Catching up, birthdays, and goodbyes

Ollie getting photo bombed by a giant pigtail.

Jacky, you are just way too cute. 

Nevaeh's prevalent attitude about posing with Seth.  Ain't gonna happen, lady.

Blocks in pjs, the best time of the day.

Sitting practice!

Grandma and Grandpa!  Mutual smitten-ness.

This is Bear, our resident tough guy. 

Ababa made a super cool ladder up the tree.  Good news for us and the ER, both boys are kinda afraid of using it. 

O kissing our birthday girl.  :)

Pushing Ababa his present.

We'll help!

Jon tied a balloon to Nevaeh's pants.  Hilarity ensued. 

Checking out the new kitchen!

Present time!

My cake!

Blowing the candles...

...with a little help!

Ababa in a G&G sandwich.

Sweetest girl you'll ever meet.

Buddies.

Flying high with Kermie.

Be still my heart.

 

Last morning of fun for these three.

And finally, a waffle on an early morning ride to the airport. 

Goodbye, loves! 

And then my house was quiet

We got up in the wee early hours on Tuesday morning to feed Jacky and Nevaeh for one last time before buckling them up in the van and taking them to the airport.  They were bleary-eyed and slightly bewildered that we had woken them up, but in keeping with their character, they were troupers and took everything in stride.

Seth and Ollie then spent the morning at Mimi and Momo's and Jon was off at work.  I don't think I've been alone and awake for more than 2 hours in a long time.  It felt odd, but was also nice.  So what did I do with myself?  I cleaned of course.  It was the reckless sort of cleaning, too.  The kind where I didn't even bother putting the outlet covers back on after vacuuming.  :)

And then after I picked up Seth and Ollie after lunch, and a minor miracle happened and both boys voluntarily napped.  Well, I'm not sure what Seth did.  Later he told me he rested and practiced whistling.  All I know is that he was in his room for almost 2 hours with a closed door, so the details seem moot.  I laid on my bed and read a book.  It felt really odd, but was also really nice. 

We miss our buddies, pray for them and think of them lots.  Things also feel really peaceful.  We loved those sweet kids, and would have been happy to love them as ours forever, but that just didn't happen.  And we don't feel mad or bitter, just a sadness with a great peace about the whole situation.  People have asked if we were angry at CPS for taking them, or making this decision.  Honestly, no, we have not.  Mostly I've had to pray for forgiveness at being mad at other Christians; why would everyone not choose to help those who can't help themselves?   

We had a wonderful last weekend with Jack and Nevaeh.  Grandma and Grandpa drove down from Missouri and stayed for a 3 or 4 days.  They were supposed to come earlier in the year, but plans changed, and I'm so glad they did because they were a wonderful blessing in what could have been a pretty hard or sad weekend.  We had nice weather and played outside lots, celebrated Nevaeh and her birth, and generally just loved and enjoyed each other. 

Pictures coming soon!

 

N.O., the Dynamic Duo

 

 

Hello!

Another crazy week is in the bag. 

On Wednesday I was writing down Nevaeh-isms to share, because they are darling and I just realized that she has picked up on so much of our lingo.  "Aw, bummo, Debt!"  (Aw, bummer, Seth!)  I believe I may still have had pen in hand when I got a phone call that kinda put the brakes on treasuring up all this said cuteness.  We found out this week that our two new little friends will be moving from our home sometime in the days to come.  Although we knew full well what we were getting ourselves into with this foster business, and even knew full well that there was a relative out there completing a home study, it still stung.  And so we cried.  And then we felt depressed.  And then we kinda of accepted things and put one foot in front of the other and kept going through the week.  

We also spent the bulk of our evenings this week pricing things and doing other garage sale-y tasks.  A family from our church recently moved to France to attend a language school, with the plans of sharing Christ in Morocco soon.  They didn't have a chance to sell the last of their items due to a death in the family, so we loaded it all in our garage and waited for a spring weekend to try and raise some money for them.  Anywho, fast forward to now and we once again have room to walk in the garage.  (!!!)  It was not quite as epic as the RG garage sale of 2011, but I'm happy that we do have close to $1,000 to send to them. 

