Asher's Smile is Back =)

(Took this with my Blackberry while he was in recovery)

Sorry to leave you all hanging..

Asher pulled through his surgery like a champ!

We are now on Day 6 of his recovery and he is doing fantastic. So, great in fact, that he is back at school today!

(Smiley boy is back!)

His surgery last Tuesday last about three hours. Mom & Dad walked him back to the doors of the OR around 7:45 am and we finally got to see him again just before noon. I was able to make my 7:35 am class at school, jump in the car and speed.. er, carefully drive my way down to the hospital! =) The waiting was the worst part, especially since we were originally told surgery would be over around 10 am. But we were joined by our Pastor and close friend Tim Pent, so that helped pass the time.

When we first arrived back into the RIO (Rapid In & Out Recovery) Asher had just gotten there and was crying. It was so hard to see his sweet little body enduring so much pain. He was trying his best to be brave, but after waking up in a room where you don't know anyone, and you can't feel your mouth (plus your hip is killing you!) he sure had a reason to be upset. Mom and I did our best to soothe him until the nurse showed up with some relieving pain medicine. Within 20 minutes, he was back to his old self cracking jokes once again and his beautiful smile was back!

Due to both my parents' medical knowledge, Asher was able to be released that day and come home around four in the afternoon. Usually there is an overnight stay involved but the doctors agreed to let him go home as long as he was keeping down fluids and could stand. Asher had no problem doing that. =) He had all the nurses charmed, so they were a little sad to see him go. Actually, Asher LOVED the hospital and told Mom he wanted to stay! He had a nice comfy bed, a tv, and an exquisite view of the helicopter pad so he was pretty happy.

I am so glad I was able to pull some strings and be there at the hospital while he was recovering. I had talked to him the night before the surgery and Mom said all he could talk about was "Sera is coming." It was so sweet.. he even wore his Southeastern t-shirt to the hospital that morning. =)

The bone graft was a success and there is even a slight improvement in his speech! The doctor's didn't work on his upper lip, but that also looks better than before. The worst pain he has experienced has been with his hip and the doctor even warned that that would be the most painful. The first day he got around my hopping on one leg.. but by day three he was walking on both feet.. actually, it was more like running!

I was able to go home again this past weekend and he is doing great! You'd never know he just had surgery a few days ago. The hardest part for him right now is the soft food diet. He's got a pretty limited array of choices- ice cream, yogurt, pudding, jello and soups. Geez.. wish I could eat that! Asher loves food so this has been his biggest challenge so far. I think he has another week or two on soft foods and then we can start implementing regular food back into his diet.

Also, since he is SOO active, we have had to limit his ability to move for fear he will rip the stitches. He's not too crazy about that, especially since he missed a karate tournament over the weekend.

I took pictures at the hospital but haven't been able to update or upload because of my crazy mid-term ridden week. Then, I accidentally left my purse at home with my camera! So I'll have that back tomorrow and will add more, but for now I've added a few from my Blackberry.

Asher continues to amaze me with his strength and courage. If it was me going through this surgery, I would probably still be in bed at this point!

We are so glad this surgery is over and that he is doing so well.
Thank you so much for all of your thoughts and prayers!

Oh Love That Will Not Let Me Go..

O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

O light that foll’west all my way,
I yield my flick’ring torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.

O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.

O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.


Tomorrow morning at 7:30 am EST, is Asher's surgery.
Please be in prayer for him and the doctors..that God would guide their hands and allow this surgery to help in his proper development.

We're expecting the surgery to last about 2-3 hours, then recovery and even a possible same-day discharge depending on how well he does. Asher is such a strong little guy.. I know he will do well. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if he does better than his own mother and older sister.

Emma's 4th Gotcha Day

I'm working on a special something to commemorate the four wonderful years we've had with this special little girl..
Until then hopefully this will help paint a picture of our 4th Gotcha Day Anniversary with
Miss Emma Grace YunNa..

We celebrate each Gotcha Day with a cake picked out, made
and decorated by that particular child.

The look of concentration

The Smile

Her cake!

