Merry Christmas!

For all of you near and far who didn't receive our Christmas card. 🎄

 

Merry Christmas from the Richards Family!

Christmas 2016

The Christmas season is upon us!  New this year: A Richards family update letter!  We know many of you keep up with us and pray for our family so we want to give you a few more details about our life!  We are grateful for all the Lord has given us and for this time of year to reflect on Jesus’ coming.  

“For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.

By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,

he condemned sin in the flesh.”

Romans 8:3

 

Keith and Ellie have now been out-numbered and are still figuring out zone defense with 3 kiddos in the house.  Most of our days and nights are spent parenting, loving and helping these three.  Yes, our hands are full, but full with good things.  In May we officially joined a new church and have gotten involved in a community group near our house.  This group has blessed us immensely since we started attending.  It is fun to see them love our kids and serve us when we need it.  

Keith has now been at his company here in Louisville for 3+ years.  He continues to work hard and is a well thought of, great, manager of product.  He works long days to provide for all of us, we are so grateful for him!

Ellie spends a lot of time with the kiddos, which is how it should be.  Hannah still has many therapy and doctor appointments and now Suzi gets to tag along too!  She is blessed with other mom friends who have kids of similar ages to get together with occasionally and have some grownup time as well as a women’s bible study.

 

Eli is on his last year of 3-day preschool and by the end of next year he will be a Kindergartener!  It’s bittersweet to watch our sweet boy grow up and decide he no longer wants to be called “sweet boy”.  He participated in gymnastics until mid-summer, which he loved, but now we are searching for another activity to get some energy out.  

 
 

Hannah continues to amaze us with all she does good and bad.  She turned 2 this year, and it shows!  She also began walking which actually happened before Suzi was born—a sweet gift from the Lord.  She is now a busy toddler who messes with everything and one you can’t take your eyes off of for a second.  Her sweet disposition makes up for it most of the time!  Hannah also had surgery to receive her first Cochlear Implant in November.  She is adapting to it very well, we are hopeful to see more and more progress with speech therapy in the New Year!  Please continue to pray for her left hand. It is getting stronger through restraint therapy but still has a long way to go.

 

 

And Suzi.  She’s really a great baby.  Except for the lack of sleep she joined our family seamlessly and we all fall more in love with her every day.  She is a baby who spends lots of time in the car, smiles a lot, sleeps well and loves to be talked to.  Eli usually gets put on “talk to Suzi duty” and he is great at it.  She will be 6 months 2 days after Christmas, so yes in the busyness of life with little kids, time flies!

 

We know that in the ups and downs of life “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses” but one who chose to come to earth and take away our sins!  Let us remember that gift during this Christmas season.

 

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!

Keith, Ellie, Eli, Hannah and Suzi Richards

 

 

 

In All Things Give Thanks

It's that time of year again.

Thanksgiving. 

When we stop and gather with family and friends and give thanks to God for all we have, where we live and what we are able to do. 

Since I was a little girl I've always loved Thanksgiving. It's nestled nicely between my birthday and Christmas. Included with it are chances to see people I haven't for sometime and the menu is delicious!

When I lived overseas Thanksgiving became an even greater event.  Since we were all far from home, everyone on my team would make their favorite foods and a lot of them.  We would feast and watch Christmas movies for a few days and forget we lived in a foreign country. Haha..

Since Keith and I got married we always make sure we invite others over for the holiday and invite family to come whenever possible. 

Most of you know from reading this post and this post that in 2014 Thanksgiving changed in our family. I still love this time of year but let's just say it now brings up a lot of emotions in me that may stay dormant most of the year. 

It is interesting the Lord caused Hannah's diagnosis of hearing loss and CMV and her cochlear implant surgery to both happen around Thanksgiving. Really within days of each other. 

From two years ago, with an itty bitty baby in my arms, not knowing what she would be able to do, or say. To today, watching my sweet, determined little girl continuing to amaze us at all she has accomplished and can do. 

So, as I sit here days after Hannah's surgery and days before her activation I thank the Lord for redeeming this time of year for our family. 

I thank Him for giving us hope and continuing to amaze us at His love for us, His children. 

During this time of year this sits on my mantle. 

 

But I think I may need to keep it up all year. It reminds me of how good the Lord is to us and how many times I forget to say thanks.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving I again want to take the opportunity to thank all of you for your service and prayers for our family.  For loving us in more ways than I can even think through right now and lifting us up in prayer when we didn't know what to pray.  Hannah is a product of those prayers and as her mother I am forever thankful for people like you who intercede for our family.

"Give thanks 

in all circumstances; 

for this is God’s will 

for you in 

Christ Jesus."

1 Thessalonians 5:18

Christmas came early

Since we will spend time with family on Christmas Day we decided to have our family of 4 Christmas this past Saturday. 

We woke up to two little elves in our bed. 

After Keith made a delicious breakfast the present-opening began. 

Eli still has a little trouble moving on after he opens a fun gift (because he wants to play with it right then and there) but he's getting better. The fact that most of his gifts were in bags helped out big time! 

Helping Hannah with her gift from him. (So excited!!)

