Our Year in Review ~ 2011

As we celebrate Christmas and the year draws to an end, I would like to revisit some highlights from the year.

The high point of the year was definitely Autumn’s Magic Moments trip to Disney World.  If you missed reading about it, you can go here:  Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, and Day 7.

We are thankful to end the year with diagnoses for the children’s ongoing health concerns.  They have confirmed that Autumn has a Mitochondrial Disorder (Complex I) and a Cerebral Folate Deficiency.  She has started several new medications, and we can tell that they are helping.  Silas has been diagnosed with Chrohn’s Disease, fructose malabsorption, and multiple food and environmental allergies.  Now that they know what’s going on, hopefully they can find a way to help his pain and other symptoms.  (Read about the doctor visits here and here, and the results here.)

Autumn is enjoying first grade.  She is starting to come out of her shell a bit more and is very excited about participating in Upward Cheerleading at our church this season.  In September, we celebrated the 2 year anniversary of her adoption.  Silas is in Kindergarten and loves being around people and making new friends.

Criss enjoys working at General Pest Control, and he won a sales competition at work that earned us a free cruise last February.  He’s always been very artistic and has found a little bit more time to paint this year – always hard to do with the children around.  He’s also painted several props and signs for programs at church.

As for me, I enjoy being involved with the choir and Praise Team at our church as well as coordinating the Children’s Choir.  I have taught a Children’s Literature class as adjunct faculty at Southeastern Bible College every other spring for several years.  This fall they asked me to teach Curriculum Development, and in the spring, I’ll teach Teaching Methods 2.  I’ve also been working on adding a Special Education endorsement to my teaching license.  If all goes as planned, I’ll be student teaching in special education this spring, and then I’ll be finished.  I have greatly enjoyed blogging about our lives this past year.  Read my favorite post from the year here.  I was also excited to have an article published this year and participate in a radio interview on helping those with disabilities. 

If you’re visiting the blog for the first time, hope you’ll drop by again.

Hope you and your family are doing well this holiday season.  Joy to the World, the Lord has come!

Janel