Merry Christmas 2009!

Wow..I can't believe another year has gone by so quick! This has been a very busy yet wonderful year in the Tollon home.
In early April we celebrated the birth of our beautiful little Eden Joy. Her name means delight and joy and that is exactly what she is! She has surprised each one of us with her smiles and laughs much earlier than we expected. Eden is never lacking attention and doesn't mind a bit. It's so much fun to see her personality begin to develop. At her six month check up her pediatrician said to be prepared because she is quite a bit ahead of herself and loves to learn, which may make it difficult for her to settle down when it's time to sleep. Boy was he right..Eden doesn't want to miss any opportunity to learn or experience something new. At eight months she is crawling, pulling up on everything, walking the furniture, waving, clapping and has quite a vocabulary. Lately her favorite thing to say is "Hi Kitty" which she says every time she sees one of our cats or anything she finds resembles a cat. I love to see her developing and growing yet at the same time I don't want her to rush too much as it goes by so quickly. I want to enjoy every precious moment of her babyhood!

This past summer Lauren, Blaine and Owen decided to join the Bedford swim team. We were very proud of each one of them. They each had a lot of fun and showed much improvement at the end of the season. In the fall we decided to again to school the children at home with the Ohdela online program.

This was Elijah's first year and he is doing great. I was a little nervous about it but after a few weeks we both started to get the hang of things. He is beginning to read which is very exciting and I have found that it is very rewarding to be teacher and Mom. Elijah also loves gymnastics! He has surprised Chris and I by showing quite a bit of determination as well as talent. He is on the Bets competitive gymnastics team at Gymnastics World. He is the youngest boy on the team this year yet has no trouble keeping up. I can not wait for his first meet. Chris video's little clips for me but it will be so exciting to watch him actually compete.

Owen continues to do gymnastics as well however he has decided not to compete this year. He enjoys working out and learning gymnastics skills but for him its more for fun. Owen is becoming quite an artist. He enjoys drawing and is very good at it. We are looking into getting him into some art classes. Owen also still has a desire to play the drums. He has a hand drum that he practices on as well as anything else he can find to beat on. He has had a few lessons and would like to continue. He has also joined the Ski club and is looking forward to snowboarding for the first time this year.

Lauren has also joined the ski club and will be trying out snowboarding for the first time. I can not believe that she is a sophomore in high school. We have been talking a bit about colleges and as of right now she would like to go to school for teaching but she has also expressed an interest in ministry school with a desire to lead youth. She loves helping with the children's ministry at church and is very good at it. Lauren will also be driving soon. Chris and I plan to practice with her more after the holidays. I can't believe our baby girl is growing up and turning into such a beautiful young woman, inside and out!

Renee is also growing up to be a beautiful young lady. She recently hit the double digits! Renee is a lot of fun, she has such a great personality. She is excelling at school and has a dream to one day become a pediatrician. She visits her Aunt Patty once a week in the nursing home and has become quite popular there. Renee is also excelling at the piano. Once a week her Aunt Laraine takes her to see Patty and then they have a piano lesson. Tonight will be her first recital and we are all looking forward to hearing her perform. Renee has joined the ski club and will be skiing for the first time this year.

Blaine will also be skiing in the ski club. Blaine no longer does gymnastics yet he still goes and works out and lately has been doing P90x with Chris. He is really growing up to be a strong handsome young man. Blaine also loves to help with the children's ministry at church and does a great job. Blaine has been feeling great this year and despite dealing with the hair loss he is extremely healthy. Praise God!

Chris has been a very busy man this past year. I have lost track of how many Microsoft certification tests he has taken but I know he has past every one and is constantly studying for the next. He is still coaching the guys at Gym World but he is also working part time with a company called Mason Works. It's a great opportunity for him to learn and grow in the field of computer and technology. He loves it and hopes to eventually learn enough to be able to work full time as an IT guy and part time as a coach. Chris and I have also decided to become a part of the Children's Administrative team that helps oversee the children's ministry at Bethel Cleveland (formerly Metro Church South). Chris took over for the previous director to give her a break in the summer and we both had a great time. Chris has always been great with kids and knows how to make things fun while teaching at the same time.

