We’re here! We’re settling! The internet hasn’t been on except in patches, but hopefully that’s fixed up now. The first couple days were hard and stressful and i grieved the things I’ve left behind. The last couple of days have started the adjustment… it’s getting to be fun and exciting and I love our new (rental) house! I’ll start taking pictures soon and will share. Kids are slowly adjusting – some better than others. 🙂 Love my family!
Stay Tuned
We’re here, but we’re busy! I don’t have the “oomph” to pack at all, so I’ve been focusing on the kids and resting this week. (Survival!) Sorry for the lack of good newsy blog updates. The big move day is Saturday and after we’re settled, I am really looking forward to getting my house in order and getting ready for baby Carolyn. This Mama is very ready for upheaval to be done and settling in to begin. Ok – honestly, I’m really looking forward to settling in being finished. Sitting on the couch with endless milkshakes and naps is just about my version of heaven right now.
Meanwhile, today is Anna’s last ballet class and last day going to the special park day where they prepare us lunch. Tomorrow, Brian works from home and I’ll get busy packing for a couple days without knowing where anything is.
And I’m trying to be calm and not upset with normal parenting stuff. Because everything is more difficult when you’re tired and stressed. Please pray for us!
Remind me sometime to tell you about just one of the special ways God blessed us in particular with this new house.
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Far-Sighted – Jordan update
Today I got a better explanation for the terms far-sighted and near-sighted than I’ve ever gotten before. Let me share:
Near-sighted: Your eyes are strong only in seeing those things that are near to you.
Far-sighted: Is NOT the opposite of near sighted. Far-sighted is the term for being able to see certain distances well, but where your eyes are weak in seeing other distances. Babies are born far-sighted… they can only see what’s close to them at first, but as their eyes strengthen and develop, they can see farther distances too. Their eyes are capable of seeing far, but need strengthening. However, you can be “far-sighted” and be able to see things far away easily, but have those things close up be difficult. And she (the optometrist/opthamologist, don’t know which) also mentioned that stigmatism can affect this.
Anyway – Jordan has been home 7 1/2 months and his eyes have progressed from the far-sightedness of a 9 month old to that of an 18 month old. He made a good 4-month jump in eye development over the course of 2 months. I’m pretty happy with that and so was she. She asked us to keep an eye (haha) on his eyes as he gets more and more mobile and moves around faster. If he is trying to look at things that are too difficult for him (too far away in this case… his eyes see nearby the best) then his eyes may begin to turn in or cross. So, hopefully his eye development will continue to keep up with his gross motor development!
Heart – someday I need to follow up with a cardiologist. But he has mild aortic regurgitation that’s directly related to his bicuspid valve there. There is no stenosis and this is something I’m just going to put off until it’s convenient.
ENT – Jordan is hearing much better now that he has tubes in his ears. We’ve noticed a huge increase in responsiveness and communication since getting those in. However, we still aren’t convinced he’s hearing great. So, sometime we need to schedule a sedated ABR hearing test. Doctors say let’s do it this August. I’m still trying to decide if it’s worth the big trip in during a busy month. I plan to get it done before the end of the year at least.
Tonsils/adenoids – the jury is out. We’ll re-evaluate later. I really don’t want to do a sleep study. Just going ahead and getting them out would be just as painful as a night in a hospital, methinks… so I’m hoping we can just decide yes/no without a sleep study. This is another I’m putting off for now.
Physical Therapy – sometime I need to get Jordan evaluated for orthotics. Any experienced or educated (or both!) advice out there? Jordan’s gross motor is progressing very well without any direct therapy. His toes curl under a lot and his inner ankle is lower than it would be on somebody with better tone… I’ll try and get a picture sometime. In any case, how urgent is this?
Other therapy – We would all benefit from more therapy to help us help Jordan. Speech, occupational, feeding, fine motor, you name it. However, bonding and family is still higher priority for us than those, so during this season of higher stress, they have been put on the back burner. I had a bunch of that all set up for this summer, but between the pregnancy and moving, it just ain’t happenin’. Next year!
Educational services – What does anybody know about the state early education or disability services in Washington??? Any hope for in-home services that you know of?
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Walk-through
The big entertainment center and black chairs are gone now…. but here’s the big empty house!
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New Home!!!!
Well, we don’t get to buy this adorable house, but that’s ok, we are so happy to have such a beautiful place to call home for the next year or more while we enjoy being close to Brian’s work (8 miles instead of 30+) and in the country too! We’ll save up a down payment and move again when we can, but for now, we will enjoy this rental!
Details: 3 bed, 2 bath + office. Living room with vaulted ceiling, dining, kitchen with granite counter tops, island, and equipped with range, dishwasher, and microwave. Beautiful hardwood floors throughout home. EFA heat, heat pump (This means we’ll have air conditioning for the first time in my life! woo hoo!). Just over 1700 sq. ft., built in 2004.
Here are pictures! Click on them to make them bigger.
The kids have been doing amazing this last stressful week with lots of driving. Until we found this house, we were striking out right and left and both Brian and I were emotionally and physically exhausted. Our house is set to close in a couple weeks and we could not find a place to take our family. Not only that, but the competitive rental market means we had been denied homes three times! (Three times they chose a different application over ours) Each day has been exhausting and we have both been without anything left over at the end of each day…. just wrung out rags depending on the love of our Lord. I know, I know that we have it good, great even! I know that this trial hasn’t been much in the grand scheme of things. But we are far from super-people and it has been very hard to be in limbo.
PRAISE THE LORD, we got the phone call this morning that our application is accepted! We sign a one year lease and get keys tomorrow! One more drive up and down to Vancouver kids! Ok, well, maybe more than one. But Friday we should have a day off from driving at last. We are super stoked about this house and every time I sit down for a minute, I find myself trying to organize furniture in my head.
There is zero garage or outdoor storage – what do you know about building or buying a good-sized shed? Something simple… stress level has reduced drastically, but we still have three little kids, a baby due in 7 1/2 weeks, and a move to accomplish. Also, anybody local have a riding lawn mower for sale?
Filed under Everyday Stuff