Baby Grace

This is a quick snipet of Baby Grace that was found on the trash pile. Tom and I support her at His Home for Children in PAP so we will start getting photos and video of her. She looks really good. Hopefully I will get to go meet her in Oct. when I am in Haiti for my next medical clinic with NVM.

Steph

NEW FAMILY

We are excited to say that Shnaider has a family in the process of completing a home study and wish to adopt him. They have visited with him several times and are soooo excited about having him become a part of their family. We are expecting him to transition very well to them soon. He is very easy going and I think he will do fine. We are thrilled to see God's plans for him and our family. From the beginning we knew that we were not to adopt him but that God had a plan for all of us. We feel blessed to have been used to help him through some difficult months and surgeries. He has been a great blessing for our family to learn about helping others, sacrifice and listening to God's will and trusting Him to get us through all of it. We will miss his laugh and smile and all the funny things two year olds do. He is such a sweet good boy. I know this family will be blessed to have him in their lives. Thank you so much for all your prayer support for him and us through these last few months I am happy to have been able to share it with you.
We are praying that God shows us now what He wants us to do next for Him and His kingdom. I am happy to have built a relationship with Hands that Heal and will continue in that partnership even after Shnaider leaves us. It is amazing to me what can be done with God leading and I cant wait to see what is next for us.
Stephanie

FACINATION

Shanider is facinated by Andi. He spends most of the morning following her around sitting on her and in general pestering her. She just sits and lets him sit on her, look in her mouth, pull her ears, it doesnt seem to bother her a bit. I think when he finds his forever family he is going to miss her more than the rest of us!

He is doing very well, it has been nice to not have any surgeries and he is feeling good.

Steph

A+

Nick had an A+ day at school yesterday. Thank you to everyone who prayed for him. We will try to remain optimistic that he can do it.
Steph

SWEET NICHOLAS

This is one of my favorite pictures from Nick's childhood! Yes he is in the toilet with clothes, jacket and shoes on getting ready to eat toilet paper. My husband had brought him in from the car and went to get Jer out and came back in 30 seconds later to find this. He quickly got the camera and this picture will not haunt him for the rest of his life:)

Nick is really struggling with school this year. We are not sure what will happen, he might not be able to stay in. This is something I have known might happen and it is so hard. The people working with him at school are not able to get him to do what he needs to and Im not sure they are using the correct methods. We are trying some medication now as well. I am trying to communicate with them in positive ways and come up with better ways to help him. I know some of them are losing patience but others are still positive.

I dont know what is the best thing for him right now. If he truly cant function in a regular classroom I dont want to keep making him try to comply with what he cant do but I want to give him a fair chance to see if he can succeed.

They wouldnt let him go on a field trip with the class yesterday and we have had to give up riding the bus this week too. It is just a reminder that there will be so many things in his life that the Autism will limit him in and that makes me cry, A LOT. I am thankful for everything he can do and it could be a lot worse but it is hard to focus on those things when it is difficult.

Please pray that the medication might work and that he would have no side effects and that the school and us at home will see the right things we need to help him.

He right now has been the best he ever has at home which I find interesting with how he is struggling at school. He isnt thrilled with Shnaider but he has not had any fits or melt downs in a long time at home. That has been great for us.

Thanks for all the prayers!

Stephanie

OFF TO SCHOOL

It was dark and rainy this morning but I still had to try to get a picture or two of Shnaider and Andi watching out the window as the big boys go off to school. Andi has always watched the bus go off then goes and takes a nap but Shnaider isnt always awake when they leave. He was this morning and loves looking at the bus and has learned to say "bye". Jer had fun making faces at him from outside while he waited for the bus.

Shnaider is learning to say more words and is babbling much more.

Nick still doesnt like his loud talking or occasional crying very much but we are getting along alright. Nick is still struggling at school to fit into the routine and do monotonus work he already knows how to do. It has been difficult some days. Please continue to pray that he can fit into a routine and for an adoptive family for Shniader.

Steph

TRIP TO THE ZOO

Labor Day weekend we took a trip to the zoo. It was a lot of fun. Nick loves animals! All three boys did great.

