Spring Fever in the Garden

This is what we see when we open the bag to find that the

praying mantis's have hatched. Now keep in mind this is

only one egg that has hatched as each egg hatches 500-600

tiny praying mantis's.

Emily displaying her little praying mantis she is releasing.

Andrew holding his little praying mantis.

Kathlena holding a tiny praying mantis.

We have been busy building a new garden this year. Tilling, hauling in dirt, stringing hot wire fence to keep the deer out and finally planting. About six weeks ago I purchased some praying mantis eggs off of ebay so that the kids could watch them hatch and then we could release them into the garden. They are ferocious bug eaters! So, they make for good pest control in the garden. We did this last year too and it was so fun to see the hundreds of tiny praying mantis's crawl out of the bag.

Today we found that one of the eggs had hatched so we headed out to the garden to release them. Here are a few short video clips and some pictures we took. Andrew and Kathlena are loving gardening...I can hardly wait til harvest time as they will so enjoy picking the fruit of their labor.

Graduation Day

Well graduation day from trikes and Like-a Bike's that is! Andrew rode a bicycle for the first time...he made it look so easy. For him it was (and I think largely it was) because he learned to balance a bike on what is called a Like-a-Bike. Thank you again Paw-Paw and Grandmommie-it really worked. Andrew never used training wheels, he just learned to balance by using the like a bike which is a small bike with no pedals. He has been zipping around on this since last summer...even with his patch on he could navigate it with great ease. He had been asking to try and ride a "real" bicycle so we pulled out the bike we had saved for him and amazingly he just took off on it without any help. Watching him make turns and zip by sure doesn't look like someone who just learned to ride a few minutes before. Here is the video we shot of him below.


Now Kathlena has graduated to the Like a bike. She looks just like Andrew did when he first began, so I am sure she will be zipping around too in no time. This bike was an investment that really paid off as balance is one of the hardest parts of riding the bike and this bike helps kids achieve confidence in riding quickly so they can focus on maneuvering the bike. Here is a little clip of Kathlena taking her maiden voyage on the Like a Bike.

First Adjustment

Our first adjustments with the Chiropractor went pretty well. Andrew is liking them. He really likes the part where he gets to play with the toys in the waiting room, but he also did very well for Dr. Ky. Andrew actually received two adjustments today. He went early with Daddy for x-rays and was also adjusted. No surprises from the x-rays so that was good.
All of us went back a few hours later for our adjustments. Kathlena was very curious and watched closely as Dr. Ky adjusted E and J first then her. She liked it...especially the Cheeto crunch. Kathlena also showed some severe C1 and C2 misalignment's...not surprising as a result of her head tilt. We are hoping this will help her as well for her nystagmus and to strengthen her neck. She was really excited about her first time to go to the "fire cracker" this is what she calls the Chiropractor.
After their first adjustments I was talking to Dr. Ky and the kids went back over to the play area. I catch Andrew out of the corner of my eye pushing on something on the floor...almost as if administering CPR. I casually walk closer to see Kathlena on the floor with her arms crossed and Andrew pushing on her chest giving her an "adjustment". While I suppose this is the Chiropractic equivalent to playing doctor. I quickly suggested to both of them that we leave the adjusting to Dr. Ky.
I must say from my own adjustment that I have felt really good. Oddly, my nausea is gone. Hmm...I originally thought it to be unrelated except that it happened after my first adjustment too. It lasted for about 2 days then the nausea was back. Thankfully, I was in the next day and now it is gone again. I go back Mon. so we'll see if it holds.
I couldn't let the day go unnoticed. It has been 10 months today since our precious Andrew and Kathlena officially became Shiflets. It seems a lifetime ago since then and yet hard to believe not even a year yet.

Providential Postponement

We were two weeks from surgery, but have now decided to wait another 2 months. Over the past week and half we have been working with a Chiropractic Neurologist. This began as a search to help alleviate some back and neck pain that David has had chronically for years now and that I have started having 4 weeks ago; I think pregnancy related. Anyway, in the course of evaluating and working with Dr. Ky we decided to go ahead and have the kids evaluated also. As it turns out Andrew was off the chart in an area in the neck that is considered critical to a healthy central nervous system. This particular area is known for affecting the eyes as well.
After much prayer we decided to postpone Andrew's surgery a few months to give Dr. Ky a chance to work on Andrew and just see if he improves. If nothing else we believe it will help Andrew to be in better shape for the surgery.
I am not quite sure why this surgery thing has been such a difficult process for us. Everyone we have talked to who has had the surgery says it is a "piece of cake" as far as surgery goes. It seems just as we have dealt with it and moved forward with plans for surgery something providentially steps in that causes us to postpone. Maybe we have just needed more time; I do not know, but we prayerfully weigh what is best for Andrew and desire for him the very best outcome for his vision. I never knew how hard it is when there are so many varying opinions of treatment to single out what is the best one for the whole kid. I feel like I am constantly coming back to focus on what is best for Andrew as a whole child not just a pair of eyes. That may seem strange, but over the course of 10 months David and I have desperately tried to keep that perspective because Andrew has been changing so rapidly in so many areas one month it may seem like there is a problem but it resolves itself the next or because of the severity of trying to "fix" one thing it throws other areas out of whack. One thing is for sure it has kept us on our face before the Lord in Andrew's behalf causing us to trust the Lord more with each new challenge.
I should also note that Dr. Mazow gave us the option of waiting until summer anyway to do Andrew's surgery it was only because we believed nothing else could be done that we pursued surgery so quickly. We have now moved surgery to May 27, 2009...Lord willing. For now we will continue to patch 6-8hrs daily to "hold" his vision and begin tomorrow with Andrew's first adjustments at the Chiropractor.

