A Wonderful Young Man

Time seems to be going by so quickly.  I look at all our pictures from over the years and am in awe of how God has been so faithful in all things.  The miracles in our lives and how God brought each child into our home.  How far they have all come.  How old they are all getting!  I am amazed at it all.

As these middle children are hitting their upper teens it has been hard in some ways.  Hard to learn how to let them go a little more each year, to trust the Lord and all we have taught them.  I tend to like to hold tight to each of the children.  Protect them from  making mistakes and try to keep them close.  It is hard for me, to start handing over to them, the responsibility of making their own decisions and way in life.  I know many of them will always live with us because of their special needs but we still want them to become as independent as possible, have goals and dreams and strive to achieve them.

Zeke recently had a birthday and turned 17 years old.  He is the middle, middle.  :)  Over the last year, I have seen a huge shift in him, not only in appearance but in maturity and in the way he sees life.  He is making good choices.  He does not get upset as easily and if he does, gets over it much quicker.  He is much more relaxed in who he is and in interacting with his siblings.  Having autism makes social situations harder for him, to participate and navigate.  He is more confident lately.  I have seen him, volunteering to participate, in going on outings when invited. (especially if there is going to be food!) Or at least responding when talked to and not just standing far away from everyone else in crowds.  I have also seen him start to tease his siblings in a joking way to make them laugh, especially with Carolyn and Elizabeth. These are all huge for him.

I don't know why it is so hard for me to see them growing up, when I also see that God is doing such a work in them and they are maturing into such nice young people.  It is all God and again I am just so amazed.  Truly, they are my friends as well as siblings much of the time.  We get along well.

Zeke has grown into a quiet, kind young man.  He is helpful and always does his best at what he is asked to do.  He loves going to the work program he is enrolled in at school and every place he has worked, loves having him work there.  In his spare time he makes movies for Tim and I for our movie night.  Short 10 minute movies using his wooden railway or stop animation with legos.  He enjoys food and loves animals.  He has a little therapy/companion dog that is always in his arms when he is home.  It even sleeps with him and helps keep him calm.  He has had this little dog since it was six weeks old and it will be 14 years old in a few months.  Most of our pictures of him growing up have this little dog in his arms.

Zeke wanted to eat at home for his birthday meal.  He wanted his dad to grill out and for me to make home made mac-cheese.  He wanted my sister to make home made cheesecake with blueberries for his cake.  He loved it! My sister and her family also took him to the lego store.  He had a ball!

Zeke came to be our son because of a God given dream.  He has been through so much but has been such a good son and brother to his family.  He is a very kind and gentle soul and we have been very blessed to be chosen to raise him.  He is becoming a wonderful young man.  We love you!  Happy Birthday Zeke!

I pray God is with you now and always.  That He will have His mighty hand of protection upon you and lead you in the path He chooses for you.   That He will have a heart towards you as you have a heart towards Him.

Isaiah 41:10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

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

William and the EAGLE Award

I shared with you, several months ago, that William was nominated and won the EAGLE award for our nine county region.  He made it on the front page of our local news paper! 

He was to go to the state competition in March. 

Tim and William did go together to the three day competition/conference as it was down in Atlanta.  They were put up in the Waverly Hotel and required to dress in business apparel.

 It was so special to see my men looking so nice!

All of the states regions winners came together for this conference.  They each received an I-pad and many gifts from different colleges and business for their achievement.  After interviews and such, it was narrowed down to the top eight, which William was one of, by the grace of God.  He received  a trophy and awards for making it this far.

He did not win the top award but was in the top eight and did win for our whole region.  We could not be more pleased for him.  God is so good and has done great miracles in his life.  All the glory to God!

William attended activities, many events,  heard great speakers and took classes.  They also took him and the other EAGLE recipients, to the brand new base ball stadium they just build in Atlanta.  They had the grand behind the scenes tour.  They also ate wonderful food and attended some special fancy dinners.

They took some fun photos of all the participants which I really enjoyed seeing!  The ones I have put on here today are the only ones with just him in them.  Such fun!

 
 He made it on the front of our local news paper once again.

It was such a great experience for William and a great few days away for both my guys.

