Finally

So we have finally restarted this whole adoption thing. Again. Paperwork and checks are winging their way across the country right now. It feels a bit overwhelming at the moment. So much to do- paperwork to file, money to save/raise, house to prep, kids to prep -though, they are convinced we should have gotten our kids like, yesterday, so I think they'll be alright. It does feel like it will never actually happen, but hopefully there will be no major reason to stop the process this time. *sigh*
 The kids wanted to choose names for our new kid/kiddos this morning. So far, they like Judy (why?), Zechariah, Zaccheaus and Frank. Ha. Guess who will NOT be naming our new kids? Hope is hoping for a "twin"- a girl close to her age. Grace wants a baby boy. I keep telling them we will just have to wait and see, but part of me agrees with them. :-) A baby boy, another little girl...I could get used to the idea.
Anyways, we'll be working on new fund raising projects in the near future. Check back and see what God blesses us with.

Tax Returns, Adoption and Other Stuff
We sent in our taxes two months ago and recently received a request for more verification before they release our adoption tax credit. Big surprise there. From what I have read, that has been pretty normal for most people trying to claim the adoption tax credit. So we sent in the verification and continue to wait.
We are getting excited about our Congo adoption. The girls and I are planning how their room will be set up when we start making the house ready for a new baby (or two). We have always planned on adopting two children from the DRC at one time. However, we had my brother in law and sister in law's kids living with for three weeks and that has us questioning whether it would be wise for us to adopt more than one at a time. We'll see what happens. We are open to two, but are not sure we will specify that we want more than one...make sense?
Also, if anyone has suggestions for a good agency to get your home study through in Minnesota, please let me know. We are looking, but haven't decided on one yet.
We found out that our neighborhood has a neighborhood garage sale planned for early in August, so we are planning on having our Adoption Garage Sale at the same time. I've started sorting through stuff and have a pile that is growing. We are excited and antsy to be moving on with this adoption! I want to hold my baby (or babies)!
Grace and Hope are growing like weeds...well, mostly Grace is growing like a weed. Hope is growing, but at a slower, steadier pace. Grace grew out of all her pants seemingly overnight in February, and when we bought her new pants, she only fit in them for about a month before moving on to the next size. Sadly, though, she still won't be able to hand down her month-old pants to her younger sister, because even in that short amount of time, she wore right through them. Ah well. Eventually, Hope will be thrilled that she doesn't get many hand-me-downs from her sister.
We've decided to continue school throughout the summer, though at a more relaxed pace. We missed a full month of school when we moved and the kids just get so BORED without school. On the days I have declared "No School" days, Grace inevitably begs to have some schoolwork to do in the afternoon and Hope is just restless and a tad bit crazy. So we will continue going through workbooks, reading A LOT, and playing educational games as much as we can. We are hoping Nana can come down for a day and teach a watercolor painting class. The kids would eat it up! 
We've recently joined a new church that is pastored by one of my husband's old friends from college. It is a small church about twenty minutes from our house. For such a small church, there are a lot of children and our kids love being able to play with so many friends at church. It has been a bit of an adjustment as it is much different than the big church we were members of in Louisville, but the change has been good for us and is growing and stretching us in ways we were not expecting. It has been amazing to watch this church change and grow a lot in the last few months. There is a love of scripture and a growing love of the Gospel. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

