Moving Day Approaching

It has been so busy around here!  This time of year is busy as it is with school wrapping up.  Lots of end of year projects, field trips, plays, and such.  I also am preparing my ballet students for their end of year recital.  Just a lot going on! On top of that, I am trying to get us all ready for our move.  Getting the house here ready to turn over to the new owners, and getting our new house ready for us.  There are all the moving details too.  A family of ten moving over a thousand miles away takes a lot of work and planning.  I have been working on our home loan documentation, and trying to get things arranged for Steve's new office.  Picking out what to do for his office and getting it installed, building permits, etc.  It will be cool though! It will look something like this.  

And it will be in our back yard.  This way he will be working from home full time, but we wont have to worry about being quiet and not interrupting him.  It'll be great!

But what is nice is that we are all excited to go.  It is bitter sweet.  But excitment is probably the most dominant emotion.  Fortunately, all of the kids are very excited too now.  It took a little while for a couple of them to be excited about it, but they all are now.  I found this paper chain they made to count down the days until we leave.   :)

Just 13 days left now!

Charity Kindergarten Play

Charity was so adorable at her kindergarten play.  They did "The Gingerbread Man."

Amanda dances take 3 April 2015

Hana

Hana had picture day for ballet.  I love how cute she looked.  She is in one of my ballet classes and I choreographed a dance to "Amazing Grace" for them for the recital. I thought these pretty white long tutus would be great for that piece.

She is such a pretty girl!

I took the photo below right before I took her in for another set of hair the other day.

Bishop kids cheer

The kids did this cute pep talk just before going to to play lazer tag.  They were all on a team together.  And they won :)

Charity & Sam swim 4/2015

Charity and Sam Swimming

I took Charity and Sam swimming this morning while the other kids were in school and they were just so doggone cute!

Sam and his goggles were killing me.

I got them a little frozen yogurt first.

Charity brought her mermaid doll that she loves.

That grin is the best.

Andy's 13th Birthday

 

So we decided to change Andy's birthday legally to June 4th when we adopted him because Ethiopia had just assigned him a random day for his birthday and we wanted a day that would bear significance.  Also, if we pushed it back a couple of months it would make him closer to a year younger than Eden instead of 9 months younger, but be 2 years behind her in school.  Plus, we held him back a school year, so it would appear a bit better.  Anyhow, after adopting him, we worked on the legal date change for a while, but it just wasn't working out.  There were various issues with it.  But we had already decided that was what we were going to do, had told our family that June 4th was going to be his birthday, and we had put June 4th as his birthday on the Church records.  About a year later, our lawyer told us that the date change was just not going to work due to some international immigration issues.  But we decided we would still go with our plan anyhow, even if it weren't the legal date.  And we would use the legal date only where it was absolutely legally necessary.  Well, this past Summer our Bishop made us change his birthday to April 17, the assigned Ethiopian one.  Long story, but we had to.  So at that point, we just bagged our whole idea and decided to just embrace the April 17th date.  

So this was our first year that we were going to use that date.  Andy was so excited!  We were too.  Well, unfortunately, the day before his birthday Charity was hospitalized.  And she was in the hospital for 4 days.  I felt really bad for him because we really wanted it to be great for him.  This was after all, only the 4th time this kid would get to be recognized on his birthday his entire life.  Well, the first night when Charity was sick, I did take Andy out on a date.  He had planned to do that anyhow for his birthday.  We went to eat and did a quick shopping trip and to the movies.  We saw the movie Mall Cop 2 that he wanted to see.  And I loved watching him laugh so hard through it. We had a good time.  

But on his birthday, Steve and I were totally absent.  It was the scariest day we had with Charity and just couldn't be there.  Fortunately, we had a bunch of Steve's family in town and they worked hard to make his day special and I really appreciated that!  They had cake and sang to him and gave him gifts.  

Since Charity got back from the hospital, we have been trying to make up for his bday even more.  I went and got him a cell phone.  That is what he had wanted for his birthday.  So he pooled all his birthday money together and I pitched in and went and got it today.  I also had him plan tonight's family dinner.  We had nachos, apple pie and ice cream.  All what he loves.  And we sang to him again.  He was pretty happy about that.

We sure love Andy and take so much pride in all the progress and growth he has had the last four years.  He is a great kid.  And we are proud of his special gifts and talents.  We love his kind heart and how sweet he is to his little brother Sam.  We love his strength and athleticism.  He is a remarkable boy.  He is so loved by us. 

Charity Getting Well

Charity has been home today and back to her old self!  It is shocking how quickly she got really sick and quickly she got much better.  We are so glad she pulled out of it!

Charity Sick Part 2

After running more tests, the doctors were certain Charity has pancreatitis.  It is extremely rare for a child, especially a young one, to get pancreatitis.  It usually happens only to children who have had some kind of stomach trauma, like a car accident.  There are a handful of other reasons someone could get pancreatitis. But the doctors have narrowed it down to two possibilities in Charity's case.  One:  some kind of virus shook her body up enough to make it happen.  Two:  she has a genetic mutation that predisposes her to pancreatitis.  Both of these possibilites happen quite rarely.  My mom and sister both have chronic pancreatitis, so I am leaning toward the genetic theory.  Plus, all the rest of the family hasn't been sick with a virus.  In order to find out if it is the genetic mutation, we would have to get genetic testing done.  This possibly may not be covered by insurance and it is very expensive.  Like $4000.  We weren't able to get insurance to approve it, so we didn't have it done.  But we hope to in the future.

Her last half of her stay at the hospital showed big improvements for her.  She had periods of pain, nausea, and diarrhea, but was improving overall.  Her bloodwork improved so much, which was a great releif.  The hospital staff spoiled her.  They brought in toys and crafts and movies for her. 

She was spoiled by family too.  Tim, Brenda and Jesse came and saw her, as well as my Uncle Mark.  Charity and Jesse played in the playroom for a bit.  Tim and Brenda brought Charity a baby doll and bag of chips.

My brother Sherod and his family had a bag of stuffed animals and balloons delivered.  

Some of our kids and Janice and Kamber came by.  They brought flowers and a teddy bear.

Charity wanted her dolls and stuffed animals lined up on her bed.

She had some times where she felt great.    And that was so great and fun to see.

Playing with daddy and her dolly.  

Sometimes she felt pretty awful.  The Butlers all came to see her too.  Charity loves Blythe so much.

And someone brought in a great dog for her to play with.

Snuggling with Cessie.