Missing our Noah

Hi.
Life in the Dunn home is as busy as always! We still can't wait for our bundles of JOY to come home.
Let's see, what has been happening? Well, Shanay is now 15 and this summer was eventful...oh how i wish i could post all the fun details...but i think she would be mad at me!! She did have 9000 text messages one month, and then Aug was better 22,000! Ahh but now she is in school...no more text messages!
Anyway, it was amazing to see how God worked in her life these past couple months. She is closer to God than ever. Making very WISE choices. She has always done well in school, but this year is truly focused on school and wanting to do really well. Her old attitude was "jessica is the smart one, C's are fine for me!' Last year we had to wake her up for school. Somehow she couldn't wake up on her own. I was wondering when we were going to have to stop gettin up in the morning to get her up. I envisioned her as married with kids and us having to trek to her house in the morning to wake her up to get her kids ready for school! Well this year she is setting her alarm and waking up at 6 am to have her quiet time before school.

Jessica turned 14..now in High School too! WOW! (I am OLD!) She made the JV volleyball team. She LOVES it! Well, the last month she has been sick on and off and very tired! We weren't sure what it was. Volleyball was 6 days a week and so i thought maybe it was all the stress over volleyball and High School. We took her to the doctor a few times. They did blood work, everything came back fine. A week later they did more blood work. She was also having pains in her side. Some times she would seem ok..usually on the weekend. Again, i thought it was emotional stress. It wasn't adding up. Even the doctor suggested that maybe it was emotional.
Well last Friday night we went to a Christian Conference in the town next to us. By the time we got there Jess was freaking out in pain. I thought she was being drama (she is naturally drama:) I went inside while todd was trying to coax Jess in. The conference started..no todd..finally he texted me to say that he took jess to the ER. He thought if she were faking it she would tell him to stop. Well, they got there, i felt bad because this conference was wonderful (I really needed to be there) The doctor was great. He said "if you were my sis, i would want to know what is wrong...let's run a bunch of tests..." So, they did a chest x-ray, catscan, and more bloodwork...it was midnight by this time and I was at the hospital with them. The doc came in and said that the mono test came back positive! (they had done the test already and it was negative, a few weeks ago) I guess it doesn't show up right away. So, yeah...we had an answer! She assures me she hasn't kissed anyone! It is sad because she cannot play volleyball..but still hangs out with the team when she feels up to it. We talked to the school and they say she can stay home when she doesn't feel up to going, but she can go if she is feeling fine!
I feel bad because Jessica was born with a multi-cystic kidney which was removed at one day old. At 5 she had kawasaki disease. She has had knee problems..stitches...the other kids haven't had any issues.

Taylor is doing good..6th grade! She just finished the youth discovery class and can now be baptized if she wants to! She does! She is busy with the Operation Christmas Child play at Church (the kids play). She is also has the lead kids role in the adult Christmas Musical. Her Daddy is the director, but that wasn't the reason! She was the best one for the role. Tay is also playing soccer. She is so good at soccer. I love watching her play!

TJ, our busy boy, is in 3rd grade. He likes his teacher! Our favorite day is when he brings his composition book home from school. We get to read all his stories he writes in his journal. He wrote about how he loves to go eat sushi with Todd..(as far as we know he has never had sushi!!) He also wrote about how he likes to jump out of airplanes with no parachute "it hurts at first, but you get used to it", he says! He is funny! He is playing baseball. He is playing on a Majors team, so a lot of the kids are literally twice as big as him. Our biggest problem with him is that he is trying to grow up too quick. At church it is hard to get him to go to class. He wants to 'help'. He loves to help with powerpoint, or at the sound booth.

I am running our Fall Festival and planning the event now. TJ isn't excited about going to play all the fun games, he wants to work at the event.
Todd is staying busy helping me run the kids here and there. He is directing the play at church and working on all the other things that his job involves. He is the worlds best husband. I appreciate him so much!

Anyway, I am writing too much, sorry! Today was picture update at the orphanage! I love that day. Markenley seems to have a big owie on his head. Solomon is getting new teeth!

We are praying that by the end of this month the boys will be legally ours!!! That will be a wonderful day.

Ok, well i better go!
Hugs,
Renee