We Are Still Alive

Our lives have changed SO much in the last two months! We moved across the country (again), to a place where we basically knew no one, though extended family is only a couple hours away now. Everything is different. Our house, Steve's work schedule, our church, our daily schedule, the grocery stores (don't get me started on that one), the people/culture here, we're in a totally different kind of neighborhood (definitely a good change), have no close friends nearby, and the list goes on and on. I think we were in a bit of culture shock for the first few weeks. Our bodies revolted against the move to a new climate/state and we were constantly sick the first three weeks we lived here.
Thankfully, we are starting to get into a routine and are finally feeling a little more at home in our new town. I can find my way around fairly easily, a huge blessing for my directionally challenged brain. I have not yet figured out a good strategy for grocery shopping, but I'm working on it.
 We are thoroughly enjoying our new home, which is three times bigger than our last house. The first day we lived here, I hardly even saw the girls. I just heard their voices as they moved from one part of the house to another, exploring every nook and cranny. Pictures of the new house will be forthcoming, but I wanted to get a couple rooms painted and decorated before showing everyone the house. We bought a rather dated 1950's ranch house with 3,000 sq. feet. Yay! The space is amazing. I have pretty much unpacked all of my kitchen and still have empty cupboards. Just last week, I realized that there were drawers in my kitchen that I had never even opened! Our basement has been taken over by all the boxes we have yet to unpack, but the main living area of our house is coming together and feeling more and more like home all the time.
We are currently having our taxes done and are excited about possibly starting the ball rolling once again on our Congo adoptions! I have not yet restarted my Etsy shop because I haven't unpacked my craft stuff yet, but hopefully in the next few weeks, I'll get to that. The girls keep talking about their "brothers". They cannot wait until we are able to bring their new siblings home. Maybe this year or next year. Lord willing, it will be soon. :)

The Countdown Has Begun

14 days. That's all the time we have left in Louisville before we head for our new home in Minnesota. Well, our temporary new home at least. We can't close on our new house until mid-February, so we will be staying in temporary housing for a few weeks. The mixed emotions of moving are becoming more intense as our time here grows shorter. We are so excited to finally be moving, buying a much bigger house, and living in a much better neighborhood, but with all that comes the huge sadness of leaving our beloved Immanuel Baptist Church and all our friends here.
The girls and I were given an unexpected blessing of being able to spend an extra day with one of my closest friends this week. Though the cause of this extra time was not fun- a broken furnace and a gas leak scare- we just loved spending the day with our friends. We are going to miss them SO much. My favorite baby boy gave me lots of smiles and hugs that day too-another added blessing. :)
This week will be spent packing and cleaning and trying to cram in some more time with friends. It feels like it has taken forever to get to this point, but I am pretty sure that from here on out, the time is going to FLY.
Once we are finally in our new home, we will hopefully have more to say about our Congo adoptions, but at this point, that is on the back burner as we are gearing up to move across the country. I've been following a few blogs of other people adopting from the Congo and have been encouraged by the progress in their adoptions. Lord willing, we will get things moving soon!

Moving

Steve got the job in Minnesota!!!!!!!
It's been a bit crazy over here the last little while. We finally sold our house in late November. Yay! Thankfully, the new owner is allowing us to remain on the property and rent from him until we are ready to move to Minnesota.
 In December, we finally received word that Steve had, in fact, gotten the job, so the day after Christmas, we headed for Minnesota to do some house hunting. Can I just say that house hunting is a tad stressful? For our family, the most important part of the house is the kitchen/ dining area and we are looking for a house we can comfortably live in for the foreseeable future, so we wanted to at least like that part of the house we will buy. Let me just say, WOW. Who knew so many people thought of the kitchen as an afterthought? Seriously, some of the kitchens we saw looked like they had just been thrown together after the rest of the house was finished. Yikes.
After two days of house hunting, Steve and I were both hit with an awful stomach bug. I have never been so sick in my entire life. We are still feeling the effects of the stomach bug in that food just isn't as appealing as it once was and we get full a lot faster now.
Anyways, we found a house we both love and put in an offer. In typical "Minnesota nice" fashion, instead of asking the sellers to respond in a certain time frame ("We could ask them for a specific date, but we just don't do that"), the sellers are given "reasonable time" to respond. Which could, of course, mean anything. We are definitely hoping to get this house, but have our eyes on other houses hitting the market just in case. If we get this house, we are hoping that we will be able to move in early February and I can't wait to start painting and decorating. :)
On the adoption front, DRCongo's elections are over, and while they were not perfect, things seem to be settling down. As soon as possible after we move, we will be having our home study redone and then will send in our dossier and get on the waiting list. The kids are having a hard time understanding how long it could be before we get their "brothers from Africa". Grace is convinced we are getting two boys. They seem to think that as soon as we move, Steve and I will go pick the new kids up. Sadly, it won't be quite that fast.  But I think we will finally get the ball rolling and be able to get on the waiting list. I read this article yesterday. Life in DRCongo is hard. We are praying that God would bring our babies home quickly.

