My Christmas Surprise

When we got back from Maryland I checked email and found an email from the boys birthmom! It had a bunch of pictures in it and a short note. We have not had any contact with her for the past two years, so this was super exciting. I feel open adoptions are a better option for both the kids and the birth parents, but since the boys were adopted through the state that isn't really an option in general. When rights were terminated I gave both their birthdad and birthmom a gift and note including an email address for contacting us. I wasn't sure if we would ever hear from either of them...it had been two years after all. I printed out all the pictures for the boys and told them what she wrote. They have three brothers who still live with her and you can definitely see the family resemblance from the pictures. We never had a chance to meet the older boys, but maybe some day we will....at least this is a start.

Adoption Day

One year ago today we finalized the boys adoption. Since we had ice cream at UCONN on their finalization day, I figured a fun tradition might be to have ice cream every adoption day for them. I received no complaining from the kids regarding this plan, so tonight we had french toast with bacon and cantaloupe and brownie ice cream sundaes! Our neighbor Hannah was over playing with the girls, so we invited her to stay and her mother came over as well since her dad and brother are out of town for Spring break. It was a lovely evening! We are so thankful to have the boys as part of our family!

a weekend of fun

Hannah and Nathan are preparing to leave for Austin tomorrow. They are going to visit Hannah's birth-mom. Hannah is super excited, not only does she get to see her birth-mom but she also gets to spend the weekend with Dad on her own. What more could a girl ask for? Maybe 80 degree weather and sun? We're supposed to get snow here tomorrow night into Saturday morning. If you were wondering, which I'm sure you were. Anyway, to get Hannah ready for her weekend we did her hair today.

Serious in the front.....

Party in the back :-)

Changes and Challenges

My sweet Hannah girl has been processing a lot in the past two weeks. Which has added to the challenge of the boys that I wrote about yesterday. I think she has finally worked through most things for the time being, but there was definitely a lot going on. She is my super serious, super smart kiddo and she's been thinking way too much for a seven year old. It all started when I was reading a book about Adoniram Judson (one of the first missionaries sent from the US) and he lay awake next to his good friend from college who was dying and he didn't even realize it. While laying awake he pondered deep life questions about Heave and Hell and if there is a God. It was a turning point in his life. Anyway, Hannah has always had a fear of death. Reading this story led to a very late night on Friday the 12th, she was up past 10 pm crying and being scared of dying and asking all kinds of questions. Saturday we did our adoption day stuff, which threw adoption issues and fitting in on top of the dying processing. We were repeatedly asked questions of do we like her or do we love her. Saturday she wouldn't fall asleep without us in the room, however she was exhausted so she fell asleep quickly as I sung and prayed. Sunday Nathan sat in the room while she fell asleep. Monday I had her take a nap in an attempt to try and have her a little better rested and reset so she might go to sleep normally. Well, after the nap she would not let me go. She had questions and lots of them. She wanted to know if she would go to Heaven, as she decided she wasn't really sure. Then when I asked her about following Jesus she told me she didn't know enough to do that. We sat and talked for a couple hours, she decided she was ready to follow Jesus forever. I asked if she had ever done that before and she said, not really, she had believed a little, but not much. She has also decided she wants to be like Enoch, who "walked with God and was no more" because he didn't die. Monday and Tuesday night she did not fall asleep quickly, but every time she was scared and called me in she'd say to me "let's pray about it" and then she would pray first and I would pray. This is huge. She has been sleeping much better the past couple nights, so I am thankful about that and I'm excited to see what God does with her in the days, weeks, months and years to come!