My two little munchkins had a blast. Eli with the toys, Hannah with the massive amounts of paper. But, I have to say this has been the most fun little people Christmas yet. It is true what people say, Christmas is better through the eyes of a child. 

From our family to yours we wish you the merriest of Christmases and a Happy New Year too!

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.

Isaiah 9:2

Happy Hallo-week!

I must say this year has been the best yet for dress-up, trick or treating and make believe. 

About a month ago Eli decided he wanted to be Po, the Kung Fu panda for Halloween. Since the movie hasn't been out in a few years there is zero out costume-wise. So, I started thinking maybe E would want to be a dragon since Po is the "dragon warrior ". Haha. 

He was an adorable dragon and even won "scariest" in the 1-3 yo category at our neighborhood's party. 

Honestly, I don't think the completion was very fierce, but we were all still excited. 

The next day we broke down and bought a panda costume and added shorts for the kung fu effect. 

Also adorable. And believe me I am packing up all these costumes. Hannah can be a panda in a couple of years too. 

Since Eli was Po he decided Hannah should be Tigris (Po's friend and tiger on the movie). Sweet, huh?

Hannah, in her go-with-the-flow manner adapted to the tiger costume with ease. 

Her costume was a lot easier to find. 

We even got our picture with Olaf at Boo at the zoo. 

Fun at the onset, very scary as we got closer and Eli said "he's big!" And stopped moving. 

Another thing that made Hallo-week fun was Mawmaw coming to town! She initially came because we had lots of appointments and Keith was going out of town but it was fun that it coincided with Halloween. 

Her visits bless me because both kids warm up to her quickly, especially Eli. He could probably play with her all day if she didn't get tired. It's fun to watch. 

Sweet skeleton Hannah. 

On Halloween night Eli decided he wanted to be Po (it is always a discussion since there are 2 to choose from) and I dressed Hannah as a giraffe (Eli's 1st Halloween costume) because it was warmer. 

Trick or treating was fun but handing out candy was a blast. Eli had so much fun seeing other kids costumes and giving them candy. He even got to stay up late. 

Having kids has its ups and downs, sometimes by the minute, but Halloween is completely an "up". I love this season and love my cute characters. 

Easter Happenings

I love Easter. Flowers are blooming, the sun is shining, everyone gets outside and it's the day that reminds us of the hope we have in the resurrection. I am so thankful that the stone was rolled away and we are forever redeemed.

This year Eli understood a little more about the meaning of Easter. He says it is about Jesus, a cross and church. We are getting there. 

Between the cooking, egg dying and egg hunting we had special times as a family and with friends. 

Needless to say the Easter bunny is still not a big hit...

But this little bunny is a hit in our family...

Siblings. So precious. 

The best shot of the 4 of us. 

Hannah is doing well. We see her move and try new things almost daily. We will travel back to Cincinnati this week for another neurology appointment and one with a developmental pediatrician. The pediatrician specializes in hearing loss and hopefully will give us some helpful info. Please continue to pray for Hannah's left side and that she will begin to bear weight on straight arms when on her tummy. 

Here are a few more pics of our girl doing her thing. 

Thanks so much for your prayers. I'll update you next week. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

I had an excited little boy leave the house this morning on his way to school for his first valentines party.

Yesterday we made valentines. Eli still cannot help a lot with crafts, but I chose a (semi) easy DIY valentine. 

Tuesday we went to the grocery store and bought all the supplies. 

                                        Oranges!

Then we started assembling...

                                                Ta da!

Eli got really into putting the oranges in bags, then I closed them up and attached the tag. 

Of course, this happened when I wasn't looking...

Fortunately we had 1 extra orange so Eli got to partake. 

So if you need a last minute valentine idea you can find it here.

Sorry to say this was not an Ellie original.

                     Hannah doing what she does best. 

Happy valentine's day everyone!

"Dear friends: 

let us love one another, 

for love comes from God."

1 John 4:7

Christmas 2014

Like everyone else it's hard to believe Christmas is over. The holidays have come to a close, kids go back to school this week and Keith's work ramps up again. That also means Hannah's doctors appointments start again as well as PT. 

Honestly, I'm a little glad to start up appointments again. I did enjoy not having constant things that kept us in the car & in waiting rooms, but these last few days I have started to give into worry a whole lot. Questioning every little thing Hannah does, wondering if it's normal or brain-related. When we see doctors and therapists they seem to keep these worries at bay. 

For the most part Hannah is doing exactly what a soon-to-be 4 month old should be doing.  We are trying to celebrate every little thing, but then worry comes back. The what ifs and the second guessing. 

I know I can't live there. Hannah is who she is. God knows her future, not me. This is something I repeat to myself daily, sometimes hourly. 

Back to Christmas... It was great. Keith's parents came and spent time with us which was a blessing and this is the first time in our married life we've spent Christmas in our home. It was different. As you can imagine I was a little consumed by CMV at times and thinking about what our life was like last Christmas. What would it look like next Christmas? 

I'm so thankful for Hannah. She makes me smile so much and gives me joy. I love that she's in our family, I just hate the virus. 

Here are a few more shots from Christmas. 

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Matthew 6:34