End of the School Year, 2009

Tomorrow, Ethan will be graduating Kindergarten. I'm so relieved the year is almost over. It's been a tough one for me. I think it's affected me more than Ethan, or anyone else for that matter. For those of you who know Ethan, you understand that he can be very stubborn and opinionated. His teacher this year decided that she'd be the one to "break" him of this, and the year that followed was a battle of wills that neither side ever won. My nerves were completely shot from it. But in 3 days school will be over and a new year will begin. The teachers and subs who've been in the class have told me that he won't face these same issues in the upper grades because the teachers just don't have the time to get into it with him, and that he's just very bright and needs to learn how to keep himself busy when he's not engaged because he simply won't get that attention all day long. We'll see how next year goes though.

Christian starts Kindergarten soon. He had a decent year in preschool, he's grown so much too! We discovered he had a speech delay, but he's been doing therapy now and has improved so much with just a little direction! I did make sure he had an IEP before school started, so that he gets all the help he needs, but I think that after a year or so of therapy it'll be a non-issue. He's just where I wanted him to be academically before Kindergarten, I had always worried that things didn't come as easy to him as the others and that he'd struggle, but he's doing completely fine and will actually go in ahead of his class just like Anna and Ethan, so there aren't any worries there either!

Anna of course is the perfect child, all the way around. Well, except for her temper issues, but she has to have some sort of fault right?? She's up for another Medal of Honor, she'll receive her awards on Thursday. I honestly will be shocked if she doesn't get it, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high, just in case. But straight A student with perfect citizenship, she's every teachers dream. She's recently started playing guitar, she loves it! And she's also got a good talent for singing, so she's decided that while Girl Scouts is on break for summer, she'll take her birthday money and do singing lessons. She wants to start of with the techinical lessons before the performance lessons, so she can learn the right way to sing. It made me laugh alittle, because she thinks everything through before making decisions. She got 100% on her Raven GATE test this year, but that didn't surprise anyone.

Ryan so far hasn't had any medical problems, actually none of us have this year, so it's shaping up to be a great one. However with our luck in this area, we'll all get swine flu and die by the end of the year. :) Ryan's still working at the City of Anaheim, he's gotten into a good groove and works side jobs to suppliment the income. We've cut up the credit cards and are living pretty cheaply these days, but hopefully we'll be on track to be out of debt in the next year or two, so that is a good thing.

And then there is the big news for our family: We're fostering! Ryan really feels lead by God to foster, and I could find nothing to disagree with, so we went ahead an put in our application in April. We have one more week of parenting classes, and some more forms to fill out before we have our home studies. We'll likely have a new child in our home by the fall. It's an exciting and sort of scary time for us, because it's unknown, but I know that we're doing the right thing by helping out families that need the help. We don't have money, but we do have love and stability and God. That's what we can give to these children, and their birth parents. Hopefully this will make a positive difference in the lives of people who really need it. I'm kinda hoping for a baby, selfishly, since all my babies are "grown up" and in school now. I need a cuddly little bundle of love to keep my mind busy when my kids are in school and I'm all alone. :) But naturally our goal is to help whoever God brings into our home. But if you're willing to pray for selfish wishes, you can pray for a little baby for me. :)

So that covers where our family is for the moment.