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| What's New: website last updated: 01-25-10 01-25-10 new January 2010 page 01-01-10 new Christmas 2009 page 12-22-09 new December 2009 page and December 2009 page 2 AND Making of this Year's Christmas Card page -- and if you have not received your card yet, DON'T PEEK!!! |
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| We are a family of nine, devoted to God and to each other. We are homeschoolers, advocates for adoption, passionate about the value of life, family, and marriage, and firm defenders of Creationism. These are not popular thoughts in today's world, but we open these pages of our lives in order to maybe inspire, motivate, or otherwise encourage others in this difficult and marvelous journey called Life. You are not alone.... |
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January 25, 2010 Update:
The month of January has flown by! The highlight was Maggie's 7th birthday! It was a great
day. Check out the photos.
What else has been happening this month? Well, Art has been working! This is fantastic,
and it is wonderful to see him going off to work each day. This contract is almost over and
we are anticipating the beginning of a large project for Motorola in South Florida, hopefully
in February. The down side of contract work, however, is that pay does not come until 60 to
75 days after the work is completed. So, our last income was in November, and we are
understandably eager for the next paycheck! But we are hanging in there, and anticipating
some good work at least for the next couple of months. We are so thankful for those who
have blessed us over the past several weeks, especially over the holiday time. You know
who you are, and we hope you know how very much you are loved and appreciated. I don't
know what we would have done without your help.
Silas's health insurance has finally be straightened out and he is covered again. When our
COBRA ran out the end of November, we had a difficult time getting Silas covered
because of his pre-existing conditions. We are thankful that everything was finally resolved.
He was able to go for his appointment to the orthopedic surgeon last week. His back
looks wonderful and they are very pleased. He is so much straighter now, and doing so
well. They would like to his next surgery the beginning of May. This would be an adjustment
to lengthen the titanium rib. This adjustment is made about every six months, but the
surgery is much less invasive than the surgery to put all this hardware in. He would be out
the same day or the next day, and the incision, instead of being from the nape of his neck to
his bottom, would only be a few inches long. Still not looking forward to it, but seeing how
much this has helped him, we are very thankful that this procedure is available and that we
have found such a marvellous surgeon.
We are looking forward to Hannah's birthday the end of this week. She will be 19, but
shhhhh... she is not real happy about that. She is preparing for her black belt test in
Taekwondo which will take place this spring.
Canaan has started classes at college and is doing well. He recently had a disturbing
setback. His neurosurgeon had him try weaning off of his epilespy medications to see if he
still needed it, as there are many cases of those whose epilepsy was at the onset of
puberty who grew out of it after puberty. His epilespy has been completely controlled by his
medications since he started taking it three years ago. However, the experiment did not go
well, and he had a major seizure a couple of weeks ago. He is now back on his medication
full strength and has had no further problems. We are very thankful that there is a
medication that works so effectively for him, because we are well aware that so many
people with epilespy do not have this blessing. At the same time, it was a difficult
experience for both him and us, and we are still recovering from that. Besides that he is
doing great at school and is an amazing, strong, funny, loving, helpful young man.
Not really any other news that I can think of. The weather was beautiful today and the little
ones had a great time out in the big, back yard. These are the days I especially love the
freedom of homeschooling, and being able to say, "It's too beautiful outside to stay indoors
today. Go out and play!" Tomorrow it's supposed to rain, and by the end of the week, there
may be snow. Enjoy it while you can!
The month of January has flown by! The highlight was Maggie's 7th birthday! It was a great
day. Check out the photos.
What else has been happening this month? Well, Art has been working! This is fantastic,
and it is wonderful to see him going off to work each day. This contract is almost over and
we are anticipating the beginning of a large project for Motorola in South Florida, hopefully
in February. The down side of contract work, however, is that pay does not come until 60 to
75 days after the work is completed. So, our last income was in November, and we are
understandably eager for the next paycheck! But we are hanging in there, and anticipating
some good work at least for the next couple of months. We are so thankful for those who
have blessed us over the past several weeks, especially over the holiday time. You know
who you are, and we hope you know how very much you are loved and appreciated. I don't
know what we would have done without your help.
Silas's health insurance has finally be straightened out and he is covered again. When our
COBRA ran out the end of November, we had a difficult time getting Silas covered
because of his pre-existing conditions. We are thankful that everything was finally resolved.
He was able to go for his appointment to the orthopedic surgeon last week. His back
looks wonderful and they are very pleased. He is so much straighter now, and doing so
well. They would like to his next surgery the beginning of May. This would be an adjustment
to lengthen the titanium rib. This adjustment is made about every six months, but the
surgery is much less invasive than the surgery to put all this hardware in. He would be out
the same day or the next day, and the incision, instead of being from the nape of his neck to
his bottom, would only be a few inches long. Still not looking forward to it, but seeing how
much this has helped him, we are very thankful that this procedure is available and that we
have found such a marvellous surgeon.
We are looking forward to Hannah's birthday the end of this week. She will be 19, but
shhhhh... she is not real happy about that. She is preparing for her black belt test in
Taekwondo which will take place this spring.
Canaan has started classes at college and is doing well. He recently had a disturbing
setback. His neurosurgeon had him try weaning off of his epilespy medications to see if he
still needed it, as there are many cases of those whose epilepsy was at the onset of
puberty who grew out of it after puberty. His epilespy has been completely controlled by his
medications since he started taking it three years ago. However, the experiment did not go
well, and he had a major seizure a couple of weeks ago. He is now back on his medication
full strength and has had no further problems. We are very thankful that there is a
medication that works so effectively for him, because we are well aware that so many
people with epilespy do not have this blessing. At the same time, it was a difficult
experience for both him and us, and we are still recovering from that. Besides that he is
doing great at school and is an amazing, strong, funny, loving, helpful young man.
Not really any other news that I can think of. The weather was beautiful today and the little
ones had a great time out in the big, back yard. These are the days I especially love the
freedom of homeschooling, and being able to say, "It's too beautiful outside to stay indoors
today. Go out and play!" Tomorrow it's supposed to rain, and by the end of the week, there
may be snow. Enjoy it while you can!