This is my first born, Joshua. I think of him as my bulldozer. He pretty much paved the way for the other two. I was 23 years old when Joshua was born. I had no idea what I was doing. I knew to feed him and love him. When he grew to be a toddler, we spent hours playing games, reading books, and going to the park. Darren worked long hours when Joshua was young, so he pretty much had my undivided attention. My successes with Joshua: I didn't let him get away with much. Since we spent so much time together I discerned his strengths and weaknesses pretty early. I protected him from negative influences pretty well and disciplined him fairly consistently. My failures: I forgot to teach Joshua how to do things like keep his room clean, and be disciplined in the day to day things. He would get into trouble for a messy room but I never taught him how to keep it clean. I supposed this was something that would come naturally....it didn't ;) Currently, Joshua is 20 years old. He is going to college full time. He is in Army National Guard. He also works a part/full time job in a correctional institution. He is one of our "sound guys" at church. He loves Jesus and serves Him daily.
This is Alexis. She is 12 years old. This is a common position for her. She is on the couch working on her laptop doing homework. Her goal this year is to maintain straight A's in school (7th grade). Three quarters into the year and so far so good. Alexis has been a pretty easy child to raise. She has a very good and easy going temperment. My most challenging moments with her were when she was a year old and kept getting very ill. After several months I finally found out that she was lactose intolerant and allergic to peanuts. Alexis is a very capable little mommy. As a matter of fact, I have found myself making the mistake, at times, of letting her be mommy....not a good plan. I have to remember that she is a child and that she isn't mature enough to have that much responsibility, even though she may want it and appears to handle it well. I am not sure I can take much credit for successes with her. She hasn't required much discipline. I have spent many hours talking with her about just normal growing up issues. Alexis is very involved in AWANA and shares her devotions with us every morning at breakfast.
This is Lydia Joy. A picture, here, is worth a thousand words! Her name means "to travail with joy". She is true to her name! Although we are seasoned parents through our own children and through foster children, we seem to come up short on how to handle Lydia sometimes. As a baby, Lydia had a very difficult character to deal with. She would not sleep for more than a few hours at a time and would not take naps. She bit me and hit me which I found unusual for such a young child. Her doctor suggested a book...of which I can't remember the name. The book spoke about getting a child on a solid rhythm of sleeping and eating. She was pretty close to one but the one thing I wasn't doing was putting her to bed very early. So I began putting her to bed at 6 pm. The first night, she slept all the way until 6 am. After a few weeks she started taking regular naps. AND!!!...she stopped her defiant and angry behavior. She is 6 years old now and she still needs to be in bed 5-6 nights out of the week by 7:30 pm. She is able to sleep-in now which was never a possibility in the toddler years. She is much more peaceful and her behavior is so much more compliant when she eats right and gets enough sleep (Lydia has to be on a gluten free diet as well). She is truly a joy to have around. She is very unique and makes us laugh with glee regularly. We are looking forward to watching her grow up.
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