Bye-Bye Elementary School

Kinder-5th grade: That's a wrap!

The beginning of the school year was a rough one, but we fought and won some big battles and Isaac ended the 5th grade having jumped nearly THREE grade levels in reading, conquering fractions and becoming one of the lead basketball players on campus!   (Growing another couple extra inches this year likely helped with that!). He proudly strutted around the track for the 5th grade promotion with his muscles flexed!

His sweet para joined Isaac at the start of the holidays and has been a real gift to us. We will miss her next year. <3

As we are graduating from our elementary years, I find myself remembering those first days of kinder so many years ago... He was so little, I had to carry him out of class every day so he wouldn't get trampled!

First day of kinder:

Last day of 5th:

Still a stud <3 

He has physically grown, learned much and matured into a delightful, compassionate and fun adolescent. I am proud of the hard work he has put in, often while unknowingly carrying the burden of being the first with special needs in a particlar situlation. I am sad that so many teachers and students before him had never had the joy of a child with Down syndrome in their midst, but I am thankful that there are now many who have foundational (hopefully life changing), normalizing experience with a really cool child like mine. 

Isaac will be moving across town to an International Baccalaureate middle school next year which will offer him the creative learning that his brain functions so well on.  

Middle school...here we come!

See ya Sophomore Year!

 Mila blew the 10th grade right out of the water!  We started the year with several emergency meetings with administrators, teachers and district liasons after it was discovered that general education classes were being withheld from Mila.  *eyeroll*  We'll fast forward to the part where Mila successfully joined choir in the fall (as the first student with special needs to do so!), then added Art and Plant Biology in the spring while attending to ALL her specially designed instruction in her special education class.  BOOM!  (Let's also mention the L&I Lawn Mower certificate she earned with her Gen Ed peers without any modifications provided to her.  She now asks to see the lawn mowers at Home Depot!)

I had the joy of attending the end of year Dream Prom earlier this week with Mila and her classmates put on by the Asscoated Student Body.  She had a BLAST!  Dancing HARD for a solid two hours.  It was a joy to see her having such a great time and to be celebrated. (She slept very well that night!)

Mila will continue at her current high school next year with plans to explore some new general education classes both in the fall and spring. Several of her classmates will be able to do the same, which is exciting and hopefully a culture change within her school--ALL students should eagerly have access to ALL education.  Until then, she'll continue to work hard through the summer with ongoing tutoring as we continue to play catch up from missed academic years prior to coming home.  She is one smart cookie. I have no doubt she'll do equally as well her junior year of high school. GO ABES!

Good Bye Sweet Street

Summer of 2008 brought me to Sweet Street. Long before kids, I walked through the house hearing the Lord say this was my house with a clear picture of a highchair against the fridge and a toybox in the family room.  Nearly 5 years later I would be on the floor playing with my new son and casually look over to see a highchair up against the fridge and a toybox in the exact position I saw 5 years earlier.  The Lord had a plan and purpose for that house and I'm thankful it served us and so many others so well. 

I'll never forget the first looks that both Isaac and Mila had in their new homes.  After a LONG sleepless flight from China, I nonchalantly carried Isaac into our house on my hip schlepping luggage in from the car. His eyes were SO WIDE rapidly searching the space while I quickly navigated from room to room.  When his face finally caught my attention I literally had to appologize--I had neglected to show him HIS house. I walked back to the front door then slowly went from room to room letting him see and touch and experience his new forever.  

I knew better for Mila's arrival. I had shown her pictures prior to coming home, even facetime tours during our Albanian intermission 3months before she arrived.  But on that day in October of 2018 I walked her slowly into her home and to her room showing her each thing that was HERS for the first time. She gasped "Oh, Mommy" over and over and over again. 

With all the birthdays, Christmases, dance parties, sick days and movie nights, Isaac would learn to walk and talk and grow and Mila would learn to trust and love in this their first forever house.  

Sweet Street was a lesson in allowing the Lord to use everything when you offer it all.  When I had two spare bedrooms, prekids, nurse friends would bunk at my house after long trauma shifts to keep them closer to the hospital.  After Isaac came home and my office with the garden green walls became the sole spare bedroom, the Lord used that room to welcome two new daughters with special needs to their new families as they stayed in our home during their adoptions.  And even after that room became Mila's, our yard became a beautiful place of fellowship with our sweet neighbor when we added a gate between our yards to be able to spend more time together. 

After 15 years, our time at Sweet Street as come to an end. We've outgrown the walls and it is time to think ahead to what each member of the family will need in the coming years. The list is specific and we are standing in full expectation that the Lord will provide for us in a beautiful way yet again...as we don't know where that will be yet and there is a sweet family ready to make their own memories here, we'll be bunking at Gramma's house while we wait for God to take us to our new forever home.

Good bye Sweet Street--you've been good to us. <3 

Seaside Getaway 2023

When we returned from our Spring Break from Hades in April, I literally walked in the door and booked a trip to our most favorite place to be over Memorial Day weekend...Seaside, Oregon.  We needed a redemption trip and knowing that we'd be in full house packing & moving mode (more on that later), it was going to be a well timed get away.  

Seaside is our safe place. It's the place that fills our cup as a family and individually. We go sometime through the year at least once every year and for various amounts of time so there is always something different to do and explore...and there is the sameness of tradition that I crave giving my kids. 

Seaside is just 3 hours from our home in Tacoma, but I aim to take a different route everytime we go; to see something different; to explore a different part of our beautiful PNW.  This time we took the Washington side of the Columbia River. A first for me and a now highly recommended scenic byway.

Then we stumbled upon the Gray's River Historic Covered Bridge. The last covered bridge in WA state still in use! (I already have this on my list of places to go see in the autum--I bet the colors area amazing!)

We made it!  And immediately found our favorite gelato spot. :) 

I asked the kids kindly if they'd let me take some pictures. They decided to pose themselves--goofballs! 

Cool and cloudy in the mornings and beautifully sunny in the afternoons made for a good schedule that included lots of pool time before lunch. Mila made big strides in willingly putting her face underwater and Isaac swam alone across the short end of the pool--part fish, I tell ya!

This was also the first year that I didn't bring out the sand toys--no one needed or wanted them.  We walked the beach for hours looking for shells and throwing the football. Seems I am indeed traveling with (nearly) two teenagers. 

Squeezed in some arcade time:

And I got to start my summer reading goal of all 1037 pages of Gone With the Wind (seems I've never actually read it...?) and soaked in every drop of sun that I could. 

Seaside, you are good to us. Thank you for letting us breath deeply, rest fully, and giggle so very much (and also the gelato). 

Seaside, 2023 🥰