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

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 William!

William and his companion dog, Dixie

William had a birthday recently!  He turned 21 years old!  I am so blessed to have this young man as my son.  He is always respectful and happy to help me.  He is my right hand man and such a hard worker around here.  I am so grateful that he is in my life. 

He really loves VW bugs and wanted a Volkswagen cake this year.  He has slowly been fixing up his car over the last few years, as he can afford it.  You can read about it here.  :)

My sister did an amazing job on his cake.  He was so happy with it.  Thank you Aunt "S" for always doing such an amazing job, making such wonderful cakes for the children.

William is grown up.  That is the reality of it all.  I can't believe it but the years of his youth have flown by and he is now an adult.

I remember back to his struggles as a baby/toddler,

his diagnosis of autism as a young child

and think about the things I was told by professionals he would and would not be able to do.  I am amazed by the grace of God and all He has helped William with and through, in his life.

His bug he bought with his own money as a little boy.

His bug in a local car show.

We are so blessed and I feel like I have seen a miracle in Williams life, his whole life.  God is so good. 

William is doing wonderful.  He has struggled for years with his health.  At around age 16 he started having health issues that were quite debilitating at times.  Lots of exhaustion, heart palpitations and pain, extreme muscle pain when exerted and issues with hypoglycemia.  We took him to many specialist trying to figure out what was causing him such issues.  He went to an endocrinologist, heart doctor, geneticist and his, general practitioner quite a bit.  They really could not find much, other than fatigued adrenals.   Which is a concern as his dad has Addisons disease.  It was also suggested that he might have a mitochondrial disorder.  One of the doctors said that what William is experiencing looked like it is an auto-immune issue.   So exactly a year ago, when he was particularly sick, I asked him if I could take over his diet, as I am very familiar with auto-immune issues and diet.  He agreed.  I prayed about it all and helped him create a simple anti-inflammatory diet.  It has been exactly a year since he started following this diet and praise God he has lost 70 pounds and is feeling so much better.  He has more energy, can think clearer and has fewer energy crashes.  All the glory to God!

William has finished his GED and is going to attend our local college.  He will be taking some remedial classes and then one class at a time till he gets the education he desires.  He will be attending, with concessions, under the Disability Act.  He loves doing stop animation but will be attending to receive an education in computers for now.  If you wish to see his animation, please visit his Youtube channel at Lego bro 4 studios.

William is such a precious gift to us from God.  We give God the glory, honor and praise for the man William has become and all things good in his life.  Thank you God for William!

We love you so much William.  You are a wonderful son, a great brother and a kind soul.  We appreciate all you do for us and your generous and helpful actions and ways.  May God have His mighty hand on your life always.  May He lead, guide you and may He bless you 100 fold for your obedience as a son.

Ephesians 6:1-3  Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.  Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise;  That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

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

More Birthdays and Happenings!

At the time of the writing of my last post, Elizabeth and Carolyn had just celebrated their birthdays.   We have since had two more birthdays take place.  Kinsley celebrated her third birthday. 

She wanted blue and red flowers for her birthday from daddy.  He had to special order them.  :)

She wanted a character from her favorite show on her cake and my very talented sister made it for her.  Thank you Aunt "S".  Kinsley was so happy with it. 

I can not believe she is three already.  God has done a huge work in this child. She has come so far!

You are a huge blessing to our home Big Girl!  May God have His mighty hand on you all the days of your life and may you dwell in the house of the Lord forever!

Anna-Kate turned 2 on her birthday this year. 

She came to us when she was less than 48 hours old.  What a change in those two years.  She had so many issues when she came to us and is now thriving and developing well.  God does His thing in these children's lives and I just sit back in awe as I watch.

She is a huge fan of the purple dinosaur.  I personally, am about burnt out after 20 years of the "I love you" song but it brings her so much joy. My sister did a beautiful job on Anna-Kate's cake and she absolutely loved it! 

Thank you Aunt "S"  and family, for all you do to make our children's lives special.

We love you our littlest Princess!  May you be held in Gods mighty hand all the days of your life!

Zeke recently participated in the local Special Olympics.  This was his second year taking part and he really enjoys doing it.

He had quite a cheering section.