And now for her Mini Photo Shoot:
(I've expressed before how hard it is to photograph Emma because of her constant-wiggly-worm-zero-attention-spanned-can't-sit-stillNESS.
However, this was her day because these turned out GREAT!

(My Favorite)

So Serious

And yet so silly!

I love you Emma Gracie-Poo!

Rainy Fay Day

What to do on a Rainy Fay Day..?
Why, go out and enjoy her "gifts" while it lasts......

Rainy Trampoline Fun


Elena has been working with Ian to successfully do a backflip..

Attempt 20: Spotting
(I say 20 because I didn't want to bore you with 20 of the same photo-these were the best)

Attempt 21: No hands! He did it! =)

Jump, jump, jump!

Yes, our dog jumps on the trampoline

Elly has ADHD, so she has to work off that energy somehow.

Sigh. Crazy dog.

Ohh, not impressed? She also jumps in the pool. But most of you have seen her do this before.

Even though she looks like a Dalmation with those spots, she's actually a full blooded white Boxer!

So much rain, the pool is overflowing onto our deck!

Our other Boxer, the loveable motherly, Ivy.

Wet children!

"Raindrops keep falling on my head.."

"..but that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turnin' red,
Cryin's not for me,
Cuz I'm never gonna stop the rain by complainin',
Because I'm free,
Nothin's worryin' me!"

Tadpoles

Remember the tadpoles that invaded our pool last month? Well we managed to have mercy and rescue a few to as a science experiment for the kids.

<--The picture on the left shows the tadpoles during the 1st week of August.

<--Here they are August 23rd.


It's been so neat to watch them grow over the last two weeks! Already they have doubled in size and started developing bodies looking more like frogs than fish.










We have unfortunately, lost a few.. but we have about 15 surviving right now!












To me, this furthers justifying the notation that life indeed begins at conception, whether it's a frog or human being. They may only look like little "blobs" now, but soon they'll be frogs. =)

Hurricane FAY

Although she was only a tropical storm, Fay left her mark here in our house!
We've been through many hurricanes during our 13 years here in Florida, yet this one did the most damage ever to our home!

Leaks along the back wall of our house

Towels are lining each of our windows/doors along the backside of the house.

Notice the air bubble?

School Bells Are Ringing

As you might have figured already, school is in session here at our house! While I may be a bit behind in my update, there are reasons! I've started a new transition in my life- I moved to start college on August 18th. While I'm only an hour away, it's still been an interesting transition to say the least. Going from a household of nine people to one roommate and a hall full of girls, sharing the community bathrooms, different food, back to school and meeting new people; that has been my life for the past three weeks. Don't get me wrong- I'm enjoying every second of it! I'm having a blast meeting new people and learning what it is to be an adult. But it's still nice to come home once in awhile, and I've been able to do that for the past two weekends. But enough about me.. onto the rest of the crew!!

School is back in session and this year we range from one in college to two in kindergarten!
(With an 11th grader, 8th grader, 5th grader and 2nd grader in between)
To say the house is busy, would be an understatement.
I don't know how Mom does it teaching all of us, but somehow it happens!

This is our tenth year of homeschooling!
Since Mom has been doing it so long she is using a smorgasbord of different curriculum's but her favorites are mostly Abeka and Sonlight.
Abeka is one of the most known and easy to use homeschooling curriculum's out there. It may seem like a daunting task at first, but once you get into the routine it just becomes second nature.
We are also part of a homeschooling group and attend once-a-week co-ops which gives the experience of a classroom setting.

This year Mom is starting something new: She enrolled Asher, Esther and Emma in Classical Conversations. This class works alongside homeschooling families and uses the means of memorization to learn. For example the kids have a STACK of 3x5 note cards full of information that are to be memorized once a week. These cards include information from History, Science, Grammar, LATIN and Math. They use the philosophy that a child's brains at this age is like a sponge, and much more able to digest information than a 16 year old would. Here's a sample of what the kids memorized last week:

• In 1492 Columbus made the first of three(?) voyages to discover new land aboard three ships: the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.
• The FOUR types of skin: 1) Nerve, 2) Muscle, 3) Epithelial, 4) Connective
• Latin roots (can't remember which ones..)
• The states and capitols for Connecticut, Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island

When I come home this weekend I'll have to get it on video.. it's amazing to hear Esther splurt out that Augusta is the capitol of Maine. I barely knew how to write my name at her age!