3 years old x 2 = trouble

I'm learning more and more about twins as our life continues on. I now fully grasp why schools do not put twins in the same class. The boys are three, as everyone I've talked to lately about the trouble we've been having with them has reminded me, threes are worse than twos, and even more so when you have two of them! I never had terrible twos with the girls, never, but threes, yeah, we won't go there. The boys had a little bit of the terrible twos, but not much. Threes...yeah, well, let's go there. We started having them go to things independently, such as AWANA. There are five three and four year old boys in their AWANA class. There has been one teacher the past two weeks, one of the weeks she only had a 12 year old helping......that resulted in some boys feeling they could do whatever they wanted. Yes, that would be my boys. And then Sunday school.......well apparently they were angels the first week, but by this past week (week 3) the Sunday school teacher was unable to control them. They got a talking to in between services and were much better the second service....but still, you never want to have "those kids."  The advantage (for them, not for us) is that while one is getting disciplined the other can continue to get into trouble, and maybe, just maybe what you said to his brother doesn't apply to him. And when you have two the destructive capability is worse, much worse than with one. I was talking to a dad at the park yesterday who has twin four year old boys. He said all the baseboard heaters in his house were pulled off the wall....yeah, I know about that. Two of ours are no longer on the wall, I thought it was just us, I'm thankful it's not! I know it's just a phase, this too shall pass. And there are some definite bright spots, but some days it's just hard!  I'm trying to focus on the good parts, how whenever the boys see me, especially Damen it's "There's MY MOMMY!!!!!" It's always MY mommy, which makes me smile :-) Also, today at the library they did a half an hour program on their own, they are so excited to be like the girls and do it on their own, and when I picked them up the librarian said they did great. So there is hope. I've also realized through the loving discipline they have been receiving ever so regularly lately and how they react to that and other things they are really well bonded at this point. Which is wonderful!

Random Catch up

Last week Debbie stopped by for a couple days since she was in the states. We really enjoyed having her and the kids reaction couldn't have been better. I believe when she came up stairs (because they didn't know she was coming, and she came in after they were in bed) while they were eating breakfast, Green Machine was in the kitchen and said "Aunt Debbie! Aunt Debbie on skype?" or something like that. Yes....my kids have been known to believe their aunt lives in a computer :-) But it was good to see her in real life.
She brought the kids some really cute clothes too! Here are the girls:

She also was amazing with helping take half the kids while I had things to do with the other half, not having to have all four with me is always a nice break. While I had the boys at an appointment Thursday morning she also chopped Evie's hair for me! Evie had been asking for it since I had done mine on New Years Evie. And fortunately for you, I happen to have a before picture because she decided to where her hair down (which she hadn't done in months because it gets REALLY tangled that way and take forever to brush out) when we were at the museum at the end of February.

 Here is your before picture.....

And here's the after. It was about 10 inches that she had cut off and she is donating it to Children with hair loss and is very excited about it!

Evie absolutely loved the shorter hair and it makes both our lives easier :-) I also trimmed Hannah's for the first time ever when I was braiding it on Tuesday. Hannah was super excited to be included in the family hair cuts as well.

Here are some more pictures from the museum. I think we spent almost an hour in the water section of the museum....maybe more...All the kids were drenched by the end. Hannah was asked where her parent was (I was within view and keeping track of her!) and the boys were drinking out of the running water again......All in all a success right? Well, at least they all had a lot of fun.

 Hannah really enjoyed drawing on the slate wall (although you can't tell it from her face here) and did it for quite awhile.

Evie spent awhile pumping up the water and making the balls explode out.

I have some pictures of the boys just trying to get as wet as possible, but I can't post any of them yet....

The girls also enjoyed a photo both that posted the pictures to a wall. It was pretty cool. 

Here they are making a short (few second) video that would go up on the wall.

Since we're on random catch up and in one huge post :-) Did I mention Hannah broke some sleds? Yes, more than one. We went out in our yard sledding when the snow was covered with ice, it was amazing! So much fun! But Hannah kept hitting a tree. Evie and I were able to get in between the two trees.....but Hannah was having problems with it....

The helmet was not worn while sledding...but maybe it should have been!

It was so slippery you were able to go down the hill without a sled too! 

This is Evie in tears because she didn't make it as far as Hannah and I did and she said "I can never do anything right!" I tried not to laugh too hard! 

It was great, because even though the snow was still deep, you could run right on top of it! 

It was so slick even Little Boy Blue could pull Hannah on it.

If you can't tell I got the pictures loaded on to my computer....there were a couple that came out okay from the gymnastics party...I really liked these two...

Here's Evie, finishing with the balance beam.....

And here she is waiting for her sister Evie is so sweet and encouraging!

Well, I think that's it for now. That's pretty much our excitement from the last two weeks.

A visit with Lyn

We had Lyn (and Zac, and Kara and Karen) over on Saturday. They drove all the way from the Austin area (over three hours away) to see us before we left! We had so much fun. Kara was only able to stay for lunch, and then had to leave for work (she's going to college in Houston). But, before she left we made sure to show our crazy side. I made chocolate chip cookies for dessert for lunch and when I brought them out the girls said they wanted to decorate them. Kara chimed in that she hadn't decorated cookies, well, how can we have cookies and some who has never decorated them leave our house in that state? We can't. So I whipped up some frosting, let Kara pick from our HUGE assortment of decorations and let her (and my girls) go to town. :-) It was all great fun and craziness. I like craziness! Lyn came bearing gifts and spent a large amount of time reading to Hannah and Evie from the new books she brought. Nathan got out his legos which Zac enjoyed and we had a great visit. We're so thankful we could see Lyn and her family before we moved to Connecticut.

