Thanksgiving and other tales

Let me catch you up on the Whicker goings-on from the last couple of weeks.  

Two weeks ago, most of us went to Billings so Cora (who has albinism and is legally blind) could attend a day camp for blind athletes.  She was able to learn some cool martial arts moves, and also finally learned out to play goalball with a bunch of other visually impaired kids.  The people who sponsored the program were kind enough to put the traveling families up in a hotel for the night, so we made the most of it and enjoyed some other activities while there, including a little salon time at Zoe's cosmetology school.  Thalia got her nails done, Beck got his hair rebraided (I'm still unable to braid for long periods due to my dislocated shoulder problems), and Jack got a sweet fade.  ;)  

We also ventured into our ginormous new Scheels for the first time.  We didn't buy anything, but against my better judgment, we rode the indoor ferris wheel.  For the second time that week I was wishing I had a little Valium on my person.  I'm horribly afraid of heights.  And enclosed spaces.  (Having an MRI on my shoulder was the first time that week I was praying for drugs.)  

Last week I took Thalia into Curtis' office to get her ears checked.  I was pretty sure one or both of her tubes was plugged, and it turned out I was right.  We'll wait a couple of weeks and retest her, but we may have to go see the ENT again if the problem persists.  We're in the middle of losing our insurance yet again due to our premiums DOUBLING, so we'll have to wait until we have new insurance in place before delving further into that problem.  We've done our application for a government marketplace plan, and now we just need to choose from one of 40 incredibly expensive options.  Fun, fun!

And then there was Thanksgiving.  I will go on record as saying that it was probably our smoothest Thanksgivings ever.  We actually ate at 3:30.  Stunning.  

We were joined by our missionaries and my sister's in-laws, plus since Zoe and Teffy were here, we had our whole family home for the holiday.  I'm grateful for these moments, because I know after this Christmas, they won't happen very often anymore.  I hate thinking about that, so for now I'll enjoy what I have, which is a freaky fun family that (mostly) makes me happy every day!  

Getting her nails did by big sis

Learning the rules of goal ball

See how calm I look?  You should have seen me 60 feet in the air...

Sofie and Cora

Curtis and Beck

Getting Thalia's ears checked

The hearing test

Thanksgiving - the grown-up table edition

Heavenly pumpkin cheesecake made by my cute sister

Our yearly tradition of spraying Curtis with whipped cream was carried out by my sister's mother-in-law.  He had no idea it was coming! 

Defending herself against retaliation!

Sofie goes down! 

Pre-approval for Lydia :)

Today we received pre-approval from China to adopt Lydia, so I can finally post a couple of pictures.  Unfortunately, the only ones I have are a) embedded in the referral documents and b) more than a year old.  To celebrate getting our PA, I ordered a phone update through Ladybugs N Love which should also include some new photos.  They automatically request updated measurements on kids, but we were also able to ask 10 additional questions about Lydia.  We asked about her communication skills, activities she likes and is good at, things she has difficulty with, what her foster family is like, what her personality is like, etc.  I'm looking forward to getting to know more about her.

12 and 14

Today was a very special day.  We celebrated Maizie's 12th birthday (a couple of days early) and gave all the kids a present they'll never forget: news of #14.

12 candles!  Is it possible?!

Cutting the cake.  It's pink!  What could that mean?

We told the kids that they were going to be big siblings again (except Beck, who's a first-timer!) and asked them to guess whether they would have a brother or sister.  They were split about down the middle, but one guess what the boys were hoping for!  ;)

The first glimpse

When Maizie opened up her first present, she thought at first that she was looking at old pictures of Thalia, but nope!  That's not Thalia!  :)  The kids were all screaming and laughing and talking and asking questions at the same time.  It was delightful madness!  

Nope!  Not Thalia!  

A monster collection of loom bands from Grandpa and Kathy T

A new iPad case from Mom and Dad

Our kids had a thousand questions, so maybe you have a few, too.  Here's the story...

While we were in Shenzhen adopting Thalia in February of 2013, we met a little boy with Down syndrome who was very sweet and charming - so much so that when we got home, I tracked him down and was able to determine that he was available for adoption.  With our adoption so recent and our funds so lacking, bringing him home wasn't an option for us, but I did advocate for him and tried for a while to find him a family.  Because I had inquired about him and a couple of other kids over the past year, the China adoption program director of the agency he was listed with sent me information a couple of times.  I looked again at this little boy, as well as another darling boy with Down syndrome, but they just weren't "our" kids, and realistically, we just don't have the resources to be considering another international adoption.  The 9 adoptions we've done have completely wiped us out!