I am grateful beyond worlds that God has blessed us with the honor of raising William as our son.  To witness the miracle of his life and how God has brought him so far.

William, we could not be more please with you.  You have grown into such a wonderful God serving man.  No one could ask for a better son with a more helpful and kind heart.  I have seen how hard you work to achieve your goals and I pray Gods blessings upon everything you put your hand to as you live and grow in Him.

 

Isaiah 41:10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

blessings,

susan

16 Years!

I am so behind on blogging.  "Busy" has hit our home once again and I am doing my best to get everything back under control and into some type of routine.  Hopefully, by February, we should have fewer appointments and calmer days again.

In November 2017,  Zeke had his 16th birthday!  Happy Birthday Zeke!! 

Zeke came into our home when he was 8 days old.  I cut the hospital band off his little leg myself.  God brought Zeke into our home in one of the most miraculous ways.  In a way that I knew, beyond a shadow of doubt, that Zeke was to come into our home and be our son.  Through a dream (read about it here) given to me by God.  He has blessed my life and heart every day of his life.  I am amazed at how quickly 16 years have went by.  He is growing into such a nice young man.  He is quiet and kind.  He is helpful and always does his best at anything we ask him to do.  How I love this young man.

Zeke is still attending public school.  He loves going and his teacher is absolutely wonderful.  He is very close to the two para pro's in his classroom and thinks the world of them.  He spends some time doing work in his classroom.  He goes to two main stream classes...video production class and social studies.  He is doing very well in the work program at his school.  His first year in the program he worked at our local farm store.  At the beginning of this school year he worked at a local steak house.  This second half of the school year he will be working with his dad.  He is looking forward to that. 

This boy loves to eat!  He now can handle all foods without reactions and is enjoying the broader pallet!

Zeke spends his time, at home, making movies.  He has his own little 10 by ten area, that we set up for him on the enclosed front porch area, of our home.  He has a computer for making his movies after he films them.  He has all his legos and wooden railway train things for filming as well and many tables for making scenes on.   He tries to have a new movie for Tim and I to watch every Friday for movie night.

Zeke is a good brother to all his siblings.  He often stops to tickle and tease his younger siblings.  He gets along well with Billy and they play legos together.  He also helps us load and unload Antonio onto the bus or helps with transfers when we have to lift Antonio.  Zeke will have to live with us always and none of us have any complaints or concerns about that. 

Zeke loves animals.  He still has his little therapy/companion dog, Roo.  She is getting very old.  He has had her since she was six weeks old.  He also has two little Guinea pigs and a very old pony from his childhood , Dixie.  She can not be ridden and he tenderly grooms and cares for her daily.

I love Zeke dearly.  He is such a sweet, gentle soul and brings us many blessings by just being here with us...Just like God told me in that dream about him, those many years ago.

Zeke wanted a cheese cake for his birthday.  So my sister made him a delicious home made cheese cake.  He was so happy.  Thank you aunt "S"!  Aunt "S" and Uncle "B" also took Zeke and William to the Lego store for Zeke's birthday!  Very happy young men! 

Happy 16th birthday Zeke!  You are a truly wonderful son and blessing to our home.  You love the Lord and always try your hardest at all you do.  You inspire me.  May God have His mighty hand on your life now and always.  May you always serve and love Him!

Psalm 90:16  Let Your work appear to Your servants And Your majesty to their children.

Love, Dad, mom, Stephen, Antonio, William, Carolyn, Elizabeth, Billy, Timmy, Kinsley and Anna-Kate.

Whats Up With William!

I have been slowly writing an update post on each of my children, as friends and family have been writing and asking for an update on different ones.  Today, I decided to do a "catch up" post on William, as he has had a lot of great things going on lately.

William is doing great in all areas of his life, Glory to God!  I guess the last update I did, was when he had passed his GED test and been inducted into the National Adult Education Honor Society. 

Since that time he has started college.  He signed up for college, wondering if with his autism, learning disabilities and health issues, he was going to be able to learn the material and keep up with the classes.  He took two classes for fall semester and it was hard.  He worked extra hard every day, studying, reading and going over the information presented in class.  Even on the days he did not have classes, he studied, to try to learn and retain the information.  He just finished his first semester and did very well.  He is going for a degree in the area of computers.