Lyn reading to the girls

Playing with foam. Everyone loves the foam! :-)

Cookie decorating. Zac, Karen, Kara, Lyn, Hannah and Evie.

Lyn's visit

Lyn and Zac came for lunch on Saturday. Zac had fun with all our toys and Lyn had fun playing with Hannah. Hannah always make sure to give Lyn a good workout. For example, you can take a look at this video:

Hannah also brought her outside to run and chase her, but Hannah ended up stepping in a fire ant hill....not so good. Last night was her first night without waking up since it happened. I'm very glad it's healing quickly!

Hannah enjoyed playing little people with Lyn, but wasn't being very nice with her people, for example she would invite Lyn's people in for water or tea and then kick them out before giving it to them.....not sure what was up with that, but we had a little talk about it.

Nathan and Zac worked on so cool marble works towers

And of course there were books read, this is actually Hannah showing Lyn her life book.

And this is a picture Hannah took, she's getting better!

A visit with Lyn

This past Saturday we drove up to Manor, TX, a little town not too far outside of Austin, for the afternoon. We went to see Hannah's birth-mom, Lyn and as a bonus we got to meet her dad, step-mom and half sister. Hannah had a blast, I think it was definitely the best visit we've had with Lyn. Hannah had been asking to see her for awhile, but I wasn't sure how the visit would go, as she can be very excited about things and then just stand there when you're finally doing them. We brought along some toys, and Hannah started off playing barbies with Lyn. Apparently Lyn wasn't into barbies when she was a little girl and also feels they must have their clothes on, something most four year olds I know feel the opposite about! Hannah and Evie both enjoyed several rounds of hide and seek, and even Zac came out to play with the bristle blocks for a few minutes.

Do you see that grin on Hannah's face?

Playing with the pop-ons and barbies

Hearing a story from Zac, doesn't Hannah look thrilled? Well, Zac wasn't reading loud enough for her to hear because he's not used to reading out loud.

This is Lyn's stepmom, Karen, a little better than Zac, as she can actually hear the story now, but still unsure about the whole thing....

Hearing a story from Lyn, much better, that's who I wanted to read in the first place!

Zac, Lyn and Hannah

Evie found lots of places to explore and get into trouble :-)

A family picture, Kato (Lyn's dad), Nathan, Zac, Lyn, Hannah, Karen, Jackie and Evie
We also got to meet Kara, Lyn's sister who was kind enough to take the picture for us.

a new toy

Hannah received a gift card from her birth-parents for her birthday and I finally had a chance to take her shopping. Just she and I went to Wal-mart. On the way to Wal-mart I asked what she might want. Her answer? Apple juice. Hmmm........I told her I could probably buy the apple juice and she could pick something else out (I totally forgot the apple juice if you're wondering). Her second answer was a car that she and Evie could ride in together, I had to explain that was a little out of her price range, but it was a nice thought. Hannah enjoyed looking at all the toys and seeing what their was, I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that she didn't want everything, and there were actually very few things she did want. After we had been down every toy isle I asked what she'd like and her answer was the only thing I've always wanted. Which was a cash register, conveyor belt, scale, calculator, bar code reader and credit card swiper. First thing the next morning (we went shopping after Evie was in bed, so it was pretty late) the girls were having a blast with it.

Here's Hannah scanning Evie's groceries.

Here you can see the conveyor belt and Evie is bagging her groceries.

Hannah does a great job ringing up your purchases.

catching up......

This is a post about the week after we got back from GA, sorry it was so long in coming. After getting back from Georgia on Tuesday night late we hit the ground running Wednesday, with friends from out of town coming over for the day. Very, VERY good friends I might add, who even bought us groceries! We had a great time with them and were thankful we got a chance to catch up, however short the time may have been. Thursday Nathan had to work a little bit and we had our Thursday night home group, we just ate dinner and had a fellowship night, which was much needed. And Friday the Dec. 31st we had the opportunity to get to meet more of our third family (Hannah's birth family). Hannah's birth grandmother and uncle came over for lunch. I was shocked by how well Hannah responded to them. She was much less reserved than she normally is, even wanting to go outside to greet them. It was great to meet them! We had fun chatting and learning more about Lyn from her family :-)

Hannah warms up to anyone who's willing to read her a book!

