Julianne's Eyes

We went to the new specialist yesterday.  I liked this new pediatric eye doctor much better.  This lady was very good with her and explained what she was doing.  She did a much better comprehensive eye exam as well. 

She explained that right now Julianne can see 1 INCH in front of her clearly.  Anything beyond that is quite blurry.  She has some scarring that could mean she was a preemie as well.  She does NOT think that Julianne needs the eye surgery that the other doctor wanted to do to allign her eyes right now.  She thinks that the crossing is because of the severity of her vision problems.  She gave us a new prescription for glasses along with the info for the type of frames that would probably work best for her.  It was the type of frames I had researched and was hoping for, which made me feel good about her as well.  She also decided that we need to work towards her full prescription, but that giving her a full strength prescription for glasses now would probably just scare her. 

We went today to the eye doctor's office that we use for the rest of us.  They are ordering the frames for us now and we can't wait to get her all fixed up.  I'm praying hard that she will wear these easier.  :) 

Julianne is amazing anyway.  I can only imagine how amazing she will be once she can see!  She'll probably get into even more (if that is possible lol) and learn a lot more as well. 

She will look so good in glasses that everyone will want them.  :)

Our Family From The Beginning (In Pictures)

As I was going through pictures the other day, I realized that our family pictures really do tell the story of "us".  Here is a little play by play for you all.  :)

This is our first "Family Picture".  Precious had been home just a few months.  She was 8 1/2 when she joined our family.  Dayton was just a few weeks old here.  :)  This was taken in December of 2001.

Next came Denzell who was 7 at the time and Unique who was then 11.  Everyone thought THAT was a BIG family.  lol  They had already been home for several months in this picture.  (I don't have the Spring picture on this computer.)  This was taken in November of 2003.

Next came Andrew who was then age 5 and Forrest who was age 7 at the time.  This picture was taken in Spring of 2006.  :)  People then realized we were "crazy".  haha

Next came Crystal who was 8, Destiny who was 4, and Ezekiel who was 3.  They made us into a family of 11 people and pushed us into most people's "Extreme Large Family" category.  Gotta love a 50% increase in the number of children!  This picture was taken in December of 2007. 

The next additions were close together.  Jose was 7 and Jacob was 5 when they arrived in January of 2009.  Julianne arrived at age 2, just 2 months later.  This picture was taken around May of 2009.

Our last family picture was taken in December of 2009.  We usually always do pictures at Christmas, but I just couldn't do them this year when Cody was so much a part of us, but not here yet.  I promised myself and the kids that we'd do one when he gets home.  I will go ahead and do them before the kids get home from Eastern Europe.  We will then get another as soon as they are all settled in enough to after their arrival home. 

Here is our most recent picture from December 2009.

I can't wait to get everyone in one picture.  I wonder if we will manage to get them all to look at the camera.  :) 

Can't you see how big God has blessed us?  I mean, to most this would be insane, but to us it is just the biggest blessing imaginable.  We are truly and amazingly blessed! 

Counting Some Blessings!

I'm going to attempt a "light-hearted" post.  I thought I'd go through some old pictures and see what I had to share.  Everyone should remember their blessings and smile on Sundays especially.  lol

This one made me smile immediately.  :)  This was Julianne's first tea party.  The two boys joined us because they just couldn't miss Julianne's first tea party.  I think I remember distinctly them giving me that evil eye and telling me that I better not post it.  lol  (I didn't post it for over a year, so I think that is pretty good.  lol)



She started out neat, but it got kind of messy.  :)

Let's see what else I've got in this bag.  :)

Oh wow, was this a long time ago.  Dayton and Andrew were both only 4 years old here and Forrest was 6.  Forrest and Andrew weren't even living with us full-time yet.  What cute little wisemen they were!

Look!  We were about to get eaten by dinosaurs!  (We only had 9 kids then!  That seems like forever ago!)


I don't know what the biggest blessings to look at are right now.  I could count the blessings as those specific moments, which were awesome.  The other blessing is really just getting to be their Mom!  I love those little people and all the joy they bring me.  :)