In a nutshell, that brings us to now.  Grandma and grandpa are coming this week and we also will(hopefully!) get to celebrate Nevaeh's birthday! 

Friday

Ready, set, goal!

brotherly love

Bundled up for a walk on a chilly day.

(Laura, thanks for loaning us the stroller!)

The big kid.

We love celebrating! 

Pearl, I hope you recognize the candle.  It's officially made the rounds. 

Before picture of Seth at the dentist before getting one of his front teeth pulled.  He had an on again/off again infection in his tooth root that we finally felt ready to tackle.  It was a really quick and smooth process, hardly any fuss at all.  In typical Seth fashion though, he wouldn't let me take an after picture. :)  I'll catch him unawares soon.... 

Playing night night, one of Nevaeh and Ollie's favorite games. 

More of happy Jack.  I need to get a picture of his teeth, since they are on the bottom and you can't see them much when he's smiling. 

Three big kids around are the best rolling over motivators. 

 

Smiley boy!

 

Real Life, People. Real Life.

 

 

 

Some snapshots of life. 

 

People keep asking how we are adjusting, or how our new kids are doing and the short simple answer is:  well. 

 

I will say though, that a certain five year old in the house is struggling.  I always find it difficult to write about Seth because I mostly blog so Jon and I (and our children if they want) can look back some day and see what life was like.  I know for a fact that no baby books or scrapbooks are being compiled around these parts, and I want to remember when I'm old and gray the funny things they said and how their personalities and interests evolved.  And I love them.  And love to talk about them.

 

However, I do not wish to mis-lead or present a picture of our family that is simply not true. 

We have one child who struggles mightily with control issues and anger issues, and really anything that goes along with emotional regulation.  He tells me weekly (daily?) that he wishes he were a grown up.  Translation:  I want to be the boss.  I want to make my own rules.  I want to control the events in my life.  Yesterday when he told me that, he also said that he would live in a house next to mine and we would be neighbors and see each other every day and he could come over for dinner and we would eat hot dogs and pizza.  So sometimes it's just plain 'ol sweet. 

 

But here's the kicker.  He would likely be struggling without any extra bodies in our house.  We have been home for about 2.5 years and we have seasons were we see tremendous growth and seasons where daily meltdowns are common and even expected.  In many ways, having littles in the house has helped Seth and has given him avenues to pitch in useful, real ways.  (Because he wants to be a grown up, remember?) 

 

I will say that with more kids in the house, it is a challenge to have your oldest be your firecracker.  (Is there ever a good birth order to be the wild child, you ask?  Who knows.)  Ollie sees Seth's reactions and it seems he is beginning to think that is the normal way to respond to disappointments.  It's kind of strange watching Ollie work himself up, because it lacks all the heat.  It seems like he is just acting in a way that he thinks is the norm.  Conversely, Ollie is also beginning to take on the roll of peace-maker.  I think this is a great life skill, but it also makes me so sad for him in a way that I can't really explain.  I guess I hope he doesn't ever feel a burden to keep everyone happy, that's not your job, kid.  People can look to Jesus for contentment.  Nevaeh and Seth play together some, but usually she keeps her distance and is honestly kind of afraid of him.  Seth never hurts anyone intentionally, but I think his frequent volume keeps her at bay.     

 

So I guess what I'm saying is, it's not all sunshine and rainbows over here, but yes, thanks for asking. The two new ones are adjusting fantastically.   

 

 

Ababa's Home!!

Catching Up

Lots of cheesy smiles for the camera!

Lots more tv watching.  Also, lots of half-made beds. 

 

 

 A month or two ago, Seth started earning allowance by doing chores.  Ollie has been pretty interested in seeing Seth drop in his two dimes every Sunday in the basket, but his interest piqued when Seth brought home books he bought himself from the book fair with his hard earned money.  Ollie asked if he could start doing chores and get an allowance and we agreed, although he may be a little young.  We will see if his interest continues.

 

And they are good help, if you don't mind the fact that all dish towels get folded on a floor that may or may not be clean.  ;)

 

Jack has had his first few bites of food in the last few days! 

Overall, he is not a fan.  :)

But, we try hard to make him laugh, so then we can just shove in a bite.  

Fort building!