In spite of our financial circumstances, I kept having this nagging feeling that we needed to be open to another child with Down syndrome.  It wasn't something we were actively pursuing by ANY stretch, but the thought was there, just kind of floating around in my brain.  I started praying about it, and I essentially told God that I was willing to do whatever He wanted me to do, but that it would have to be a situation that would basically fall into our laps because we didn't feel we could look due to the cost.

So after getting the information about these two sweet boys and telling the agency that neither boy was right for us, I was asked what the "right" situation would be.  I replied that if I could hand-pick, I would want a girl (for the trivial reason that we wouldn't have to rearrange bedrooms yet again.  I'm really tired of rearranging bedrooms!), I would want her to be between 5-10, and I would want her not to have serious cardiac or other health issues because our distance from a children's hospital.  But even if we could find a child who met all these criteria, there was still the matter of our seriously battered financial circumstances.  It seemed completely hopeless, at least for a few more years.

This all happened on Monday of last week.  On Tuesday, I got yet another email from the agency that said that they had just had to return the file of a just-turned-6-year-old girl with Down syndrome to the shared list because the family that was working to adopt her had to withdraw for personal reasons.  I saw the girl's picture and was surprised to see that I remembered her from when she was first listed on Reece's Rainbow.  She was adorable and looked so much like Thalia!  I was definitely interested, but the money issue held me back from getting too excited.  It was frustrating not to be able to just call Curtis up and say, "Hey, what do you think?" and jump on it!

A little while later, I got on Facebook and was surprised to see the same little face staring back at me on my computer screen.  A friend who adopted using this agency often posts pictures of available children, and this was the child she had posted that day.  I scrolled through the comments, noting that most of them said things like "So sweet!" or "Adorable!" or "I wish I could talk my husband into adopting her!"  But then another comment caught my eye - one that said that this child had a substantial grant available to go toward her adoption.  I was immediately spurred into action!  I checked to be sure the grant was real and found that it was, so I called the agency, and said (and I quote), "Lock that file!"  The program coordinator was so sweet and so excited that there was already a family available for this little girl who had just lost a family, but as we talked and she worked to get the file locked, she discovered the key code she was supposed to use wasn't working.  We both started to panic knowing that because she was on the shared list, any agency could snap her up at any moment.  Finally the coordinator said that she was going to call "an agency [we're] friendly with" and have them lock the file so that it would be safe, but we could transfer it back later.  I waited 30 agonizing minutes to hear back from her, and when I did it turned out that she had called their in-China staff person at 1:30 in the morning, woke her up, made her FaceTime with the agency, and that they were able to get the file locked!  Whew!  I was so relieved I was practically in tears!

So from that point, we had 72 hours to make a formal decision, and the clock was ticking.  The first order of business was to share all of this with my husband, who had no idea what was about to hit him. As it turned out, he was working only a couple of hours that day, so when he got home from work I showed him the pictures and told him the story.  Curtis has always been awesome about embracing my crazy ideas about adding to our family, but often he needs some time - sometimes quite a lot of time! - to pray and research and consider for himself before we make a decision together.  On this day though, tears filled his eyes and then he laughed and laughed and said, "What in the heck are we doing?!  We're crazy!"  We hugged and laughed and decided to celebrate by going out for lunch and then to get passport photos that the agency required as part of our application.

The next order of business was to be certain that we would really be able to use the funds that were available for this child's adoption.  We knew from Thalia's adoption experience that when you sign up to have a fund with Reece's Rainbow, you sign a contract agreeing that any money that is raised for the child stays with that child in the event you decide you can't continue with the adoption.  We knew this was the case, but we wanted to get the official word before submitting the formal adoption application.  We didn't get an immediate answer, but the next evening (which happened to be my mom's birthday), we got word that the money was indeed staying with the child.  I cried and cried and prayed and cried some more.  I was so overwhelmed with gratitude, and felt so certain that somehow, my mom had a hand in what happened the way that it did.  The timing could not be coincidence.  If I hadn't asked about those boys when I did, and if the agency wouldn't have told me about the girl, or if I hadn't seen her on Facebook later that day, none of this could have come together like it did.