Homeschooling obviously is not for everyone, but for our family it just works. We enjoy the added flexibility and "community learning" that comes with this approach to schooling.

The new bulletin board holds all of the schedules and assignments for the new school year.

Asher's books for 2nd grade!

The school room is clean, organized and ready for learning!

Esther and Emma have their own shelf for kindergarten!

Mom works on completing the "Massive Schedule"- the one keeps our house running!

Can you take a guess at who's backpack is who's?

And a peak at my dorm room:

(I'm on the top bunk)

My desk, and the new headquarters for blog updates!

The Summer Finale

Aunt Irma & Laura came for a visit from Maryland last week.
We've enjoyed having them here, especially the kids!

Three weeks ago we found out our pool was INFESTED with tadpoles.
And I'm not kidding.. INFESTED!
Here are just a few of the ones we saved and have managed to keep alive.
If all goes well, hopefully it will be a good science experiment for the kids.

KARATE PROMOTIONS!

Esther shows off her new Camo belt!

Ian has his RED belt!
Almost to black. =)

Esther taking a peek at our tadpoles.

This child is obviously not afraid of the camera..


Some of the beautiful flowers blooming in our backyard..

Our Flower Girls..

And of course, our happy boy.

The girls and their new belts.

Sisters

Two new favorite photo's of mine..

Oh, flexibility!

Esther dresses Elly up in her headband.

Ian (with Jack) and Cousin Laura

The incredible Jack Sparrow- AKA Swimming Guinea Pig!

Who knew a guinea pig could swim?

Jack

Laura, Asher, Elena (and Jack)

I'm glad he's folding his laundry!

Maybe my smile will get me out of folding laundry?

Caught!

Esther loves doing hair.

So.. the girls got in trouble and were sent to Time Out.
And this is how we found them....

We woke them up for dinner.. but they didn't seem to interested.

Asher and his new BLUE belt!

Kayla and Asher making brownies.

Or eating, more than making!

Yum!

More from July

Mom & Dad went on a (another) cruise during the last week of July. They flew out to Los Angeles and traveled down the Mexican Riviera, visiting beautiful places such as Mazatlan, Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vaillarta.

While the parents relaxed and had a blast.. their offspring remained at home managing the fort, trying to not be too jealous of "the rents"! Although, we didn't complain too much since we always love it when the parents are gone! When Mom's gone, Sera's rule apply:

Naps for the youngest two are chucked out the window
(They are hardly take them anyways, and that means they'll sleep longer at night time)
Dinner time is whatever you can find
(The first few nights before we had gone to the grocery store, pb&j sandwiches became pretty common!)
We "forget" to take our vitamins
(Who wants to take those anyways?)
Bed time is pushed farther back
(Again, they'll sleep longer at night, and wake up later!)
A nightly movie is in store for the oldest five
(Something fun to do)
Mountain Dew, Asher? Sure!
(Remind me to NEVER do that again!)

Between work, cleaning, feeding children, transporting them to all of their various activities, cleaning some more, grocery shopping, organizing, laundry and all of the other "Mom" duties.. I didn't have much time with my camera except the few photos below!

Our fashion diva

Always sporting a smile on his face.

Our two sets of twins..
Ivy & Elly and Esther & Emma

A Few Other Photos I Happened to Take:

My Projects:

1. Re-organizing the Refrigerator & Freezer
(Yes.. we do drink that much milk..)

2. No more toys in the Family Room!

3. The pile of toys gathered between our playroom and family room..
all went to a friend's garage sale!
The pile actually doubled in size by the time I finished cleaning out the girl's whole playroom, but I forgot to take a picture of the new clean, organized playroom!

And the worst part of the "Mom" duty:

The scene of the crime.

More evidence.

The criminal, who was sentenced to a night of jail time.

