Merrill and Roberta Simon and Family

Well, the appointment we waited so long for arrived today. I took Macylea, McCoy and Montana to see the Gastrointerologist. I have to admit, I was looking for answers...and I was hoping against hope that I would come away with a lot of answers :o) You see, Montana has a lot of feeding issues. It seems that he is always in pain after he eats. We have switched his formula several times already. Now, I would not always run to a specialist for that, but in come his two siblings with their issues. Macylea throws up a lot and she also has diarrhea more than we care to think about. We were told that she had a weak stomach, but it seems to be much more than that. Now, add poor McCoy. He also has gastrointestinal issues. Both he and Macylea have distended tummy's. Now you get why we went to the specialist. We are seeing some family history perhaps here. So, nearly three hours later we now have more questions than answers. Montana is getting his formula changed to one that has higher c...

I am not sure if it is the....."my age" .....or if it is just that so many things touch me in ways it is hard to fully explain. Some things are hurtful, some are just hard to grasp, some involve the children and so it hits me in my heart, and then there are the things that happen that make you wonder what you ever did to deserve something this good. That is the one that I want to blog about today. McClain brought home his Christmas letter to Santa. It really was not that big of a deal. Many of the children get a chance to do these each year at school. I try to read them all, but I know that I have missed one or two over the years. McClain just handed me his...no biggie...nothing special. He was telling me about it so I was not reading it but was listening to him. He says to me, "Mom, they did not really answer my question. I still do not know." I said Who? He says, Judy, Santa's elf.....So I read his letter....and cried. Here it is...I hope you can read it, ...

WOW, Here as of late it seems I am always coming in from behind. I guess it is more about tending to the needs of now 15 people at home with 4 of those being only 2 and under, than anything else really. We have had Macylea and McCoy for just a little over a month now. It has been on heck of a ride. They seem to have many more needs than we originally thought. We work with an agency called Nevada Early Intervention. McCoy was already receiving their services, but it was felt that Macylea did not need them. After some rather extensive observation and testing, Macylea is now getting 9 hours a month with them and McCoy is getting 9 hours a month also. This is including speech, feeding, behavior and developmental. We are also working with some attachment issues with Macylea. McCoy seems to be able to attach and bond but Macylea is going to be a tough nut to crack. We have also set up an appointment with a Gastrointerologist as all three of the children seem to have some gastrointestinal...

We have been so busy this past month. I know that we must catch up here on our BLOG. So much with the new babies and all. I promise to do just that in a few days. BUT FIRST...I must share with our blogging community....LISAMARIE sings Amazing Grace for her recital. We are so proud of her and we want to share her with the world. I hope that you enjoy this and will post a comment or two for her to read. Hugs to all.

WOW!!! Are we ever living life in the fast lane right now....well, many that knows us think we are always living life in the fast lane....but this is different :o) In my last post I told you how Montana is getting ready to have his surgery here soon. Then, the call we have been waiting for arrived. It is time for us to meet the twins. Some of you are scratching your heads saying..."twins"? When did that happen? When did they tell us about twins? Well, as luck would have it, Montana has twin siblings, a boy and a girl who are just 13 months older than he is. They have been in foster care and waiting for their forever family. When we were approached about the possibility of keeping the three of them together, well, how could we say no? We are so excited about this it is really had to explain. Just a few months ago we were thinking it was unreal that we were adopting yet another baby and here we are really getting three babies. So, back to the twins. Looks as if we will...

So many emotions and it is hard to deal with it all. I wish that I had a cleft palate support group to lean on, but here in Carson City you do not always have what you wish you had. You see, my conflict has arisen from the fact that Montana is getting ready for his first round of plastic surgery. Oh, do not get me wrong, he needs these surgeries and in the end it will all be wonderful for him. He will "look normal" and people will not cast that strange first look. He will be able to suck on a bottle and hopefully get rid of this tube feeding sooner rather than later. Yes, all of the surgeries he will face are for the good. Now, my conflict. I love his little face. I love seeing his wide open grin, his little tongue working over time in that mouth of his.  I love how his little face looks like Popeye with that flat nose of his that has no defined nostril on the one side. He is the baby we were given and we are in love with him. Now, this next Tuesday, Nov. 9th, all of that...

