A Few More Pictures

Doesn't Levi look warm?

Levi and Mommy out for a walk after dinner with six other children (2/5). I had told the kids we would start walking, so they could ride their bikes and the scooter. Well, we finally made it happen. It was a fun little trip and we should walk more often.

Cool kicks!!

Here is Levi wearing the Uggs that his Mommy purchased for him with the money that his great-grandma Isabelle gave him for Christmas. Right after Christmas I saw a woman in Target with her son and he had a pair on. I asked her where she got them and I went on a hunt. I thought they were too cute to pass up. Yes, I am silly. I don't own a pair of Uggs, but my son does. Oh well.

Levi & the babes..

Here we all are after Christmas. This is our four generation picture on my mom's did. Heidi (Mommy), Shelley (Grannie), Levi (Big Man) and Carol (GG...great grandmother). Levi's eyes are close, but he is still cute.

Our cute family!

I believe this is our "Christmas" picture that was taken after Christmas. It just didn't seem like we could find a time to take a picture for Christmas this year between children, odd work hours and holiday commitments, but this will have to work.

Note: This picture was taken on 1/9/09. Yes, our tree was still up. I told people we kept it up, as we put it up so late. I think our tree was only up a week before Christmas. The last two Christmas Seasons I have not decorated very much at all. Two year ago we moved on the 1st of December, which I highly would not recommend. This Christmas we had a new baby and had just taken in two new foster children. I am hopeful for next year, but at the same time we will have a 13 month old boy on our hands....we will have to wait and see.

Notice the pretty quilt?

This is Levi sleeping in his bed for the morning (1/6). This is the first and only time he has slept in his crib his Leach grandparents and great-grandmother Isabelle purchased for him. He currently sleeps in our room still, as the foster children occupy our other three rooms.

If you look at the picture the quit was made by his Grandma Jane. It is very cute and she worked really hard on it. It is a Noah's Ark theme with all different animals on it. We were very excited to receive it as a gift. Thank you Grandma Jane for all of your hard work. If I think of it I will post a picture where you can see the whole quilt.

Catching up..

Levi - 7 days

Levi - 1 month

Levi - 2 months (with cousin Isabelle)

Levi - 3 months

Levi - 4 months

Updating again....Where has the time gone?

Proud new van owners?

Well, last Saturday (2/7) we drove to the Stockton area with my parents and came home with the above purchase. I have said all my life that I would never be a van owner. Why is it the things you say you would never do you manage to do later in life?

You ask why the purchase??? Let's see, at the current count our household consists of 9 people. There is the mommy and daddy, Levi and 6 foster children. We have Destiny (14), Nico (12), ReyAnna (7) and Larissa (2). They are all siblings. Then there is Noah (11) and Larissa (7), who are brother and sister. Yes, we have TWO...count it TWO Larissa's in our home. Makes the adventure even more adventurous.

Baby Jesus!

Levi and I were in the Christmas Musical at North Fresno Church the middle of December. I played Mary with Levi playing Baby Jesus in the first service, as the original Mary who sang in the program could not be there for the second half of first service. In second service she held him the whole time. He slept through both of his performances as Baby Jesus. It was rather nice, as the Mama was kind of worried. He did great!

Computer crashed!

Well, out computer crashed about a month ago. We lost most of our pictures, but my brother was able to retrieve some of them with the equipment he uses are work. Thus, I do not have anymore pictures of Levi on the computer later than Halloween. I will post more hopefully this week.

He is doing well, as of last Monday he weighed 15 pounds and 1 ounce. He was trying hard to double his birth weight by 3 months, but he is just barely going to miss that bench mark.

We are still trying to figure out why is breathing can be so fast, but I may have found the answer to his problem on someone else's blog tonight. I will keep you posted on what I figure out. For now we are trying to deal with the acid reflux. We have one medication, but it does not seem to help too much. We have an appointment next week with the pediatrician and she said if it was not helping she would give us a different medication. To get the expensive medication we have to try the first two medications, so they can know that they did not work for him. We will see. But, if the new information I found tonight plays into his situation maybe we will go a different route for treatment. We will have to wait and see.

Until then goodbye 2008 and hello 2009!

The "other" Andrew!

Here Levi and I are on October 10, 2008 with the "other" Andrew. He came into our home on December 28, 2007. The day this picture was taken was the day he went to live with his Aunt Teresa and Uncle Brian. It is hard to believe it has been a year since we took him it. The 10 months that we had him had their ups and downs. It was a lot of work, as he needed help. It just seemed each time we would get somewhere they would tell us that was not what we needed or we were not where we needed to be.

Through this difficult time I was able to see that God is faithful. Intially said we would not have him over the summer and then it was that we would not have him when the baby was born. Obviously, God had other plans and I could not convince myself to let him go no matter how hard things got, as my heart broke for him over and over (it still does).

He went into respite care when I had the baby and the day he was suppose to return to our care was the day that the aunt and uncle were given the okay to take him into their home. Needless to say, God is always on time and never early. It was a huge answer to prayer.

We feel that Andrew is in the best place for him. We are very thankful for the work his aunt and uncle put in to getting him placed in their home. We are thankful they did not give up and wish them the best. If you think of Andrew could you pray for him and his aunt and uncle as they transition to becoming a family and attempt to get the help that they need. He truely is a sweet boy and we wish nothing but the best for him and his family.