Here's Sarah (Lyn's mom) Kato (Lyn's brother) and the girls

On New Years we were able to meet more of Hannah's birth family, meeting her great grandmother and three of her great aunts and a great uncle that stopped by for a minute. Hannah was much more reserved during this visit, but her Aunt Vera definitely got her relaxed, smiling and even laughing!

Evie, unlike Hannah, was very comfortable and made herself at home!

All smiles, Pearl enjoyed getting to meet her great-granddaughter for the first time

Pearl was very thoughtful and gave both girls books! Here Vera and Linda are reading to Hannah. Hannah wasn't so sure about them yet, even with them reading a book.

We brought lots of pictures for everyone to see.

Hannah and Vera having fun with Evie

Family Relations

Yesterday Hannah was showing a picture of Joey to Evie and telling Evie about him and explaining that he was her (Hannah's) cousin. Hannah then turns to me and asks "Are Joey and Jameson Evie's cousin too?" my answer? Of course, you have the same family. Her response? "Why doesn't Evie have brothers?" hmmm.....good question, I wasn't ready for that. Hannah has two half brothers, who we get to see and visit with and count as her brothers......so are they Evie's brothers too? No. I totally fumbled the question, but I know it will come up again. I told Nathan about it last night and he said to remind her how special she is because she gets two families, her birth family and her forever family. We'll see if I can remember that next time.

photo madness

When we adopted Hannah we signed into an agreement stating we would send Lyn pictures and a letter twice a year until Hannah is 18. We love Lyn, so it's not hard to fill this requirement. The hardest part is going through my now hundreds of pictures of every couples to find which ones I want to send. I did this Thursday and found that I have way too many pictures to go through, it took me a couple hours to pick out the ones that I wanted to send. I did find out however that WalMart has free home delivery until the end of July. This means pictures are only 9 cents a piece (the free home delivery is good through the end of the month if you're interested)! But the lesson I learned is I should pick out the pictures for Lyn as I load the pictures on the computer. I never took that many pictures before the blog, so it was never really a problem. Now I need to get organized!

Annual Kinship Picnic

Each year NewLife, the agency we adopted through hosts a picnic for adoptive families and encourages them to invite the birth families to it. We've done it each year since we've had Hannah and it's been a lot of fun. The picnic was yesterday, so we headed up to the north west side of town and enjoyed the beautiful day!

Lyn and Hannah playing peek-a-boo

Can you tell Hannah was enjoying it?

Zach had fun and made a lot of friends

Evie has figured out you can pet the back of a dog without getting licked :-)

Lyn and I had a great time chatting when she wasn't playing with Hannah.

Dinner with Lyn

We had Hannah's birth-mom Lyn and her two sons, Tra and Zach, over for dinner this past Saturday. We normally get together in January to celebrate Zach and Hannah's birthday. This was the first time we had them over to our house. It was a lot of fun. Hannah warmed up quickly, I think a lot of that was because it was our house. By the end of the night she was running around like crazy and playing hide and seek with Lyn. Hannah would hide and say "Lyn!!! Come find me!" and then squeal with delight when Lyn found her. It was fun to watch :-)

Lyn and Hannah reading a book

Hannah telling Lyn all about her pictures

Tra and Zach having fun

Whose tummy did I grow in?

This past week Hannah asked that question at lunch one day, after just stating that Evie grew in my tummy. And then said with a huge grin on her face "Did I grow in Mommy's tummy?" like that'd be the most ridiculous thing in the world! And I said "nooooooooooo, whose tummy did you grow in?" and she said "Lyn's!!!" If it could all stay this simple.....

Fun at the library

Another adventure of this weekend was going to the central library downtown to meet up with Lyn, Hannah's birthmom and her half brothers, Tray and Zach. This was the first time my parents and Lyn have met. Everyone in our family has seen pictures of Lyn and her boys so they feel like part of the family, but Lyn had not met any of our extended family before Saturday.

Nathan, Hannah and Zach hanging out

Hannah hearing a book from Tray

Lyn and Hannah having fun doing puzzles

Nathan, Evie, Tray, Zach and Hannah playing with Lyn looking on

My Dad and Evie hanging out