It Is Good To Give Thanks To The Lord

Pastor Dom preached from Psalm 92 this morning. I have been thinking on it ever since then. Is has stirred great thankfulness and praise in my heart and I hope to share that with my kids as we work on our thankfulness journals this evening.
At this time last year, I was in the middle of depression brought on by long, hard trials and was so angry at God, I hadn't picked up my Bible for almost a month. We had been waiting and waiting for the girls' birth parents to have their rights terminated. I had testified in court at the Termination of Parental Rights hearing, we had waited for the judge's decision with great hope and were overjoyed when the decision came back...parental rights had been terminated! We were finally going to be able to adopt these kids! There was a 30 day waiting period, during which time, the birth parents could file an appeal to this decision. No one really thought they would, and it was wonderful when we got to the 30th day and were told that there was no appeal and therefore, we could move forward with adoption. The kids were told that it was over and that they were going to be a part of our family forever.
Two days later, our world seemed to come crashing down around us when we received a call saying that there had been some mistake, the birth parents had in fact been able to file an appeal on the very last of the 30 days and it would be 6 months to a year before we knew what the ruling on the appeal would be. It was the trial that just would not end. Even now, my chest hurts just thinking about it. I was so angry, so weary, and very much doubting God's love and care for me. I couldn't sing to him. I wouldn't read his Word. As far as I was concerned, God had failed and the enemy had won. It was all I could do to drag myself out of bed in the morning and take care of the kids. But God, in His never failing love for me, sent friends to speak the gospel into my life. I was reminded of his faithfulness over and over again in the following months. Thankfully, I can now joyfully say:

12Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O LORD, and whom you teach out of your law, 13to give him rest from days of trouble, until a pit is dug for the wicked. 14For the LORD will not forsake his people; he will not abandon his heritage; 15for justice will return to the righteous, and all the upright in heart will follow it. 16Who rises up for me against the wicked? Who stands up for me against evildoers? 17If the LORD had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence. 18When I thought, “My foot slips,” your steadfast love, O LORD, held me up. 19When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.

Crossway Bibles (2011-02-09). The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Kindle Locations 23942-23951). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

PSALM 92 It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; 2to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night, 3to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre. 4For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy. 5How great are your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep! 6The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this: 7that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever; 8but you, O LORD, are on high forever.9For behold, your enemies, O LORD, for behold, your enemies shall perish; all evildoers shall be scattered. 10But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox; you have poured over me [212] fresh oil.

 11My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies; my ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants. 12The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 13They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God. 14They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, 15to declare that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

Crossway Bibles (2011-02-09). The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Kindle Locations 23911-23920). Crossway. Kindle Edition. 

Waiting

Waiting for a job to open up in MN.
Waiting to move to MN.
Waiting to sign papers and officially sell our house.
Waiting to unpack (half of our possessions have been in storage and awaiting a move since our house went under contract last summer).
Waiting for the DRC Elections to take place. (Scheduled for November 28, and maybe will know the outcome by December 15?)
Waiting to take the next step in our Congo adoptions.
Waiting, waiting, waiting...
It seems like that has been our lot in life for the past few years...waiting. I have been reminded a few times lately to not JUST wait, but to live and to enjoy our lives during the waiting. I have started having a few minutes of "Thankfulness Journal Time" with the kids every night. We each have a thankfulness journal and we talk about all the things we are thankful for that day. The girls each pick one thing they want to write in their journal. Grace writes a sentence (working on vocab and handwriting), Hope traces a sentence (just to get her used the drawing the letter shapes) and colors a picture of what she's thankful for and I say aloud what I am thankful for as I jot them down in my journal.
As we have done this exercise, it has caused me to realize some of the benefits of waiting. One big benefit is that the longer we wait to move, the further ahead in our adoption we will be able to get (hopefully) before needed to redo our home study and such. We are praying that the November 28th elections go well and that adoptions will stay open.
Also, and this may seem rather trivial, but our neighborhood junk day (this happens twice a year) is this weekend and we are going to go through our belongings and get rid of anything that is broken, or in other ways just not worth taking all the way to Minnesota with us. Hopefully, that will cut down on some of the clutter and help keep me sane through the winter. :)
We have no idea if or when a position that Steve would want will open in Minnesota. We are praying for sooner rather than later, but are trying to enjoy our time here as we wait. We definitely made use of the fact that we live so close to Huber's Orchard and Winery and have a bunch of homemade apple cider in the freezer.
We also fully intend to enjoy the fact that autumn lasts so long here and the winter in Louisville is mild. We miss Minnesota, but the -0 temps in the winter will definitely be something we'll have to adjust to.
While waiting for our next two kiddos, I'm purposely trying to enjoy time with the kids we have now. I've instituted a weekly date night (Wednesday evenings), where one child gets to stay up with me for an extra hour. On Hope's week, we watched The Cosby Show together and cuddled on the couch. For Grace's date, we painted and talked. These have both been stretching times for me, as after bedtime is my time to get things done in the peace and quiet, but both date nights went very well and because of this date time, I was able to speak the gospel into my daughter's life last night.
I am enjoying the fact that Hope is still small enough for me to pick up and hold...I know this won't last long, and also realize that once we have two new little ones, I'll miss out on holding her so much as I'll spend a lot of my time carrying the new kiddos. So I am savoring the times that she still asks me to hold her.
Waiting is hard, but God is faithful, and for that, I'm thankful.

