Two nights ago, I went to check on the boys and found Abram sleeping like this! Poor thing . . . it was when he was the sickest - so stuffed up. He is starting to turn the corner to feel better. However, Mujinga is now not feeling well. Such is family life, right?Starting to take out the extensions yesterday.
Someone wanted held.
Had to put this one in here because he is too cute!
Karen, my friend who helped us is the daughter of our neighbors who live two doors down (that is how I met her - God had so many purposes for us moving into this house!). This is on our way back home from walking to her parents after she finished the girls' hair.
Little family outing to McDonald's for ice cream this afternoon. It was great to go do something fun outside the house as a family.
And finally some sibling love involving Abram. I'm not kidding that this is the first time he and one of the girls have been affectionate toward each other. Over the past couple days, I could tell the beginning of a friendship was starting with these two so it was fun to see Abram just grab ahold an give her a big hug . . . and she loved it!

November 12, 2011

Last night Abram got out of bed and came out of his room (not too unusual). We always make him go back to his bed. However, last night I was missing my boy and decided it would be a great time to hang out with him. So, I let him stay up and talked to him on the couch for awhile. I asked him what he thought of his new brother and sisters and if he thought it was hard, etc. He didn’t really respond but I enjoyed our conversation. I sang him the Bugaboo song (African lullaby CD) and couldn’t finish it before I got choked up.

We had a really great day today. God gave us more glimpses of our family starting to form. I finally got the girls to sit down and do some coloring/writing/English learning. My friend Mandy (ESL teacher) did the best thing ever for me (in this department): she printed off two sheets each of pages of pictures of lots of every day things and gave me instructions for how to use them. AN INCREDIBLE HELP TO ME! Today we did the “color” sheet. So, the girls colored the objects the appropriate color while I had them say the words. Then, I wrote out the words of the objects and they then wrote out the words. Then, they cut out the square of the picture/word and then glued it to half of a notecard. Once we are done we can then play memory or go fish. And I have tons of other sheets to use with them. Thank you so much, Mandy!

If anyone else would like to help in this way, it would be a great way to help us. I don’t have the time or mental capacity to go online (or elsewhere) and come up with activities like this for the girls. So if you have been wanting to know if there is something you can do and you are gifted in this area, go for it!

We had more fun family dancing this morning. Jason took the boys to the park while I’ll took the girls to Target quick a little later and on the way home Jason said he had stopped at our good friends, Andy and Jill’s. So, I drove there and the girls were up for going in. I can’t even tell you how wonderful it was to just “stop by” a friend’s house with all of our kids . . . and it went well for the kids. It made me feel like it was a bit of NORMAL LIFE. Praise God!

While I was doing the coloring project with the girls this morning, Muad out of no where said, “mom…Muad . . . no.” She was saying that she didn’t want to use that name anymore. I said, Okay, and proceeded to look up names online. I was kind of excited, I have to admit! Not that I don’t like her African name – picking out a new name was just plain fun. Mujinga jumped on the band wagon also. After going through a few names, here is what the girls decided on:

Muad is now Claire (I sort of encouraged this name because her name from the orphanage is Clarise) So, I think her name is now Clarise Muad (Jen) Lee.

Mujinga decided on Zoe (with absolutely no prompting by me, I might add) I think she said she wanted her name to be Zoe Rachelle (Kate) Lee.

They don’t really get the Jen/Kate 2^nd middle names yet, but that is okay. Jason and I both feel a little unsure/confused about the whole name thing. We LOVE the new names they picked out – and we love that they initiated and picked them out - but we feel a little unsure of their commitment level to these names. J Let’s hope they are here to stay!

Zoe has not been feeling well today (stomach hurts), which provided a great bonding time with me this afternoon. Jason took Claire (even weird for me to type that) to the park and Zoe laid on the couch with her head on my lap. I rubbed her head and face until she fell asleep and then I took a little snooze, too. She is a little less open to physical touch so this was a wonderful blessing!

This afternoon we went to our friend, Rachel’s, house. She is the woman who speaks Lingala. This time she invited her friend Micheleen, who is a Congolese woman who lives in Ames. A few of her kids came as well. It was great to meet them. But, the really great part was realizing how far we have come as a family in just a week. When Jason parked the van in the exact same spot in front of Rachel’s house, it brought back a flood of memories about how I was feeling and how the kids were doing this time last week. HOLY COW are things a lot better than they were then. This was such a great encouragement to us from God. While we still have a very long road of bonding and healing and English-learning ahead of us, it was a gift from God to feel the progress of this past week.

I know that progress has everything to do with God’s goodness and his faithfulness to answer the prayers of SO MANY of you who are praying for us. I am blown away by the number of people who are praying for us. We are deeply grateful.

Please keep praying as we enter “real life” with Jason going back to work on Monday. My stomach starts to feel sick when I think about it. But, God brought a song to mind today that He used in my life in my darkest days of infertility. It is still on my computer so I listened to it a little bit ago and wept my heart out to Him. I am so completely incapable of parenting our four children all day while Jason is gone. It seems absolutely impossible for me to provide the high structure and high nurture that our kids need right now. Trying to get all four of them in the same room at one time is a feat! Fortunately with God, all things are possible. So, I am flat on my face trusting Him to do what only He can do when Monday rolls around.

"Teach me Lord to have faith
In what you’re bringing me will
Change my life and bring you glory"

http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/d/downhere/calmer_of_the_storm.html