The plan.......

Well, its scheduled......

Olivia will have her long awaited surgery on February 18th. 

 I have been greatly anticipating this, with the hope that this will be truly life changing for her.  

But with all honesty, I am suddenly scared to death.  So many "what ifs" running through my mind. Being a nurse. I always go to worse case scenario, it's just been wired in me in all my years of school and nursing.  

So, 

I am asking for prayers.....

Prayers for the obvious, health and safety, 

but also that this will give Olivia more mobility and comfort.  

Yes, she is walking in braces unassisted, however, the braces are pretty uncomfortable and quite annoying......

She lasts maybe 2 hours in them before she's complaining about how bad they are hurting and wants to take them off,

 and I won't even begin to explain what taking her to the bathroom is like. 

Olivia is a fighter, anyone who has met her knows this.  

I know that she wants them off for comfort, not laziness.  

So please pray that after her surgery she is able to walk with better braces.  

The other night we were at a Christmas Light show and we went ice skating, Olivia wanted to ice skate SO badly, my heart was in pieces as I told her she couldn't go with us......

How do you tell a child, no, you can't go because you can't do it.......

so, I slowly skated around the rink, 

holding her.......

and I can't ice skate......

it was a little scary to say the least!  

But we made it around without falling!  

The rest of the plan is more castings, her feet have regressed A LOT......

We will start castings on Jan 9 and hope to get 6 in before surgery.  

She will then be in long leg cast for 5-6 weeks after surgery until her new braces are made.  

More prayers needed please!  

Going to Philadelphia every once in a while is not bad, but every other week, gets a little hard.  

I will do whatever is needed, but I can't lie and say that being gone that much doesn't weigh heavy on my heart.  It's hard on everyone, especially the kids, Olivia included.  

Yet another reason to be SO very thankful that I am part time now and don't have to run home to work every day I'm not in Philly.

 

Many people have asked, what they will do to straighten her legs.....

Well, it's really quite interesting.....

The dr will put 8 metal plates over the front part of the growth plate at the end of the femur, causing it to not grow while the back of the bone continues to grow.  

 Olivia has never really had to use her legs and muscles, she can not stand on them alone.  

Another prayer would be that she is able to strengthen these muscles and eventually put weight on them.

So many prayer requests for us......

health, safety, comfort, peace, healing, strength and whatever else you feel led to pray!!! ;-)

I must add how thankful I am for this doctor and his staff.  We travel to Philly because of him and his expertise and I am thankful God led us to him and all the people we have met there.

In all things be thankful!

Homeschool......

This year we have started a new endeavor.......homeschool.  Last spring was just pure craziness in the White house with me working full time day shift, going to Philadelphia, and all the kids extracurricular stuff, so Mike and I decided to make a big change in our lifestyle and me go part time.  Our family needed to simplify.  Then God stirred my heart to homeschool.  Decreasing an income, requires decreasing the outgoing money as well (simple math).  So we took Ella and Taylor out of school, and left Chase in school.  I did't think homeschooling an eighth grader for the first time was very smart..... We are using a Classical curriculum which is what they are use to.  The school they have been at is a classical school. Classical education is not a new idea, it has been around for many years, in fact it was the public-school way of teaching until sometime in the 1960s.  Classical education has a very simple but brilliant idea to education......
Classical Christian schools use the children’s God-given strengths at each stage of growth to help them learn; young children enjoy memorizing, singing, and rhymes, so a solid foundation is laid in each subject of study at this age; junior-high students are inquisitive, so we develop their ability to reason and discern truth; and high-school students want to talk, so we teach them how to present their ideas persuasively. The result is a graduate who knows what they believe and why and can positively impact the community around them. 

(Taken from the Association of Classical and Christian Schools, www.accsedu.org .)

      We are part of a homeschool classical group, called Classical Conversations.  This program gives the kids a social day at "school" where we attend class together and work on memory work together. The memory work includes history, science, latin, english, and skip counting.  Ella is also doing a very intense grammar program.  I was always a math lover and never enjoyed grammar.  I'm really not sure I ever understood it, so trying to teach it is a little daunting.  Ok, a lot daunting.......And I, myself, have learned a lot in the class.
I had to add a math program for each of them and grammar and spelling for Taylor.
It is so nice being home more and having this time with them.  I am Very thankful for that.  They grow up so fast, I really wish I had had more time with Chase as well.
In all honesty, the beginning was not easy...... Ella was pretty upset that she didn't go back to her school and friends, so it took a little time for her to get over it and understand this is the way it is..... Taylor has been Taylor, happy, go with the flow, as always.  Yes, he misses his friends, but he has enjoyed being home and both of them have now made new friends at our CC group. 
Olivia has been home with us as well, she's not quite ready for school.  We're trying to catch her up on basics, like counting, ABC's, and colors.....

We have just wrapped up our first semester and I have loved it!  I sometimes get a little nostalgic and miss their old school, but I have to say how thankful I am to have this time with them. I trully enjoy my kids, and am loving every minute of this time we have together.  Before I know it they will be grown and gone, so I am going to savor this time I have with them.