Happy 8th "Bird-day" Isaac!

Over the weekend, Isaac had his 8th birthday "Bird-day" party, complete with 6 of his friends and a rockin' Angry Birds theme! This was his first ever "friend" party, so we went WAY overboard all out with the fun theme and an AWESOME cake!

(Lest you think I'm creative enough to come up with all this stuff below on my own, I stole all the decorating ideas from this blog post which contains lots of links for free downloads.)

Dear Isaac,
I can't believe it has been 8 years since I first held you in my arms. The Lord appropriately led us to name you Isaac, which means "laughter". You love life and always have a smile for everyone. I'm especially impressed and encouraged by the compassion and love you show your brothers. You are patient with them, and will get whatever they need. You never complain they can't "play" with you in the way you might want them too, but Elijah certainly enjoys wrestling with you. :-) I can't wait to see how the Lord works in your life as you grow up into a godly young man. Your faith in the Lord is already starting to grow. I believe he has BIG things for you to do in this world. Jer. 29:11


Love you Buddy,
Mommy

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The CAKE!

This is one of the most phenomenal cakes I've ever seen. Claudia, the wife of one of Pat's co-workers, makes cakes out of her home. She is so VERY TALENTED! Just look at the detail. AMAZING! Everything was edible too (complete with a good sugar rush). If you are local and would like to see her work, you can find her on FB at El Postre Cakes & Sweets or email her here. I'm quite sure she could make whatever theme cake you wanted. :-) The cake was one of the best tasting I've ever had too. Thanks Claudia!

Yep, he loves it too!

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The Pinata!

Sarah made the whole thing herself and did a great job! She applied LOTS of layers so it would be really strong. :-)

Braden is winding up, sportin' his Angry Bird hat that Sarah made him last winter.

Anna (above) and Rebekah were "allowed" to participate too!

One last chance to finish it off!  The boys never did completely break it, just put a hole in one side. They eventually just dumped it out. :-) Nice work, Sarah! 

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Games!

Pat did the games for the kids, which he is very good at! They had a blast! To go along with the Angry Bird theme, the three teams built structures out of marshmallows and toothpicks. The structure to hold the most weight (DVD cases) won!

The winning team!

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Decorations!

A huge thank you to Sarah for cutting out all of the pieces for the balloons and cups! Cute, huh?

I actually won these treat bags on the Hidden Treasures Auction I posted about the beginning of April. What a fun donation and it worked out great for me (I could choose my theme). I loved that she even donated things to put in the bags too. Thanks Hollie!

At Isaac's request, we served spaghetti and meatballs.

Black and red tableware were easy and fun to complete the theme.

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Gifts!

Since Braden and Andrew live over 30 miles away, his mom stayed the whole time with Baby Dax! Yay! The girls were fighting over who got to hold him. Even Rachel got her turn!
It was nice to have some company in the kitchen too while the party was rockin' outside. Thanks for coming Michelle!

What a wonderful celebration of Isaac's birthday. I hope you enjoyed, Isaac. You are so very blessed to be loved by so many!

Jonathan signing!

Sarah here - Elijah and Rachel are signing all the time, and Jonathan is just getting started!! He already has his first 3 signs (if clapping for 'yay' counts!), though he doesn't use them consistently...
Here's a video I took during lunch today on him signing (sorry for my arm being on the way, I had it on my lap):


And yes, I know I'm being very mean and making him sign it... ;)

Easter!

Happy Easter! We had fun dying eggs the other night - 

Elijah saying and signing "Blue"

And from this morning- I think the turkeys realized it was safe to come out since it's Easter, not Thanksgiving... They still better be careful though! :)

We had never seen them this close to the house before!

Rachel and her Easter Basket! :)

Here are a few (ok, maybe more then a few) pictures from the Easter Egg Hunt this afternoon at Aunt Pat's house!! :)

Little man was in the middle of an unsuccessful attempted nap inside with Mom, so big sis and Dad collected his eggs. And Mom declared the content of the eggs to be hers since Jonathan can't eat them. :)

Love her squinty sun face smile! :)

Seconds after this picture was taken, the egg opened and the contents fell into the watering can thingy, and the precious candy was very hard to retrieve! :)

This is what happens when all three little miss their afternoon nap (and J missed his morning one because of church)... didn't get any pictures of Elijah, aka grumpy frumpy man on the floor! :)

Happy Easter from the Birschbachs! 

