Christmas Time

Christmas this year brings Luis and his parents from WI. Sandra is in her sophomore year at GCU. After Christmas, we are all going to Sedona. It is good to see Luis and nice to have all five kids together.

Angie sent me a surprise text this fall informing me that she no longer wished to continue her education at Odyssey, even though it was a her senior year. Angie always struggled with school, and I believe it was just too challenging. Unfortunately, in order to stay enrolled as a high school student at West MEC, she had to be in high school so dropping out was not a good option! After much research, I got her enrolled in Primavera online. It looks like I will be helping her finish her senior year but whatever it takes for her to graduate!

Fall Sports

Juan played football and soccer at Canyon View and really liked it. Ingrid played soccer at Desert Edge this fall and winter and did really well. It is difficult to transition to a new team and coaches but the kids are happy at their new schools.

School Is Here

It is that time again for school to start and will be a big year for Angie! It is her senior year at Odyssey and start of her first year at West MEC in the hairstyling program. We are really excited for her! She got her driver's license so will be driving herself to school this year. West MEC is located very near Odyssey and the program starts right after school.

Ingrid had a rough first year of high school and her anxiety sky rocketed, despite our attempt at helping her with counseling. We finally had her tested with a private psychiatrist in the spring and uncovered mental challenges we did not know that existed. Odyssey is just not set up to give her the support she needs so we made the decision to transfer her to a public school. I spent all spring interviewing the principals of all the public high schools in our district and picked the school I felt would be best for Ingrid. I was blessed to get a variance for Ingrid to go there and got her set up with a 504 plan to help with her school day.

We made the decision before starting Juan in high school at Odyssey to also transfer him to a public high school. We picked a different one for him, and I think it will help to have Ingrid and Juan at separate schools. Unfortunately, it will be a lot harder on me getting two kids to two different schools!

Ingrid's school is called Desert Edge High School. Juan's school is called Canyon View High School.

Juan's 15th Birthday

Juan loves football and video games. We bought him a new monitor for his birthday, which he was very excited about. He was not interested in having anyone over this year for a party.

Ingrid's 17th Birthday!

Ingrid celebrated her 17th birthday with the "Friends" theme. She loves the show and probably has most of the episodes memorized. She had some friends over for a pool party.

Oregon Beach

Lori's parents own a second home on the coast in Oregon so we decided to go and visit them. They live  both in Arizona near us for six months of the year and in Oregon at the beach the rest of the time. We decided to leave the kids in Angie's care, who is 18 1/2 years old now. We have never left the kids so we will see how it goes.

Angie's Second Mission Trip

Angie participated in SMI at our church for the second time again this year. SMI stands for Student Missionary Internship and takes a lot of time, work, and dedication. We are really proud of her for doing it again this year. The youth group is traveling to the Indian reservation in the White Mountains to host VBS for kids and help with other projects. She is looking forward to it, and we are glad she had this experience.

Happy Easter

 Sandra came back from GCU for the weekend to celebrate Easter with us. She seems to be doing well and it is much better this year than when she was living with us last year! The kids cooperated nicely for Easter pictures and everyone was in a good mood. I am very thankful for the good days that we have when everyone is happy!

Our 8th Gotcha Day

It is hard  to believe we have had the kids for eight years now! No one wanted to cooperate for pictures so I only captured the set up. We will keep trying and just love them and take it one day at a time!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We continue celebrate all the holidays and all the traditions even though day life can be difficult. My act of service is gift giving and that is how I show my love to the kids. We just wish they could be happy and daily life less stressful. I don't know if counseling is helping but we will keep trying.

Counseling

We tried counseling once before and the kids refused to participate. They literally looked at the therapist and refused to engage. However, Ingrid has really struggled this first semester of high school and so we are going to try counseling once again with Juan and Ingrid. They are both in need of coping skills and so we will see if this helps. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink!