Last Saturday (in Burlington) when the girls were asking to go home every few hours, I texted Kate to see if Sydney could pack a bag and stay with us when they came for the funeral. I thought that would be fun for our girls and give them something to do while we stayed a few more days with Rhonda.
Shortly before Mark and Kate were leaving Burlington Sunday evening I thought it would be fun if Mya could stay, too. Mark and Kate gave the green light (for her to miss school 2 days!), but in order to all fit in our van on the way home, we had to send Abram home with them. It was quite the spontaneous turn of events but such a provision from God. I already wrote about what an incredible gift it was for me to see all four girls having tons of fun. Not to mention how it helped my girls survive a few more days away from home.
Here is a glimpse of their time together in Burlington . . .
After dancing for a long time, they asked to eat oranges. It was around 10:00p, but we didn't care! Zoe then decided to make orange juice out of the oranges. She's drinking her orange juice here.
More dancing!
Sometime on Monday Mya said to me, "It is a good thing Zoe and I have the same middle name (Kate) because we like to play together." [Side note: A big reason Jason and I gave our girls the middle names of Jen and Kate was because Mya and Sydney also each have one of those names as their middle names.] It was so fun to hear her say that. And it is true. Mya and Zoe are both VERY task-oriented and like to have time alone. Meanwhile, you can tell from above that Claire and Syd are great buddies. So fun to watch their little relationships unfold. God is so good!
Finally at midnight we made them go to bed! :)
Monday morning we painted all of their fingernails. Rhonda's sister, Karen, brought over lots of fingernail fun for us to use! At one point Rhonda and I were painting nails and my mom (who stayed in a hotel and came back in the morning) did a puzzle with the other two, all at the table. It was wonderful, fun, girl time!
But, of course, we couldn't have Mya and Sydney with us and not take them to our favorite place. So back to Burger King we went while Jason went to an appointment with his mom.
My favorite pic! Going down the slide together.
Meanwhile, Isaiah got to have a lot of quality one-on-one time with his daddy, which was SO GOOD for him!
Isaiah had a couple really hard days while we were gone, but by the end of it, he was doing so well. In fact, when I sat on the couch with him the night we got home and gave him milk (which we hadn't done for over a week), I felt like I was holding a different boy. A more secure and confident boy. And most notably, I felt differently toward him. I felt much more attached to him. And to be honest, I felt like I loved him more. Another gift from our faithful God. I think the fact that Isaiah went through this rough time away from home and saw that we came back home and mom and dad are still here helped him make even greater strides toward attachment and trust.
Hopefully the same is true of the girls. We are still waiting to see. The last few days have been difficult. I've seen "going back in age" behaviors in one of the girls I have never seen before. But, today they are both more back to the girls I remember before we left for nine days.
The only problem is that I am not!
No comments:
Post a Comment