The story: Emma had taken a nap on Mom & Dad's bed and ended up having an accident due to oversleeping, and probably a little bit of stress. I stripped the bed, and in the process of washing and drying the sheets we all went to evening church service that night. Normally, Elly is kept in my parent's bedroom so she doesn't have full run of the house. Well, when we came home that night I went to put new sheets on the bed since they were going to be home later that night. I was horrified to see every child's nightmare- a huge stain the dog had deposited that looked like a size of Mt Everest and as if that wasn't horrible enough, it had been done on the costly Tempur-pedic mattress!!!!! To say I was a little furious with the suspect, would be an understatement. Let's just say the criminal spent the rest of her night in doggy jail.
And fortunately, after an hours worth of scrubbing with Oxi-Clean and some Febreeze, the stain was gone. PHEW!

All in all, fun was had by all. The parents enjoyed a relaxing vacation, especially since Dad is an unfortunate work-aholic and has been pretty stressed latly. The kids enjoyed a week of "No Mom" and all seven of us being together. I leave for college on August 16th, so this is one of the last times I'll be able to spend with ALL of them before school starts.

Prayer

Some of you will remember this post I made back in China the day after we had visited Asher's orphanage.
WELL..
I can't go into a whole lot of details right now,
but I'm asking for each of you to PRAY for this little boy, J.

(I know his picture was on a lot of fridge's right after my blog post came out.)


A lot of special things are happening in his life right now..
please pray for God's will to be done and for us to be patient
as we watch His awesome plan for J's life begin to unfold.

I'll update when I know more..

Dad's 50th

This year marked the big 5-0 for the Daddy-o!
We sent him off for the afternoon with the youngest kids to the movies while those who were left scrambled to decorate the house.
Our guests started arriving at 6:30 and we had all of them park down the street so the house would appear "empty." Kayla had instructions to keep Dad out as long as possible and she knew exactly what to do because after the movie they visited the ice cream store and Petsmart! Finally, around 7:30 pm the birthday boy arrived to a house full of close friends and family ready to surprise him. And boy was he surprised!

Friends are here and preparing for the big moment..

Our theme was "Celebrating 50"

Friends hiding in the kitchen..

Shh..

Here he comes..

SURPRISE!

The Birthday Boy!
He sure was surprised since we hadn't done much that day. We told Dad we would have a nice quiet dinner as a family and he was quite depressed that we weren't doing anything special. Little did he know...

The cake!

We had to throw in a few jokes.. =)
(that's an inflatable walker)

We asked all of our guests to bring 50 of something..
and it was pretty funny to see what people came up with!

One of our friends made Dad an "Old Geezer Survival Kit" packed
full of funny jokes such as prune juice, stimulants, tp, a giant remote control, marbles.. etc

Prune Juice

Our gift to Dad.. in iPhone!
However, because they hadn't come out yet we could only give him the paper version of one!

Now for the biggest surprise-
Mom: "Honey, the kids and I have decided to surprise you with something..."
(Don't you love Kayla and Ian's faces.)

"..we're going to adopt a little boy from Africa!"

And here he is.. =)

Okay, it's kind of been a joke in our family that the next time we adopt it will be a child from Africa. Mom would always be willing to add to our large brood, but Dad always says we are done! So keeping that in mind our friend Randy decided to dress up and use body paint to surprise my dad. It was hilarious.. Dad was sure shocked and I think he even almost believed Mom when she told him.

Don't worry-- we are COMPLETE and NOT adopting again.
(Although a few of us would always be open to adding to the family)

Meet your new son!

Esther doesn't look too excited about her new "brother."

Mom, Randy and Dad

Aged to Perfection

Singing Happy Birthday

Our Family

4th of July

Our Fourth of July was rather quiet this year.
Last year we had over 72 people at our house for an annual 4th of July bash that consists of lots of good friends, food, boating and fireworks!
However, due to the events of the following day (Dad's surprise 50th birthday party) we forewent the usual tradition and begrudgingly opted for a quieter, relaxed holiday. (I say begrudgingly since most of us kids were hoping for more excitement!)
At the end of the day the Disney fireworks we saw were through a bunch of trees.
Oh well.. next year we will continue in our tradition.

Here are a few shots of our little Miss Independence Day Beauties..

The view of the Disney fireworks from our street.