Sniff Sniff...

 

Jake and Rachel...as cute as ever.  Getting a picture of the two of them is rare these days. 

  

Rachel is such a fish in the water.  She absolutely loves swimming.

  

Funny to see Jake without a shirt.  He usually swims with a shirt.

  

Jake taking two foul shots!

  

Rachel's second time at the beach which was almost three years later!  She had a blast.

   

Jake, Rachel and Sherry at the beach.

  

Love this!

  

Jake and Julianna Bell

  

Rachel and Elizabeth Bell

  

This is what a little girl looks like when she colors her hand with a blue marker!  This girl is something else!

  

Jake had all his hair cut off!  4+ years of long hair.  It's growing on me.

  

Still handsome.

  

Sandy and my niece, Isis.

  

Isis, Jake & Rachel - Easter 2011

  

Rachel at the Great Wolf Lodge.  We had a blast!!!!

  

Marion, Sandy & Jake.  My sister looks fabulous after losing 100+ lbs.

  

Seriously, ain't she cute!  I can just eat her up!

  

Isn't this funny?  Rachel pushing Jake on the baby swing.  LOL.

  

Mommy & Rachel. 

  

We saw the Fresh Beat Band at Sesame Place in May, 2011.  Rachel's favorite band on Nick Jr.

  

Rachel with Ms. Kelly from LeRoux.  She was so proud of her trophy!

  

Another rare photo of Dave and me. 

  

So proud to show us her moves.

  

Rachel and one of her best friends, EJ.

   

Rachel loves our "new" piano.  I think we will have our own entertainment for years to come!

 
Jake finished 7th grade in June and Rachel finished her first full year of preschool! I can’t believe how fast these years go! I mean, it just seems like yesterday that Jake was starting Kindergarten and at the same time, it seems like just yesterday that we brought Rachel home from China. Why does life have to feel like it’s going at warp speed? Jake only has one more year of middle school and the same year he starts high school, Rachel will be entering Kindergarten! I’m not sure my heart can handle two huge milestones all at once. Why is it so hard on parents to see their kids grow up? I know we are selfish, as mother’s, to want our kids to stay young so that we can have them with us at all times and shelter and protect them from this big wide world we live in. I want to protect them from anything negative that could possibly harm them. I know going into our big world is the only way they will learn and grow as a person, but it scares me to death! I guess all we can do is teach them to trust God and teach them right from wrong.

7th grade was a major transitional year for Jake. He was an “A” student all the way through the first marking period of school, but things started changing halfway through the year. Jake received his first “C” this year after the 2nd marking period and then he got two “C’s” after the third marking period. In between the 2nd and 3rd marking period, we scheduled a conference with his teachers. We wanted to make sure we weren’t missing something, like whether or not he was struggling with something in school. On the positive side, Jake is very well liked by his teachers and by his peers. He’s a leader and apparently a very good friend. All his teachers said that “he is very respectful, a clown at times, but for the most part, he’s genuinely a good kid who is well liked by everyone. Your son is an “A” student who gets “B’s” and “C’s.” He’s perfectly capable, but he lacks motivation.” So, we had to have a talk with him, although he would probably say we “lectured” him. It took him another full marking period to realize that we meant business and his final report card, he showed a major improvement in all his classes and he didn’t received any “C’s” in his core subjects. He did get a “C” in Art, which really is still unacceptable, but his consequence wouldn’t be quite so harsh since we did see that he worked harder and he pulled up his core grades. He hasn’t had his cell phone in over three months! He is dying for it, but because he did get a “C” in Art and not because of his artistic ability, but because he was late handing in three assignments, he had to wait another month to get his phone back. We compromised, because he wasn’t supposed to get any “C’s”, but I do want to reward him for improving all his grades in his core subjects. I hope he learned a lot from this year. Unfortunately, as he moves onto each grade, school gets harder. He won’t get by, by doing just the bare minimum. He has to put effort into his work and he has to study! This is all new for him and I think he learned the hard way this year! Nonetheless, we are blessed because he is a great kid and the fact that he did pull his grades up, we know he is perfectly capable. He’s smart, talented, funny and just an all-around great kid. We truly feel blessed to be his parents. We hope he has a great start to 8th grade in September and that he will remember from the touch lesson I hope he learned in 7th grade.

