Tuesday, August 23, 2011

July/August Pics

Cora playing dress up. She would wear this all day if I would let her!


Adina running the bases during kickball at VBS.


Somebody found Mommy's make-up. Clearly not a future cosmetology pro!


Cora is the victim of Adina's dress up games.


The three cuties laying on Olivers make a wish gift. It is a massive vibrating bean bag bed! They all love to lay in it.


Adina: "Mom, Cora colored herself again!" Me: Hmm, how did she reach the middle of her back so well?" Adina: "Ugh, Mom.. Cora has really long arms!"


Adina "chillaxin" with Oliver. Yup, those are her words.


I decided to try my cosmetology skills and give Oliver a haircut not with the clippers. I had to get creative with positioning while I cut! Oli was giving me the "seriously mom" look! This is the before pic. Kinda getting a mullet.


After the cut. What a stud!


Quote of the week. We were sitting in the shade eating ice cream. I mentioned that it was a little chilly in the shade. Adina says, "Mommmmm, that's why they call it the shade." Amazing, four going on fourteen.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

New Chapter

A lot has happened since our last post, many times I have sat down to write but life gets so busy as you all know. It is hard to believe that state fair time is here, which to me signifies the end of summer.
We moved back to the seminary student housing the first week of August. We intended on staying at the property we were at for one more year until John was done, but the place was potentially selling and we needed stability for Oliver. So it's one more year in student housing and the seminary was very gracious and provided a living situation that will work for our special needs.
John finished up his internship with a week up in the BWCA. It was VERY hard to leave Como Park Lutheran. It is amazing after one year how that church became such a special place to us all. Adina is taking it especially hard that we cannot go back. We had such a crazy year with Oliver and the entire church was always there for anything we needed. They made getting through those rough times much easier. It was definitely an expansion of our family. This is what makes it so hard to say good-bye. We would love to stay in touch with everybody but the rule is that when internship is over the student and family should also leave. It kind of stinks because we will miss everybody but it totally makes sense. There will be a new intern at Como and now it his and his families time to form relationships within the church. We will miss you all! Thanks again to everybody at Como Park Lutheran for EVERYTHING! If anybody is looking for a church to join that is kind and loving and supportive and do a lot of good things, Como Park is the place!
John has one year left of seminary and then we are off to who knows where. A lot of people are curious where we will go and we are too. We will let you all know when we know anything. Obviously, because of Oliver's doctors, we'd rather stay in the area, but it's out of our hands.
The kids are all doing well. Adina (John and I) can't wait for school to start in September. Cora is 15 months and sassy as ever! We have decided that she is most likely going to spend half of her life in time-out. I also wouldn't be shocked if we got a few calls from teachers, principles, cops, who knows! The possibilities are endless! Yes, we have high expectations for our children. She is not walking yet, but she has taken a few steps. She is on her own timeline and no we are not worried even when people say, "oh... really?? not walking yet?" Nope, not worried.
Oliver is doing really well this summer. I have wanted to post about it but get really scared that if I do I am going to jinx it. We are two ounces away from full strength feeds which, within two days, he will reach. He has not been at full strength since last year! When Oli gets sick we have to go down on feeds but the fact that we are this close is AWESOME!! He is still considered Hospice status and still has a lot of health issues but overall he is great. We are trying to bulk him up a little before viral season. He still does not have a lot of extra reserve to fight, day by day is how we continue to go. He was approved for his new wheelchair without being denied once! Usually denial is the first step, at least with our experience. It will take time to get it and fitted but we are really excited! We still and always will get funny comments from people when they find out we have a "special" son. All kids are special in my mind. My new favorite was, "oh we were so worried when we got pregnant there would be something wrong with our kid. We prayed that it wouldn't happen." How I would LOVE to respond.."Guess you didn't pray hard enough because after spending time with you and your child, I can tell you a few things wrong." No I didn't say that, this time anyway. I know people don't know how to respond, I get that most of the time. I always know how I would love to respond. There is nothing wrong with Oliver, he is perfect and loving and normal.
That is what we have for an update in August. We are enjoying a few weeks of calm before John starts classes again and then the new baby Klawiter comes. Because viral season in coming we are going to become those hermits again to protect Oli. Please don't come to visit if you are sick or have been around sick people or even if you suspect you are getting something. If you have a butt itch that you think is contagious don't come over! (Also, get that looked at) I know it seems like we are being nervous nellies but we are just protecting our kiddos. When baby #4 is born we will most likely not have visitors right away, I know you all want to see baby but that will be the start of the V season. We love you all and want to see you all, please know it is nothing against anybody. Just keeping our Oli safe.