Much to be thankful for this year

It has been a sweet time of learning about the meaning of Thanksgiving and it's significance to our Christian heritage. Andrew and Kathlena had no idea what Thanksgiving was, but have had so much fun learning about it. We used a book called Cranberry Thanksgiving that is a cute tale set in the New England cranberry bogs, about a Grandmother and her special cranberry bread recipe. Grandmother and granddaughter invite two friends for Thanksgiving exploring the concepts of relationships, charity, honesty, and Thanksgiving. Andrew's favorite character is Mr. Whiskers. It has been so fun to learn anew through their eyes.

At dinner each night Daddy went through ThanksLiving Treasures devotional by Family Life. We learned about the six treasures: God's Word, Protection, Freedom, Health, Salvation and Provision. We talked about the hardship and perseverance of the pilgrims, and God's sovereign protection over them.

We also made our annual "Thanksgiving tree" made from hand print cut-outs everyone got to write down the things they are thankful for and put them on the tree as a reminder of all the blessing we have been given. Here are some pictures of us making our tree.

Emily helping trace Andrew's hands. Andrew was thankful
for Mommy and Daddy, sisters and J.Michael, Mema, friends,
Uncle Darrell "who is so good at catching all the fish", grandparents,
God.

Kathlena and J.Michael working on their hands.

My very thoughtful Emily filling up her hands with all she
is thankful for. Things Emily is thankful for are...Laughter, joy,
parents and grandparents, brothers and sister, country music,
that the God-given rights and liberties to worship the Lord freely and
openly are acknowledged by our government.

Some of the things J.Michael is thankful for are...pets, family
and extended family, Jump-Jump, C.S. Lewis, John R.
Erickson, Nana's Beef.


Putting the tree in place...thank you helpers.

Andrew and Kathlena gathering up their hands.

Proudly displaying them.

J.Michael handing some out to put on the tree.

Kathlena putting hers on...she was thankful for her bed,

bubbie, Andrew, Mimi, Mommy and Daddy, Mrs. Hoood, grandparents,

Uncle Todd, Happy the goat, Lucy the gecko, Chase and Charlie.

Sorting things out...vision issues update

We have completed the testing through the optometrist. While the optometrist believes that the patching will not produce better acuity and that perhaps this is lost and will not be regained, however she believes through therapy his eyes can be trained to compensate in other ways for it. She has recommended extensive therapy for both vision and a host of other issues. Unfortunately, we are not sure how accurate the findings are as much of the test weighs heavily on a concrete understanding of English. It would seem she is relying more heavily on his background and statistics in the recommendation for extensive therapy as she also commented on the English issue to the reliability of the testing. We continue to pray for wisdom and have decided to consult with a second pediatric ophthalmologist who specializes in strabismus and amblyopia...in fact if you do not have strabismus the Dr. will not see you. We have an appointment scheduled for Dec. 9th. We are so grateful for the Lord's provision as each time we "hit a wall" the Lord directs us to the new door of opportunity.

We continue to trust the Lord...believing his Word for all situations. Proverbs 11:14 tells us that "Where there is no counsel, the people fall; But in a multitude of counselors there is safety." This has been our prayer as we have sought Dr. after Dr. and test after test. Perhaps in all of these visits and "feeling" like we are doing something what we needed most was more time.

"You will guide me with Your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For indeed, those who are far from You shall perish; You have destroyed all those who desert You for harlotry. But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all Your works." Psalm 73:24-28

A hard week...

Charlie is such a beautiful dog...thiese are two of my favorite pics of him. We found out this past Friday that Charlie has tumors and they are likely cancer. We noticed that he was bleeding from his nose then it progressed to his eye where we could see what looked like a tumor on his nose. X-rays confirmed what we already knew. They also confirmed that it is not just his nose but on his heart and other places. It has been a sad week around here. Charlie has been with us for two-thirds of our marriage and lived in three of our 6 homes. He is a survivor of heart worms, copperhead bites, numerous wanderings when he was younger that resulted in many great stories and living on the ranch. After his successful battle with heart worms we determined to get him a companion and by providence we found Chase which we believe to have added many years to his life. In fact we gave Chase his name because all he wanted to do was chase Charlie.

As of now Charlie is doing fine...chasing deer, barking at neighbors passing by, eating and laying around like normal. In the last two days since on antibiotics and Mommy's herbal concoctions he has started blowing out tissue through his nose that may be a sign of the tumor in his nose breaking up. David and I clean his nose with saline rinse and give him syringes of water and herbs in his mouth that usually start the sneezing fits, but are productive in getting the clots out of his nose. Sorry, this may be more detail than anyone wanted to know! Herbs I have been using are Yarrow tea, spirulina (suppose to be great for fighting cancer), astrangulus root, black walnut hull powder, colloidal silver drops in nose and eye, echinacea, blood builder(kelp, alfalfa, dandelion root, strawberry leaf) and raw milk kefir. A couple of helpful sites I found on treating dogs naturally are Holistic Cancer Treatment for Dogs . Preventing and Healing Animals Naturally
Below are pictures of Charlie over the past 10yrs...note how little Emily and J.Michael are! We continue to treat Charlie and have been in close contact with our vet who has been a great help.