Jake is participating in a “Counselor in Training (CIT)” program at the YMCA. He had to go through an application process as well as an official interview. He did that over spring break and he ended up being chosen for the program. This is a great opportunity for him for the future and at the end of the five weeks, he will be CPR and First Aid certified. Hopefully in the end, this program will help him next year for finding a paying job as a counselor for some camp program. I am very excited for him and hope he ends up enjoying himself. Jake will also be very busy with basketball this summer, because he is playing on way too many teams. I guess it’s a good thing he enjoys the game! Actually, basketball is his favorite sport and the only way to continue learning and growing in the sport is to play play play! So, he is definitely playing this summer…on three basketball teams. We already see a huge improvement in his skills. Hopefully he will do an overnight camp or two. He did one last summer and he absolutely loved it. I’m hoping he enjoys it as much this summer.

Our baby girl is growing up too! Can you believe we just celebrated 3 years as a “Forever Family” of four on May 19th?! Seriously, time really does fly by. Rachel truly enjoyed her preschool this past year. Her teacher, Miss Kuntz, was absolutely fantastic. Miss Kuntz has been with PCA for over 30+ years teaching three year olds. It truly blows my mind the patience, love and grace she shows our children. Her love for God is shared each day with our kids too. Rachel has grown so much in her first year with PCA and I’m looking forward to her continuing this summer for their camp program. She is learning her numbers, letters, colors and more songs than I can count! She has made so many friends and I know she will miss them over the summer. Hopefully we can schedule some play dates!

Rachel is showing a true interest in music. We all know that she is quite a little performer, but she loves getting on the piano that was given to us by a coworker of mine. She happened to be performing one day and she had us in stitches with her passion and comfort with herself. If I didn’t know she was three, you would think this girl was performing for years! She has repeatedly asked to learn how to play the piano and she also wants to learn how to play the violin. We are totally going to look into some sort of lessons for her. I think we may have to wait to another year or so for piano lessons as she is too young, but apparently there is a method that is used in teaching young children how to play the violin. I am really curious to see where her enthusiasm and willingness to learn takes her. I think we might be seeing Rachel on stage someday! I know that we truly enjoy the entertainment that we have been blessed with.

We are preparing for another celebration in our family that is truly exciting. Our family is growing by leaps and bounds. I know that I have shared earlier that my sister, Sandy, and her husband, Marion, have been fostering a child and have been for almost a year now. Well, we are hoping to receive wonderful news this week that the adoption process will be finalized! Isis will “officially” become part of our family. I mean, she has been a part of our family from day one, but the “official stamp” will mean that she will be forever ours legally! Sandy and Marion are wonderful parents and it’s exciting to see them grow as a couple and now as parents. We will be making our way down south next month to celebrate with them over their growing family and it will be the first time in a long that my older sister, Debbie, and her family will be going along. We plan to have a great “Adoption Celebration” with Sandy, Marion and Isis and then we will be on the next journey where they will work on bringing home another child. God is so good and I can’t believe how He has worked in our lives in growing our family and that He has led my family and each of my sister’s families down the road of adoption. We have been truly blessed with our children, both biologically and through adoption. We were blessed with the best of both worlds and I will be eternally grateful to Him.

