Andrew loses his first front tooth

Andrew has been losing teeth like crazy, but this is the first one on top! Oh!!! how much it changes the little boy look to a big boy when those front teeth start to come in. I love that toothless smile though. The first thing he tried to do was whistle and he discovered that he could feel air blow through with his teeth closed and that whistling is a bit more difficult. He thought it was so funny.

Andrew was suppose to be going to sleep, but apparently he was busy wiggling his tooth to which he met success in pulling it out. He then runs out to show us his prize. It was too cute to see him so excited in having pulled it all by himself and such a big tooth.

I have to admit we knew this tooth was not going to last to long as he must have fallen on his mouth or something when he was younger. The dentist told us that the root was dead and that the tooth could fall out at any time. We are not sure when or how this happened as Andrew doesn't have a real concrete memory of it. Dentist thinks his permanent tooth is in good shape though and wasn't concerned he would have a problem there. PTL!

I miss that little boy smile already...it went by way to fast (1yr). I love the toothless time too though and it will go even faster.

Another Special Valentines

I love roses, and the kids set a beautiful table with our wedding china.

Emily hard at work in the kitchen preparing baked potatoes

and salad.

What a cutie delivering the delicious bread and baked potatoes.

J.Michael bringing us those juicy grass-fed steaks from the

Davis Ranch. Below Emily our food photographer snapped

this mouth-watering picture for us...I am getting hungry as

I type.

Ahhhh! Hard work has it's advantages...ice cream!!

Clean-up crew. Sweet little Kathlena working hard to "do duh dishes"

Behind the scenes...Daddy helped J.Michael grill the steaks; he is interning to be a master griller like his Daddy.

Mom finishing up the fresh baked homemade bread.

Kathlena was ready to eat some bread...almost time.

This is our freshly ground spelt/prairie gold whole wheat bread made from scratch...mmm good.

We had a very special evening that all four of our precious children worked so hard to give us. Andrew had so much fun. He really liked dressing up and bringing us our courses. J.Michael had us rigged up with communicator watches so we could call on them if we needed anything. It was a full course meal of homemade bread, salad, steak and baked potatoes, ice cream dessert and coffee. Thank you for making a very special dinner for us.

Last year we only dreamed of Andrew and Kathlena and what they would be like as we were awaiting news of travel dates and preparing to leave to see them for the first time. Wow...and here we are one year later with them actively participating in our Valentine tradition.

This Valentine, like the last, ended in great expectation of what this year will bring. Today we found out that there will be another Shiflet addition...arriving around mid Oct. Yes, that is right, we are pregnant!!! I am so humbled by God's mercy and grace on us. I took the test this morning and waited until dessert to give David his card that included the pregnancy test stick. He was so excited and surprised!!

Our story is not like most who adopt. We actually brought our infertility on ourselves. Six years ago we decided we had our two blessings and that was enough so we told the Lord..."no thank you" to more blessings. Even as we decided to have a vasectomy, we talked of adoption if we should change our minds about having more children. Sadly, I must say in all of this decision-making process we did not search the scriptures for our answers, but listened to man's wisdom and the pride of our own hearts. In the Lord's mercy, He granted us our desire to adopt giving us a fresh perspective of His amazing love and redemption. As we neared the completion of our adoption, our thoughts began to turn towards thoughts of more children. My first thoughts were yes we will adopt again (and I still pray this to be so). We also had to face the reality of what we had stolen from the Lord. Long ago we had been told that the type of vasectomy David had was not likely to be reversed. We believed this doctor and pursued no others as we were set on adoption anyway. Between our first and second trips to Russia, providentially, I came across some information about a surgeon in Oklahoma who specializes in vas reversals. We contacted him honestly expecting to hear the same news as the first doctor that it would not likely be reversed successfully. We were shocked to find out that Dr. Wilson routinely reverses the type of vas David had and that Dr. Wilson specializing in micro surgery gave us a very good probability of pregnancy. With this news we became convicted that even if we never became pregnant that the Lord had given us this opportunity to "undo" giving restitution for what we had taken from Him. We received this news shortly before we received our court date to go and get Andrew and Kathlena. We were elated and overwhelmed by the completion of our adoption and the hope of the new path that the Lord was leading us to.

Once we felt that Andrew and Kathlena were settled, then our thoughts returned to this opportunity to have the reversal procedure. While I was (still am) ready to adopt again, I had to face my own pride and relinquish control in the area of how the Lord would bless us with children. For me to say "Lord, please bless us with more...but, only through adoption", was still not submitting. We repented to the Lord of what we had stolen from Him and prayed for mercy and grace to receive His blessing of more children through birth and/or adoption or to be content with the four precious gifts we have now.

