap despite waking up so early, vegged out in front of the TV while we unpacked and got organized.

Finally, it was time to go. Those of us not attending dinner in full royal attire changed into clean, not-so-casual clothes and we headed out to the Grand Floridian. This hotel is GORGEOUS! The lobby was amazing to wander around while we waited for our table and the live music (first a pianist, then a jazz band) was just wonderful. While we waited, we took turns dancing with each other to the piano music bringing about a lot of smiles from us all. It was after 8pm when our table was called, but still, the kids were doing great. We took a really nice family photo as we entered and were quickly seated and given our drinks.



I've been to a lot of buffets in my time, even at Disney, but this one was amazing. Everything we ate was succulent and delicious. We picked this meal originally because it's the only princess meal we could all attend that was not in a park. But now that I have been, I have to say, it has to be the most fun of them all. Seriously, there were many times that we were all laughing so hard we cried. The characters (Cinderella, Prince Charming and Cinderella's Step mom and step-sisters) make the rounds and visit each and every table interacting with the kids and signing autographs. Hannah was ENTHRALLED to meet Cinderella and Prince Charming. But while we did this meal for her, I think the boys had just as much, if not more fun.



Micah charmed the heck out of Cinderella with his Space Ranger skills. But Jason was the real show stealer here. While all the characters really played up their parts, Drizzella, just took to Jason. At one point she had him dancing the waltz through the dining room and doing the sprinkler in the aisle. The best was when Jason told her she was pretty and she asked if he had a girlfriend? The rest is history, so to speak. After sealing the deal with a kiss on the cheek, she drug him through the restaurant all the while screaming to her "mom" and "sisters" about her new beau. Jason just ate it up and played along. It was so cool. I, honestly, don't think I've had more fun at dinner, ever.



Finally, it was time to say goodbye and we headed back to the condo. By then it was 10pm and the kids were very, anxious to go to bed. It took a bit of reminding them to be quite, but within 5 minutes of the last "stop making noise" declaration, they were asleep. Which is what I should be doing right now.

Snow Day!

For the second day in a row, the kids are home from school with a SNOW DAY!!! Here's a few shots of them enjoying themselves.

Jason enjoying the first snow angle of the day


Micah must drive everywhere...even in the snow.


Hannah enjoying the sled.

Five Years Ago

I've been thinking of how to blog about this for some time. And this week being the 5 year anniversary of the event, I guess I should just get started.

Five years ago our social worker, Amy, arrived and with the aid of my husband, packed her Explorer with my oldest son's things, handed me some papers to sign, hugged us all and then drove him forever. We haven't seen him since.

The story actually begins 7 1/2 months before when we got a message on our answering machine. It was from a social worker at the county who would be working with us on finding a match. She was calling to introduce herself and briefly mentioned that she had 2 brothers she thought would make a good match for our family. To say we were excited was an understatement. We both took off work the next morning to meet with her and there we learned of DJ and Jason. DJ was described as fun-loving, gentle, hyper but wanting to please. Jason was described as your typical 4 yo who loved to play and cuddle. Without even a picture to see, I knew in my hear that these were my sons.

Five short weeks later, Andy and I drove up to their foster home to meet them. A week later, we brought them home. Looking back, I can see all the red flags that were raising, but at the time, my eyes were too clouded with finally being a mom. Something I had wanted for so long and thought I was prepared for. I was both right and wrong.

Long before I had ever met him, someone had hurt DJ so deeply that he was unable to feel the love we were offering him. That love terrified him and the harder we tried to reach him, the harder he worked to push us away. We were in therapy within a month of his arrival. Thankfully, I had read enough to know that something was wrong and we needed help. But the rages and the threats and the violence continued. To the outside world, he was an angel. Perfect in every respect. Convincing friends, family and teachers that I was just a mean, horrible mom. It was his way to keep me away. And it was working.