He placed second in the shock put, second in the 100 yard dash and his relay team placed first in the relay race for his school against the other schools relay teams.

Congratulations Zeke!  We love you so very much!

William had his graduation ceremony from the GED program! 

So much hard work and determination went into it for him.  He wore a gold cord for being inducted into the National Adult Education Honor Society. 

Tim's parents and brother came to the ceremony.  Carolyn was not there.  She had a ballet class and is only a few classes from recital so could not miss it. 

What an accomplishment and milestone. 

We could not be happier for him or more pleased.

While everyone was dressed up for the occasion I took a few pictures.  The boys are growing up so much! 

  Pure sweetness.  They are all very close and play very well together...most of the time!

It is very hard to get Kinsley to smile for the camera with a real smile.  She is pretty shy.

Elizabeth is changing so much lately in so many ways.  Quite the young lady lately.

We also took Antonio to Repticon.  The reptile show that comes to our area once a year.  He loves reptiles.  He was saving his money for a tortoise but once there decided to get two more crested geckos.

I am looking forward to summer.  It has been a very busy spring and our calendar is still full.  We are going to try to take it slow and easy this summer.  We have been diligently tightening our belts and saving our money.  We are going to try to take a vacation this year.  We have only had two vacations in the last 14 years.  We went to Jekyll Island in 2011 and 2012 and have not have a vacation since.  I would love for our four youngest to see the ocean and play on a beach as they have never been.  Also, our older children work so hard around here helping with the farm and younger children.  A vacation would be so good for them and us all.  God is so good.

Hosea 6:3  Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

May the Lord God in heaven be with you.  May He give you wisdom in making decisions for your life.  May He give you peace and joy in Him as you live and grow in the Word of God.

Blessings,

susan 

Labor Day Outing!

My kind brother in law and thoughtful sister, took several of our older children on a wonderful and memorable outing on Labor Day.

William, Carolyn and Zeke went to see Ruby Falls and Rock City.  They could not wait for Labor Day to arrive, so they could go.  William has always wanted to go to these two places.  These three young people, are our children, I can always count on to be well behaved.  They always work so hard around here on our farm.  They always are so helpful with all the other children.  I am so blessed to be able to call them our children and have them in our life.  It was a wonderful day away for them, to go and do something fun and be spoiled, for the hard work and effort they exhibit daily.

First, they went to Ruby Falls.  It is a water fall, in a cave, under Lookout Mountain.  There is a huge rock castle as the entrance to the tour.  This picture was taken from the top of the castle.

There is a room full of pictures and information about the explorer, who found Ruby Falls and all the history on it. 

There is a huge cave network under that mountain.

You have to take an elevator 260 feet down, to take the tour.  I guess the elevator screen was interesting to William, as he was the main photographer, for this trip and it was in the pictures I down loaded.

They saw all kinds of cave formations.   It was very fun and educational.

I guess there are no potty's down there.  (Another random photo that showed up when I down loaded them all)

The highlight of the tour is of course Ruby Falls.  It is stunning.  It is a beautiful water fall 145 feet high and 1120 feet under the earth surface.  No picture can actually do it justice.  It is really beautiful.

 The kids really enjoyed the whole experience.

They took a break for lunch and then headed to Rock City. 

Rock City is an amazing place where God carved out beautiful caverns, structures, formations and walkways.

  There is a lot of walking but the children really enjoyed it all.

I believe there is 4,100 feet of walking trails through these beautiful structures and gardens. 

If you have spent much time in the deep south, you have seen a barn or two with the famous "See Rock City" words painted on its side or roof.   Here is the neat history of this practice, that has gone on for many decades. There are even coffee table books made, that have collections of pictures of old barns, with the sayings painted on them.  There are also many people who have bird houses in their yards, with that saying painted on them, all over the south.

I love the above and below pictures of the kids.  These three are very close and always goofing around together.  

Taking a break to have their picture taken.

The view from the top of Lookout Mountain is spectacular.

You can see seven states from up there!

The children have talked a lot about their trip and what they did.  It really made a very happy memory for them to be able to go and see these two sights.  Thank you so much Uncle "B" and Aunt "S" ,for taking the time to plan such a wonderful outing and giving the kids such a special day away.

Psalm 95:2-3  Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.  For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

Blessings,

susan