For those who may not know, my mom died rather unexpectedly after a month-long bout with complicated pneumonia.  She died the very day that Curtis and I were supposed to be flying to China to get Thalia.  It was such a heart-wrenching experience, and because of the timing, Thalia's adoption and the death of my beautiful mom are forever linked in my mind.  I fretted that my mom never got to meet Thalia, but I came to feel that she watched over Thalia over the month that we put off our trip to go get her.  Now I feel so strongly that my mom is not only watching over our sweet new daughter-to-be, but that she actually had some hand in bringing this all about.  Don't get me wrong - I know this is my Father in Heaven's doing, but I think of her as being on the sidelines cheering for us.  Getting this amazing news on her birthday was and is such a blessing to us.

So that's the story.  This wasn't planned, but it feels so incredibly right.  We've had so many staggering expenses over the last year that I really didn't let myself even think about another adoption.  But God has no limits, and He knew what He was doing.  I am so grateful to Him for providing this miracle to our family.  At the same time, I pray and grieve for the family that I'll never know who must be absolutely devastated for having to walk away from a child they thought would be a part of their family.  I don't know what happened in their lives to prevent their being able to fulfill these plans, but I know whatever it was, their hearts must be aching.  I pray that they will be comforted and somehow know that we will love this sweet child without end.  I will tell her that there is another family who also loves her from afar.  I love that she has been so valued and so wanted.  She deserves nothing less.

Now for the practical info.  ;)

Because our homestudy has been continually updated as part of Thalia's post-placement visits, we have two more visits with our social worker scheduled for Friday and Saturday, and then our homestudy is DONE!  This shaves a substantial amount of time off of our process.  We'll have to get background checks and driving record checks for the homestudy, but once those our received, our I-800A application can go to the USCIS office.  In the meantime I'll work on getting our dossier documents gathered, notarized and authenticated.  I really think that it's reasonable that our dossier can be on its way to China in 3 months given how much time we're saving with the homestudy.  From there, it's about a 6 month wait.  We could have her home before the end of the year if all goes smoothly.

The number one question our kids are asking is what we're going to name her.  We have no idea.  Her Chinese name is YunLi.  Her birthday is in February 2008, and she's cuter than sin.  As soon as we have our pre-approval from China, which should be this week, we'll post pictures.  We're supposed to be getting an updated social history and medical information too because her file is more than a year old.  She's tiny for her age, like Thalia, and has no known heart issues.

Let's pretend there wasn't a 7-month gap in entries, mkay?

So I decided that maintaining a blog was pretty pointless since there are so few people who read it, and I gave up updating it last July.  But this week, I was going back through entries in my old blog in search of details about Sofie's adoption day in 2005, and I got sucked in and blubbered my way through the posts and photos.  I felt so guilty over the giant hole I left in this one!  I decided then and there that even if only a handful of people read this blog, I need to keep at it because it serves as a journal for me.

So, where to begin?

Teffy is graduating from Job Corps on March 27th.  She has earned her high school diploma and has completed her trade requirements in culinary arts.  She and Zoe will be sharing an apartment in Billings (which I just found yesterday and applied for today - cross your fingers!)

Joshua has just 7 months left on his mission, as of Friday.  He was made an assistant to the president about a month ago, so he's been adjusting to a new companion, and a whole new set of responsibilities. He felt overwhelmed at first, but I think he's settling in and feeling more confident.  He misses being able to teach a lot more, but he's gaining experience with helping to train and counsel other missionaries.  Last week he spoke at 3 different zone conferences!  Oh, and he gets to drive the 12-passenger van around on transfer days or when they have meetings or exchanges.  There's no elder more qualified to drive a van like that than Joshua!  :oD

Zoe is about halfway through her cosmetology program and finishes in October.  She's planning to go to Southern Virginia University after that, but is actually giving some thought to serving a full-time mission for our church.  (Cross your toes!)  Her school program is 40 hours per week which leaves little time for working, but she has done some seasonal work and has a job interview at a steak house (ack!) tomorrow.  (Cross your, um, eyes?)

Ethan is doing well but has been sick with bronchitis for about two weeks.  He's taking his driver's license test on Friday and will be going on Chorale tour to North Dakota in two weeks.

Jonah just got back from basketball divisionals in Billings (he plays the drums in band/pep band) and is going on both Chorale tour (to play drums) and Eastern A band festival in two weeks.  He'll be gone the entire week!  He just got his license last week, and I am SO enjoying having another driver to help with shuttling the kids around.  We have to pay through the nose to have so many teen drivers, but oh, it is nice.

Loundia also just got back from basketball divisionals (dance team) and Key Club convention in Billings, and she's leaving again tomorrow for State in Great Falls.  She's starting driver's ed on the 18th.  Crazy!