In all of this initial madness, in Jason we also were dealing with a very withdrawn, shut down little boy. My "typical" 4 year old was anything but. He could speak fewer than 50 words when he came home and his longest sentence was "Pick up me!" He couldn't communicate, wasn't potty trained and had NO idea what was happening in his world. We immediately put him in a special preschool and I worked hard to help him with his grief. I wanted to figure out who the true little boy was hiding behind all that silliness. It would take years to break down those walls, but I wasn't going to stop trying.

Meanwhile, DJ continued to get worse instead of better. The rages continued to be a daily occurrence. He would often rage for hours a day over the littlest of things. He started peeing on everything. The violence and threats escalated and he had a power over Jason that was frightening. He had to be in our sight at all times. (Not in the same room, but within our eyesight.) He slept with an alarm on his door so we knew if he got up at night and we couldn't even let him outside to play with other kids.

During that fall and on into the holidays, DJ was placed in two emergency therapeutic foster homes for weekend respite, one crisis center and it culminated in a 10 day stay at a local psychiatric hospital right before Christmas. During all of this, we received many diagnoses. The most definitive being Reactive Attachment Disorder. This was the one we most feared. As he became an increasing danger to myself and Jason, the lack of conscious, cause and effect and the in ability to give or receive love was terrifying. All the therapists told us the same thing. DJ had to choose to attach to us. He had to want it. And he so clearly showed us he didn't, no matter how badly we wanted him too.

Added to this, was the issue of Jason. He wasn't safe in our home with DJ around and every therapist we have met, every evaluation we had done, clearly showed two things. DJ was a very disturbed little boy and he wasn't going to get better as long as he lived with his favorite victim, Jason.

So, we turned to our last option, an out of home placement for DJ in a treatment center. I found one in town that worked specifically on the issues we were facing and with our therapist's and social worker's okay, began making phone calls shortly after New Years. If we could get him placed there, they would work with us as a family as well as just DJ. There would be family therapy, therapy for the boys individually and for them together. It honestly seemed like the best answer for all of us.

A meeting was help on a Friday with all the necessary people; our social worker, our therapist, the treatment center staff and us. At the end of the meeting, everyone agreed that this was our best home to save our family. The big question was the county. The boys' adoption was not final yet and the county would need to approve this plan before we could proceed. Finalization was scheduled in two weeks. We were so very close. I felt a peace all weekend that things would be okay now. And they would, just not how I expected.

The call came Monday afternoon at 4:30pm. DJ was in his room raging and Jason and I were having some cuddle time. They had both been off school that day for snow. When I realized the call was from our social worker, I started a video for Jason and headed upstairs. I can still remember everything about that phone call. I was expecting great news, and instead, I was given what I perceived as the worst. The county had decided that it was in both boys best interest to remove DJ from the home permanently and place him in a therapeutic foster home. Despite our desire to try, they felt that long term the boys would be better off apart. They were disrupting the adoption of our oldest son.

The next few days are still a blur. Withdrawing him from school, making arrangements for records transfers and prescription refills and packing up everything he owned filled my free time. I stopped attachment parenting and starting to just try and have some peace in those final days. I tried to prepare both boys for what was about to happen. They had always been together and despite the problems, Jason loved his big brother a great deal.

That morning we were all up early. It had snowed so Andy and the boys went outside to shovel. The garage was full of all of DJ's things. Jason asked why DJ's toys were in the garage and DJ said because he was leaving. DJ wasn't sad. Apprehensive, maybe, but not sad. Jason was confused, Andy was numb and I was crying enough for all of us.

Finally, Amy arrived and while I filled out the paperwork terminating the adoptive placement, Andy, Jason and DJ loaded her car. Finally it was time. I helped get my son settled in the car, we all hugged him goodbye and they drove off. Jason went in the house to watch TV and I tried to not collapse from the sobs.

But the story doesn't end there.

On February 5th of 2004, we were able to finalize Jason's adoption. The previous week had been wrought with grief and worry that they would take my baby now too. Jason was finally ours. FOREVER! Something I still have to remind him of frequently, but I don't mind. We paid a high price to become the family we are.