And We Have A New Reader In The Family!

Grace has been trying to read every word she sees. She is so excited to be able to sound some of the words out. Just last week, she was being super cute playing Rock Band with Steve and he said to me, "Hey Babe, want to get the C-A-M-E-R-A?" She sat still for a minute, then grinned and said, "I think he wants you to get the camera!" Stunned silence followed this announcement. We knew our days of spelling secret things were numbered, but we didn't realize they would be over quite this soon.

The Last Few Months with Grace and Hope in Facebook Posts

August 2- Iris just came out of her bedroom with a helium balloon tied around her neck and she asked me if I could pick her up and hold her over the air conditioner so the air could make her fly and she could be "superhero to the rescue!" ??? She was disappointed to learn that she could not fly and that tying balloons around ones neck is just not safe. Ha.

August 2- So I was teaching the girls the "Cold/Hot" game where you hide something and then direct them to find it using "hot" and "cold" directions. Iris got tired of me saying "cold" when she couldn't find the item, so she wrapped herself up in a blanket and told me, "Okay mom, I warm now. Where is it?"

August 9- So I finally had to MAKE the kids go play by themselves. They were convinced that there was schoolwork somewhere that they just had to be doing. Good grief. Hope (Iris) sat and traced letters for over an hour today and was sad when she was finished. I think I've created a monster!

August 9- Hope (Iris) pulled out the chalkboard today and asked Grace (DeDe) to sit and watch her "be the weather lady". She drew storms and 'nados (tornados) and yelled they everybody needed to get in the basement! It was hilarious.

August 11- Grace was able to read her first few simple sentences today. She's hooked. :) I finally had to call it quits at dinner time. I can only take so many sentences made up of simple three letter words.

August 15- Had fun exploring our five senses with the kids today. Blindfolded them and had them figure out what things were by taste, smell, and touch, then had each of them find me and whichever girl wasn't blindfolded by following the sound of our voices and had them identify sounds they heard while blindfolded. They had a blast!

August 17- We decided to start our History lessons with the Pilgrims and Plymouth Plantation. Tonight, we read part of a book called "The Dreadful Smelly Colonies", which talked about the lack of sanitation, chamber pots, and outhouses. Grace responded with, "Mom, we need to pray that they will not have those yucky potties anymore. That's gross!" Ha!

August 21- My baby turns 4 today. Happy Birthday Iris Hope Casey! So thankful you are my daughter!

August 24- Hope just came out of her bedroom wearing some of Grace's dress up clothes. She punched both hands into the air and yelled. "Dey fit me! Pwaise God!" I think she's excited about growing. :)

August 25- Recently, Hope has been responding with, "Aw, nuts!" anytime I ask her to do anything. Who says that???? I am not a fan, though the first time was kinda funny because it was so unexpected.

Augusst 25- The kids are both packing up for a trip to the North and South Poles. They are planning to ride their cardboard box boat across the seven seas to get there. ???