He was nominated by a teacher for the colleges E.A.G.L.E (Exceptional Adult Georgian in Literacy Education) award.  He had to meet certain qualifications, write a report and give a speech in front of a panel of three judges.  Writing is hard for him.  It is very hard for him to get his thoughts together and put them down onto paper in a way people can understand.  It is very uncomfortable for him to speak in front of people, so giving a speech is very hard for him but he was motivated and determined.  There were two other young college students that were nominated as well.  He went and gave the speech last Wednesday and glory to God, was selected to receive the award.  He will  now represent the colleges Adult Education Department for the 2018 year.  If they have a conference or meeting, he will be invited to give a speech.  Also, because he won the award, he will be going to Atlanta in March, to speak in front of a panel of judges, along with the other regions winners and they will  pick one state representative from among them all.  So he is excited about that.  William went on the colleges website to check on something and they had an article posted about him.  He was very excited.  The next day, I got a text from my sister and then my dad, saying William was on the front page of our local news paper.  The article was about him receiving the E.A.G.L.E award.

All of these wonderful things have really boosted his self confidence and made him feel very blessed.

In other areas of his life, his health is doing much better.  He had been suffering from chronic fatigue, heart palpitations,  low blood sugar, spells of not being able to think straight and whenever he would over exert himself, even in the slightest way, would take days to recover his strength.  Also, stress brought on these symptoms.  These symptoms all started when he was in his early teens.  I have had him to every specialist I could take him to, for help.  Finally, one stated it was most likely inflammation related and auto-immune in nature.  I did a huge diet change for him over a year ago and put him on many supplements.  He is doing great.  Eating whole foods now, he has lost weight to a great weight for his height.  He feels well most of the time and has fewer spells, that he recovers from much quicker.  I am grateful to God for His wisdom and healing power in this area of Williams life.  He never would have been able to go to college, the way his health was just over a year ago, as some days he could not drive or think straight.  I started our whole family on a new protocol I learned about a few weeks ago.  It seems to be making even more positive changes in him and many of the other children as well.  God is so good.

William has been working at getting his VW bug fixed up and running again.  He has also been working on monthly stop animation videos for his Youtube channel  Legobro4studio. 

William is a wonderful son that is one of my best friends.  He lovingly helps care for Antonio every day.  I try not to ask him to help with as much as he did in the past, as I know he is working so hard every day to read and retain his college work but he very willingly helps around the farm and with the children when needed. 

Helping to take a deck off the back of the house!

He daily spends quality time with his siblings, teasing, chasing around and loving on the little ones and taking the older ones out to get a coffee, a treat or putting together a nice movie night for them all.

When William was diagnosed with autism as a toddler, I always prayed and wondered what kind of future he would have.  He never talked so we could understand him until he was six years old.  He had huge sensory issues, he struggled to learn.  I hid all these things in my heart and just prayed to God and kept teaching him, taking him to therapy and trying new protocols with him that were supposed to help his body detox and heal.  God has done a mighty, miracle, work in William.  I am forever grateful that God blessed us with William as our son.

Isaiah 60:1-2

60 Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.

² For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

Blessings,

susan

Happy Birthday To My Youngest Son!

To my little man that has been through so much and come so far.  Happy Birthday!!!!, my big five year old!

Timmy and Billy came to our home as a sibling group when Timmy was only 1 year old and Billy was 2 years old.

I had tried to suppress a deep desire to adopt more children and move into a new season of my life but just could not.  We had not had any small children in our family for years, so it was very nice to have little ones in my arms again.

 
They both had extreme issues from the abuse and neglect they had went through before coming here.

They were both exposed to drugs in the womb.  They also both had meth smoked around them regularly.  There were many more issues with Billy as he was a year older and had gone through a lot more.  Also, there personalities are very different and they learned to cope with things differently.

Timmy is a sweet, sweet soul with many issues.  He was heavily drug exposed in the womb and has autism.  Combine that with the neglect and abuse he want through and we have one sweet little boy, who is stuck as an 18 month old child.
 

Most of the behavioral issues he had from his past, have resolved over the years, glory to God!  The things he is struggling with now, are from the damage done by drugs.
 

