a trip to the doctor

has anyone ever wondered what its like taking 9 kiddos into a doctors office :) some people may call me nutty but i actually enjoy it. today we celebrate the 10 year anniversary of our time with our pediatrician. what a great doctor he is. he is so thorough. he will explain everything to me. and to the kids. which i love! he talks to each of the kids. he even lets me bring my concerns list in with me for the other kids that arent being seen. and i had quite the list today! he genuinely cares for us. he even heard the kids' birthdays announced on the radio. the big bonus is him being a christian. and when i told him we are wanting to adopt he got so excited! its nice when we get excitement and positive responses.
i like to take the kids in once a year for a physical. i love seeing how they are growing. so todays visit consisted of a physical for the birthday kids, roger and josephine. both are doing excellent. he ordered an xray for the bump on rogers foot for my peace of mind. he thinks its nothing. he reevaluated savanahs scoliosis. it has not gotten worse. he also checked josiahs lungs because he is prone to wheezing. and from there we walked to the shot clinic. josiah was due for his second hep a shot and roger was due for his tdap booster. a few tears from the baby. nothing a drink from mommys smoothie couldnt cure :) and roger was such a little man! i could tell he was so nervous. but he didnt even flinch. and he has not stopped talking about how it didnt hurt. everyone got stickers and then we were on our way...to the pharmacy that is. one more stop. we got josiahs albuterol refilled before cold season sets in. he has cold induced wheezing. praying he grows out of it like zaccy and the twins did.
an hour and 15 minutes later we were on our way! the kids were sooooo good i had to treat them to 59 cent ice cream cones from kfc. so all in all it was a good day and a great trip to the doctor.....just in case you were wondering what a trip to the doctor with 9 kids was like :)

first week of school

this was our first week back to homeschooling after what seemed like a very short summer. maybe it was the rain that lasted well into june that made this summer seem so short. im going with a new schedule this year. this is a typical week for the vanclan homeschool

3 days a week all of the kids tackle their math subjects and all of their language arts subjects. these include grammer, literature, reading, spelling etc. 1 day a week we focus on all things science and history....by far my favorite day of the week :) fridays are fun too. this day we set aside for doing reports, experiments and fun activities we normally dont have time for. we also do some group work. we are learning spanish together and doing a bible stdy together. today was our first friday schedule and we al loved it! having chore charts in the kids rooms is really helping to get everything done in a day that needs to be done, without mama having to nag all day.

by the time september rolls around all of our activities will be i full swing. i love that my children have the oppurtunity to have such a well rounded education. the busyness wears me out sometimes but i would not have it any other way.

catching up

its been so long since i have blogged. alot has been going on in the year and a half since my last post. my first great event was as vbs coordinator. with of course my bestie by my side :) this years theme was "shake it up cafe". it was alot of fun and alot of work. more work than we expected as first timers. but with God and the help of many vbs veterans it was amazing!!! a week full of Gods word and fun! several kids gave their life to Christ this week.

the vantico second annual camping trip was a huge success! we stayed at lake hogan for 6 days. 6 wonderful days!!!!! the kids played in the dirt, swam and enjoyed the great outdoors. i love camping so much i cried when we had to come home. already looking foward to next year :)

i think the biggest and of course the most exciting decision we have made this year is to adopt. with 9 biological children and a modest income we realize we have some hurdles to overcome. we have been doing alot of research. we have probably been researching since may. we have also joined an orphan care ministry and really enjoyed gathering info from other adoptive parents. right now we have been aproved with an adoption agency to adopt through their ghana program. we have yet to apply to the home study agency. that is our next big step. and the fundraising. tomorrow is our big garage sale. we are praying Gods will in this situation. we have seen so much support and encouragement from our friends. it really is what motivates us to go foward despite all of our concerns. im hoping to keep up on my blog so my friends and family can follow along with us on our journey. and to see what our life is all about!