Steph

DEADLY HURRICANES

As most of you know Haiti has been hit terribly by all 3 hurricanes that just went through there. Thankfully Port-A-Prince is fine where Pastor Pierre that I work with lives and where His Home orphanage is. I believe that Chambrun, the community we serve, is also alright. There are so many others that are not so fortunate. I have heard death toll as high as 3,000. Most people in these areas have lost everything. There are many reports in several of the blogs on my page listing of ones that I read if you want more information. Please pray for them.
Stephanie

SENDY AND INFANT GRACE

As most of you know I was in the process of trying to find a place for Sendy to have her surgery here in the U.S. We were unsuccessful so far. I just received an update from Chris who runs His Home orphanage where Sendy lives. They have an opportunity for 3 of their children with Hydrocephaly to possibly have surgery in Haiti. They will be taking the three children this week for evaluation and training on how to care for them post op. This service is being provided by surgeons from Miami. Please pray that they are accepted. This would be a huge praise and I am so thankful to hear that opportunities are starting to come to Haiti for them.
I had posted a story about infant Grace Hope a few days ago. She is going to be staying at His Home as well. I received an update on her that she is still in the hospital but doing better and eating well. She will be released from the hospital in a week or two. I cant imagine what it would be like to feel like your only option is to throw your infant in the trash. It just breaks my heart for the people of Haiti to see their life choices. I am praying that she will survive and that we can find a hospital to do surgery on her feet in the future. We might have a lead for this here in Indiana at some point.
I will be going to Haiti again soon. I am currently getting the medications around for our clinic, it is a little stressful but God has provided everything we have needed so far and I am confident He will again. I want to visit with Sendy and Grace when I am there as well as all the other children. There is so much to do when we are there and the time flys by.
Shnaider is doing great. The shunt seems to be working fine right now. He is a busy normal two year old. We have had a few families show some intrest in adopting him and we are hopeful that the right family will come.
Nick has been doing better at school the last few days. Still a little rough but he has been able to stay in the classroom almost the entire day if not the whole day. He still is not overly fond of Shnaider but he is doing pretty good with him. We are seeing some professionals for counseling and other options to help him right now which we have not had to do in the past. As he gets older and new and harder challenges arise it is all a learning process. Pray we and the school make the right decisions on how best to help him.
Jer is doing awesome!!
Tom and I start our new job hours Sunday. It will be an adjustment but I think a great one for our family.
Praying hard all the time,
Steph

BATH TIME

All my kids at one time or another got a bath in the kitchen sink. Shnaider got to try this out the other day. He loved it!

Steph

UPDATE ON SHNAIDER

We saw the Neurologist today. He said he now wants to wait for 3 months to see Shnaider back instead of doing surgery on the front now. He is hoping that if it can scar over on its own that he might not have to even go back in at all. The shunt will need to continue to work and keep the pressure off so it can scar over. The plan is to watch and wait for now.

We are also looking for a family that wants to adopt Shnaider. The organization in Haiti has been unable to locate his mother since he came in March. They will go through the steps to consider him an abandoned child. He would be able to stay here in the U.S. until the end of the adoption process. Our hope is that he can transition from our family to an adoptive family soon. If no adoptive family is found then he will go back to Haiti in 6 months (provided all his medical care is done then) and live in an orphanage. The shunt needs to stay in for 6 months then they will take it out.
We are praying that the shunt continues to work and that he needs no more surgeries and that an adoptive family is found.
Steph

PRAISE

Our family is going to be doing a lot of changing in the near future. Tom has always worked for Mikes Carwash 55 hrs a week getting up at 2 or 3 a.m. He is tired a lot of the time but that is what we are used to.
I have been working at St.Vincent hospital for a few months in a unit I absolutely love. It is a low level intensive care nursery.
I was presnted with an opportunity to work on the weekends and make full time pay but this would mean that Tom would leave the carwash after 19 years. We really felt like this is what God was wanting our family to do even though the thought of Tom not having a regular job was very scarey. He put in his notice and told them our situation. They said there was no way they could change his schedule to not work weekends. We were really hoping he could stay with them but it wasnt working out that way. We decided to go ahead with what we thougth was right. The carwash called him for another meeting but let him know the answer was still no to the change. We kept praying that God would bring the right opportunity for him.
Finally they called him yet again and said they wanted to keep him and try to work something out. A glimmer of hope but we werent going to get our hopes up too high.
They ended up after 3 weeks almost of stringing us along and us staying firm with what we thought God wanted, they decided to let him work Sun-Thurs nights! We were thanking God. This is what we had asked them originally to do. He will only have to work40 hours a week and I will work on the weekends. It will work our perfectly and financially will be a huge blessing for us.
It is hard to stay firm sometimes and trust what God is saying when you cant see what is on the other end but we learned through this yet again that He is faithful to take care of us always.
Stephanie