Hope Makes Us Stronger

Another Sunday and finally another post. We have had a busy few weeks since New Year's but as always there are a few important highlights.  We did absolutely nothing for New Year's Eve and it could not have been more perfect. We expected the big kids to want nothing to do with us so we planned nothing and instead we ended up with the 7 of us eating Chinese food, playing games, watching the ball drop and in bed by 12:10! I could not have asked for a more perfect start to the New Year. When I dreamed of my life it was this beautiful picture I dreamed of - smiling, healthy, happy kids who want to (or pretend to want to) spend time with me on a regular basis. I just can't stop smiling when I look at this picture.  KK passed down Graham's big boy bed to Sierra so she can finally stop sleeping in her pack and play when she stays over on Friday nights. I'm not sure if she was more excited about the bed being Grahams or being like her big cousins and sleeping in ...

The H-Dubs are ready to ring in the new year with pizza and wings and a, hopefully early, bedtime for most of the kids. 2020 promises many new adventures for this family as Molly makes a decision about where to go to college and Peter starts his first semester at Middlesex Community College. December was a fun month for all of us so here are some highlights.  We still take Sierra every Friday afternoon and keep her until Saturday afternoon when Shannon gets out of work. We have been able to have Sierra most weekends since she was around 6 months old which means that all of us have developed a really strong bond with her and we all look forward to having her here. Sierra makes everything easy because she is a very sweet little girl full of light and laughter and love. She is also kind and affectionate with everyone she meets and unbelievably flexible. Lizzie and Sierra have a special bond because Lizzie will drop everything to hang out with her but all of the kids just adore...

It has been three years since my last blog post and that was a one time post prompted by one of Molly's friend who loved reading my blog and witnessing Molly growing up. Since then life has been chaotic as we had to cross some uncharted territory. Without going into too much detail we gave DCF custody of Peter in an effort to get him into an amazing program, the Susan Wayne Center of Excellence in Putnam Connecticut. He lived there for one year and then came home and completed his senior year of high school in Rocky Hill in June of 2019. Now we are working hard to figure out what to do with our very adult son to help him coexist with his siblings while working hard to become independent in his own right. We are still involved with the incredibly complicated social services system as we try to get Peter assessed for Department of Mental Health Services while also acting as his conservator and working on some health issues.  Molly is in her senior year of high school at Mercy and ...