He fusses when he has to make transitions throughout the day and when he has to do something he does not want to do.  When he came here, he used to throw many, terrible, long, tantrums daily but now he just cries it out and is over it.  Praise God.
 

He used to pull his hair out, not play with toys properly, kick everything hard so he could hear the sound of it for long spells, repetitively bang his head on things when upset, pull strings out of clothing and cry a lot.   He still fusses a lot but now can play with toys properly for the most part, if they are age appropriate for his mentality.

He can play with others, if supervised for redirection in sharing and not hitting and hurting others with toys, like a toddler needs.  He is potty trained, in that if we take him frequently, he does good but has trouble telling us if he needs to go.  He has several accidents a week.  He can not use metal utensils as he pokes himself with forks leaving marks and can not stop looking at the reflection in a metal spoon and waving it before his face back and forth. (self stemming with it from the autism)  It is such an issue, it slings food everywhere and keeps him from eating his meal. 

He has very little danger awareness so needs to be closely supervised or shadowed by an older child/adult when we go places in public.  We just recently graduated him out of a stroller as he will hold someones hand now and not jerk it away and run.
 

He has trouble learning but does learn with a lot of repetition and structure.
 

He really has a sweet and loving heart.  He makes me cry almost nightly.  He wants to kiss me good night.  I will squat down to his level and he hugs me and kisses my left and right check and then takes his little hands and rubs those kisses in a circle and says..."rub rub rub...stay forever"  I tear up every time.

He is doing structured school work daily.  He is doing Pre -K and really enjoys it.  Carolyn partners with him and they work very well together.  He get discouraged and needs frequent breaks.  He can stay focused in short bursts but gets distracted very easily.
 

We try to keep it light and fun with lots of positive reinforcement and verbal praise.   He just beams when you tell him you love him or that he is doing a great job.

He loves all things boy...cars, trains and things with wheels, machines and robots, dinosaurs and sharks.  He likes to color and build with toddler duplos.
 

He loves to ride ponies but has very poor balance.  He can not seem to tell where his body is in space and trips and falls a lot.  When we ride ponies, I have one of the other kids lead the pony, while I spot him and have a hold of him, so he does not fall off.  I have to do this with all three of our youngest for various reasons.  I am hoping in time the riding will help with their balance and ability to walk and run better.

 He tries very hard to please us but has a rebellious side that will not budge at times.

He is very bonded into our family and loves his brothers and sisters.

Sometimes it is hard to get his attention, as he spends a good deal of time, if not kept engaged, playing with his hands in the air.

He loves to be read to and has a ready smile.

Even though sounds, some contact and clothing is irritating to him, He is cuddly and loves to be held and hugged by us all.

He is growing up so fast.

He does have a sense of humor and tries at times to say funny things and make us laugh.  :)

He had a very hard time when we went on vacation.  He had a fun time while we were out at the beach or were busy but back at the vacation house, he really struggled in all areas and his potty training, eating and behavior just fell apart.

As soon as we got home everything just fell back into place for him and he was fine.

He does not like showers or water being splashed around him but did really well at the water park we went to on vacation.

Timmy is a joy to have in our home and a sweet child who tries hard to be a good boy.

We all love him dearly and want the best for him.  I pray he keeps learning and growing every day.

For our children's birthday, we let them either choose a place to eat out at (as we hardly ever eat out) or a special meal to eat at home.  I have been having conversations with Timmy for about a month, trying to help him understand favorite foods or a place he likes to eat at and he just did not understand.  We finally decided to take a picnic to a local park and let him play on the playground.  He is so easy to please and that just made his day. 

We don't encourage superhero type play but this year he wanted a certain superhero cake.  My sister did an excellent job making a happy cake for him.  It was perfect and made him feel very special.  Thank you Aunt "S", for your loving care in what you do for the children, to make them feel special.

Happy birthday my sweet boy!  We love you so much and I am so pleased that God brought you to us to be our son!  May God bring healing and health to all areas of your body, mind and life.  May you learn to love and serve Him with your whole life and heart.  May God always have His mighty hand on you, my youngest son!

James 1:17  ¹⁷ Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

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