Guess what? Yep, its October (well tomorrow) and once again I will make the commitment to blog every day in October to help raise awareness for Down Syndrome. October is National Down Syndrome month, and most organizations host their annual Buddy walk then. Our's will be Oct 10th at the Montgomery River walk stadium. We are so excited!

So readers out there, please if there is anything you ever wanted to know about us, our family, our adoptions, Down Syndrome in general, our girls and school, whatever it is....please leave me a comment. I will need lots of questions to keep me going this month. I normally dont blog everyday because I just cant think of what to say..ya I know me right! So seriously, if you want to ask me anything...now is your chance.

I am eager to answer your questions, share our girls and maybe even inspire someone out there to step out in faith and adopt a child with Down Syndrome. You'll never know what your missing until you just do it!

William, Mike and Lyndsey enjoying the day on a segway in San Antonio! Must be nice!
Can you tell Im NOT happy with staying at home with 4 little ones??????
Im glad they are getting to have some fun though.

Gabby in Pink and Giovanna in white both turned 7 YRS old Lily turned 6 on Sept 9th! All three girls are now in FIRST grade!

Look what the twins did for their 20th bday

Look what the twins for their 20th birthday..Mike and William are in San Antonio visiting Lyndsey and they headed to the Tattoo place today...here ya go...

This is the symbol for fraternal twins on the genogram.

This was taken this afternoon from my silly husband....looks they are having just a little fun while they drive all the way to TX today. It is a 13 hour drive. He and Michael are going to take Lyndsey her car and to celebrate the twins 20th BIRTHDAY!!! I cant believe they are already 20~


I have a praise report....Giovanna's folder that comes home everyday with all her teachers comments in it....reports she had a PERFECT day! Oh thank you Lord!!!!

Opps, forgot to turn it...sorry! this was on vacation the first week of Aug. i know Im so late in posting pics...

Lyndsey found out her first duty station!

CHANGE OF PLANS....
LYNDSEY'S DUTY STATION IS NOW FT CARSON IN COLORADO! She is excited to see the beautiful West and not so excited to be living in the SNOW! we are all warm weather folks an have only been in snow for like two times for a week on vacation...living in it is going to be a whole new ballgame for her! It will be a perfect place for us to go visit. She will finally get to see all the seasons taking place...oh it will be beautiful... The only problem is that she will be heading there right in the middle of WINTER! January, she will report! oh man!

Lyndsey just found out her duty station for the Army...Fort Hood TX. She is in San Antonio now for medical training...she was so hoping to get Germany! Well at least she will be closer to home for the first duty station.

I know she is so bummed..several of her friends got Hawaii, Germany and Korea. She just wanted to get a overseas deployment so she could do some traveling...maybe next time!

Well all I can say is we need your prayers right now. Please stand with us friends and family as we are fervently seeking a solution to G & G's school situation right now. This is a very trying time right now and I just know there is light at the end of all of this.

The school is saying they see behaviors from Giovanna that we have never seen nor has anyone that knows her has seen. Every day multiple times a day they are sending her to the office. We are NOT happy about this!!! WE feel that they arent seeking a solution to the problem, just sending her to the office to get her out of the class. She doesnt understand the whole "reason" behing going to the office, so that is not working at all. So far this week, and today is only Wed morning, she has been 3 or 4 times to the office. This is taking precious learning time away for her, plus teaching her that if she doesnt want to do something, lets just yell out in class and I can "go for a walk" and not have to do it.....ERRRR!

Gabby...well lets just leave it at this....educationally....nothing on "her level" is being taught! They say that it is.....but it is not! They say they want to listen....but they dont!

We are at our wits end....we have a lawyer/parent advocate that I will be talking to this morning, so I pray something will come out of that meeting.

Until then....I leave you with this picture.....Giovanna at 2 yrs old....just 2 mths after she come home from Guatemala....just look at that face!

Well the day has finally arrived.....today is Lily's 6th Birthday party. She is so excited. Im not sure how many kids from school will show up but at least she is having it where she wants, the YMCA play center. I know of only two girls from school that will be there...but with our crew alone, we will have a full party...lol Pizza will be served. She is so thrilled.

On a side note, I had no idea that Alabama was part of the rain forest. It has rained for like 2 weeks now... we are so over it already!

The girls are feeling better now and are finally back in school. Praise the Lord we did NOT end up in the hospital.

