The other day this conversation was overheard in the Vile household. Let me set the context first. Ethan is the bathroom doing his business (that was the best way to put it), Lucas is in the family room, and Alayna is in her highchair crying. (Where Mom and Dad are remains to be seen).

Alayna: WAAAHHH, WAAHHHH!!!!!!

Ethan (from the toilet): Alayna, I’ll be right there. Just a minute.

Alayna: WAAHHH, WAAHHH, WAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Ethan (still on toilet): Lucas, do something silly, she likes that!

Alayna: WAAHHH, WAAHHHHH, WAHHHH!!!!

Lucas (bouncing up and down while making silly faces): Bleh, Mmmhh, Brg, Pooty, Rrgy…

Alayna: WAAHHH, WAHHH!!!!!!

Lucas: It’s not working!! She’s still crying.

Ethan (you know where): Okay, just a minute, I’ll be right there!

Needless to say it’s both loud and hilarious here sometimes!

Categories: Alayna Grace, Ethan, Family, Lucas
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If you follow this blog at all you’ll know we haven’t been very good at keeping it updated. Life with three has proven to be a bit more time consuming than we realized. Since we don’t keep you updated on a more regular basis we at least thought we could give you our “Family Christmas Update” here….

2009 has been a full year yet we are blessed beyond words. When I reflect on this past year, it’s hard to recall all that has happened because it has just flown by! I do recall it being a challenging year though that has tested my patience for much of it. Being pregnant, chasing two boys day in and day out as well as Kevin being in his last year of school full time was more tiresome and challenging than expected. It is only by God’s grace that we survived the year with spirits still in tact! He is so good to us…

It was last year at this time we found out we were pregnant with our third little blessing. We were all thrilled with the news but I think Ethan was the most excited to meet the new little one to come! Ethan is 4 (5 in February) and is such a delight in the Vile household. He has such a sweet and helpful spirit. He loves people and truly has a kind heart. He is inquisitive of everything. He asks deep theological questions not even realizing it (don’t you just love the innocence of a small child)…. it’s amazing to watch his view of God develop in his little brain…. what a big responsibility on our part… (God, give us grace as we teach him about You!) He loves drawing (which he has gotten quite good at), puzzles, building and playing with his siblings. He is in his second year of preschool and is doing great with his letters and numbers. He can write his own name as well as everyone elses name in the family. Just recently we discovered he needs glasses… you can read about his condition here. It’s hard to believe how big our “baby” is getting. Everyone always told us the years would go by fast… they sure have! As challenging as it gets sometimes, I still tell him to stop getting older! I am trying to learn to cherish these days as I know they will be gone tomorrow. We are praying for God to use Ethan’s kind heart to serve Him.

Our little Lucas just turned 3 (12/17) and he is our little “spitfire”! What a ball of energy Lucas is! He certainly keeps us on our toes but is such a sweet little boy. He loves his big brother and loves to be a big brother! He has a mind of his own and is all boy! He loves sports of any kind, cars, trucks, trains etc. He loves to sing and play the guitar (a sign of things to come???) Some of the sweetest moments I love are watching him in church dance to the worship music and occasionally raise his hands to worship like his Grandma! Lucas is loads of fun! He loves playing with Ethan and really looks up to him. We love spending time with him on his own (without siblings) as he seems to not fight for so much attention. We are praying for this sweet gift from God to grow to know and serve Christ with his life.

And our third little blessing, Alayna, is 4 months old already and has been pure joy in our life. The first few months of her life were a bit challenging as she seemed to have colic. So dealing with a crying baby most days and nights were tough. But having some extra pink in the house was enough to make me smile through it all (almost all). Alayna loves to eat, loves looking and smiling at her brothers. She loves to rock, swing and bounce in our arms. She is definitely the princess of the house! It has been loads of fun watching her grow and change. She is smiling all the time and is currently working on grabbing rattles and switching them from one hand to the next. Life with three little ones keeps us on our toes, keeps us humble and keeps us looking to Christ for grace and strength! We are praying for Alayna to grow to be a strong woman of God.