As you can imagine I have been very busy homeschooling five children and taking care of a baby. It can be a lot of work sometimes but more and more I realize how quickly time goes by and I wouldn't want to change things. I love having my children at home. I love seeing their smiling faces everyday. I don't know if we will continue to home school throughout all of their school years. I plan to take each year as it comes. For now I will simply enjoy having them all here during the day. I am also really enjoying having a baby around. I know that this is my last baby (unless we choose to adopt some day and you never know ;) ) anyway, I will not be giving birth or breastfeeding again so I'm taking the time to enjoy every last moment. God has really blessed me with a wonderful family. I am so excited to be celebrating the birth of his son Jesus with them this year. We have so much to be thankful for. Life is full of ups and downs sometimes yet Jesus always, always come through and overwhelms me with his love. I pray that each one of you reading this will feel his love surround you this season and that this upcoming year will be full of his love and grace.

Love and Blessings,
The Tollon Family

Learning more each day

As a Mom of six I feel like I am constantly learning things from my children. I have never had a teen aged daughter and son before so I have been learning a lot through Lauren and Blaine. It's not easy to let go and let them be young adults. It's funny because Chris and I worked with teens and young adults for many years and often wondered why some parents did certain things. Now..I can understand a little bit better. It seems that as a Mom I have become so accustomed to my children being children. One day your reading them stories, helping them bathe and making sure they are eating their vegetables and then before you know it they are young adults with different opinions and ideas from you. I wonder..when did this happen? I am so thankful that Lauren and Blaine are both choosing to serve God..I realize that as much as I teach them about God they have to make the choice to accept him on their own. Lauren and I had a deep conversation the other day and I realized that sometimes as parents we try to force our kids to be little mini me's or replicas of ourselves. I don't want that...I want my children to be themselves. With that in mind in means allowing them to make important choices and decisions on their own. It sounds so easy but it's not! What it comes down to is trusting God with their lives. I thank God every day for the amazing children God has given me and I look forward to watching them each become the unique individual God has created them to be!

Summer fun with six children!

I can't believe it's August already! As much as I'm looking forward to getting back to a routine I'm also not looking forward to the end of summer. Chris will be taking a week vacation in a couple of weeks and I'm really looking forward to enjoying some summer activities with the family!

Lauren, Blaine and Owen finished up swim team this past weekend and did great. Chris and I were so proud of them. This was their first year swimming on a competitive team and I wasn't quite sure how they would do. They did quite well for their first year. Lauren is interested in joining a year round swim team.



Chris and I have been helping with the Children's ministry at Metro for the summer which has kept us quite busy Sunday mornings. Chris has been having loads of fun; he is so great with children! Lauren and I have been teaching the 4-5year olds which has been quite a challenge but fun at the same time. I have to admit that I am looking forward to the end of summer as it's been hard to help out and take care of Eden at the same time. We plan to stay involved in some capacity..I'm just not sure what that is going to look like just yet.

Raising teenagers, school aged children and a baby has been a new and interesting adventure for me. I plan to blog about that soon. Right now it's back to laundry...

Adjusting

Wow..what a crazy month this has been! Poor little Eden was having a very difficult time a few weeks ago. She was spitting up constantly, screaming shortly after every meal and not sleeping. Every time I would lay her down she would cry. I tried eliminating things from my diet, even cut out dairy but it still didn't seem to help. The doctor finally diagnosed her with infant GERD ((gastroesophageal reflux disease), the upward movement of stomach content, including acid, into the esophagus and sometimes into or out of the mouth) She starting on a medication two weeks ago and that did help with the spitting up however, I was still having trouble getting her to sleep anywhere but the swing and she still seemed to be having pain after meals. Yesterday she started on a second medication. Despite all this she is a very happy little girl. She loves her brother's and sister's and is never lacking in attention.
I am so proud of the other children; they have all been very patient with Eden. Many times we have had to pull over the car so I could comfort her and calm her down. This past weekend Blaine and Elijah had to wait almost two hours to get to the swimming pool with the other kids because Eden was having a rough time. Yet, neither of them complained.
Chris and I are very aware how quickly they grow up and even though it's a challenge to have a baby with GERD in no way do we want to rush things along. I still want to cherish every moment!

Uncle Dave's Wedding!

This past weekend we were excited to celebrate with Chris's brother Dave as he married MacKensey Powers. It was beautiful wedding! Chris was proud to stand up with his brother as one of the groomsmen.

I was a little nervous about how things would go with Eden being barely 3 weeks old but I couldn't have asked for a better baby. Eden slept through most of the rehearsal and dinner and was an angel for both the wedding and reception. The other five kids were also great at the wedding! They made me a very proud, happy Mommy!

