Wow...

Time certainly does "fly by" when you're busy with three kids. So much has happened since my last post, I almost don't even know where to begin. Let's see...

on October 30th, the boys and I were in the van and on our way to school when we were rear-ended by a school bus. Unfortunately, it totaled my van, so we were "in limbo" for a couple of weeks until we found a replacement. But I finally got a new (well, new to us) minivan and it's actually an upgrade from what we had before. Here is a picture of the back of the van after we got hit by the bus...

On Halloween, Kevin, Alex and I headed to Iowa City to the Center for Disease and Disabilities for some additional testing for Alex. After spending all day there, Alex was diagnosed with: genetic syndrome, mild mental retardation, lack of coordination, hyper-sensitivity disorder, mixed receptive-expressive language disorder and developmental delay. OY! So hopefully now that we have an actual "diagnosis" we will be able to get Alex some state assistance.

Two weeks later, I received a call from the school asking me to please come to the school because there had been an "incident". Of course, since Samuel has been having some behavior issues, I figured that he had been naughty again and was getting angrier and angrier on my way to school. As I parked the car, I notice a police officer pull up at the same time. My immediate thought was that he had done something really bad and they called the cops on him! As soon as I got closer to the doors, however, the looks on the secretary's face as she held the door open for me made me question what I was really doing there. Turns out, Samuel was starting to feel anxious during recess and he asked his teacher for a "break" so they were heading inside when another child came out the door and Samuel grabbed the door to keep it from shutting and a gust of wind forced it shut, severing his left pinky finger. Samuel was quite brave at the hospital ~ I am so proud of him! After speaking to the orthopaedic surgeon, we decided that it would be best to have most of his left pinky finger amputated so that he would be able to have pretty good use of his left hand. Here's a picture of Samuel with the huge bandage on his hand...

In the couple of weeks since "the finger incident" we've been constantly on the go... Thanksgiving with Kevin's family, activities at church, therapy sessions for Samuel. His therapist did give us a "diagnosis" for Samuel's behavior issues as well. He has anxiety disorder, ADHD and ODD. He's started on meds, so hopefully we will see some improvement soon!

Hopefully everyone was able to count their blessings during the Thanksgiving holiday - I know that we have found many things in our lives to be thankful for!