August 30- Hope (Iris) was doing a new puzzle of the U.S.A. She found the piece that had Minnesota and the Dakotas on it and yelled, "Grace, come here! I have great news! I found Minnesota!" It cracks me up that she said, "I have great news!" Ha.

August 30- since reading "The Dreadful Smelly Colonies", Hope has been a little obsessed with the idea of an outhouse. It is just dreadful to her and she keeps worrying that we might find one and make her use it. Anyways, the girls are playing with blocks and just informed me that they built an outhouse for their princess dolls. :)

September 1- I woke this morning to Hope yelling this warning at Grace, "Hurry DeDe, Mama will be awake at any minute!" Oh boy. This could be a long day.

September 3- We bought Hope a new "computer" for her birthday. It has all kinds of letter and number games on it. She just ran out of her bedroom super excited and yelling, "Mommy, I can't believe it! I can learn vowels! I can't believe it!" So funny.

September 7- Grace is totally going to be one of those women with matching frilly aprons and rubber gloves. Probably will wear pearls as well. Right now she is cleaning the bathroom and the kitty litter box wearing pink heals and trying to be all dainty. Ha!

September 13- Is once again amazed at God's goodness in using our foster adoption story to encourage others to care for orphans. So thankful and humbled to be used in this way. Praising God for bringing so much good from that long trial. He is faithful.

September 22- so we've been juicing fruits and veggies every morning this week. Of course, Hope (Iris) LOVES the juices which are mostly fruit, or at least have a stronger fruit flavor. Grace's favorite has been the one I made that was basically a salad in a glass. Why are my children's tastes so opposite?

Sept 27- got my hair cut and highlighted today. Hope's response when she had thought about it for a little while? "Your hair's a little bit crazy, Mom. I don't like the yellow stuff. Next time, make your hair pink. I will like that." Don't hold your breath, kid.

Sept 27- Another hair quote from Hope: (With expression like a lightbulb turned on in her brain) "MOM! Your hair is like Tangled! It change color when you sleep?" Uses her fingers to search through the layers. "I see the dark stuff under here. Yep. It change color when you sleep."

Sept 29- Hope had her ears pierced a week and a half ago. We offered to let Grace have her ears pierced too, but she decided against it. This week, she said she was ready to be brave, so we took her to the store today and now both Grace and Hope have pierced ears. :)

October 4- Hope's first random question of the morning (I'm sure there will only be about a thousand more today): "Mom, how do cats pass gas?"

October 9- Grace's lunchtime joke: "When I was three, I asked for more and more green beans." She laughed at this for a while. Ha.


Loving life with my crazy kids.

Our Hearts Are Longing...



A good friend was kind enough to take some family photos for us. We asked her to make sure that in at least one of the photos we showed that we are waiting for our two kiddos from the DRC. This was my favorite.

Geography

I'm not sure why, but Monday has become our day to study geography. We didn't really plan it that way, but for some reason, it always seems easier to start the school week with geography, so we do. We spend most of the day on it. Sometimes I'll have Grace practice her handwriting skills by writing out some of the names of the countries we have studied or the names of Landmarks we've found. I also like to find free coloring pages online that coincide with what landmarks or countries we've talked about.
While in Minnesota, I found some really fun tools for teaching geography at a garage sale. There was a fan deck of cards giving info on each of the fifty states, a Jigsaw World Atlas, puzzles of the United States, a game for learning about the fifty States (which we have not pulled out yet), a "Goodnight America" book that's great for bedtime, an Egypt themed 50 piece puzzle, two Dr. Seuss books that I didn't even know existed, and a bunch of other stuff for the other subjects we are learning. I was one excited Mama. :)

This is the majority of what we've been using for Geography lessons.
The three puzzles to the left are all from the dollar section at Target. Two are 100-101 piece World and U.S. maps for Grace. The front puzzle is a 24 piece map of the world for Hope.
Obviously we have a globe and we use a deck of "Landmarks" cards, again from Target's dollar section. We pick out three new ones every few weeks and find them on the globe, talk about them, and find free coloring pages of them.
The "Where Do I Live?" book is from the library and is very good.
The Jigsaw World Atlas is a great book for the kids to work on puzzles together (has tiny little pics of the landmarks we've learned) while listening to Audio Memory songs listing countries.

