All In a Day

This was one day this past week . . . I don't even remember which day.

The boys thought it would be fun to take a little rest in the kitchen right before lunch.

Fu-fu was on the menu for dinner. The girls actually made the entire dinner this night (fish and spinach/tomato sauce with the fu-fu), but they needed my help stirring (and no wonder - it is not easy!)

We got the kids Twister for Christmas and decided to try it out after dinner. I can't say it was super successful, but the girls had fun with it anyway (and started to learn "left" and "right").

Zoe got too wound up and out of control (which is not uncommon  for us to see - it is quite common with kids from hard places). I had JUST read that morning that one thing you can do to help bring kids back down when they begin "over-frantic activity" (Grey) - which perfectly describes what we see a lot with her - is to have them do jumping jacks (or run up stairs, jump on a trampoline, etc.). So, I decided it was a perfect time to teach the girls how to do a jumping jack. :)

 And then we moved onto push-ups.

 This girl is serious about her push-ups!

 Push-ups turned into kung-fu fighting (gotta love the little boys on Jason's ankle)!

 Isaiah got hurt and needed some love.

 Claire was happy to be a spectator when it came to wrestling (as was I).

 Zoe loves this picture!

The next day I took the kids to Walgreens and Zoe was all excited to show me a magazine while we were waiting to check out. It was a World Wrestling Federation magazine and she knew the names of all three guys on the front cover. Turns out she watched it on TV in C. HILARIOUS!

Christmas Day

I totally forgot to publish my post from Christmas Day until last night. Here it is if you missed it.

A Few More Christmas Pics

 All of Jason's and my family except Jason's dad and wife (wish you could have been here!).

Fun with the Cousins

Today was a wonderful day . . . such a gift from God. We had plans for Kate and all four kids to come over to play. We told the kids the night before. You would not believe how many times the girls need to rehearse the next day's or today's plans. A LOT. Fortunately, it is usually just a great way for us to interact with them and it is usually always positive. Having lived incredibly unpredictable lives, most kids from hard places need a huge amount of predictability and the knowledge of what is going on to feel secure in their new world. Letting the kids know plans ahead of time, talking about them and writing plans on the calendar has been very helpful for our kids so far.

Since the girls knew Kate and the kids were coming in the morning they took showers pronto after breakfast! They were excited and kept asking or talking to me about them coming. And they were waiting by the window when Kate's crew got here. I loved it!

The kids definitely had the best time playing together yet. Praise God! Greysen, Abram and Isaiah had a blast trying to wrestle Brady (who is such a good sport!). All four girls were off to the girls' room to play at first but then shortly after went outside to ride bikes. (My girls made sure I called Kate to tell her to bring the kids' bikes.) After snacks (picture above), we all went to the park and everybody had a blast!

It was so fun to watch all eight kids playing and having fun. In the past my girls have been reserved and slightly withdrawn when playing with Kate's kids or playing at the park with any other kids around. But, not today. It did my heart so much good to see them all having so much fun.

Watching EIGHT kids playing around on the playground, I said to Kate, "that is a lot of kids for just the two of us!"

A Very Significant Hour

Jason was home again today (praise the Lord!). It was good to have a day of transition between all the holiday fun and normal life. I needed it . . . desperately. Celebrating Christmas as a family here at home was wonderful yesterday, but throughout the day I battled many feelings of sadness that I still don’t know the source of. But that doesn’t really matter compared to what happened at lunch today.

We were just having a normal day and a normal lunch when near the end of our meal, one of the girls pointed to a scar on her leg. She began to tell us how it got there, which involved her birth family in C. We asked some questions to engage her further and she shared eagerly as much as she was able in her limited language. At the same time our other daughter acted a little withdrawn until we asked her a couple questions about her birth family. She also opened right up and began sharing (again, as much as she could with the English she has). We kept asking a few questions which would prompt them to keep talking. We ended up having a nearly one hour long conversation (after scooting the boys off to play) about things that happened to them and the basic series of events that led them to the orphanage and then to Marie (oh how they love her!) and then to us. Several of the things they said lined up with the very first reports we got when we were matched with them. 

