A Year in Retrospect: 2008

January 1, 2009

A Year in Retrospect: 2008

Happy New Year dear friends and family:

It has been a very busy, often challenging and often exciting year. We had opportunities to grow and learn patience, and many opportunities to practice our faith.

Scott and I started a business and were excited to receive our DBA for Richardson Studios, our business to provide education and resources for children with special needs, and for our new school for special needs kids Academy of the Possible. Being officially in business was wonderful. We launched our website for Richardson Studios at www.richardsonstudios.com. We also launched our online store at www.shop.richardsonstudios.com. We have our website for Academy of the Possible in the works and will be launching it early 2009.

We were excited when all the kids grew. We were blessed with new clothes for all the kids from so many different people, even new belts and pajamas too !

At the beginning of the year, we had pulled out of adopting from Liberia with so many changes going on in the country. In retrospect, it was a wise choice. We had considered a child from Serbia until Serbia also began to have problems. In prayer through all of this, we asked the Lord to guide us as we felt strongly called to adopt. Indeed He did ! We were pleased to travel to Atlanta, Georgia to begin the adoption of two wonderful boys in March. Joseph and Joshua became the newest members of our family. The adoption has taken longer than expected due to all the medical complications with the children, and we eagerly anticipate finalizing the adoption hopefully this January 2009.

After losing our miniature pinscher Chocolate to a heart attack, we decided to adopt another dog. We adopted another male white poodle this time named Kojo. Kojo is full of spirit and fun to play with. All the children enjoy playing with all three of our dogs Apricot (female poodle), Chip (male rat terrier), and Kojo (male poodle). Shawna loves hugging "Chippy" as she tenderly calls him. All the dogs just eat up the attention.

Scott's dad was diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer. We have all been praying for him and Scott's mom as well. Scott's parents live in the much colder weather of Indiana.

Because of the heavy rains we had last winter and then several burst pipes, our backyard flooded. After dealing with that, we took the jungle gym down. It was swaying quite a lot, and we decided it was not safe to use. We have since been able to bless several people with firewood to help them heat their homes through the coldest parts of this winter. Then we had pipes break in the front, and then the plumbing broke in the house. It has been a tough year all around and stretched all of us, especially financially. We all celebrated when the sinks got fixed after our most recent difficulty with our sinks.

After we got home with our boys Joseph and Joshua in March, shortly thereafter Michael got very sick and spent time at Children's Hospital of Orange County. Through the year and 21 different all confirmed diagnoses later via various tests, the doctors are still trying to figure out why Michael keeps getting sick and having problems. Michael most recently was diagnosed with Juvenile Osteoporosis. With more follow ups to the doctors, we also just found out through MRI of Michael's brain that he has thinning of the myelin and white matter. With the multiple autoimmune processes going on, doctors are concered. Now we are waiting for results to rule out degenerative disease, Mitochondrial Disease and DiGeorge Syndrome, none of which would be good news. Neurology says with this new symptom, we will just have to rule things out one at a time.

Joseph had worsening chest pain, low heartrates, and tired easily. After several tests and visits and consults with cardiologists and cardiac surgeons, it became clear that his best hope would be surgery for his half enlarged and half atrophied heart. Finding out that the surgery he needed was complicated at best and would take several surgeries, we traveled up to Northern California to a specialist at Lucille Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto. Joseph underwent open heart surgery and recovered in steller time. Now on New Year's, he is no longer on any activity restrictions and well healed. He received a pacemaker placed in his abdomen due to his unique physiology which has increased his comfort level quite a bit and the first banding. Having been through 3 open heart surgeries so far in his short little life, Joseph is a prime example of courage.

Joshua has just blossomed. He loves to color and build with legos and wants to learn to play guitar. Joshua enjoys singing along with the stars on TV as we have enjoyed the Christmas specials. Joshua has been very helpful with Michael and Joseph. We are so proud of how much he has grown and continues to open up. He also is beginning reading and loves learning about letters and words. Joshua is a bright quiet boy. Joshua grew quite a lot this year too, and was thrilled to sleep on the top bunk now that he is five years old.

Gabriela turned 10 this year and grew the most of all the kids. She is proud to say she is only five inches shorter than mom. Matching mom's shoe size, we expect Gabriela may be quite tall. She is growing into quite a young lady. Gabriela was blessed to be accepted into Camp Opehay for children with Bipolar Disorder. It was a huge blessing to help Gabriela learn she is not the only one, and was quite instrumental in some healing for her. Gabriela has always loved animals and cats (even the big ones). Santa was kind to give Gabriela a giant stuffed panther which she proudly has on her bed. Gabriela also has grown to love horses and colors pictures of them all the time. Gabriela wants to be an animal rescuer / trainer and an artist when she grows up. She is quite good at drawing horses freehand too.

Shawna has grown leaps and bounds. Her 7 to 8 word sentences and vocabulary grows every day. We are frequently surprised by the big words she has learned. She is slowly opening up to talking with others; and, we are also proud to say we are in the midst of potty training. Shawna is doing very well learning words, letters, numbers and colors etc. She enjoys playing dollies and Barbie with Gabriela. For the Christmas season, Shawna found a new favorite movie - Rudolph, which she has watched several times.

It has been one of the most challenging and most rewarding, most difficult and most growing years in all ways.

We look forward to a fresh new year in 2009.

Thank you all of you angels and saints who have made this journey possible and carried us through the best and worst times. You absolutely made a huge difference in our lives.

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR to you !

Love from all of us,

The Richardsons

Scott, Jennifer, Michael, Gabriela, Joseph, Joshua and Shawna,

and our 3 dogs Apricot, Chip and Kojo,

and 3 fish.

Christ our Lord brings strength and hope and through Him all things are possible.