Giovanna is struggling with school right now and we are really working hard to find out what the problem is. I know she is a bright girl...she loves to learn..she loves being with friends...she does not like sudden loud noises, unless well she's the one who makes them, and she is really a good judge of character... SO today I spent almost three hours this morning at her school. I was able to watch her transition into her Resource room from the Reg Ed class and watch her interact with her Aide. I did notice some things that need to be corrected and I pray that will help. I did finally have to approach Giovanna to correct a behavior and after that she was good as gold. Please pray for my girl...pray that we will find out what is setting her behaviors off at school and how we can fix them. They are seeing things out of her that we have NEVER seen before with us or anyone else that has watched her. Her private speech therapists are in shock at the things I hold told her they see at school. She too agrees with us that something is going on at school to bring this on....behavior is communication for children with special needs...this is the one part that is HARD! It is HARD to figure it out...BUT by the GRACE OF MY LORD we WILL do it!

I just seen this so many of you may already know about it. This happened in GA. I can not believe it!!! I know I have been in the store before when my Bella wanted to show her colors, and I wanted to just rush out of there...but didnt...
What would I have done if this person approached me? I know I would be in total shock, BUT after the instant of shock wore off, I know the Momma Bear instinct would kick in and I would probably do what many other momma's would do...attack the man!!! Slapping MY child, not once, not twice, and not even three times...BUT FOUR!!!

I truly hope this man gets a good sentence by the judge!!!!
Oh this is so sad, what in the world has our "country" come too?

This is a picture of what a groovy girl looks like....not the ones we have though..

Well the girls are still not feeling good...they act fine for a while and then hit rock bottom again.. We are taking them in the morning to the base hopefully, if we can get in) to be checked out.

My girls have found a new love....THE GROOVY GIRLS.... I found some at a yard sale the other weekend and they love them. WE only have 3 so there is plenty of war at our house...does anyone have any they want to part with??? Email me what cha got and how much..rlba272@hotmail.com

I will update later with pictures from our Saturday in Dothan with Michael's Army reserve unit..

has FOUR girls home today! Hoping that the 101 temp this morning at 5:45 and then again at 6:45 was just their warm bodies! PLEASE no Flu in the Andrews house!

Lily is coughing like crazy and Giovanna just seems to not be herself. Bella is just fine, but today is her no school day so she is with us too. Gabby is just kinda slow in her moving around. So we shall see. If they seem worse, we will head to the DR in the morning, if not they all will be in school tomorrow.

Just please pray for us, that it is just nothing but the common cold...our girls just cant afford to get this swine flu!

We have one special day today.....we are celebrating Lily's birth! I am so thankful she is forever with us....so we can make this day of celebration. She is truly growing and maturing into a beautiful little girl. God blessed us so much the day that door opened up and in walked our two colombian daughters!!!

Lily, we are so honored to be your parents forever! We are so thrilled we get to celebrate your birth in a way it should be! I pray for you each day that you will shine the love of Jesus.

Happy Birthday my sweet girl!!!

We are so excited to be taking a break! We are heading to FL to visit Michael and my family. Everyone has off on Mon and Tues so off we go. Stay tuned for pictures!

hope everyone has a great weekend!

Family Tree of Vincent Van Gogh:
 
His dizzy aunt ----------------------------------- Verti Gogh 
 
The brother who ate prunes------------------------ Gotta Gogh 
 
The brother who worked at a convenience store ---- Stop N Gogh 
 
The grandfather from Yugoslavia ------------------ U Gogh 
 
His magician uncle ------------------------------- Where-diddy Gogh 
 
His Mexican cousin ------------------------------- A Mee Gogh 
 
The Mexican cousin's American half-brother ------- Gring Gogh 
 
The nephew who drove a stage coach --------------- Wells-far Gogh 
 
The constipated uncle ---------------------------- Can't Gogh 
 
The ballroom dancing aunt ------------------------ Tang Gogh 
 
The bird lover uncle ----------------------------- Flamin Gogh 
 
The fruit-loving cousin -------------------------- Man Gogh 
 
An aunt who taught positive thinking ------------- Way-to-Gogh 
 
The little bouncy nephew ------------------------- Poe Gogh 
 
A sister who loved disco ------------------------- Go Gogh 
 
And his niece who travels the country in an RV --- Winnie Bay Gogh 
 
I saw you smiling . . . there ya Gogh! 
 
 Time to Gogh..............