Blogworthy

http://noahsdad.com/target-down-syndrome/

Hope this brightens your Friday, it sure did mine!  Oh and Go Hogs WPS!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just read this wonderful Thanksgiving message from Governor Palin and couldn't resist sharing.
Hope you enjoy!

www.conservatives4palin.com/2011/11/governor-palins-thanksgiving-message.html

Eat Carsten Eat!

This post comes with very fresh tears.  I am thinking back to our very first days with Carsten and his eating problems that began to surface soon after he was born.  I remember even a post that Chad wrote in the NICU about trying to get him to take his bottle, I think he titled it Eat, Carsten Eat!  Well, here we are FOUR long years later and we are still saying it, but now we are saying with even more expectancy and hope than ever!  Our God is good people, for today Carsten ate a whole hot dog before school.  I can't even write that sentence without sobbing.  The emotions, the memory, the pain, the tears, the vomiting, the tube feeding, the prayers, the hopes, the waiting are all so raw and so fresh in my mind.  Carsten truly is a miracle and our God truly is the Miracle Maker.  He has brought us so far.  He has brought us through this fiery trial of feeding and we are finally seeing some victory.

I began to wonder last fall if God was going to work in this area this year.  Our first service at our church here in Fairfax was called "Hold on".  One of the worship leaders had written a new album and she sang this song and then the lesson from the pastor was all about "holding on."  I felt in my spirit the Lord was referring to Carsten's eating as my "hold on" signal.  Later on last year I read a book by Leslie Parrott called "The First Drop of Rain."  (I highly recommend this book, it was funny because it is all about spiritual paradigms related to rain and while I was reading it it was raining everyday:)
In the book she happened to talk about her little boy that had a feeding tube and feeding troubles like us.  Eventually the boy overcame them after a very long and hard journey.  I wondered if the Lord was speaking to me also saying that we would get through this too.

Now here we are today and Carsten just ate a whole meal with no pureed food.  He had a hot dog, piece of toast, some banana, and blueberries.  We have discovered that he likes ketchup and barbecue sauce.  It was so funny because he was eating his hot dog pieces after dipping them in ketchup with a fork.  So I thought, let's try banana with a fork.  Lo and behold, he ate the banana pieces after dipping them in ketchup!  Ok, I said, I don't care what you dip in ketchup as long as you eat it, AMEN?!  So for now, Carsten's repertoire is chicken nuggets, hot dogs, french fries, and toast.  He can eat all kinds of "snacky" things as long as they are contained to one bite that he can put on the side of his mouth, like a teddy graham.  It was funny because we went on a little family getaway last weekend and this is where Carsten started eating (and liking) chicken nuggets.  He started eating cheerios on our summer trip back in July.  So I told Chad I guess we're just going to have to go on family trips all the time to get him to eat more ;)))

This all started to speed up a few weeks ago and he has been slowly gaining momentum with eating.  Now I feel if we can add to his variety and textures we will be getting closer, so close I can taste it!  Last week after church I was able to say in faith that Carsten will eat lunch at Kindergarden next year, oh wow, more tears.  Again, God is good.  God is good even if Carsten never ate, or never eats, He is good all the time.  But His Goodness in the "goodness" is oh so much sweeter.

Leslie Parrott couldn't have summed it better:

"Every time I see John take a bite of salmon, or spinach, or even lick an ice cream cone, I marvel.  It's a miracle.  Two miracles, really.  We all survived the drought and, somehow, John adapted.
In the desert, after a rainfall, color explodes everywhere.  Flowers bloom overnight in response to rain.  They last for only a short time, but they make an appearance.  They celebrate.
So do I.  Grace before a meal is less a ritual than a time of true celebration.  "Give us this day our daily bread."  And thank you, REALLY, for the ability to eat it."

Carsten using the Proloquo2go

Here is a link to the video of Carsten using Proloquo2go at school.  This is the one that was submitted to the Congressman to petition for iPads in the Virginia school system.  

Carsten on Capitol Hill?!