The wedding ceremony was very nice, everyone looked great but of course no one stood out like the beautiful bride! The reception was held at the Brown's stadium, everything was perfect. The reception room looked out towards the Lake, it was a beautiful day with an amazing sunset. Chris and I had a wonderful time! We are so excited to have MacKensey as a part of our family!

The Arrival of Eden Joy

Yeah...she is finally here! Eden Joy was born at 7:15pm Friday April 10th at home in the water!

My water broke around 8am on Friday morning. My midwife and doula arrived around noon. I went walking to get things moving. Around 5 things started to pick up. By 6 I was in pretty active intense labor..I got in the tub around that time. God's presence was there the whole time. There were times when I thought I wouldn't be able to get through another contraction and then I would pray and God would give me the strength to keep going. Chris, Angie my doula and Nicole my midwife were great! During one particular hard contraction I said to Chris "pray harder!" I then heard all three of them began to pray! At one point I told God I could only handle two more contractions and two more later I was pushing. I was struggling a little to push her out.. my midwife was expecting that as God had given her a dream of Eden being stuck and showed her how to deliver her. She was going to have me get out of the tub and on my hands and knee's but I flipped over to hands and knee's in the tub and gave a push, her head came with the cord around her neck, my midwife unwrapped it and then I pushed again, her shoulder was stuck a little so my midwife did a little maneuvering and after two more pushes out she came! She was a little floppy at first and it took a minute to get her to breath but just as my midwife was getting ready to intervene she let out a cry..Praise God! Eden and I were helped out of the tub and onto the birthing stool to deliver the placenta. My midwife and doula were amazed with my cord...they said it was such a strong healthy cord that even if it was wrapped around her neck three times she would still be able to get oxygen from it. After I delivered the placenta we let the other kids come down and welcome their new baby sister.

Originally we were going to name her Eden Katriel but a week before she was born God spoke to me and told me that she was going to be bringing so much joy into our lives that we decided to change her middle name to Joy!

I am so pleased with the whole home birth experience..what a difference from being in the hospital. I felt so much peace. My midwife and doula were so loving and supportive. I never felt pressured but relaxed enough to just let my body do what it needed to do.

Our kids were great throughout the whole experience. They played outside watched t.v. etc. They were all upstairs watching Little House on the Prairie when Eden was born...of course they heard her cry and wanted to run down right away but I still needed time to deliver the placenta and get cleaned up. The were fascinated by the birth and helped with the newborn screening. They also asked to see the placenta (everyone but Lauren that is). The boys really enjoyed exploring the placenta and had a whole biology lesson on birth. LOL! The hardest thing now is dealing with them all wanting to hold her all the time. Eden will never be lacking for attention!

Even though I had to wait longer than expected it was well worth it!

Preparing For The New Addition!

Time certainly seems to fly by..I can't believe we are are more than half way through January already. In 8-10 weeks our newest addition will be here, just in time to welcome spring!

Chris and I have come to a big yet exciting decision regarding the birth of Eden. Many of you may know that my last three births were all attended by a midwife at the Cleveland Clinic birthing center. All went great with little intervention and no pain meds. Every birth is a beautiful miraculous event however, it's much more rewarding when we are able to experience it with out drugs and unnecessary medical intervention.


A few months ago I approached Angie, a woman at our church that is a Douala training to be a midwife. After meeting with Angie, Chris and I decided to hire her to be there during the labor, at the same time we started to contemplate a home birth. (I'm including more info about Douala's and Midwives at the med of this blog). I did a lot of research and Chris and I met with a certified home birth midwife. We prayed about it and have decided to birth Eden at home!


We are all really excited to experience this birth in the comfort of our own home. The midwife we have selected has been delivering babies for 15 years and we feel very comfortable with her. We have also chosen to have a birthing tub if I decide to give birth in the water. Many people are uninformed and don't realize the benefits of birthing at home compared to birthing in the hospital. Ricki Lake recently put out a program called The Business of Being Born.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8h0SkPcs2U definitely check out the trailer!


The kids are all really excited about this as well. My sister Monica has agreed to come and help with the kids while I am in labor (pray it doesn't happen in the middle of a school day for her). The kids will not be in the room when the birth takes place, but of course they will be able to meet her right after. Pray for us as we begin to prepare not only for the birth but also the change a little one will bring to our family. I will keep you updated!

Doula's: http://www.dona.org/mothers/index.php
Midwives: http://www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/homebirthchoice.asp