Moving on to surgery

We knew we would eventually be at this point and now the time has finally come. Today we had Andrew's monthly follow up exam with Dr. Mazow. We have had no progress in two months so we are certain we have hit our plateau at 20/60 vision. We are thrilled though to have regained this much vision and praise the Lord for his healing and mercy on Andrew. We have scheduled Andrew's surgery for about a month from now; April 1st to be exact. It will be an outpatient procedure downtown at the Medical complex. Dr. Mazow only wants to do surgery on the left eye and not the right eye since it is in good shape. He will reposition the left eye to have a straighter alignment. We will likely have to continue some patching after surgery, but only a few hours a day. For now though we will have to continue to patch all waking hours until his surgery in one month. We are very pleased and thankful for Dr. Mazow and his staff. They have all been very kind and helpful.

I did notice in Andrew's eye exam today how much more confident he is in naming his letters and naming them quickly. I think he is becoming much more comfortable with Dr. Mazow and his staff. To their credit they work hard to make the kids feel at ease and Dr. Mazow is never in a hurry with us. He always takes time to visit with Andrew and us. This has been an added bonus in his eye exams to see how much he is progressing not only visually, but socially, cognitively and linguistically in a different environment.

For Andrew the patching has been challenging for him to continue to catch up academically in English and socially. With poor vision he often misses some of the nuances and social cues that he is so good at picking up on when he is not patched. I know that it has been a huge blessing for him to be home schooled as he is not having to deal with negativity daily from peers that is often an additional hardship for kids with vision issues who are in a government or private school environment. We have had a few encounters with curious and sometimes insensitive strangers of all ages when we are out and about going to museums, stores, parks etc. This has provided an opportunity to address how to handle other peoples rudeness and sometimes just innocent curiosity with the security and safety of those who love him nearby to coach him and help him talk through how to respond to those situations in the future. He is not being left daily to fend for himself all alone to retreat inwardly to cope or act out agressively to defend himself. I am also thankful for the precious kids that Andrew goes to church with that are so tender and thoughtful to Andrew. Looking out for him and making sure he is not left out or in harms way as he may not always see something coming at him. To God be the glory for all that He is doing in Andrew's life. Andrew is truly an amazingly resilient little boy whom the Lord is redeeming the time lost. He becomes more precious to me everyday and I could not imagine my life without him in it. The Lord has and continues to teach me much through Andrew's eyes.

Kathlena also had her first evaluation with Dr. Mazow today. She seemed as if eye exams were routine for her when she bounded into the chair with her ponytail wagging and her big smile. Her happiness is contagious...you can't help, but smile from the inside out when you are around her. Since, she has been to all of Andrew's eye appointments observing what to do she was quite ready and so glad to have her turn. It would seem that her nystagmus has lessened in frequency and Dr. Mazow commented that it seemed very "controlled". He wants us back in 3 months to keep check on it as we were unable still to get a vision test on her. She is not quite able to comprehend reliably what is being asked of her, but this is not unusual for her age. She will be 4yrs. old by her next visit and we have a chart to work with her on for next time. Dr. Mazow was in no hurry to talk surgery for Kathlena that as long as she is showing progress and the nystagmus lessening he wants to continue to observe her for now.

Rodeo Reflections

Yes, Emily went with us which is why we have all of these great pictures. I snapped this one early to prove it.

Kathlena overlooking the Houston skyline

You cannot live in Houston for long before you must go to the Houston Livestock and Rodeo. I remember as a kid growing up in a rural community that was big into 4H and FFA an hearing about the Houston Rodeo each year. I went for the first time myself only a few years ago and loved it. It reminded me (only much bigger) of the days when I was a kid growing up in New Braunfels, TX an going to the Comal County Fair. The fair was something I always looked forward to going to every year.
Here a some pics from our night at the Rodeo.



Emily did a great job of capturing some difficult pictures from our seats. Fast action!!

Andrew loved his first rodeo. His favorite part was the ice cream, calf roping and the bull riding. He also liked the sheep riding that the little kids did and wished he could have rode also! This was so funny. They had sheep for the kids 4-6 (pre-selected) to ride the sheep like the bull riders. Trying to hang on for the full 7secs. It was quite hilarious. Andrew with his blood hound nose immediately picked up on the "smells" of the rodeo asking with his wrinkled up nose "what is that smell?"



Andrew and Kathlena sharing popcorn.




I wanna be a cowboy!!

The lights were turned low for the Alan Jackson concert and Kathlena looked ready for "night, night"

Andrew loved the fireworks at the end. But he said it was
too loud though.

The long ride home. We took the bus so once the concert was over us and everyone else headed for the shuttles. The wait wasn't too long and we found a way to have fun anyway.


Kathlena loved the popcorn, ice cream, cotton candy and watching the cowboys ride. She also liked the music...a country girl. Emily has been coaching her on some of her favorite country music like Alan Jackson and Randy Travis.
Emily loves it all, but especially the calf roping and bull riding. J.Michael wanted to do the sheep riding too we all got a good laugh out of this event. He also liked the bull riding and calf scramble. Daddy's favorites are always the bull riding and the calf scramble, but he too had to add the sheep riding or "Mutton Busting" to his favorites.
Mom, well her favorite was watching her kids enjoy the rodeo so much. I also exercised my "early pregnancy cravings" trump card and had some great rodeo food. Big pretzel with mustard, cotton candy and a few bites of ice cream from the kids. So sweet as they were willing to share with their little sister/brother in uterine. It was a great family night.

An Introspection--An Interview with Andrew & Kathlena

Here's a slide-show I made of Andrew and Kathlena, complete with subtitles and Deleted Scenes!
-ha, ha, so much for deleted scenes! And yes, the subtitles are in English! :D

(Make sure to turn the music off on the sidebar)

Enjoy!!!!

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!