In 1998, we moved from the Vancouver school district to the Evergreen school district.  The boys attended Riverview elementary  for two years.  Then they moved up to Wy'East Middle School.  Their Dad and all of their Uncles has attend Middle School there.  The boys were very active in all kinds of sports.  They did football, basketball, track and wrestling.  They also took band classes, and choir.  I will never forget when wrestling practice started.  Joshua the oldest of the two boys had joined wrestling.  Jacob, again being the watcher that he was waited to see how Joshua faired with wrestling. After watching some practices, going to a few meets where Jacob was coming off of the seat and getting all pumped up from the action,  he finally signed up for wrestling.  He started late in the season but a passion was formed in him from then on and he learned some of his most valuable leadership skills during his wrestling career.  He also learned a great deal about dedication and determination,  I always loved watching the boys compete at anything they endevored to participate in as they were both very fierce competitors.  I look back on those days and remember all of the plans we made for their future.  They were on top of the world and seemed unstoppable.  Then High School started.....

Even from the time Jacob was born he had this look about him.  I am not sure how to explain the look he had but he just looked old and young at the same time and he had this angry look about him some times and an open look about him at other times.  Joshua was alway the happy go lucky little boy that would go to anyone.  Jacob was a little more cautious and he was selective about who he would go to.  He certainly had my temper which didn't really emerge until he was a little older. When they were younger as it is with most twins, the boys had their own way of communicating with each other and Joshua would usually speak for Jacob.  It was alway Mommy, Jacob is hungry, Jacob has to go to the bathroom or Jacob is thirsty.   He was a little imp and while he was an imp his brother was an imp on steroids.  Once when the boys were about 3, I had gone to work,  their Dad and I worked opposite schedules so he was home with them.  When I got home there was a fine layer of powder all over everything.  I asked their Dad what had happened and the boys proudly proclaimed Mommy, we make Tia's. LOL  They were trying to make home made tortilla's.  What a mess.  There was flour every where.  Then one time I came home from work and I found them with a toilet brush in their hands.  When I looked at my bed, there was comet all over my bedspread and they proundly proclaimed that they were cleaning the bed.  Usually Jacob would watch the things that Joshua did and if he didn't get hurt then Jacob would try it too.  He was the watcher while Joshua was the doer LOL  Jacob had a small speach impediment when he was younger which I didn't really see as a problem. He use to say yove you for love you and yight for light. I thought it was sweet and just figured that he would out grow it.  The school thought other wise and when he was in the first grade he started speach therapy.   I didn't even really think about his little speach impediment until about a month after he passed away.  Jacob and his brother use to love the Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles also use to like to watch the Power Rangers.  I can remember Jacob watching the Power Rangers and Jacob jumping up and doing all kinds of Power kicks and flip flopping all over the place.  One time the boys were outside playing, I came in to go to the bathroom.  When I came out of the bathroom, there was baking cocoa all over the stove and the counter tops.  I went out side and called both of the boys to me.  I asked them which one of them had made the mess in the kitchen.  Joshua immediately said that it wasn't him while secretly pointing his finger at Jacob.  I turned to look at Jacob and he had a ring of baking cocoa around his mouth.  He stood there proclaiming his innocence and angry with Joshua for pointing the finger at him.  I told him to get in the house and clean up the mess he had made.  He went in loudly protesting and still proclaiming his innocence and him asking me why I believed Joshua and not him.  I kind of chuckled and told him to go look in the mirror at the ring of cocoa around his mouth.   There was nothing extrodinary about his childhood and he was a typical little boy full of energy, laughter, mischief and love. He was my little buddy. 

I was 18 years old and  a senior in High School when I discovered that I was pregnant.  I wasn't the type of girl that slept around but as they say it only takes one time to get pregnant.  When it became clear to me that I was pregnant, I had no idea how to tell my Dad and Step mother that I thought I might be pregnant so I hid it for 5 months until my Step mom took me into my bedroom and asked me how long it had been since I had had my cycle.  Imagine her surprise when I told her it had been 5 months.  Thankfully she was the one to tell my Dad.  She made an appointment for me with our family Doctor.  I went in and he sat me up on the examine table.  He felt around on my stomach and then put his stethoscope to my stomach.  It was at that time that he heard a heart beat and confirmed that I was very pregnant.  I told him that I thought maybe I was having twins.  He assured me that he only heard one other heart beat besides mine.  So, off to the OBGYN I went.  Not to long after that appointment, I went in for an ultra sound. 

     About 2 days after my ultra sound the mid-wife contacted me to tell me that I needed to be on a very strict vitamin supplement plan and that she could no longer be my mid-wife as I was going to have twins and that put me in a high risk catagory.  Not long after that, the journey began.  I had decided some time before I discovered that I was having twins that if the baby was a boy that I wanted his name to be a biblical name.  I had always liked the name Joshua and as for his middle name I wanted his middle name to be Adam after my Great Grandfather Richardson.  Well, when I found out I was having twins, I had to come up with another name.  The ultra sound tech tried to tell me that I was having a boy and a girl but I just told her that I knew I was having two boys because I felt it and I couldn't find a girls name that I liked. So, the name search for baby # 2 was on.  Because they were boys, brother's and twins I wanted their intials to be the same.  After looking in the bible I came up with the name Jacob, I struggled to find a middle name that started with an "A" that I liked.  It was my Dad that gave Jacob his middle name.  Andrew and so it was Joshua Adam and Jacob Andrew.  The boys were not due until Sept. 18th of 1988 but my body had different thoughts on the subject.  I was admitted to Vancouver Memorial due to the fact that I had toxemia.  I went from bad to worse rather quickly so they transferred me to Emmanuel Hospital and on July 29th they started to induce labor.  They stopped the process so that I could get some sleep that night and started up again bright and early on July 30th.  At 2:36 p.m Joshua Adam was born weighing an entire 3lbs 6 oz.  Then my body once again decided to make things difficult so with a lot of effort on the Doctors part and my part Jacob Andrew was born at 3:13 p.m.  weighing 4lbs 11 oz.  The boys had to stay in the hospital until the 16th of September when they finally got to come home.  This is the history of his beginnings now let me tell you about my beautiful son that left this world and my arms far too soon....