Bunk Bed Update

The lastest update to the newest model of Castle Bunk Beds.

Bed 3D Model

Extreme Makeover Bedroom Edition

So now that we have two boys that are going to share the same room we struggled to find a way to make sure they both had a place to sleep. Before Levi had this cars room and the original plan was to purchase another bed for Ben... But turns out it would have taken up most of the floor space. So I did some brainstorming and found some cool plans I was able to change up to fit the room and with Levi and Tiffany's approval I was given the ok to take on a renovation project all on my own.

So, while Tiff and Levi were in China picking up Ben I got to work. Here is what the room originally looked like. We spent a lot of time on the Cars room so we were sad when we sold the old furniture and panted over the hand painted checker boarder.

Then I started out with some raw materials and started cutting and sanding.

Then I was able to start assembling. With some more cutting and sanding when I got bored.

Then came the Painting.

Now finish the Fun Parts. Stairs and Slide.

More Detailed painting on the walls and it almost complete.

Now the final, most important ingredient. The Children.

They Love it.

Thanks to Jake, Sam and Hunter Press for coming over and watching Luke so I could complete the project before the boys got home. Also Thanks to Don Wenzel for helping me spray on the clear finish coat.

Milestones

Levi reached a small milestone in his life the other day. It’s a very small task yet something I’ve been waiting for him to do for a while because it would make getting the family in the car so much easier. It’s not a huge accomplishment and you might think I’m strange for making such a huge deal out of it. You may wonder what this miraculous feat is and why I feel deservers its own blog post but… once again, it not a huge thing because he has only learned to buckle his own seatbelt.

Now he opens the door, closes it behind himself and straps himself in so I no longer have to go to the back seat to lean over him to click the belt into the receptacle and give him a kiss on the cheek. On the downside, I no longer have to lean over him and give him a kiss on the cheek.

I’ve been Levi’s father for less than 2 year so I’m very new to this whole parenting thing, yet I feel that God has put my life into this fast forward mode because every time I glance at my children I notice a change. It’s not always a big change, like when Luke slept through the night for the first time or when he got his first tooth, but smaller changes like the new noise he makes or Levi buckling his own seatbelt.



Tiff told me that yesterday Luke stood, without holding onto anything, for the first time in his life. To me this is a pretty big accomplishment; he won’t remember it but us as parents will. My task as a father is to raise my children with integrity and teach them to be good Godly men. But as parents we have to embrace the time we have with your children because tomorrow they will be different… they will probably be asking to borrow your keys.

Brotherly Love

I’m sure every parent that has an older child gets the same question when a new baby comes into the family. “How is He/She with the Baby?”… “How is Levi with Luke?” I know firsthand that older siblings can get very jealous and be mean to the younger ones. I was the younger of two brothers and being 4 years apart all I did was bug my older brother and his friends. Interests were different and they wanted nothing to do with me.

But Levi is a completely different when it comes to Luke. He genuinely loves Luke with all of his heart and seeing Luke’s response you know he loves his big brother as well. Tiffany and I constantly find the two boys on the floor playing with each other, whether they are pushing cars on the floor or making noises in their indoor tent. It’s an awesome site to see. One of my favorite things is when Luke mimics the noises Levi makes which eventually turns into a “who can scream louder” match.

We Pray that when Ben joins the family the two older boys won’t leave Luke out all the time and that they all get along very well. But regardless, they are brothers and they will all love each other.

A new Begining

So it's been almost 2 year since our last post and shame on me for not keeping up with it. Since the last post so much has changed and I will try to sum it up with bullet points.

- Levi is doing great and he loves life.
- Two months after we got home we got pregnant.
- Luke was born about 7 and a half months later. (Yes a little early but doing great)
- We now have 2 boys in less than 2 years’ time.
- Now it's time to grow our family again.

Introducing Ben.



This is a picture of Ben and Levi when they were 3 years old. They grew up in Hope Foster Home together and we were told that they were inseparable just like brothers. We said, if we were ever given the opportunity we would adopt him in a heartbeat.

Even though the chances were slim that we would ever get the opportunity to adopt him we continued to Pray, especially Levi. When you Pray God answers... and the time has come and the process has started. Today marks the day of our orientation with our agency to start the journey to bring Ben into our family and we are completely overwhelmed with excitement.

Stress for Mommy and Daddy

Well I haven’t posted as much as I wanted. Before we came over to adopt Levi we were given all the horror stories we could possibly hear for preparation of the conflicts we would have adopting an older child. Many of these were attachment issues; things were he likes daddy but not mommy, tantrums, depression and many others. We really didn’t have any of these problems. He warmed up to us right away and came out of his shell on day one. We knew from his personality that we were going to be in trouble. He is so smart, sarcastic and outgoing. He also speak better English than I do (I’m sure Sean will agree with this). He also still speaks a lot of Chinese and translates for us and also tries to teach us. Day 2 he slept a lot and he doesn’t seem to like being around a lot of Chinese people in fear that we might leave him with them. He would get so stressed out when we left our hotel room that he would throw up. I think we have now made it over that hump, but the worse is, he refuses to take his heart medications. Talk about stress and tears from mommy and daddy. He just came out of a surgery a few months back and he has a serious heart condition. Mommy, daddy and Levi know he has to take his medication but it taste horrible. Pretty much any time we try to give it to him he freaks out and throws it up right away. He uses to take it the same way with his last care taker but he won’t with us. We have tried everything, making it taste better with other liquids, bribing and hiding the meds but these are old tricks to him and he won’t do it. So we have been killing ourselves stressing about this, I’ve lost almost 15 lbs since we have been here. But through all these issues we can know see things are starting to get better. Tiffany talked to our Cardiologist in GA last night and he has helped remove a large weight off our shoulders. He wants us to keep working with him on taking his meds. Get as much in him as possible. We will see warning signs before Levi gets really sick and we will have plenty of time to get him to a doctor if necessary. Stop stressing, have a good time and get this baby boy back to GA. And with that I say “God is Good”. Thank you everybody for all your Prayers. I am now ready to take a few thousand more pictures and put on 30 lbs. BTW… Levi may keep his name Justin. With all the changes he has gone through in the last few days… his name is something we would like for him to keep.