On Dec. 29th all six of us made the trip to Muskogee, OK and David had his vas reversal surgery. Dr. Wilson is an amazing Christian man and surgeon. We could not more highly recommend him. He is unique in that he gave up a thriving surgical career on principle. In good conscience he could no longer take insurance money from companies that contributed and supported abortion. Within 3 months his practice was dried up. Being a man of faith he trusted the Lord to give him wisdom so, he decided to learn how to do micro-surgical vas reversals. He began his practice 3yrs ago. He does 9 procedures a week and accepts cash only. His fees are very reasonable and he is very well organized.

From his own statistics his patients have a 75% pregnancy rate, higher or lower depending on how long since the original vasectomy. We did the calculations, and based on his rate of 9 reversals per week, over 250 souls conceived every year because of his work. The numbers become staggering when you think of the impact for generations. I would say that is kingdom-minded work! He is a man of great integrity who stood up against big medicine and said "As for me and my household we will serve the Lord" . When I think of modern day heroes, Dr. David Wilson will stand tall among them.

"For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil." And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you are blessed. 1 Peter 3:12-14

We covet your prayers for 2009 will bring it's challenges, but once again we look forward to the hope the Lord has placed in our hearts for the blessing of shepherding another child and raising him/her to love and serve the one true and almighty God that has made this all possible.

The Riddler

Our Emily is good at tying us in knots with her wit in riddles. Here are a few samples of her latest zingers. Post your guesses in the comment section and I will post her answers in a few days.

Deep in the heart of the Amazon
He springs upon his prey from the tree tops
And with silence and stealth
that would put a sniper to shame
He vanishes away into the moonlight.

What am I?

I am found in the wastelands of the North,
where the wild winds blow strong
I fill many with fear and dread
causing the mighty warrior to bow
And the lowly ant to meet it's death

What am I?

I dwell in the hearts of the people;
Where no man's eye has seen.
My mission is to destroy and enslave
and my harvest is great.
Yet, most deny my existence
and thereby prove my presence.

What am I?

When Emily was early elementary age we would do Dr. DooRiddles. She loved doing these associative reasoning puzzles and they helped her to think outside the box. She is now working on this skill with Andrew by making up riddles for animals and he is doing very well. He loves to play the "Animal question game". Big sisters are sooo much fun!

Status Quo

Andrew had his monthly eye appointment with Dr. Mazow. While the very optimistic(we love this about him) Dr. Mazow believes Andrew is still improving he is still testing at the same acuity as a month ago, 20/60. We are continuing with the patching for another month to see if he will improve or if we have reached a plateau. Likely we will begin talking about surgery options at our next visit. We ask for your continued prayers as we trust the Lord to lead us through this decision making process to help give Andrew the best possible vision. He is such a trooper! While he does not like to wear his patch...he does and he never complains. It is as if he knows how important this is for him to wear...he has an amazing attitude about it that we believe could only come from the Lord. So we proceed for the 3rd consecutive month of patching all waking hours everyday.

Kathlena did not have her appointment as we had scheduled. A series of scheduling issues on our end and Dr. Mazow's had us postpone Kathlena's appointment until next month...perhaps a blessing in disguise. Although, Kathlena was trying to help Andrew see some of the pictures by calling them out while he was being tested...we quickly assured her that her time would soon come. Big brother appreciated the gesture though :)

Now our usual after our appointment routine is to head over to the Museum district since we are already downtown and have a picnic lunch before heading to the Zoo. We are making good use of our Zoo Pass. We were disappointed though since it was cloudy and threatening to rain the 11 day old baby giraffe was not visible for us to see nor the baby Safica Lemur. Fortunately, though we were able to watch via YouTube, but it would have been great to see them in person. Well maybe we will get to see them next time. We also spent quite a bit of time seeing the Primates. We started a new BFIAR book called Caps For Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina. It is an adorable little book about a peddler who sells caps and gets them snatched up by some curious little monkeys. We had fun monkeying around and watching the Mandrills, Lemurs, and Orangutans.

Here are a few pictures Emily captured for us at the Zoo.
Mom reading our new BFIAR book, Caps for Sale



Resting under a big tree like the peddler in

Caps For Sale!

Andrew loved watching this funny Mandrill, he had quite the
personality.


With the threat of rain looming over us we decided to check out a tip a friend gave me that The Museum of Natural Science has free admission to it's permanent main exhibits on Tuesdays from 2pm-8pm. It was fun since Andrew and Kathlena have not been before and it has been ages since Emily and J.Michael have been so it was like a first for us all. We were able to see how enormous dinosaurs would be standing next to us. We spent most of our time though touring the Energy exhibit. It was really informative and we even rode in a Geovator, which is a simulator that lets you experience what it would be like to go hundreds of feet below the surface on a drilling expedition to find oil. We also toured the Gem and Mineral exhibit...this was a favorite for Emily and I. It was so neat to see all of these huge pieces of rock that encased some of the world's most beautiful gems. We also went into the vault to see the collection of precious jewels. There were two pieces from St. Petersburg, Russia that were once worn by royalty.