Charlie about 7 months old. Emily is 4yrs.
Spring of 1999.

I love this picture...J.Michael and Charlie have been great
pals for 10yrs. This was taken at our house on Franklin St.
in Hillsboro,TX when J.Michael was 5yrs old.

Charlie was even in our family portraits for
Christmas cards. Dec. 2003



Charlie in the Hillsboro annual 4th of July parade 2004.


August 2004

Playing in the Lake at the Ranch.

J.Michael with Charlie and Chase his dogs and friend Taylor.
Summer 2005



Kathlena warming up to Charlie after 1month home. June 2008

Charlie and Andrew became quick friends. There is just
something about boys and dogs. July 2008

6 months ago today...everything changed

It was six months ago today that Andrew and Kathlena were given to us. It seems they have always been with us. So much has changed in six months. They are both speaking English very well and have adapted better than I ever imagined. They are so very precious and so very Shiflet now.

*remember to turn off music in the side bar by clicking pause to listen to videos

1st Trip to the Zoo

The girls are enjoying their buck sticks from Daddy's deer for
lunch. When we arrived we had our picnic lunch at Herman
Park first then set out to spend the afternoon at the zoo.

Where are the prairie dogs...apparently this exhibit is under
construction but they had fun playing "prairie dog".

Black bear taking it easy and allowing onlookers a chance

for photo ops.

A recently acquired leopard. Notice the extra skin...

they have put him on a diet as he was apparently getting to
fat...only in America!

We got a rare glimpse of the tiger moving around and getting

a drink of water. They are such beautiful and graceful animals.

Andrew runs up to this fence and goes yummy cows...we

like to eat the cows! These were called Ankoloes I think?

I think Andrew is right these would probably be good eating.

A margay getting his goat's milk lunch.

Look at those paws!

*remember to turn off music to listen to video it is in the sidebar of the blog, click pause on the playlist.

The ocelot does not like to be squirted in the mouth with

the goat's milk but prefers to lick it off of the stump.

A beautiful cat.

A fussa...I don't think I have ever seen or heard of this

animal before. This is where we met Richard the zoo keeper.

The cheetahs stretching. The Houston Zoo has a large variety

of wild cats which is wonderful for our family as we love them.

"What stinks?" Ahh! yes, the new elephant

exhibit. Even a new mansion doesn't keep

these animals from smelling!

Swimming with the piranhas...yikes!

Playing in the mangrove roots. The new rain forest

exhibit is very nice.

"We found Nemo, and another one too!" "Dorey also"

Andrew was so cute when he saw the clown fish in the

aquarium in the Rain forest exhibit.

A rare glimpse of Lou the hedgehog as she has been retired

and only "lives" at the zoo. We were told that she is old and

has done "her time" so she is no longer on exhibit just living

her days out in a roomy cage behind closed doors. The zoo

keeper brings her out on occasion to let the kids pet her and

see a real hedgehog.

Kathlena and I petting the spiky hedgehog from Madagascar.

Andrew taking a turn to pet Lou.

A Shiflet tradition is to collect smashed pennies from the souvenir penny machines. It is a great inexpensive and fun souvenir for kids to collect. When we were traveling to Russia we actually found one in Germany. We found a website off of this one and it tells the locations of them from all over the world. From this website we found out that there was one in Russia...bummer would've been neat to have some from there.

We waited out the rain as long as possible and finally set out to the Houston Zoo on Thursday, Nov. 13. It was still overcast and a little cool in shade which made for a great day to stroll through the zoo. Andrew and Kathlena had never been to a Zoo before and it was so fun to try and explain this whole concept to them. At first Andrew was a little nervous as he didn't like the idea of "seeing" wild animals. Once he understood that they were in cages and could not get out he began to get excited at the thought of seeing some the animals he has only heard about in books.

It has been a while since the rest of us have been to the Houston Zoo too and much has changed. I must say it has definitely changed for the better! The zoo has recently acquired grizzly bears and new leopards. We had a great opportunity to see a Fussa, Margay and Ocelot as Richard the zoo keeper was out feeding them and Andrew got to ask him lots of questions to which Richard was more than happy to share about the animals he takes care of. The Houston Zoo has also recently built a huge Asian Elephant exhibit (to which no $$$ was spared at $5 million) Sadly, one of the newest born in captivity elephants, Mac at 18 months had just died the previous weekend from a virus. There were still 4-5 elephants in the exhibit though. Our trip was great fun. I have missed going to the zoo and glad to have such a nice zoo close by. I am sure we will be going again soon.