I'd like to tell you that everyone went on to live happily ever after, but the is real life, not a fairy tale. Despite assurances to the contrary, we were not able to keep in contact with DJ. We exchanged a couple of cards and pictures after about a year, but then all contact stopped again. It became too difficult for Jason to deal with at the time and they stopped responding. Now we tell Jason if he wants to contact his brother, he needs to make the effort to write him. He hasn't, and I think it still may be years before he does.

And damage wrought in the 6 months DJ was my son, would haunt us for years to come. We lost friends, became alienated from family who couldn't understand and blamed me and ended up leaving the church we were married in. Jason would shut down again and we would have to work hard for the next few years convince him that someone wasn't going to just take him away. Even now, he acts up at this time of year. He's a grump who is quick to anger and act out and break rules just so we will ground him and keep him close. Deep down he still fears it will happen to him. Especially now that he is the same age his brother was then. But as I told him this morning, he is not his brother and despite his worries, is here to stay.

Looking back, I can see how God worked all this out. We did more for DJ in the 6 months he lived with us than his foster parents had done in the 4 years he lived there. DJ was able to get the help he needed here to get him the right placement when he left. And Jason was able to come home to a family who would fight to protect him, get him th help he needed and realize what an incredibly special little boy he is. I think had DJ stayed here, thing in our family would have been dramatically different. Knowing what I know now, I doubt I could have ever convinced DJ to attach to me. And poor Jason would have continued in the role of the victim and never come out of his protective shell. Hiding behind silliness and never showing anyone who he really is.

It was a long hard road with lessons on it that I would have preferred to learn another way, but God is good and His blessings abound even now.

Christmas thoughts

Despite my dad's hospitalization and my broken wrist, Christmas turned out pretty good this year.

We've learned over the years to make our holidays very, very low key. We have a few traditions we follow, but a lot of our time is spent just hanging out around the house together. Too much stuff without enough breaks in between will cause major unhappiness in our house. So we watched our new movies, played our new games, discovered the joys of loud rock music drifting out of my son's room, listen to the squeals of a little girl dancing with her dolls and the screams of helps coming from the mini-Batman in the former nursery.

Here's a few pictures of our fun....Jason enjoying his new dragons...

Princess Hannah with Princess Belle...

And Micah, the engineer....

A long, hard day...

Please pray for my dad.

There is something wrong with him since he was released from the hospital yesterday because of his cervical spinal fusion surgery this last Thursday. He wasn't home 18 hours before we had to call the squad. We don't know at the point exactly what's wrong. He's very disoriented and not at all himself. It's pretty scary.

They did find that he has pneumonia, but it's hard to reconcile his reactions and behavior to what they found. So they admitted him and are running more tests to try and figure it out. It was a hard day for my mom and I and tomorrow it will be my brother and I in shifts until she can get off work.

The Santa Question

One of the real joys in my week is the few minutes I get to spend in the observation room with the other moms from Micah's class. Over the past few months, we've all gotten to know each other and become fast friends.

Today we were talking about Christmas and holidays and traditions. One of the moms was talking about whether or not to encourage her daughter's belief in Santa. A couple moms said they weren't and a couple said they were. This precluded a conversation about what happens when your kids finds out that you are Santa and so on.

Personally, I never really intended to encourage a belief in Santa, instead wanting to focus on Christ and the celebration of his birth. I didn't have a problem with people who do, it just wasn't my thing.

I didn't get that choice though. As happens with any older child adoption, you child has their own culture and beliefs when they join your family.

In our case, we had a very fervent belief in Santa, Rudolph and all his reindeer. No biggie...we adjusted. We get pictures taken yearly with the big man, bake him cookies, write him letters and even feed his reindeer.

But what struck me in all of this was my reaction to the conversation. At one point, I point, I just said "Oh, we didn't have a choice. Jason came that way."

Later, when relaying the story to Andy while we sorted through our Chirstmas shopping, it struck me as hysterically funny.