I found this idea on Pinterest. Basically, we read through "Where Do I Live?" and made a circle for our planet, our continent, our country, our state/city, our street, and our house. The kids loved doing this project. I just used free clip art for the cut outs.

Love these books. They are very informative and we've taken some words from them to use as vocabulary lessons.

Also, because we are reading "There's A Map On My Lap" often now, we made maps of how to get from our house to our church and the kids now use them with their quiet time matchbox car box.

Last Minute Vacation

We just returned home from a VERY last minute week and a half long vacation to Minnesota. Steve decided on Tuesday that we were going and we left on Thursday evening and drove through the night to reach Minnesota on Friday. We all had a blast! We were able to see lots of our extended family and had a lot of fun staying with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. The kids got to spend some quality time with their cousins and they now want to live in Minnesota. Which actually brings us to the reason why we took such a last minute vacation.
We had been thinking and praying about moving our little family back to Minnesota if a job would open up for Steve in his company's Minnesota location. A couple weeks ago, a job opened up and Steve applied. After the first interview, we decided we had better go and check out the town where the job was located and decide for sure if that is where we wanted to settle down. We ended up LOVING the town and also (as an added bonus) found a Mediterranean restaurant that has some pretty amazing gyros and baklava. Yay! We contacted a realtor and went out to see some houses, to get a feel for the real estate market there and see what we could get in our budget. We ended finding a house that we both love, but Steve never received a call for a second interview. Late in our trip, we heard that Steve had not been given the job. Sadness.
However, this little vacation solidified in our minds that Minnesota is where we want to be. So, we are working towards that goal, trying to sell our house and Steve is looking into other possibilities for transferring to Minnesota.
Sadly, this could set our Congo adoption plans back a little bit, as we would probably have to have our home study revised, if not redone altogether when we move. BUT, since we had already decided to wait till after DRC's elections to get on the waiting list, it doesn't seem like too major of a setback. 
Anyways, after a whirlwind vacation, it has been nice to settle back into a routine the past couple days. We are back in school and doing well. We went garage saling while in Minnesota and found some cool new school supplies. I'll post pictures soon.

Weeping and Wailing

I awoke this morning to the sound of Hope's warning to her sister, "Hurry up! Mama will be awake at any minute!" First of all, where did she learn to talk like that? And second, what in the world are they up to? Hope also came into our room to tell me that her sister had just called her "foolish". I had a feeling it would be a long day. Since it is only 10:45am as I write this, we still have much of the day to live out, but let me tell you...It has been way too long already.
Today is our phonics/ letter writing practice day. The girls, at this very moment are weeping and wailing in their beds. I sent them there after trying to patiently calm them down after introducing something new. For Grace, it was the "an" sound followed by "man, can, fan, tan". We never got farther than "man". Since we have been doing "at" words, she was convinced she knew how to read and wouldn't have to learn any more. Introducing a new letter grouping did not go over well. She wants to just guess at everything and not have to sound it out. This would be SO much easier if every word we ever said ended in "at".
While I was working on phonics with her sister, I had Hope at the chalkboard (her favorite place to be during school) working on what we call "swoops". Basically practising the motion she will need to use to write B's, P's, C's and so on and so forth. Anyways, though she can do this perfectly well on her own, she keeps pretending she can't so I'll come work with her. Instead of doing the swoops I asked her to, she was writing perfect S's. Like I said, she really shouldn't have a problem with this assignment. Also, have I mentioned that she is a Perfectionist? Notice I said that with a very capital P. Oh. My. Word. That little girl falls apart if the lines she draws do not connect in EXACTLY the right way. Oi.
There is seriously never a dull moment in this house. I have two extremes in my children. The oldest just wants to do her schoolwork as fast as she can, with as little effort as she can, and just know everything without really trying. The youngest, on the other hand, would spend all day long doing one thing so she could get it just right. She's the one who, when she saw me smiling about a facebook post today, asked me to tell her the letters in each word, so she could sound them out and find out what made me smile.
Okay, the kids have calmed down and we will try this again. I'm thinking play dough and a good book (with me reading to the kids, of course) would be a good stress reliever this afternoon. Pray for us, friends, we've got quite a bit of the day ahead of us yet.

