The Brothers Birthdays!

Billy and Timothy are a year apart and on the calendar each year, have birthdays exactly a month and a day apart.

These boys have come so very far, since they came to us as foster children, many years ago.

They came from a situation of severe neglect and abuse, where they were exposed to drugs and saw violence daily in the first formative months and years of their lives.

Without faith in God and His daily help and support, the job set before us would be insurmountable.  We have been blessed with so many children, with so many different needs, all needing attention in different ways, every moment of every day.   I more than rely on God.  He really does carry me.  I am in constant prayer and in His hand.  We are so blessed and content and the joy and peace we have every day, does not come from our surroundings, what we are dealing with or goes on.  Every day has hard but good things, progress and moments of joy too.  Our joy and strength comes from God and we feel it and live in it.  The children do well.  We literally see miracles all the time...any progress and healing is only through Him. 

Only God can heal this sort of insult and change ingrained behaviors and hearts.  Not just in the children but in any of us.  We still have very hard days and behavior issues that have not been conquered but they have overcome so much in their young lives and I am so blessed to have these two in our family as our sons.

Billy is such a bright and active boy.  He is moving every moment and his mind is always going, thinking and sometimes plotting.  :) 

His first instinct is to lash out at others but true compassion is rising up in him and his heart is starting to show a tender and loving side to it.  I still can not trust him to be around or play with the other children unsupervised but he can now play with them for short spells without hurting anyone.  He still destroys toys if not supervised but is doing so much better playing appropriately with them.  He is such a joy to teach and is a literal brain sponge in all areas of learning...especially science, geography and social studies.  He would let me read to him all day if I had the time and voice for it.  I am starting him on piano lessons this month.  When I take him places and spend one on one time with him, he is well behaved and does well now, praise be to God!  He wanted to go out to eat at a local restaurant buffet, for his birthday.  He has now crossed over into being a growing boy with an appetite to go with it!  I let him go up and pick what he wanted for the first time.  I always have made his plates with balanced meals from off the bar, in the past.  He actually did not do to badly with his food choices.

He wanted his favorite super hero on his cake this year and of course my sister made a little boy so very happy with a wonderfully made cake! and oh so delicious too!  Thank you Aunt "S"!

I love this son of ours so much and am so grateful and thankful to have him in our lives!

Our second birthday was Timmy's!!!  He is such a sweet, cuddly little guy most of the time.

He has autism and marches to his own drum and learns at his own pace but is definitely progressing!  His emotions are stuck at an 18 month old level and he gets upset easily because he wants his way and does not always understand the flow of things.  He likes routine and functions very well in it!   He is not tantruming at all anymore and can calm down so much quicker than in the past!  Praise God!  He loves dinosaurs and robots right now.

He is an animal lover and has a ton of stuffed animals he sleeps with.  Or rather they all sleep on top of him because he piles them all on top of him when he goes to sleep at night.  He likes the weight on him because of his sensory issues.  He still wears AFO leg braces but has learned to put them on himself now which is a huge blessing and help every day to my routine.  I try to keep schooling light and fun for him or he shuts down and will not focus.  He is learning to write and every time he rights a letter with a space in it like the space in the letter "O" or lower case "e" he puts a smiley face in that little space.  It takes him a long time to write anything because of his artistic add-ons.  :)  Actually he draws and colors very well.  It is one of his great talents.  He also loves animals from in the ocean like sharks, crabs and octopuses.  On his cake this year he wanted my sister to put a red octopus on it.  He specified for it not to look like a cartoon one but a real red octopus.  My poor sister.  The requests my kids make!  But...true to her artistic form she pulled off a very red, real octopus cake! 

So cool and cute!  The suckers and boarder are mini m and m's!  Making one little boy very happy on his birthday!  Thanks again Aunt "S"!

He has come so far in behavior, awareness, learning and bonding.  He is a sweetie that is going to do so well in life.  He loves the Lord and it is precious to hear his little prayers.  He blesses my heart daily!  We are so blessed in the family God has built for us...so blessed.

May God have His mighty hand on our two youngest sons.  May He heal the hurts, fill in the holes and help them.  May they both find Him at a young age and live for Him their whole lives.  May they be greatly blessed and used of Him as they live and grow in Him!

John 1:16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.

Love, Dad, mom, Stephen, Antonio, William, Carolyn, Zeke, Elizabeth, Kinsley and Anna-Kate