Hi All: So here is a link that will take you to an article about our friend MaryAnn. She is the blind/deaf specialist that is a godsend for parents of blind/deaf children. Our precious son, Joseph is in two of the pictures. Please enjoy and let us know what you think. Hugs. http://www.unr.edu/discover-nevada/nevada-stories/features-2010/demchak/

I love facebook. You can just put your little bleep there for all of your friends to see. Then I forget to come over here and share our life with others who care enough to follow us. So, I guess it is time to share about oops and uh-oh. I am not sure if that is really their names, but who cares. Maybe some will remember that back in April our three "boy" chinchillas managed to give us a baby chinchilla. Needless to say, we found out that "POPTART" was a girl. Thank You Jeremy. :o( So we read up and became really good "parents" to "SURPRISE". Since he was a boy, we charted everything and moved him away from his mama in the proper amount of time. It was all good. Well, on LisaMarie's 11 birthday, I was passing by the chinchilla's cage and was shocked to see that "POPTART" now had three tails. Yes, you guessed it...we did not get "SURPRISE" out soon enough...so now we had two more babies. Thus the names of "OOP...

So this morning I got up knowing that I had to take Montana to see the doctor. All of the other children were in school all day, so I had a rather weak moment. While getting Maverick up, I asked him if he wanted to go bye-bye with Mommy and Montana. Of course my former number one sidekick said "YES!!!" This is his idea of a good time. He gets sick and tired of being at home. The world is his playground and he loves nothing more than being out and about...anywhere, everywhere......just not at home. There you have it, mistake number one!! We made it out the door on time. Maverick chatted all the way into Carson City. I was beyond joyful that I had thought to bring him along. I enjoyed my time talking with him and catching glances of him in the rear view mirror. He is such a cute boy. He has a smile that makes everyone else around him smile. He has long, black, straighter than straight hair that I refuse to cut. Everyone calls the cut we do have a Mullet. All I know is tha...

There seems to be so many people wondering about our family....so much so that at least one of our children is grilled at the High School about "Family Facts". While this nearly angers Merrill and I mainly because we feel if you want to know something, then just ask. We also feel that it is best not to get your information from a person that has a hard time expressing himself well and also does not know the facts, so to speak. Still we also understand that people for the most part are curious. Merrill and I have found ourselves tuned into "19 kids and counting" more than once and we can't hold a candle to what that family seems to pull off. So, in order to help stop the grilling at school and to also help the ones that are just beyond curious, I will try to list the facts of the family. Merrill and I have been married 32 years. We do not have any biological children. We chose to not let that stop us and to grow our family through adoption. At present, we...

I belong to this message board and they have been chatting back an forth about things that are said to them. Let me start out by saying all of these parents have been to hell and back with medical issues concerning their children. They have hurt, they have watched their child/children go through many surgeries and have worried if their child might not make it till the next day.....or maybe even the next hour. Their road has been painfully traveled. The tone of the chit chat has been about how they seem to feel that a parent to a "normal" child with just the "normal" childhood ups and downs has no right to complain or maybe the reality is they have no right to complain while in front of them. I am not really sure. What I do know is that it has made me feel a great sadness for them. They are a great bunch of parents. They have really traveled a hard journey with their child. Most of their children are now doing okay...still involved medically, but all in all, okay....

How do you "Feel The Power"? Funny how everyone "Feels The Power" in a different way. I think Maverick feels the power in his little trucks that he plays with and then tucks neatly under the fruit and vegetable basket so he can find them fast later in the day. He "vrooms" and honks and toots with his trucks while knowing that no ones trucks are as good and as powerful as his. He can push them faster than anyone else and they have just the right amount of speed. Now Joey feels the power in a very different way. He knows his hero, Superman, is as powerful as anyone around. There is none better. I mean face it, Superman can do anything to anyone at any time. HE can save the entire world and he never lets us down. Maybe Joey knows where the real power is....SUPERMAN!! McClain knows where the power really is. Anyone that knows McClain knows that it is all about GRAVEDIGGER!!! DIGGER TIME. Graver Digger can crush anything in his way. He knows it, the other...

'MEET ME IN THE STAIRWELL' You say you will never forget where you were when you heard the news On September 11, 2001. Neither will I. I was on the 110th floor in a smoke filled room with a man who called his wife to say 'Good-Bye.' I held his fingers steady as he dialed. I gave him the peace to say, 'Honey, I am not going to make it, but it is OK..I am ready to go.' I was with his wife when he called as she fed breakfast to their children. I held her up as she tried to understand his words and as she realized he wasn't coming home that night. I was in the stairwell of the 23rd floor when a woman cried out to Me for help. 'I have been knocking on the door of your heart for 50 years!' I said. 'Of course I will show you the way home - only believe in Me now.' I was at the base of the building with the Priest ministering to the injured and devastated souls. I took hi...