August Home School Happenings

We have almost completed our first month of homeschooling. It has been surprisingly fun and I think it is actually working! The girls are still loving school (apart from a few rough days with Hope), and they are remembering what they've learned so far.

We've done a lot of review work with Grace, to make sure she is up to speed and hasn't forgotten too much over the summer, and have started a bunch of new things with Hope. Grace has (very excitedly) started reading basic sentences and Hope has been listening in on the letter/sound review, so she knows all her letters and sounds almost as well as Grace. We are working on fine motor skills- this is what has caused problems with Hope- and she is getting better. She wrote a number 2 for the first time today and was very happy about it. :)

For the first three weeks of school we studied the basics of the human body, touched on germs, and focused on the five senses. We had a lot of fun with that, playing lots of games using their senses. I also ask the girls to use one or more of their five senses to figure out answers to simple questions they ask me. I'm hoping that this will help them figure things out for themselves more and maybe not ask quite so many questions with obvious answers. We'll see if that works, but a girl can hope, right?

We've also spent the month studying the Pilgrims, their voyage to Plymouth and their life once they got to Plymouth and started a colony. I LOVE history, so this has probably been my favorite subject to teach the kids. We read for about half an hour to 45 minutes every night before bed and most of the books we read have to do with the subjects we are studying. I've found this to be a fun and easy way to reinforce and review what we've talked about during the day. 

These have been some of our favorite Pilgrim/Plymouth Plantation Resources.
"The Dreadful Smelly Colonies"
"Three Young Pilgrims"
"Samuel Eaton's Day- A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Boy"
"Sarah Morton's Day- A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl"
"Pilgrim Cat"-This has become an every night favorite.
"This is America Charlie Brown: The Mayflower Voyagers"- Surprisingly informational!

These are our most reviewed books on the Five Senses.
"The Magic School bus Explores the Senses"
"Me and My Senses"

Hope's first attempts at writing the letter A. Highly successful. Though I've discovered she is much more confident trying things out on the chalkboard than she is trying them out on paper.

Hope's pre-writing work. She generally acts like I just asked her to kill her favorite dog when I ask her to do this. Ha. We're also working on having a good attitude even when doing something she doesn't like doing.

Intro to the concept of a calendar. We laid out seven pretzels to start with and talked about the seven days of the week, counted them, recited the days of the week while pointing to each pretzel, then add seven more and so on and so forth until the "month" was full. Practised days of the week and counting to 31.

After we finished with the pretzel calendar (and the kids had finished eating it), we moved on to a real paper calendar. I had them color code the days of the week and we put a sticker on every day we have already finished for this month. We'll make another one every month left in the school year and add stickers as we finish days. The kids loved it.

This was a song I found on YouTube using the tune to "The Addams Family". Ha! The girls LOVE it and are learning the days of the week quickly.

 We generally have one day a week that is designated our "Library Day" and we get out books on the topics we are planning to study the following week. So far, our system seems to be working well. The kids are enjoying it and so am I, something I honestly wasn't expecting. God is so good to allow me to school my kids at home AND to allow me to enjoy it as well!

2 Big Changes Around Here

The first and BIGGEST change is that D and I are now officially and legally ours!!!! Praise the Lord! We were finally able to adopt them on July 28, 2011. They are now asking to be called by the middle names we gave them, so we are trying to adjust to calling them Grace (the oldest) and Hope (the youngest). And they are now praying that our babies from the Congo will be ours soon too. :) It has been a great transition to a family. We've had a few rough patches, but for the most part, we are just all happy to be a forever family.
The other big change around here is that we have decided to home school this year instead of sending the kids back to the school that Grace attended last year. We started yesterday and it was great. Today was a little more difficult, but mostly because I was tired and irritable. I am now positive that this teaching thing is going to stretch me. Yikes!
The girls both LOVE doing schoolwork and beg for it the second I climb out of bed. Their favorite thing yesterday was when I pulled out the globe. We have a pack of flash cards of world landmarks and we took a few minutes to look over three of the landmarks and find their locations on the globe. Grace also wanted to know where our babies from Africa are, so we talked about that and she was amazed when she saw how far away they are. Today, we took a trip to the library to look up books on the human body, our five senses, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Steve also grabbed a few cookbooks full of recipes from around the world, so we may be trying some food from other countries as we study about them.
We received our initial approval from the U.S. Immigration to bring two children (under 2 with minimal special needs) home from the Congo. Now we just need to get on the waiting list. We are planning on having another garage sale this month, so hopefully we'll be on the list soon!