We hope you all had a wonderful day celebrating the resurrection of our our living Savior, Jesus Christ!

Less than 48 hours left...

This is a very fun way to help out an adoptive family! A blog auction! My children and I are having fun bidding on items and checking to see if we've been outbid. One of the children is at the orphanage in Bulgaria where some of the children are living in very appalling conditions. Please prayerfully consider helping this family. Bidding ends Sat night at 11pm CST.

Hello friends!

I just wanted to remind you that we have less than two days before the Tiniest Unroe auction wraps-up.  It is going well...and there are some REALLY good deals available.  The iPad 2 is still well below retail value, as are MANY items that are listed.  There 106 items available...gift cards, art, crafts, items made with love by Keith's brothers and sisters...so many things.  Please stop by and check it out before time runs out.  The Unroe family is bringing home 5 children (with Down syndrome) at one time.  We have the privilige of helping to provide the ransom for these little ones!

http://treasuresinhiddenplaces.blogspot.com

Blessings,

Amy R

The Irony of Good Friday

Taken from Mentoring Moments

*An old Hebrew legend tells the story of a man’s journey through a desolate area. He rode his mule and carried his rooster which served as an alarm clock to wake him for his morning devotions. Near dusk the first night of his journey, he approached a small village and decided to spend the night. But the inhospitable villagers turned him away. The only shelter he could find was in a cave nearby. He made his bed and lit his lamp, but a gust of wind swept into the cave and blew out the light. While he slept, a wolf killed his rooster and a lion devoured his mule.

The next morning he surveyed his losses and began to wonder why he was the object of such misfortune. He walked to the village to try to buy food but, to his amazement, he found no one alive. During the night, bandits had plundered the town and massacred the inhabitants.

The man said to himself: “Now I understand my troubles. If the townspeople had received me, I would have joined them in death. If my rooster and mule had not been killed, their noise and the light from my lamp would have revealed my hiding place. God has been good to me.”

*The day was called “Good Friday”– an irony in itself. The Greeks called it “Great Friday.” But Jesus’ disciples didn’t believe it was good or great as they saw their leader arrested and taken away to be crucified.

Good Friday—against a background of violence and hatred, it was the ultimate sacrificial love story. To look at it then, it was the worst of times. It was the season of Darkness; death had seemingly triumphed. It was the winter of despair; all that was bad had conspired to conquer all that was good. Jesus was dead and the tomb was sealed and guarded to make it inviolate.

Easter—with the dawn came understanding. Suddenly, it was the best of times. It was the season of Light; the sealed, guarded tomb had not been able to hold the Life within. It was the spring of hope.

A great irony. Out of death came life. God has been good to us.

Vicki Huffman

LOTS of Ways YOU can help!!!

So much to share...I know many of you are probably wondering how you can help. You can't (won't :-)) adopt, but you still feel like you want to help in some way.  Right now, a few blogging friends have some pretty awesome giveaways you can participate in. Please read on... (not all are for orphans/adoptions)

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The most urgent (because it ends tomorrow - Sat at 11am CST) is the Mulligan Stew giveaway. Julia has pulled together an amazing giveaway that helps SO many different families and orphans. Please go check it out HERE.  Two very special girls - Laurel and Harmony - are VERY, VERY close to "aging out" and becoming "unadoptable" due to their age. They are both turning 16 this year. Please pray their forever family finds them soon!


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The giveaway nearest and dearest to my heart is THIS ONE. This giveaway is for LYLA.  Now, let me tell you, Lyla's story is like none other. You may remember my dear sweet friend, Summer, whom I met in region when we were adopting Elijah and they were bringing home their sweet Belle. Well, I could try to explain it here, but the whole story is better told HERE and HERE. I know it is a long read, but please read it (and get a tissue :-)).  The bottom line is that the Spitz family needs financial help to rescue their princess. Please pray about how you can help them (and possibly win some pretty awesome prizes too)!