It was a good day...almost all fell asleep on the long ride home in traffic, but it was so worth it! We will have more on our visit next month until then we will keep checking on those Zoo updates and plan our Butterfly Exhibit trip. Spring is such a wonderful time of year!

My favorite Andrew and Kathlena words

When we first started this blog we would periodically post J.Michaelisms. While J.Michael still zings us with his wit, his two younger siblings take the stage with some of their cute linguistic concoctions. Here are a few of our favorites:

Andrew

"Mom, is this Breafkist?" (breakfast)

"My name is Andrew David Shiff-ah-let" (Shiflet, I must admit though I had trouble with this too at first when I became a Shiflet)

Kathlena

She was out whacking the bushes in the yard with a large stick yelling "I kill the dime-o-saurs!"

"Daddy wearing your meeting shirt" translation "Daddy are you going to work today"

In the morning Kathlena will greet me with "I sleep good my beg (bed)" the greeting when she gets up from nap is " I happy"

Cultivating a love for learning

After reading and talking about scarecrows in our BFIAR
book this week...Runaway Bunny. We decided our garden
needed a scarecrow too. I found one in the attic, an old fall
decoration and said Why not?

Kathlena with her first braids. Emily use to wear

her hair in braids like this all the time. Her friend

Chloe called them "Emily braids" because Emily

always wore them this way. Emily is so excited that

Kathlena's hair is now long enough to braid. It turned

out pretty cute. Emily has dreamed about having a

little sister to braid hair with and I am so thankful that

she has Kathlena and that Kathlena has such a wonderful

big sister to look up to.

Kathleeena Braids!!

After our first year of homeschooling from a box a couple of veteran homeschool parents in the homeschool community taught me how to cultivate a love for learning. This method of learning completely changed how I viewed education and my motivation for teaching and learning. I like most went to public school and I did quite well in school. I attribute most of my success though to the fact that I had "home school" parents who were teaching me to love learning. They just did it with less hours per week. My Dad I have talked about before, he can fix anything and learned this from his father. So, I learned from him that failure gets you one step closer to success, how to problem solve and be resourceful. I married a man who was raised this way also.
I think in part this is also why home school veterans like Steve and Becky Lambert, Chris and Ellyn Davis, Ruth Beechick and Little Bear Wheeler resonated with us so well and steered us in the direction of thinking about education outside the box. I am so thankful for this because I think I would have drowned amidst the "schooling" at home methods. The idea of sitting up late at night grading papers reminded me why I did not want to be an education major in college. I prefer the Hebrew method of learning as we walk along together learning.

In the eight months since Andrew and Kathlena have been home I have become even more sure of this way of learning. This is how they have picked up English. They do everything with us. I continue to be amazed at their growth both physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally.

Recently, we were watching Dr. Jobe Martin's Incredible Creatures DVD's which talk about amazing features that animals have that can only point to a creator whom Dr. Martin, once an evolutionist now turned creationist clearly names as the one and only God of the Bible. Andrew has retained so many interesting facts from watching one DVD one time. It has also caused him to ask questions in light of what he is learning from our scripture reading time and what he has learned from the Catechism for Children. He is so inquisitive and I love that I am here for those moments of discovery.

Today while on our walk, Andrew started working on his Mailbox Math again. He is now quite good at reading random 2-digit numbers as we go from street to street. We are working on predicting what number will be next and the concept of evens on one side and odd on the other(a practical lesson for finding addresses one day). Math has become a game to him and he likes the challenge. He also learned the concept of more and less, most and least today with M&M's. M&M's are one of my favorite math tools...well and jelly beans. Now the pages of his math book come alive from a few hands on activities. He enjoys doing his math or maph as Kathlena calls it.

Kathlena has been cracking us up on our walks lately as she is beginning to recognize more about her surroundings. In her Scarlet O'Hara sounding voice she calls from her stroller while pointing to houses in our neighborhood "This is not my home!" until she sees her home and gets very excited exclaiming "It's my home, It's my home, It's my dog-Chase" I remember months ago when Andrew began to recognize and distinguish our home from the other houses in our neighborhood. It is a sweet sound to hear them exclaim "It's my home!" like a soldier who has come home from the battle.

The my dog in question being walked.

Emily and J.Michael are good at working independently and responsibly on assigned tasks. There favorites are doing research on projects. Whether it is how to raise crickets or photography composition to anything they can dream of or read about. Of course this is the way I learn too. If I don't know something then I can head to a book or the Internet and find out.

Emily our photographer. This is a self portrait. I love this picture

as it captures the essence of our sweet, creative Mimi.

As I was writing this tonight I heard Chase barking and barking which means he has found something. He had cornered a opossum. It was a big, ugly one too. Andrew, J.Michael and Emily were still awake so I let them get up and come outside with a spot light and camera in hand. Another learning opportunity knocking at our door...never a dull moment. I am sure that tomorrow we will be talking about nocturnal animals such as the opossum and how one could end up in our yard.