Hello 2016

What a whirlwind couple of years it has been here at the Hamstra household.  I remember being younger and people telling me that time flies away when you have kids and you can’t even believe it.  So true.

Here’s an update on each of the kids:

Emma – in 7th grade this year and became a teenager this fall.  She is one of the most kind compassionate deep feeling people I have ever met in my life.  She played volleyball for the first time this fall and loved it.  It was really fun to have her in a sport that she loves and the cheerleader in me came out in full force having so much fun at all of her games.  She held her single parent Christmas party again this year and it was amazing to see God work in that and make it into exactly what HE wanted.  So thankful for these times of life lessons with her.

Jackson – in 4th grade this year and is all boy through and through.  He continues to have a huge passion for baseball and talks about it and is out practicing every chance he gets.  Many, many times we hear “Is it April yet?” because he is ready for practice to start!  He also found a new passion this fall and that was fantasy football.  He got to play with the adults of Jack’s family and had a blast trash talking.  I have no idea where he gets all that sports knowledge!  He is so much like me when it comes to his feelings.  Deep feeler who has a hard time expressing it in person.  He gets his feelings hurt a lot and many times fades into the background.  But not to me.

RJ – in 3rd grade this year and the bible is his jam.  RJ loves his bible more than anything.  He can be found most of the time reading to himself in his room or playing action figures.  He loves school so much even though that is one of the hardest things in his life.  Learning does not come easy to him but we are very proud of him for the effort that he makes at it.  Last spring we had some testing done that gave us some much needed answers in this area.  We now let RJ be RJ and the pushing and fighting over academics has stopped.  What a relief honestly.  He has a great team of ladies at school that continue to help him be the best he can be.  He loves going to his therapies every week and his favorite thing to do there is yoga.  We’re very lucky to have a whole team of people that surround our challenged kiddos and love on them.

Laila – in 1st grade and continues to light up every room she enters.  Laila will talk you ear off all day every day if you will let her.  She loves the school bus and has a great team of people at her school that love on her every day.  She continues to go to therapy twice a week and several doctor appointments.  She got an assistance dog this summer named Judy who is her best friend.  She loves to brag to kids that we meet that she has a dog that can clean up her toys for her.  Laila also has a wonderful nurse that helps us out with her a couple times a week.  We are very blessed by her.

I plan to blog more.  I’ve said that before but there are some things going on that writing may help me process and also keep others informed in larger volume since I don’t have major social media as an outlet to provide information.  Please continue to keep our precious family in your prayers.