Lily is also starting driver's ed on the 18th, which is just insane.  She made the cutoff by only 3 days, and she is so excited!  We're working on trying to get one of her interpreters to be present for the early morning classes because it will be awfully hard for her to pass without that help.

Maizie is working hard in gymnastics.  She and Sofie go 6 hours a week and have many meets.  Maizie placed first in the all-arounds for her level 3 age group at their last meet in Helena, and also came in 3rd in beam, bars, and floor.

Sofie placed 9th at the last meet, but it was still an accomplishment because there were a lot of girls!  She is my most voracious reader and when she's not at gymnastics, she always has her head in a book.

Thalia is doing SO well.  She loves dance and gymnastics.  She's making great strides in school, but her childhood apraxia of speech really gets in the way of her communication.  It's frustrating for her.  She uses about 40 words, but maybe 150 signs.  I did almost all of my continuing ed hours for last year on CAS, and have ordered CAS textbooks and materials so I can completely immerse myself in it.  She's the most challenging child (in terms of her apraxia) that I've ever treated, but I'm determined that she's not going to get stuck!

Cora is also doing really well in school.  She was falling behind last year, but now that she has better accommodations in place for her low vision, she's really taking off.  She is a great reader and speller now, and last year we were worried that she would always struggle.

Jackson excels at school, sports, dance and music.  Honestly, there's nothing that kid doesn't rock.  But I've also gotten a couple of phone calls this year about skirmishes at school.  ;)  Yin and yang, I guess.  He starts soccer in a couple of weeks, and I think that will help him meet some activity needs.  Baseball starts shortly thereafter.

Beck enjoys school and has a lot of great friends.  His best friend is a sweet girl named Robin, and we all chuckle over their relationship because they couldn't be more different.  She's this little ranch girl with horses and cattle and sheep, and he's this hip hop dancing black kid from Ethiopia, who at the moment is rocking a giant afro.  I love it!

My sweet, hardworking hubby is still working on getting our Billings office up and going, along with my brother-in-law.  They both work tireless to make the practice successful to help take care of their families and church responsibilities.  Curtis is the ward mission leader, and he is nothing less than ON FIRE right now with missionary work!  He meets with our four elders at least once a week (often 2-3 times) and they have set some lofty goals and made some amazing plans.  I love seeing him so excited about his calling.  Our family has been focusing on two particular families that we're trying to share the gospel with, so it's been a positive thing for all of us.

I'm just cruising along doing my usual thing.  Although my feminist-leaning 15-year-old self would probably cringe at the thought of me spending most of my day in the kitchen, doing laundry, helping with homework and getting kids to their activities, I'm really pretty darned satisfied with my life.  I have plenty of time to do the things I love, like work out/run, read, bake, etc.  Curtis and I go out on a date every week, and we have a fun 4-day trip coming up.  I am truly blessed.

Here are a few pictures from the beginning of the year to the present.

Thalia's 9th birthday.  NINE?!

Loundia's 15th birthday! 

Maizie - floor routine, Helena meet

Sofie, floor routine - Helena meet

Maizie - first place, Sofie - ninth place

Joshua (second from right) and some of his buddies at a zone conference.  The tall one is his old companion.  :)

Catching up...

The past week has been a whirlwind.  After throwing together a surgery date for Cora and Thalia to get their tonsils and adenoids out (and for Thalia to get tubes) in Billings, we ended up having to do three pre-op appointments, including a cardiology visit for Thalia in Billings.  We learned that although her medical reports from China said her heart was healthy, she actually has mild leaks in her aortic and mitral valves.  Ironically, these leaks have nothing to do with Down syndrome, but are probably due to her having had rheumatic fever at one point.  :o(  She'll have to be seen yearly, and at some point they'll have to be surgically managed.

The T&A surgeries went well.  We stayed overnight in Billings in a hotel just to make sure all was well, and then headed home.  Unfortunately, Thalia completely quit eating and drinking, and what little we were able to get into her she threw up.  That night (Tuesday), Thalia also threw up a surgical sponge!  We have no idea how she swallowed it, but we called the ENT and he speculated that it had come from the anesthesiologist since all of his sponges have a blue radiographic thread in them.  He asked us to save it and bring it to him at our follow-up appointment, but I also called the manager of the surgery center to let her know about it.  She said she would investigate it and would start with the anesthesiologist as well.  We'll see what they find out.  I'm just grateful Thalia didn't choke on it or something!