Not because of Santa or the conversation or anything like that.

But I was suddenly struck with an image of my son at age 4, in a brightly colored box with a cellophane front, labeled clearly...

JASON

An adorable 4yo boy with blue eyes, sandy brown hair and glasses.

He comes complete with a bright smile, a limited vocabulary and a belief in Santa!

Twisted, I know. But hey, it's who I am. And once my mind started rolling, I pictured Hannah being born with a tattoo requiring pink clothes and Micah coming with a recommendation for a protection plan due to ER trips.

Christmas Insanity

Ah, the Christmas season is upon us.

I love Christmas. I really do. I have such great memories of Christmas as a child. I love the music, the decorations and the food. (Especially the food) I love a chance to celebrate the birth of my Lord. And as a family, we have lots of traditions and things that we do to celebrate.

Each family member gets a new ornament to put on the tree signifying something about the past year. Mine this year is a Starbuck coffee cup, if that tells you anything about how I survive my days.

We visit the same "Santa" every year for pictures. The kids are old enough now that they remember him, although Jason has figured out that he just "works" for Santa now. He said Santa can't possibly be at a mall this close to Christmas when he has a sleigh to pack. (I love my son's thinking.)

The kids all get a set of Christmas lights in their room.

We visit the lights at the Zoo.

I always do a baking day with the kids. This is messy, but fun. And they love handing out "their" cookies.

This year, Jason and Hannah were able to sing in the Christmas program and we always look forward to our Christmas Eve candlelight service.

But there is a dark, underbelly to Christmas here as well.

Not everyone has happy memories of the holidays and I was his mom before I really understood what this could mean. And boy, was that first Christmas a hard one. I didn't really understand all that he was dealing with that first year. As excited as we were about our first Christmas as parents, Jason was grieving just as hard for the life he was no longer a part of. And for the chaotic parts of that life that had followed him to our home.

By the time we reached Christmas, Jason's brother, DJ, was imploding and spend the days before Christmas in a psychiatric facility. And just 5 weeks after Christmas, the county removed DJ for Jason's safety. Needless to say, this is not always a good time of year in our house.

While Hannah and Micah have only ever known the holiday with us, Jason has memories of Christmas with his foster family. He also remembers his first Christmas with us. A holiday that filled his mom and dad with joy, but him with sorrow. During this season he is always on edge. Jumpy. A bit quicker to lash out. A bit easier to cry.

Behaviors that have been gone for months, sometimes years resurface again. We ended up looking like crazy parents because we surpervise our oldest more than our youngest. He needs this though. I don't think Jason would ever admit to his friends that he liked sitting at the table with us at the Christmas party, but he was calmed and better behaved than he had been in days.

It helps knowing we're not alone in this either. I have a friend who blogged on this very topic earlier this week. This Christmas insanity seems to be rather common among parents of hurt children. We have friends that forgo the tree altogether and others that simply decorate for a couple of days then go back to normal. Some, like us, try for as much of a normal holiday as possible. We all seem to be dealing with varying levels of insanity, but at least we are not alone.

Hang in there everyone. This too shall pass and then we only have 365 days until we get to do it again.

An introduction

I thought I'd start with a brief intro of who we are and why we are doing this.

Andy and I were married just over 9 years ago. We knew from the beginning we wanted kids and from very early on that we wanted to adopt. God led us to foster/adoption and in July of 2003 we were matched with our son, Jason, and his older brother, DJ. To say we jumped into the deep end of the pool without a life jacket would be an understatement. Think a raging river with weights.

That was 5 1/2 years ago and while DJ has gone on to a new family (another story for another time), we have added 2 more kids to our family. Three weeks after Jason's adoption was finalized we found out we were pregnant with Hannah. Nine months after she was born we found out Micah was on his way as well. Our brood currently consists of Jason (9), Hannah (4) and Micah (2). They are an active bunch who certainly keep us on our toes.

It's always a challenge raising kids and we really like a challenge.