Carsten is well into his first semester at Kings Park Elementary school in the preschool special needs program. We LOVE Mrs. Melissa his teacher and his class is full of boys, Carsten loves older boys. Carsten rides the bus to and from and goes Tuesday through Friday from 12-4. The teachers realized early on how much Carsten could understand and demonstrated a large sign vocabulary when prompted but his classmates struggled to communicate since sign language isn't universal. So they wanted to try something else with him and suggested an application on the iPad called proloquo2go. Within the first day of using this application at school Carsten was using 4 word sentences to express his needs and wants. He was able to tell the teachers what he wanted to play with, what he wanted to eat, (yes eat, that is another post!) and talk to his friends through proloquo. Well word kind of got around how he was thriving with it and other teachers began asking about Carsten and how they could get iPads for their classrooms. Mrs. Melissa's husband happens to work in Congress as a graphic designer. So she began taking videos of Carsten using the proloquo2go and put together a small paper on him and research articles to support proloquo2go. Her husband then created a finished video of Carsten using it in different settings and the whole thing has been submitted to Congressman Connelly of Virginia. They are using Carsten's success to petition for iPad distribution in the Virginia school systems. It is pretty neat how the whole thing happened and Chad and I are excited to see if it will be presented in Congress. Mrs. Melissa is keeping us updated so we can go to the open session if they play Carstens video. I will try to put a copy of the video here on the blog, and I will keep you updated on what happens. Either way, we are so proud of him and are blown away by the school systems and Mrs Melissa his wonderful teacher, they really not only see his potential but try to help him reach it as well. Go Carsten!!

Falls here!!!!

Come on cold!  I'm so excited for fall this year.  I've recently decided that fall is my favorite season.  I love the feeling you get with the first cold air, winter is coming, and so is change.  I love the fall recipes like apple cider, apple crisp, soups, stews, and crock pot cooking, bring it on!  I used to hate the cold when I lived further north.  But after being in Atlanta for a year in 100+ degree weather, moving so many times in the July heat, and toting 2 kids around in hot weather, I get so excited when fall rolls around.  I also admittedly love my coat collection.  Here are a couple of my "secret" recipes.  I make the apple cider for our small group on Wednesdays and the soup I have to make when Chad is gone since he won't eat anything with the word squash in it.  Actually, I did get him to eat a whole butternut squash last year (I told him it was a sweet potato, hee hee ;)  

Apple Cider
1 gallon apple cider
1 spice container of red hots
10 cloves
3 or 4 cinnamon sticks

Percolate the cider with all of the spices on top :) Yes, the secret is the red hots.


Butternut Squash, Carrot, Ginger soup
1/2 medium butternut squash
2 TB olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 lb carrots
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 (2 in) piece ginger peeled and thinly sliced
4 cups water
salt and pepper to taste
1 pinch ground cinnamon
1/2 cup heavy cream

Bake the squash cut side down in greased baking dish until fall apart tender.  Scoop out squash and discard seeds.  Heat olive oil in saucepan add onion and garlic, cook until soft.  Pour in water, add squash carrots and ginger.  Bring to boil, cook at least 20 minutes or until carrots tender.
Puree mixture into blender (something I've gotten really good at with Carsten's diet:) Should be thick and creamy.  Season with cinnamon, salt, and pepper.  Mmmmmm :)  Anybody have a favorite fall recipe, please share with me!

God at work

Happy Down Syndrome Awareness Month!!!  Okay, I'm a little late this year, my sweet friend Stephanie always reminds me every year to do the 31 for 21 blogs, (31 days of blogging for Trisomy 21) well how about 1 for 21, better than nothing right?  :)  Okay take a close look at this picture.  Yeah yeah ok what's the big deal, its just a boy throwing a ball at Carsten with a bat.
But it's so much more than that.  That special day at the park, we met two boys about 7 years old that automatically "took" Carsten in and were "teaching" him how to play baseball.  I was hesitant at first as Carsten ran in between them trying to get into their game (like he usually does when any older boys are playing sports).  I always cringe and usually apologize over and over telling them that he just wants to play with them.  But this time was different, the two boys were excited about him playing with them and actually began to "teach" him how to play.  I watched (with tears in my eyes) for about 45 minutes while these boys (with the most patience I've ever seen from 7 year olds) showed him how to play.  Finally after all that time, he hit a ball and the two boys went crazy screaming yeah Carsten yeah!!  It was such a special moment for me to see the goodness in those boys, sent straight from above.  Moments like those give me so much hope for the future.  If that ain't some Down Syndrome awareness encouragement I don't know what is:)