The boys started back to school on Wednesday, and can you believe they were healthy for it? When Jacob saw his uniform shirt, he started to cry. Joshua was miserable at first, too - he likes to sleep in and gets pretty crabby if anyone else wakes him up. But they both ran to the bus. That afternoon Deren picked Jacob up 1/2 early from school and took him to the ophthalmologist (and I might have just spelled that correctly woohoo!) that sees Rachael. Jacob was prescribed prism lenses last Jan by an optometrist that sees a lot of local autistic kids. The glasses were supposed to help regulate his sensory visual disturbances. No go. Jacob was still crossing his eyes, so we decided to get a second opinion. Dr. Wang (Rachael's doctor) said that Jacob was far-sighted, and his current glasses did not account for that at all. I went to the other office today and got a copy of Jacob's records. The doctor had dilated Jacob's eyes, but did not put down any results. So now we are looking at paying for yet another set of glasses. Please pray that these will do the trick. Yes, Jacob can continue to cross his eyes because of sensory issues, but the underlying problem of not being able to see up close surely does not help the situation. I'm so frustrated.

Moving on.. I planted 2 thornless blackberry bushes, 2 swiss chard plants (hope they will make it!) and a fig tree in the backyard this past Tuesday. We planted 2 blackberry bushes at our first house. By year 3 they produced more than a gallon of berries - it was great. The kids "helped" me plant, especially Jacob and Rachael, my 2 helpers. The three of us were mudballs by the end of the day - they had a blast! They are so cute. When I hang clothes on the clotheslines (yes, we have clotheslines in the middle of suburbia - call us white trash if you will!) they are right there trying to clip the pins onto the clothes. And Jacob was irrate when I took down the Christmas tree on Monday. He kept going into the container and grabbing the ornaments back out to put them up on the Christmas tree. Meanwhile, Rachael yells "WHERE'S CHRISTMAS?!!" when we're out on a walk or driving.

We're having a babysitter come to the house for 1 1/2 hrs on Tues & Weds to watch the kids while I work 1:1 with each boy on their lessons. It will be a lot less expensive than trying to find a new therapist to work with them. Also, we had been so blessed by the wonderful talent of the women who had been working with the boys - Christina, Nikki, and Maria. First I prayed for another person as talented to come into our lives. Then I changed my prayers to "show me what I should do Lord." I decided I would work with them. Although I am definitely not in the league of their former therapists, I am committed to this. Please pray for the boys and for me to not disappoint them - I'd appreciate it :-)