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This online auction is to benefit families with children suffering from mitochondrial diseases. I have been following Noah's fight for his life for several years now. Some of you may have noticed the "Praying for Noah" button on my sidebar. His mom shares about his life and prayer requests HERE. I cannot begin to imagine how much this family has gone through, but I know they love their little boy very, very much.

Here is a little bit about Noah, his family and the foundation that was established in his honor.

From Kate Estes:

Noah is our five year old son and he has been battling a mitochondrial disease his entire life. In spite of fighting as hard as anyone ever could, Noah is reaching the end of his days here on earth.

Mitochondrial diseases have very little awareness and therefore there is little funding or support for families whose children are fighting this monster.

 In spite of his suffering, Noah wants to help other children who are sick with mitochondrial diseases.  In his honor, we've established Noah's Hands of Hope, Inc.   Please visit us at www.noahshandsofhope.org to see what we do to help catastrophically ill children and their families.

Noah's Hands of Hope is a non-profit corporation.  We're working toward 501c3 status, and while we don't have it yet, we're hoping to be approved by late summer.

We have a 7 member board of directors that oversees all of the activity of Noah's Hands of Hope.

The online auction ends on April 1st, so please head on over and bid on a few items. (There are some really cute name badge holders, some great homeschooling items, and TONS of other stuff too!)

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Ok, it is way past my 10pm computer curfew (for Lent), but I really needed to get this post done. I have lots more opportunities to share of how you can help, especially those "in country". I also still plan to go back and update you on "life" around here, but it may very well be after Easter. My crew doesn't leave  me much blogging time during the day...but you know what, I wouldn't have it any other way! :-) Plus, we are gearing up for some very special visitors the weekend after Easter. Can't wait to share about that too!

What we've been up to...

Wow, I guess it has been quite a long time since I've posted about our life here! A lot of good things have been happening. The weather has been crazy! Good crazy!

These snow photos were taken on March 3rd. This "storm" was the biggest of the winter. A VERY wimpy snow for us here in WI (in my opinion), but the kids loved it nonetheless. Elijah and Rachel got in on the snow fun this time too. (Usually they are napping when the fun outside is happening..)  Elijah LOVED it. Rachel did great once she got over being scared by the sound of the 4-wheeler pulling the snow tube. 

Rachel got brave enough to ride on her own!

Elijah is having a "moment"...he is still learning that we need to take turns. :-) Anna is helping him get his hat back on. 

Elijah is trying to convince Daddy it's his turn again...

Rachel was ready to come in.

Now, this is just TEN days later...on March 13th...like I said, this weather is crazy!

I glanced out to check on the kids and thought to myself..."Wow, that's a lot of kids. The neighbors must be over."  Ha ha - the joke's on me! It was just I had never seen ALL seven of my children outside together at the same time. LOL 

Elijah always enjoys playing with any type of ball.

Sarah got some cute close-ups too.

Please forgive his snot-encrusted nose...but it was too cute not to share. He's little personality is growing everyday.

A few Ds moms have teased me that Jonathan really doesn't have Ds since he has such a  pronounced nasal bridge. LOL I can assure you that he does, but this is a good photo of it. If he never needs glasses, we should have an easier time fitting him. :-)

Rebekah

Anna

Happy handsome boy!

Beautiful sunset for a beautiful day

Rebekah goofin' around as usual

Rachel is learning to ride the little bike. This bike was handed down to us by Pat's sister. Her youngest is a junior in high school! It has seen it's better days, but it still works. :-)

The day before this, March 12th, Sarah got some very beautiful photos of a rainbow out our front door. Please click HERE to go  her blog to see more photos and read the beautiful post she wrote about God's promises and "her" precious Lyla. (If you aren't already following/reading Sarah's blog  http://matthew18vs14.blogspot.com , you really should. She's a great blogger and advocate too.) 

I have much more to update about (like Elijah's first week at school, the Block Party and the AWANA Grand Prix), but this is long enough for now. Hopefully I'll get back here soon!

Not just Elijah! And chunky monkey update!

It's not just Elijah that's addicted that loves Signing Time! Jonathan has recently started taking an interest in the TV.. esp Signing Time. :)

"What are you taking pictures of? What wrong with me? This isn't blog worthy, I just like Signing Time!"

Sarah here..