Anyway, Thalia got so dehydrated that we had to take her in for IV fluids on Wednesday.  On Thursday she was no better, so she was admitted and didn't leave until Saturday.  She absolutely would not eat or drink, and she was super lethargic!  I was really starting to worry, so our bishop and Curtis gave her a blessing on Friday night.  Miraculously, within one hour, she was eating, drinking, smiling, and using the bathroom.  I know that she was healed by this blessing.  We were able to take her home the next morning and she's been doing great since.

Cora, on the other hand, has done well with the after care, but is now facing the real possibility of having to have another surgery.  She had such enlarged tonsils and adenoids (her tonsils TOUCHED in the middle!) and snoring/apnea that we really had no choice but to remove them, but now she's left with a significantly hyper nasal voice.  She is unable to build up any oral pressure for sounds like p/b and t/d, so they come out sounding like m and n, and all of her speech sounds resonate in her nasal cavity.  She sounds they way a child with a cleft palate does.  I'm just sick over it.  She doesn't need one more problem in her life or one more thing to make her different.  I'm going to call the ENT's office today and ask if we can do endoscopy at her follow-up to determine whether she's got enough structure to work with (and therefore therapy might be helpful) or whether she'll need surgical management.  My gut tells me it will be surgery.  Dang it.

Joshua emailed today and is doing great.  I can't wait to talk to him via Skype on Mother's Day!  He's such a great kid and I miss him a ton.

Teffy is going prom dress shopping tonight for her Job Corps prom next month.  I'm excited for her.

Zoe is busy planning her graduation activities.  I'm ordering her announcements today.

Ethan is doing great with soccer.  He had two games in Livingston over the weekend which they lost, but he had fun.

Jonah has been sick but went to school today.  He, Zoe and Ethan also had district music festival over the weekend.  They find out today what their ratings were.

Loundia is busy with track and tried out and made it on the high school dance team for next year.  We're really proud of her.

Lily is also busy with track.  Her IEP is coming up and we're hoping we can FINALLY get them to commit to get her a full-time interpreter.

Maizie is doing great and enjoying all the new skills she's learning in gymnastics.  The gym is expanding soon and she's thrilled about all the new space and equipment, plus they're getting ready to start competing around the state.

Sofie is big into gymnastics right now too.  She's doing well in school and generally happy these days.  :o)

Thalia and Cora should be going back to school in a couple of days, and I know they're looking forward to that.

Jackson is kicking hiney all over the soccer field.  He gets goals in every game they play.  It's so fun to watch him!  We've never had such a sports-inclined kid!

Beck is counting the days until he is no longer a kindergartener.  He's enjoying his hip hop class and wishing he could be on Jack's soccer team.

All the kids just had their piano recital last weekend.  I'll try to get some video uploaded soon.  They did great.  :o)

upcoming surgeries

Thalia was scheduled to have surgery (tubes and tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy) today, but after going to her pre-op appointment yesterday, the ENT decided he wanted to do it in Billings.  Miles City only has nurse anesthetists and he felt it would be safer to have an anesthesiologist.  We rescheduled the surgery for this coming Monday, and he also moved Cora's tonsillectomy up to the same day.  It will be nice to get them both over at the same time.  He also asked us to take Thalia to the cardiologist to check her heart before the procedure.  We weren't sure how reliable our China records are, but according to her file, she has no heart issues - only slight thickening of a valve.  Still, I didn't mind having an accurate baseline to start with, so I drove her to Billings today to see the pediatric cardiologist there.  I was so saddened to learn that there is absolutely nothing wrong with her heart that is related to her Down syndrome, but that she has leaking aortic and mitral valves - probably due to rheumatic fever.  It seems almost cruel that she could escape the heart problems typical of the majority of kids with Down syndrome, only to have something else damage her heart.  :(  The good news is that the leaks are mild for now.  The bad news is that she'll have to be checked each year, and that no one knows how long those valves will last.

Here's a picture of Thalia waiting for the doctor.  She had an exam, EKG and echocardiogram.  Thankfully she got to watch Finding Nemo during the echo, but I'm always amazed at how compliant she is with medical and dental procedures.

Cora's birthday

Cora is officially 8-year-old #2.  Jack will be 8 next month, and then we'll have 3 of them!  Yikes!  She's pretty excited about her upcoming baptism, and as I'm typing this, I'm realizing that I have to find baptism dresses quickly!  