It is one thing to assume our girls had a hard life before they came here . . . it is quite another to hear in their words with their body language what happened. One of the girls acted like “no big deal” about everything she said. The other we could tell had a little harder time with it. But they were both very willing to share. We didn’t push at all. In fact we could tell they liked us asking questions. And even thought it was the very basics, in very broken English it was almost too much for me to take in one sitting. They have endured A LOT. I’ll just leave it at that.

However, I am praising God more than ever before because the fact that the girls were willing to share this much with us in only the second month they have been home is very telling. I have read that kids adopted/fostered from hard places will usually only begin talking about their pasts and the pain from their past when they feel SAFE and when they can TRUST those they are telling.

It was an incredibly significant one hour.

Throughout their sharing we were able to tell them how much we love them and that we will never leave them. We asked what they thought when Marie told them they had a family (us) and they were all smiles with lots of “good.” At the very end, Jason asked Claire if she and Zoe were good friends at the orphanage. She said yes (which we already knew). We then explained to her that when we decided to adopt I prayed and asked God that our girls would be friends. We told her that God heard our prayers and brought them to us together.

The smile beaming on Claire's face was like something I have never seen before. She knew. She got it. She was so happy and grateful. She doesn’t know those words in English, but her smile said it clearly. I started crying and am crying again as I write this.

I am so glad God saw past my fears and failures and gave us this incredible privilege of adopting and raising older kids (along with the younger ones). The blessings are innumerable!

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21

Now for some pictures . . . 

Last night we had the TV on the one station that comes in, which happened to be NFL football. Abram got out of bed and we let him stay up with us and watch football (which he LOVED)! When I put him to bed later he said, "Thank you me watch football with you." Sometimes he is so sweet I can hardly stand it!

Jason did some work from home today and the girls thought they would "help." I'm still not sure they understand the concept of Jason working from home. :)

 Snack time

When the kids heard they could have ice cream (again!) while we watch Charlotte's Web after dinner, they hurried to get p-pops on and Claire helped Isaiah with his.

And then she helped the boys brush their teeth. I wish I could let her do this more often, but for attachment purposes Jason and I still need to be the ones to meet the kids (in this case Isaiah's) needs. It gave me a good glimpse of the future, though!

They got to eat their ice cream in the living room while watching the movie - a triple treat!

Christmas Day

I just realized I never published this post I did on Christmas Day. Oops!

LOVE these pictures of the boys playing with their new toys, waiting for breakfast.

 Not-so-patiently waiting for Jason to read the Christmas story.

 Singing the Christmas story song (from the Toddler Rhyming Bible) with some dancing goin' on!

 My one attempt at a picture of all four of them.

 Claire loving her Barbie gift. Meanwhile, Zoe is using her box for a drum.

And the boys LOVE the fishing game our friends, the Wulfekuhles, gave the kids. Allie made it and it is such a wonderful gift!

 Someone needed a snack.

I bought a big turkey for our Christmas lunch. Zoe thought it was too small at the store, even though she could barely carry it to the car. Claire was still talking and laughing about that at lunch!

 Zoe got a big drumstick. We had sweet potato rolls to go with it.

The girls had been asking to have ice cream on Christmas for many days so we went for it. A dear friend (thanks Cindy!) actually brought us a bunch of groceries on Friday, including ice cream and ice cream cones. The kids LOVED it. We also let them have some of the cookies we made (and have yet to frost, even though I have the frosting made...oh well!) and of course, Fanta!

The boys - especially Isaiah - loved the new playdough toys we gave them.

It was a great Christmas day at home with just our family. The girls took baths and got dressed earlier than they ever have since they've been home. Meanwhile the boys and I stayed in p-pops all day long! After snack time, the girls and I watched Mary Poppins. I must admit it was my first time ever watching that movie, too. :) By the end, the girls were dancing all around. Jason said (like we often find ourselves saying), "they never got to do that." The joy to get to see them do things they have never gotten to do is pretty amazing.

God has been so good to us! We are so thankful He sent His Son to be born in a lowly stable more than 2,000 years ago to rescue us from our sins.