Levi's Heart: Happy Birthday Levi, School's Out, and Job Hunt

Levi's Birthday

2012 - Isn't Levi looking like a big boy?!

Sweet Levi is two years old!!! I still call him my baby, but he's far from it! He's an adorable, coordinated, opinionated, two year old with a smile to melt your heart. We love our little guy and he is healthy, strong, and growing well. He loves riding his balance bike, playing with cars, splashing in water, and running straight down the street whenever I turn my head! He is busy, busy, busy, but oh so cute.

Levi is still having much difficulty with his speech, or lack thereof. He continues to receive services from Early Intervention and I recently took him

2010 - Levi, three days old

to another speech and language pathologist in town who will see him once a month. We still don't know if this is just a speech delay or if it's something more serious like childhood apraxia of speech. Levi had an in-depth hearing test done a couple weeks ago, and his hearing is just fine, so it's good to rule that out. In the meantime, I'm teaching Levi some more signs so he has another way to communicate.

June 24 marks the one year anniversary of Levi's open heart surgery. I haven't wrapped my head around that yet, but will reflect on it as it draws closer. I can't go there just yet.

Schools Out

Jacob's end of year preschool performance

The big boys are out of school for the summer. Noah finished up kindergarten and Jacob completed his first year of preschool. They both had great school years and we love that they both love school!

Now that summer has arrived, they spend their days playing outside with the neighborhood kids, having water shooter fights, and going on walks in Shevlin Park. We'll mix in some swim lessons, a couple VBS camps, and some day trips to the Cascade lakes, and that's our summer. Fun!

Job Hunt

Noah's last day of kindergarten

Unfortunately, in the midst of all the summer excitement last week, James was laid off from his job of five years. Due to financial difficulties, the company had to make some drastic cuts, and that meant James was one of many employees let go without notice.

As you can imagine, this is a huge stress for our family as he was the sole income. It throws us into a lot of unknowns. With Levi's ongoing health condition, maintaining good health insurance is a must, so that's just one of many pieces to this puzzle that we need to figure out.

James is spending his days working really hard to find another job. He is such an amazing husband and a such a dedicated worker. Whatever company hires him will be so lucky to have him. He does have a promising local interview set up next week and another couple possibilities, so we are hoping that something pans out soon. Central Oregon is not a very big place, so finding a job could prove difficult. We ask for your prayers that God will open the door to an amazing new job. It's hard to see beyond the shock of this past week, but we know that God has carried us through some very dark times before and He will again. I just wish I had that future perspective now, rather than that awful anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach that sometimes sneaks up on me.

Grandma Arrives
My mom arrived from California and is staying with us for the week. I'm super excited to have her here as it's always so much fun for the kids to have grandma-time, and I love getting out and about with her during this beautiful time of year. She couldn't have come at a more perfect time too as she always puts a smile on our faces.