Kevin finished his Master of Divinity degree from Winebrenner Theological Seminary in August (just before Alayna was born). We are all so proud of him as he worked hard for the past three years! I’ve learned alot from this awesome man of God. His humbleness and wisdom of God’s Word is inspiring to me. God has truly gifted him with a mind for the truth of His Word… (and he would roll his eyes at me for writing this about him… but it’s true :)). I’m proud of you Kevin and I know God is using you now and has a plan for our future in ministry somewhere! I love you!
Kevin’s day job is in computer database development working from home (which is a blessing most of the time :)). The boys love “checking in” on Daddy throughout the day and although we (the kids and me) can be loud sometimes, he handles the “distractions” pretty well. We love him being home!

As for me, my time is consumed with changing diapers, picking up toys, trying to keep mouths fed and working on the never ending loads of laundry. But honestly, I wouldn’t want to do anything different. I know God has given me a huge responsibility raising these kids and loving my husband. And though, I’m not very good at it at times, He is continually growing me and showing me how much I need Him even in the mundane … actually MORE in the mundane. I am thankful for our Father’s unfailing and unending love!

As we celebrate the birth of our Savior this Christmas, may we know his goodness and praise Him for the love he showed us in giving us His son!

Merry Christmas!!!

Categories: Family, Holiday
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Recently we’ve noticed that Ethan squints one eye while focusing, as well as his left eye has been turning in. It’s been happening for a few months… at first we thought he was goofing around cuz he would do it and laugh saying he could see double. Probably in the past 2-3 weeks it’s gotten worse, his teacher at school mentioned something about it and we realized he was doing it without trying or thinking about it. Therefore we decided it was serious and needed to get it checked out. We found an Ophthalmologist and he had an appointment yesterday. Bottom line, he needs glasses. Kevin is much better at explaining things so in his words, here is Ethan’s diagnosis:

I spoke with the doctor today over the phone to answer a few of my questions. He was very pleasant and talked at length about Ethan’s condition. He seems like a very good doctor, very friendly, very knowledgeable and able to communicate it so we can understand.

It sounds like Ethan is extremely farsighted (and he has astigmatism as well). His prescription was OD: +4.00, OS: +4.25 +1.00×90. And this wasn’t the full prescription either. The full was more like OD: +4.75, OS: 5 (or something along those lines)! The doctor explained that this extreme farsightedness has caused what is called accommodative esotropia. What happens is that because of the farsightedness the eye has to work hard to focus, called “accommodation.” A side effect of this is that the eye will begin to cross (not in all cases, but in Ethan’s). This crossing of the eye has led to mild amblyopia - a condition where essentially the brain stops listening to the messages received from that eye. When the eye is crossing, it is no longer developing as it should. Eventually that could lead to loss of sight in that eye. The doctor said that both of Ethan’s eyes have this problem (both are crossing), with the left being worse than the right.

The glasses are to correct the farsighted and astigmatism so that the eye doesn’t have to work as hard to focus and can relax. This should stop the eyes from crossing. The key is to get the eyes to stop crossing with the glasses so that his eyes can develop properly. They say that by the age of 9 the eye has fully developed, so hopefully he will no longer have the condition by then. Between now and then he will have a new prescription every year at least, and most likely more than that. They say that one prescription may work well, but then the eye will start to cross again and they have to adjust it. He’s supposed to wear the glasses all the time. The doctor said to get straps and have him wear them even when he goes swimming! He believes that his farsightedness will get better over time, but it is hard to say whether or not he will still need glasses beyond this. The astigmatism could go away or remain, he called it a “wildcard.” He said that as Ethan grows taller it changes something in the vision ( i don’t recall what he said exactly) and that will change the astigmatism - could go away or remain, who knows.

The doctor also said that if he is going to have the lazy eye problem, this particular condition is the best one to have. It has the highest percentage of successful treatments. So it sounds like he should be fine, but he also said that it will be a marathon. He wants to keep on top of Ethan’s progress (he wants to see him every 3 months!) - which sounds like he is a fairly serious case of the condition.

Please keep him in your prayers… he is excited to get his glasses but I’m sure we’ll have to fight him wearing them at some point. And pray for his condition to get better over the years.

Our sweet boy… who knew he’s had such bad vision probably all his life!

Categories: Ethan
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