Every year on Cora's birthday, I can't help but reflect on her arrival in our family.  She got such a rough start in life; she didn't have good care in her orphanage, and when we first visited in Haiti, she was extremely delayed.  She was 12 months old, but she couldn't hold her own bottle, couldn't pull to stand or cruise furniture.  She was just a limp little noodle.  She could get up on all fours, but did more rocking than crawling.  She cried and cried every time we went outside because of the bright light, which made it very difficult for us to even leave our hotel room.  She was used to being stuck in a crib, all day, every day.  Thankfully, she gave us little glimpses of the person she was inside her neglected body.  She smiled and laughed and snuggled with us, and that helped quell some of the fears we had about her future.  But the real help came from a blessing from Curtis in which we were assured that she was our daughter, and that whatever challenges might exist, we could manage them.  We were also reminded that this life is very short, and that even if she had to live in an imperfect mortal body, she would live into the eternities as a perfect being.  After this blessing, every concern I had about how she would do and how we would manage was gone.

A few months later, when she was escorted home by some friends of ours who had traveled to Haiti to see the kids they were adopting, our friends were kicked off of an American Airlines flight because a flight attendant thought Cora was too sick to fly.  After a very expensive trip to a clinic and then the emergency room, plus a flight for me to Dallas/Ft. Worth to meet our friends, we learned that she had an ear infection.  That was it.  

What sticks out in my mind, though, is that our friends told me that before I arrived at the hospital, the attending physician told them that he hoped that we realized that the child we were getting was "mentally retarded."  He cited her nystagmus (which is a feature of albinism that almost everyone with albinism has) and her lack of interaction as the reasons for his "diagnosis."  I've always been annoyed that someone would make such a statement in such a callous way, and with nothing to base that opinion on.  Our friends tell us periodically that they wish that doctor could see Cora now.  So do I!  Although she struggles academically because of her visual impairment (20/400 vision), she is one smart cookie and can do anything she wants!  She dances, she plays the piano, she does gymnastics, she reads, she's independent with her equipment in her classroom, she has friends, she can sing beautifully, and she's hilariously funny!  I'm so grateful that we didn't let our fears interfere with bringing such an amazing blessing into our lives.

Happy birthday, Cora!  We love you!

Cora on 4/6/13 - her actual birthday

And finally celebrating on 4/7!

Her favorite Legos!

Cora's phone o' ponies

Thalia's crown o' ponies

Zoe gave Cora and Lily a "spa treatment"

random photos

Thalia lost her first tooth!

The other one is really lose too!  

Listening to General Conference

Cora and Thalia right after school

Walking home from school

Ethan goofing off before his first game of the season 

Again with the goofing

Thalia's reading

Cora and Thalia

Cora's 8th birthday (we're celebrating tomorrow).  And new hair!  

Me and Thalia

A whole lotta catch-up (ketchup?)

I've neglected my poor little blog.  Here are a few highlights from the month of December.

Earlier in the month, Zoe and Ethan got to go to Winter Formal.  Yes, Ethan is only 14, and every year we debate about what to do with these dances.  We finally decided that a) since we live in a small community and there are no church dances, and b) that the kids go in big groups of friends and not alone, we're OK with it.  And in small-town fashion, there are hordes of parents there to supervise (gawk?) and it's really not at all the same as the formal dances I went to as a teen.  Anyway, maybe we're rationalizing, but that's our position - for the moment.

Also very exciting has been the progress on our kitchen this month.  We now have the cabinets, fridge, freezer and microwave drawer installed on the west wall of our kitchen, and the hutch is mostly in in the dining room.  I feel like we may finally finish!  The hutch was rebuilt using our original blueprints, although originally there were two hutches.  Ours is also taller than the original, but otherwise very similar.  I'm excited to get it stained and get the glass and hardware installed.  

One of the 1910 hutches

The new single hutch

That's what nearly 10 foot tall cabinets look like! 

Our microwave drawer can heat up 4 plates of food at once!  A dream for me!  

Then came all the Christmas programs and concerts - 5 of them to be precise.  Unfortunately, the pictures from the older kids' events aren't that great because all I had was my iPhone.  I also spent most of the time recording and didn't take many pictures.  I wish I would have!  At least we have the videos.  

Jack saying his part

Pretty easy to spot the Whicker kids  ;o)

Cora, singing her heart out!

Cora the Christmas tree

My little kindergartener, Beck

Beck saying his part

Lily on the piano.  Can I tell you how much I love watching my deaf daughter play the piano?

And now on percussion 

Loundia getting set up for her choir pieces

Ethan is barely visible behind the tall blonde kid on the front row on the right side.  

It's blurry but I love this picture!  

Jonah on drums.  He's amazing!

In the next post I'll include pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas day.  :o)