School's out for Summer

So it's been awhile since the last entry. A week or so after the last entry we had placed an offer on a condo, it was accepted and I planned on writing as soon as we had everything in order to share the great news. I waited, and waited and waited, it got so long at one point people were asking us if we were still doing the blog. Well, unfortunately God's timing is not our timing.



As we sit now we are in the final stretch of getting the financing arranged. The market has completely fallen out of favor with people in our situation (not much money saved and not the best credit in the last 7 seven years). So I decided to write before the summer gets too far underway.



We are all settling in, finally, as a family. Brad's work scheduled has changed 3 or more times in the last 6 weeks. Even more if you count the rumors and false starts for different shift changes. But it is still a good job, and he can't say he's getting bored with the same old routine.



Isaiah came home with a very promising report card and has been assigned a 1st grade teacher. Providing we get the condo his school will change but we've already talked to his speech teacher and current principal and they were both very positive about the new school. I think with a little hard work this summer that perhaps Isaiah won't have to be in any special classes this fall. He'll have to start in them but hopefully he'll be able to "test out" of them. His behavior still seems to be our biggest stumbling block but we have decided to use some medication to help his impulse control. With a little old fashioned tough love and some honest loving feedback we are seeing him make better choices sooner. (no one likes to go to bed before their little brother)



Sam is progressing nicely, we still have so far to go but we are hopeful for the future. He is trying hard to talk, and we still believe that he thinks he's being more clear than he is. He loves Thomas the Tank engine and knows all the names, he's happy to tell you which is which and will correct you if you say the wrong name. Most of his words are garbled, you have to know context for most things but progress is progress. We can't figure out, however, why the name "Thomas" comes out 'Ippy', we even say T-om- is, and he repeats T-m then says "Ippy". It's all very matter of fact and I don't think he hears the difference.



The other day he and Brad were out getting groceries, Brad let Sam have the pen and shopping list, I was on the phone with Brad at the time and he said, "Sam just wrote his name!" I don't know if Brad wrote it 1st and Sam copied it but we've known for awhile that Sam recognizes his name but this was a shocker! Brad had him do it again at home and sure enough I looked at it and it was clearly S-a-m. I told Brad we should forget trying to get him to speak and just teach him to spell!!



We are working on reading with Isaiah and he is excited about the idea of understanding more of his world, especially, the rules for online games that I won't sit and read him. I talked to his reading teacher and she gave me a list of where he should be for 1st grade and he's really right on target, in fact, if I may sound like a proud mom, I think we'll get beyond that this summer. Summer goal for Sam is potty training. It seems that he's more in the mode for it. I figure one week with grandma (either one) and he should be set, unless someone else would like to volunteer for the job.



The boys caseworker will be changing this summer, theirs is taking another job. So please pray that a new caseworker will speed things along and not have to start over for some bizarre reason. I just finished reading the book "Hope's Boy" by Andrew Bridge. He was in the foster care system in California from the age of 6 (Isaiah's current age) and "aged out" of foster care, after high school he went on to graduate from Harvard Law school. I had hoped it would be a book of redemption, rather it was a story of a young man that was in a holding pattern his entire childhood. How sad that he couldn't find the positives in such a negative story, his foster parents even had a pool for goodness sakes. This wasn't a kid that lived in a cage his entire childhood.



My prayer is that Sam and Isaiah don't grow up and look back at their time with us as just a childhood of waiting. We both want the boys to look back and have happy memories, like Brad and I do of our childhood, of growing up with a brother (or sister) and having fun, silly, goofy times just being a kid.



We start the summer with hope and faith that the Lord will continue to direct our paths and