Here we are, it is school time. No time to stop for anything. Meetings, homework, teachers calling, automated school calls, IEPs, nurses from school calling, notebooks to fill out, lunches to make. It just never stops. The kids are excited. The calendar fills up faster than fast. It is just on turbo speed at all times. Funny, it seems that all of our children love school. They get up ready to go and they just like being there. This year the school hours changed and I am really not liking that at all. The younger children do not leave until 8:30 and if you can even believe it, they get home at 4:45 pm. Merrill beats them home most days.Of course just to keep you on your toes a bit more, we now have late starts every Thursday morning. So they all go one hour later. At least last year they were on Fridays and that was better all around. All of this change is for the betterment of the education system. I have to wonder that when you are sitting at number 50 as a state in education, how...

At least that is what we would like to think :o) So, Mr. Montana has been home for three full days and nights. So far so good. The children still love him and trust me, that is a good thing. Every time he cries, Maverick offers him his binky. Please note that a binky solves all things for Maverick. MacGyver still wants to "pet" him and is willing to wash his hands so he can "pet" him. Joey still is talking himself through the fact that Montana needs love and clean hands to touch him. McClain is mostly concerned about the fact that he can only make out one nostril and really wants to make sure that the doctor will make his second one. McClain also proudly introduces Montana to his friends and tells them that before you meet him, he looks funny, but we love him. Face it, you have to love his down to earth manner. LisaMarie is really into mothering him and really is trying to help whenever she can. Micah just keeps checking him out, Jericho and Joseph do not seem to ...

Tomorrow we bring Montana home. We are going through all the emotions and then some. Sleep is not fast in coming. While I wonder why, while I ponder how, while I go through the what ifs.....I keep hearing a song that I love. An oldie but a goodie, one we do not hear in church any longer. It says it all. I hope more of you know it than do not.  Thanks for checking on us. I Know Who Holds Tomorrow words and music by Ira Stanphill I don't know about tomorrow, I just live from day to day. I don't borrow from it's sunshine, For it's skies may turn to gray. I don't worry o'er the future, For I know what Jesus said, And today I'll walk beside Him, For He knows what is ahead. Refrain Many things about tomorrow, I don't seem to understand; But I know Who holds tomorrow, And I know Who holds my hand. Ev'ry step is getting brighter, As the golden stairs I climb; Ev'ry burden's getting lighter; Ev'ry cloud is silver li...

Merrill and I were able to both go visit Montana today. Our little man is not so little. Matter of fact, I am pretty certain our baby is the biggest baby in the NICU. Today he topped the scales at 9lbs and 6ozs. Looks like he will get to come home Tuesday or Wednesday. Needless to say, this entire family is excited about his homecoming. At church this morning we were asked to pray for a family. The mom to be had been been in the hospital trying to keep her precious baby inside as long as she could. By this morning it was too much for her and the baby and she gave birth to a little boy 11 weeks too early. While getting settled in NICU today with our rather big little man, I couldn't help but to notice the tiny little bundle who was now one of Montana's roommates. So little, so precious, so helpless. Imagine Merrill's and my surprise when the daddy we had prayed for walked in. It brought tears to my eyes. I will never really know their pain. I will never fully grasp how a...

You know, there are a million reasons why Merrill and I should not adopt another baby...trust me, we know them all. We have talked about many of them and each and every one of them are very good reasons. We were not looking for Montana or any other baby for that matter. But I guess Montana was looking for us. It is funny, when you do something just a bit different than most people, for example, adopting a whole lot of children rather than 2 or 6 or even 8, there is an entire group of people that want to tell you why you are wrong to do what you do. It happened yesterday. Someone asked me if I had even stopped to think about how old I was going to be when Montana was 18. Why ask that question? I know how OLD I am when he is just shy of three weeks, of course I know how old I will be in 18 years. Thank Goodness my parents were able to afford a great education for me and Merrill had the same :o) Is it really necessary to suggest that he would be better off with younger parents? Merri...

It seems to me that every time I say NEVER, I eat those words rather quickly. When Michael was little, I said we were lucky as he really NEVER spilled his drinks. I think he spilled every glass of milk for the next six months. Of course I had not clue about that then, so I said we were lucky he NEVER wet his bed, that he potty trained almost over night. Well, he went on to wet the bed for months. Next it went on that Michael NEVER bit a child...yeppers you got it, he started biting. Merrill asked me then to stop saying NEVER. Well, I am a rather slow learner. About 11 or 12 years ago I said we would NEVER adopt another girl, unless of course God delivered her on the door step with the adoption certificate signed....never underestimate the humor from above, before you knew it, We had LisaMarie and the rest is history. So, why am I writing about this. Well, let me tell you. We were 50 and 52 years old when we were gifted with Maverick. Who would have thought that Merrill and I woul...