2 years....Wow!

 Hard to believe I have let time slip away and not posted to our blog in so long. Such is life without the internet and limited service due to rural living! For those who might be behind on the saga of our lives we returned safely from the Dominican Republic, not without our hearts, as we fell in LOVE with our sons country!  We came back to find me pregnant, with a boy, sick as a DOG several times, dealing with our son who did fabulous until about 6 months home then the honeymoon was GONE!

It has been a rough two years but alas we have come up swinging! The "twins" as we call them being two months apart have done baseball and are now in soccer. Elias LOVED hitting and is a lefty so that was a HUGE plus, but he liked to just lounge around the outfield most of the time or lean on his coach out in the field (who . It was quite hilarious! Brianna had a blast and as always is such a sweetie! They work SO well together most of the time, only have occasional issues as siblings were they are SO normal. Elias language is coming along, one thing we are just learning is that the trauma of being orphaned and not having those first years of deep attachment really lend to some INTENSE behaviors and mixups. I have said for awhile now that he works SO hard to articulate things and seems to STRUGGLE to articulate his thoughts despite his language abilities. At first I thought it was related to language development, then as his language progressed and he STILL was having mixups on the most BASIC signs (bear in mind we are a Fluent Family. Deaf husband, Interpreter, Coda sister, my best friends are Deaf etc....he has MUCH access to language) yet he would still stutter, "Mom wants you...mom...no...dad..yes...dad wants you." "Brianna...no...Briann..no...hmmm...baby...yes baby hit me" even other things just confusing simple things that should be second nature as they are SO integrated into our routine. I cannot say enough HOW grateful I am to the group at Signs for Hope for the enlightenment and empowering they bring through their experiences that help put my mind at ease! There is SO little research out there in regards to Deaf children, especially those from hard places so the blessing of having a resource of those who have walked this road and can provide insight into my boys brains (now if I can just gain some insight on the youngest...LOL)

 The youngest terrorizes everyone, wants to grow up to be just like his big brother and prefers to NOT communicate in any form other than pointing and gesturing which has worked well via the oldest two. He is an ACTIVE boy, wanting to play soccer at 1 and show his older siblings just HOW it is SUPPOSED to be done! He is finally signing a few small things, like eat, drink, more. He actually SITS at a desk while we are doing school and colors for quite a while at times.

It is a BEAUTIFUL, cool fall day and we are about to get busy with some farm projects. I am SO blessed to be able to do this life with my most amazing husband, he is such a support, wealth of wisdom, and so skilled in a vast array of things. I LOVE that he keeps me up to date on politics and weather as with the kids and housework that is one thing I rarely get to check in with anymore!!

Our lives are BEYOND blessed by adoption. Our son brings SO. MUCH. JOY to our lives! Yes the struggle is real, yes it is exhausting, and YES I would do it ALL over again in a heartbeat.

We VERY MUCH pray that God opens this door again in the future and if its HIS will we would LOVE to adopt Elias a deaf sibling, but all in HIS perfect timing! So keep us in your prayers as we press on!

Well chickens demand some attention so I am off... until I update again, here is hoping its sooner than another 2 years LOL

Pruyns