Month: June 2024

Today, I got this text:

Now, I know that I’m not biased! She is amazing. Tatum works with the crawlers one week and the next she works with the 1.5 year olds. She loves it!
I’m so proud of her nurturing heart, and I LOVE THAT SHE WANTS TO BE A MOM.

She already knows that she wants to also be a teacher to special needs kids one day.

It’s such an honor raising this kid; It’s above my pay grade! I truly am so proud of her.

Thanks to my HHH’s help, Tatum is becoming a bender! Her body is moving in ways I can only feel in my back OUCH!

Then you have her brain…I’m trying to bend it a bit with our daily Scrabble play.

Her strategy is getting more complex! I love it.

Plus she is writing now more often again.

TODAY’S STORY:

This is a story about a girl named Ava. It all started in 1999 in a small town called Greenberg, when her mother went to fetch water from a stream.

You see the Martina family was poor. The father was a barber, the mom was a teacher (and pregnant), Oliver (a twelve year old boy) was a mower (a person who moans other people’s lawns), Elisabeth (a ten year old girl) was very good at sewing and often sold sweaters that she made, Ava (an adorable four year old) would sell poetry that she would write, and Sofia (a two month year old baby) would draw crowds of people to herself.

“Elisabeth could you please give me a hand with this pail of water? My stomach is getting too big for me to do it by myself,” Her mom asked emerging from the stream.

“Yes mama,” she said running down the hill. When she got there, she ripped her apron off and quickly grabbed the pail from her mom.

“Oh, thank you honey. The baby is starting to take control of my stomach.”

“No prob mama.” With that Elisabeth started to amble up the hill. When she got to the top, she saw her brother Oliver helping her little sister Ava with her doll.

“My doll’s head ripped off thanks to Sofia,” Ava sniffed.

“It’s going to be ok,” Oliver said putting his hand on her shoulder.

“Here,” Elisabeth said shoving the pail of water into his arms.

“I’ve got it from here.”

“What happened?” she asked hauling a log over to sit on.

“Well, it started like this, I went into Sofia’s room to grab a onesie for my doll. I set my doll down on her crib for a second and when I turned around my doll was in her mouth. I started to cry and then I quickly-sniff- grabbed my doll and -sniff- ran outside to find -sniff- mommy but-sniff- that’s when I ran into Ollie,” Ava said turning her hand over. There was a big dark blue, black, and purple spot on it.

“What happened?” she asked.

“You don’t -sniff- want to -sniff- know.”

To be continued

I LOVE HER BRAIN BENDERS!!! TOT you rock.

She is the epitome of beating her own drum.

This week is CREATE camp at SBC, and she chose the DRAMA team. With that inspiration, she has been tailoring all…did I say ALL? of her clothes. She has a particular flair with making holes in the sleeves and fringe on the bottoms. Early morning, she’s up and at ’em, scissors in hand and Rio singing along.

She came out ready for camp in this:

She wrote, “BE U” on her cropped shirt (this was a dress), and she had her jeans fringed at the bottom.

I love her creativity. Stay tuned for more about CREATE!

He truly is a hero because Tatum and I are not that easy! Well, first, I have challenged him with my health for over five years. It has been hard on him, and the “US.”
Then, he is learning to be a dad to this strong (but/and AWESOME) girl.

Oh, and there’s Coopy. He’s are “needy” one!

He is patient, kind, loving, and oh..did I mention how HARD he works?

We are trying to get his fun side going; Tatum always has ideas. Ideas…oh, that can be bad!

Get your groove on, Daddy!

Ok, later we celebrated his “daddyness” with a song and a dedication.

Then…duh duh duhhhhhhhh…The master present.

Love Tatum and Austin. Isn’t it the best? He’s the best! A truly sacrificial man.

And of course he had to smell good too!

Curve! So delicious.

We are so grateful for all you do for us, Daddy. HHH.

This book

had changed her view on Special Needs; they are people who need so much love, and she is attracted IMMEDIATELY to anyone with Down’s, Autism, ADHD, etc.
She just completed volunteering at VBS this week shadowing a 6-year old Sadie for the whole week. Tatum would come home with scratches, but she would say, “I LOVE IT!”

Here is the team!

She is a gift: Tatum has GRIT and GUMPTION and I’m proud to be her mom!

She wanted me to draw this!
So…..I did but oh boy…it was a task!

We have started to play Scrabble, my favorite game in the whole world!

This is the greatest way to teach her words AND be a but strategic.

One thing she is mastering is swimming. Hey, she’s even mastering the skill of walking on water. Jesus would be so proud.

Tot, we have so much fun together. How you are my daughter, I still pinch myself.