Happy New Year!

Wow! It's the new year and it's again been a long time since my last post. Sorry to those of you who've been checking.

We had a busy December, with some of our activities including iceskating with Santa, making Christmas cookies & decorating a gingerbread house. We drove to Michigan for Christmas & on the way stopped in St. Louis for a few hours to see Nece, Steele (Jon's sister & brother-in-law) & nephew Trey. We had a fabulous week in Michigan spending a lot of time with family. Then, we had a fun week with our niece Cheyenne here between Christmas and New Year's and painted pottery, went bowling and to the Houston zoo. If you're interested in some pictures, you can see them by clicking here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=146098&id=605600215&l=b2c23453ef

Well, Tanner's migraines are still mostly at bay, praise the Lord! We're so thankful that we've not had any ER visits in the last few months! The new medication definitely seems to be working on the migraines. Unfortunately, it has not kept his daily, chronic headaches away. For the last month or so, he's had a chronic headache that has not been controllable. He's definitely not been himself. This week we started back on a medication he's been on previously to see if we can get this headache under control.

It's sad for us to see him hurting and not wanting to do things he normally enjoys because he's not doing well. He still does not complain and is an amazing boy. We can often tell he's not feeling well, but, it's also easy to forget he's crabby more than likely because he's not feeling well. I often then feel badly for reprimanding him. This is actually something we would love prayers for, to be patient & loving with him at all times.

We watched Tanner's adoption video recently and realized that he's definitely lost some of the skills he used to have, and this was difficult to see as well. Recently, I've been listening to the book "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch. It's an excellent reminder to live and enjoy each and every day and moment. Tanner does this well, but, it was helpful to hear it in a different way and be reminded again!

A few weeks before Christmas Tanner became very interested in talking about death (this wasn't too long after Grandpa DeKorne's funeral). He asked a lot of questions and was very curious. Some were cute and funny, some were very serious and difficult to answer. He was excited that when he dies he'll get to be with Jesus. One very poignant moment, was when he was praying at dinner, he prayed "thank you, Jesus, that I will go to heaven and be with you and help mom and dad when they're sad, here on earth." WOW - of course, he does not even know that he probably will be going to heaven before us, nor does he know about the leukodystrophy. As hard as it was to see him sign that, it was really beautiful to see how the Holy Spirit is working in his life! The next day, Tanner went to school and informed everyone "you all will die, you will die in the future." I had warned one of the teachers, but, hadn't told them all - oops, it was a bit of a shock to everyone :)! He also told them that if they want to go to heaven, they need to ask Jesus in their heart! A great little evangelist!

We love how we see so often Tanner's tender heart. He prays about once a week, "Thank you that we can be a family, that I am mom and dad's son and that I am adopted." It is so precious and touching, what an amazing blessing we've been given.

We are truly so thankful that Tanner is in our lives for whatever length of time he's here. He is filled with such joy and brings it to our lives as well! Thank you for your love and prayers for us!