The reason this blog is called “His Pleasant Place” is because of Psalm 16: 5-6. It is our hearts’ desire that our home would be Ben/Ryan’s “pleasant place”.
Happy Father's Day to the best dad in the world. He has always been there for us kids, and his love for my mom and our family has been a foundation for all us as we grew up and started our own families! I love you Dad!
from 2018
2. Andrew!
Happy Father's Day to my husband and another best dad in the world! How blessed am I to have two men to claim that title? Andrew loves us and provides for us in incredible ways. He is wise and lives a life of integrity. Thank you for all you do for us! I love you!
from 2017
3. Ben!
Happy 10th Birthday to Benjamin Kostas! We can't imagine our family without you in it after almost 4 years of being home with us. You are a delight. You have a zest for life, you are incredibly talented and smart. You amaze us each day with what you can accomplish. You have learned how to be part of a family. We are so proud of you! We love you Benny!
BEN OVER THE YEARS
3 weeks old, arriving at the orphanage
1 year old, orphanage ID photo
3 years old, orphanage ID photo
5 years old, orphanage ID photo
6 years old, meeting Ben and playing with him at the orphanage
Also: Jonah's pulmonary doctor did confirm he considers Jonah to be in high risk category because of his reactive airway disease. He recommended continuing to keep him home as much as possible.
I don't like to include photos of me, but because this is my virtual scrapbook to be "passed" on to my kids, I am including this post.
Today I turned 50.
Hard to believe in my mind, not so hard to believe when I look in the mirror- haha!
Great day: got to float and relax in the pool, got a flowers, pretty wind spinner and soup ladle (don't worry-I strongly hinted I wanted this), sweet card from Andrew, and amazing homemade cake by Lydia. My family actually threw me a driveway party a few weeks ago along with celebrating Abigail's birthday.
Ben has amazed us with how much he knew coming to us, and then in how much he has learned since being with us. He is one smart little boy in math, reading, the English language, problem solving, etc.
However, the one area he really struggles with is his fine motor skills especially with handwriting.
This boy had no therapies during his 1st 6 years in the orphanage so we can definitely see he never was trained how to properly hold a pencil.
School has worked with him for 3 years now and has basically said they have gotten him to the best point they feel possible with his pencil grip. They feel like he is functional even though it's not pretty. We agreed with school since he was able to write legibly. It didn't seem worth the fight/struggle for any of us to get him to hold a pencil correctly.
Well, I agreed until spending the past 3 months homeschooling him.
Watching him write, especially during math, is excruciating painful!
I am a bit of a neat freak and so his messiness, even though he is doing the best he can, really bothers me. I always taught my older kids that being neat in your math work is half the battle to doing the math accurately. I still feel that way. The way Ben chicken-scratches his numbers etc, it is often impossible for him to do his math calculations!
So I am taking on the battle to help his pencil grip- even though many have tried before me, I am going to try myself. I don't know if I will be successful, but for my sanity I have to try. Plus I think if he can get a better grip, handwriting will be less uncomfortable for him. He honestly looks like he is in pain when he writes because of the way he positions his fingers/hand/arm.
After doing some research, I have decided on the following products.
Today was our first day using one of the pencil grips, and I felt like I saw improvement already. I also took some photos/videos to show our progress today.
This is the pencil grip I tried in the past that didn't work. For one thing, I think I ordered too small of a size so it was hard and frustrating for Ben to try and squeeze his thumb and pointer finger into the pockets. But the other problem is he continues to position his 3rd/4th fingers very strangely since there is no guide for how he should hold those fingers.
So I found this set of 4 pencil grips that you use progressively. Stage one (UPPER LEFT PHOTO- PURPLE GRIP) is what we used today. It's nice because the ring on the bottom is for the 3rd finger so Ben can position that correctly.
Photo of Ben withOUT a pencil grip- his grip is weak and very awkward. Looks like a real struggle for him to write.
Ben using the Stage One grip- his grip looked stronger, and he was more in control of his writing.
Another photo using the new grip
And another photo showing new grip
Here are two videos of Ben writing
Here Ben is not using pencil grip, and I feel like his fingers/hand are in awkward position.
In the bizarro world we live in at our house, there are many skills that Ben does better than Jonah even though Jonah has had interventional therapies since 1 month old. How funny/weird/unexplainable is that? But one skill Jonah is VERY good at is handwriting (when he chooses to concentrate). Here is a photo of Jonah writing: great form!
Here is a video Jonah writing.
Please excuse his teeth-grinding, often happens when he is concentrating on a task.
Finally, here is the other product I purchased to try. The child has to hold a charm inside his palm to help with proper hand position while writing.
With no summer school, no swimming lessons, no horse lessons, no playgrounds to visit, essentially no anything :( - the little boys have LOTS of time on their hands. Stephen just finished up his trimester and doesn't start his summer research job until 7-1. So he has some time on his hands to hang out with his little brothers- so grateful for that! So when you put those three boys together, here is what you get:
Many years ago, when Abigail and Stephen were little, we took this photo of them hiking. I always loved Abigail's hand on Stephen's back, guiding him down the path. I found this cute poem, and this has been hanging on our wall ever since.
Today, life recreated itself. Ben and Jonah heading down the sidewalk, Ben on a bike, and Jonah walking along side giving his brother a helping push. I guess today's version of the poem would be "If I had to be quarantined with one person, I'm glad it was you!" So grateful for the boys having each other as forever friends.
