Braces

This is Anthony, Cora and Kieanna. All three have braces on their teeth. Anthony got his first then Cora, and yesterday Kieanna got hers. I still have one more tween to go and that's all until someone gets theirs off. Actually we see two different orthodontist, as I found someone cheaper to do Kieanna's and Selena's. Jennifer also wore braces for 2 years. She got them off on her 14th birthday.

Life has been so busy lately. I thought I would post everyday, but I just didn't get around to it. With school starting and so much paperwork, and all of the older kids in stuff that they need rides home Keith and I both have been busy. Speaking of busy, my 15 Passenger van is in need of repairs! The water pump went out. Keith has been working on it and the fan is out too. Hopefully he will have it fixed this weekend. Thank goodness he is a shade tree mechanic. He learned how to do everything out of necessity. When we first got married we didn't have money to put a car in the shop, so he bought a book and figured it out for himself. He is a Jack of all trades, as my grandmother would say. He is my mister fixer upper.(all but sheetrock) but don't tell him I said that. LOL

Living with RAD

Living with a child with Reactive attachment Disorder can be a nightmare. Even with lots of experience and many tools, such as books, tapes, therapist and support,parenting children with this diagnosis is extremely hard. However I have had success on 3 out of the 4 of my children that have had this diagnosis. That's not to say I never still little glimpses of the child past. Often times I have to step back and rethink or go about something different for them. A lot of what I've found to be the root of RAD is fear. And fear is of the devil. The children are so afraid of what might or might not happen it hinders them from being "normal". What normal is any more I'm not sure. Most of my children are very successful. The majority have A's and B's , participate in activities, and are overall happy kids. Will this child ever be well?, cured?, I doubt it. However I have learned to deal with it. A lot of manipulation and control is involved. I've delt with it long enough to know how to be evasive, skip over, and ignore some of the things they try and pull me into. You learn to take it one day at a time, not to take it personally, and let a lot of bull go. Just let it go.

Movie in The Park

We all went to movie in the park night. About once every couple of months a local church puts on an event for the community. This is great for us as it's free and the kids really enjoy it! They have popcorn and snowcones, which makes it that much more of a special treat. Tonight it was A Night at the Museum II. Since it didn't start until dark the younger kids got cranky and tired, so I left with them and Keith, Staisha and Josh stayed with middle school and up. We got to see about half of it. I'm sure I'll be renting it for the rest to see later. This is Tyler, Johnathan, Austin, and Isaiah. My two boys love Johnathan and Tyler. They play really well together.


I went grocery shopping today, I spent almost $650. Can you believe it? That's the most I've spent at one store. Hopefully that will take us two weeks, but I can't count on it! I usually stock our freezer once a month, but didn't even get close this time. Of coarse I had four of my teenage boys with me and honestly I think they are worse than the girls to ask for stuff. But it sure was nice having them help load the car!LOL Well all the little kids are asleep, so I'm off to take a shower.

More Pictures

I have such great looking kids!!

First Day of School

Here's some pictures from the first day of school.

End of Summer

July marks 4 birthdays for us. Anthony and Cora. Anthony turned 15 and Cora turned 13 within a few days of each other. Both wanted the same kind of cake. Chocolate/Chocolate Chip.

Cora got jewelry and Anthony ask for an X-box controler.

Open House for back to school was today. We met all the teachers and I got a ton of paperwork to fill out. I worked for 1 hour on it tonight and got 3 kids finished. I still have 15 kids to go. Every one loved their teachers and are excited to go back. I can't say enough good things about our school system. All the teachers and staff work great with me to meet my kids needs. I've never in all of 24 years had a teacher I couldn't work with. We may have had some differences but always worked out a solution. The kids are all doing great and I truly apperciate all the teachers help! One more day and then it's not summer vacation anymore. WOO-HOO.

Back to School anxiety

UGH! All the kids are all hyped up about going back to school. They all like school and are ready to go back but most adopted children don't deal with anxiety very well. Destinee (16) and Doreese (17) got in a fight. Yes a fight, they actually hit each other. It lasted for 2 hits and dissolved by the time I got to their room, but I was very disappointed in both of them. Selena also had a small melt down today. She got up set over dolls, yes dolls. She did get it together and come back and apologize. Isaiah who doesn't deal with stress well AT ALL, wet his pants, destroyed two microphones, and just made bad choices all day. The microphones went to the karaoke and a game system. He won't be the only one affected by that. My older boys hide theirs a bit better. IF they get upset with each other they settle it without my interference. Sometimes they just act goofy to cover up being worried. Faith and Katelynn both have wet the bed. Katelynn hasn't seem to over come this yet. Although we have been working at it for some time now. Thursday is the big day for us. Maybe everything will settle back down to normal. They have had a busy summer. One of the older boys said this was the best summer vacation ever!