Jonathan is pulling up on just about anything and everything!! And he's crawling super fast, and walking with assistance (video coming soon!)! He's also getting into everything and doing crazy things like pulling the heat register out of the floor! LOL

He also likes to take books away from the people who are reading them and eat read them himself. But when you are done with a book and hand it to him, he wants nothing to do with it. Same with a toy Elijah or Rachel has. Typical kid!

A smile close to his cheesy smile, but not quite. Just ask his therapists or Me-mom/"Nana" what it looks like! :)

His naughty face - I tell him, I'm not as easily persuaded as Summer (love you friend!) is to let him get away with something if he smiles. LOL But sometimes I lose and he wins! :)

The other day, he was playing with a bag (not a plastic grocery bag!), and I told him not to put it in his mouth, and he gives me his big cheesy grin.  I turn back and he puts it back in his mouth, I turn and tell him to get it out of his mouth. He takes is out and gives me a big cheesy grin. Repeat the sequence several times, and I finally took it away from him. He whined and told me what he thought of me. Stinker-doodle! He may be 1, but boy, does he understand a lot!

He's doing great in therapy, he just started OT (Occupational), along with PT (Physical) and ST (Speech, which also works with him on feeding issues like new textures). No health concerns, besides mama and sissy's arm which are about to fall off from holding E and J, who do not hold on, and treat our arms like recliners!! :) He has gained over 6 pounds since he came home, which is a lot since he was so big already. He also seems to be a lot taller too as of late. He's grown about 3 inches since he got home, but it seems like more than that since he was so floppy. His tubes seem to he helping, he is a lot more alert, and responds to his name a lot more (when he wants to).  All around, he is a happy chunky little monkey! :)

Here's a video of him and Elijah -

SPREAD THE WORD TO END THE WORD

(I copied this from Sarah's blog. :-) She's a MUCH better blogger than me!) I also posted my personal thoughts on this subject HERE.

Today is the day to raise awareness about the R-word (retard. retarded). To put an end to the use of it. When you use the word, it hurts those with special needs (such as Down syndrome, like my brothers have), their families, and their loved ones.

Why does it hurt? The R-word hurts because it is exclusive. It’s offensive. It’s derogatory. The R-word is hate speech. (Taken from here, click to read more about the history of the R-word.)

Today, I'm going to ask you to PLEASE stop using the R-word. 

You have no idea who you are hurting by using it, and it's socially unacceptable. You can sign the petition here (or click on the button below) to stop using the word. Thank you!!

Let's replace the R-word with a new R-word: RESPECT!

"You're allowed to be humiliating, degrading and hurtful. I'm allowed to petition you to at least recognize what you say and be aware of the option you have to stop." Tim Shriver

Also please take some time to watch this awesome video! :)

Lilly's Birthday Bash

I know it's been a long time since I've posted! I have lots of updates to share, but just two things tonight.

1. A few people have asked me how court turned out for the Evensen family I posted about a couple weeks ago when they needed urgent prayer. Thank you all for praying because they passed court and hope to have "Gotcha Day" tomorrow! Praise God! But their journey home is far from over. Their sweet little Micah has literally spent his life in a crib. The trip to get his passport photo taken did NOT go well for this precious little one. If you want to read about it, click HERE. (Rachelle had to close out the boys' bank accounts at the same bank Elijah's account was held. I also walked past this bank dozens of times (4x/day for 3 weeks). It was fun to see the same street vendors in the exact same places over a year later! :-)) Anyway, please continue to pray for their journey home, especially for Micah's journey. Thanks!

2. Lilly's Birthday Bash!!!!

Click on the photo to read more about Lilly's Birthday Bash

Please head over to Sarah and Rachel's blog to read about Lilly's Birthday Bash! Sarah and Rachel work very hard to make items to sell to raise money for Lilly's grant fund. The hearts these two have for orphans is absolutely amazing to me. I wish I could take credit for Sarah's passion, but it is truly God-given. I know Sarah and Rachel would like nothing better than for Lilly's family to find her and SOON! To help the girls celebrate Lilly's birthday, you can do several things: Adopt, Donate, Buy, Share, Grab, Follow, and PRAY! Click HERE for more details. :-) If you do any of the above, please email them and let them know so you can be entered in their give-away.  Be quick though as it ends tomorrow (Monday)! Thanks for your help!