We found out some wonderful news recently. I’ve heard people say how God has quite the sense of humor and recently our friends have learned that first hand! My friend, Tina, and her husband have decided that they were done having children. There boys are now 8 and 9 and they are in a very comfortable place with their life and things are easier to do now. Tina was on birth control to prevent pregnancy, but since turning 40 in March, her doctor felt that it was no longer safe for her to be on the pill. They decided that her husband would have surgery to prevent future pregnancies. Five days prior to his surgery, Tina learned that she was pregnant! YEP!!!! God decided that they weren’t done having children! To top it all off, the baby will be due in February…they will celebrate all three of their children’s birthday within 30 days! They didn’t see the humor in any of this, but now that the “cat is out of the bag” they are truly excited about their impending addition. I am so excited to share in this journey with Tina and Pete. When we became friends, Peter and Zachary were probably 2 and 3 years old at the time. It will be fun to see Tina pregnant and watching her family grow to a family of 5! This couldn’t happen to a more deserving couple. Tina and Pete are great parents and the fact that they see this “oops” as a blessing shows that they are ready to embrace what God has in store for them. Congratulations my friends! You will do amazing and you are truly blessed to have the love and support of your family and friends. I love you all! See, I said that my family was growing and that includes my “extended” family as well! There is nothing like have a baby in the family even when it’s a complete “surprise.”

I was sad to learn that another close friend of mine, Diane, has breast cancer. I met Diane about 18 years ago when I responded to her ad that she placed in the newspaper for a babysitter. Diane and her kids became a part of my family from the moment I met them. I have watched Ali and Nick grow up, from starting kindergarten to graduating high school. Again, it’s crazy to think how time flies! Anyway, Diane called me about a month ago after she learned her diagnosis. Actually, as I’m typing this, she is in surgery having a “lumpectomy” as well as a “partial hysterectomy.” When Diane shared her news, I would have never guessed that she was sharing bad news with me. Her positive attitude and great strength just truly amazes me and it will serve her well while she goes through her year of treatment of radiation and chemotherapy. She has an amazing outlook and she has amazing confidence in her medical team. If anyone can beat this disease, it’s Diane! She is an incredibly strong woman. This disease truly scares me to death and I pray that I’m never faced with it. But having Diane in my life and seeing her positive attitude and outlook, she gives me the strength I need to get through each day. Please pray for my friend and ask God to heal her and to continue to give her all that she needs to get through this phase of her life. I thanked Him for her as my friend and I thanked Him for giving her the strength that she does have, because her strength WILL help her win this battle!

Our family had a little scare back in June with Jake. While participating in “Career Day” at school, which is where professionals go to school and share their profession with the students, a cardiac nurse picked up an irregular pulse while performing pulse checks with a “pulse ox” machine on each of the students. Since Jake was the nurse’s help during class, he was the last student to be checked. The machine picked up his pulse being extremely high. As a precaution, they recommended that we take Jake to the doctor to make sure his heart was okay. Long story short, after an echo cardiogram, EKG, blood work, wearing a heart monitor for 24 hours, he was declared healthy! Praise God! The explanation given, since Jake is athletic, these machines tend to give false readings. Because Jake is athletic, his heart rate beats slower than a normal heart rate and these machines tend to pick up a double pulse from within his body. Also because of his athleticism, his heart will appear larger due to the large muscle around his heart. It’s all good and I’m so glad that it was nothing! Getting that phone call from the nurse was frightening and all I kept thinking was how blessed we are that they caught it! You constantly hear stories of athletes who drop dead on basketball courts because of heart conditions that they were not aware of until it’s too late. Enlarged hearts do run in my family, so I was thrilled that his heart is large because he’s athletic and not because of genetics. I can’t imagine him learning that he couldn’t play basketball or worse yet; he has a serious heart condition. I am thankful he is here, healthy and hopefully here for a long long long time! My kids are my world and I can’t imagine anything being wrong with them.

The next month is full of fun stuff happening which I’m looking forward to since our July has been kind of quiet except for work and camp. We will be celebrating Rachel’s 4th birthday this month too and believe me, we get a countdown each day! Rachel is so excited that she will be having a birthday soon and she let’s everyone know that she encounters. We are heading down south to visit family and in the first weekend, we are headed to Waymart, PA to attend Living Hope’s 13th Family reunion. I’m so excited and can’t wait! I will try to do my best to update more frequently, but I know we all know how crazy life can get. I do love sharing our family memories and hopefully one day my children will appreciate this blog.