Big News on the Foster Care Front

The appeal is over!!!!!! Our two foster children have been in our home for over 2 1/2 years already and the birth parents have had their parental rights terminated for 10 months. They appealed the decision and we have been waiting to hear a ruling on the appeal for the last 10 months. Last Friday, while driving home from the pool, we received the call we had been waiting so long for. The panel of appeals judges had made their decision and they chose to uphold the Termination of Parental Rights ruling. Hooray!!!! We hurried to the attorney's office and signed "Petition to Adopt" papers as quickly as we could.
The birth parents still have 30 days (well, 27 days now) to appeal this decision, but if all goes well and they do NOT appeal, we will finalize the adoptions of our two foster children at the end of July!!!!!!!!!! We are super excited and so are the kids. :)
No huge news on our international adoptions except that we are having a garage sale to raise funds this Saturday. Friends from church have been donating items all week long and we have a basement full of stuff to sell. We are praying that Saturday's garage sale goes well and we will hopefully be able to get on the waiting list for two Congo babies soon.

And Things Are Moving Right Along

We received notice this morning that our home study has been approved by our agency and the final copies are already in the mail! Praise the Lord! We had just prayed about this in church yesterday. It's so awesome that it was already being taken care of. We sent in our paperwork for USCIS, so now we wait for an appointment to have our fingerprints done.
We have also recently learned that policy has changed in the DRC and now at least one of us is required to travel to the DRC to pick up our kids. We are asking for prayers in deciding how to go about this. I would love to have both Steve and I go to the DRC together, however, we have to think about what would be best for our current children as well. D and I have not been apart from us for more than just a couple days since they came to live with us almost 2 1/2 years ago. We do not in any way want to make them think that they are losing their new family. If both Steve and I go, we need a lot of wisdom in knowing how to prep the kids for the separation.
On the other hand, if only one of us goes, we will need to find someone to go along to the DRC and help, since we are hoping to get 2 children. Steve and I have never been apart for that long either and are not looking forward to the possibility of half a month away from each other. Either way, we are going to need a lot of prayer!
This afternoon just proved my weakness and my inability to mother my children well on my own. I totally lost my temper and yelled at D when she let the dogs get past her and out of the yard. Our dogs of course, are rather large and there really wasn't much she could do to stop them, but I yelled at her anyways. :( I hate sin and how easily I fall into it! I apologized to D for losing my temper with her and blaming her for something that was not at all her fault, but the damage was already done. Such unkind words and tone to come out of my mouth. *sigh* So thankful that His blood covers ALL my sin! And thankful for a daughter who is quick to forgive.

April Happenings

We put our house on the market last Saturday. Click Here to see our listing. Our kiddos have been pretty good about cleaning up their room and keeping their stuff put away when they are not using it. They are as excited as we are about the possibility of getting a new house. Please be praying that our house will sell quickly. :)
We also had the last of two home study visits today. It was relatively painless. The case worker just needed to talk through some adoption info with us and do a quick walk through of our house. It really wasn't stressful. Maybe it was because we are so used to different case workers being in our home, but I really wasn't stressing over it at all before hand. Praise the Lord!
 In the middle of the home study visit, Desiree, who had been sent to her room to color quietly, came running out of her room with a picture she had drawn. She interrupted the caseworker to say loudly (and rather proudly, I might add), "This is a picture of a baby from Africa." Smiles and "awwws" followed. Then, "And these are it's Mommy and Daddy who died." Awkward silence. Then she shrugged and went back to color some more. Oh my, the things kids say! 

Home Study

We had our first of two home study visits last night and I think it went well. It wasn't nearly as nerve wracking as I thought it would be. Our second visit will be in about three weeks. I need to do some major spring cleaning between now and then. :-)

Goat Milk Soap For Adoption

We've been given the opportunity to use our favorite soaps to raise money for our adoptions! A few years ago we started looking for a more natural alternative to store bought soaps due to a skin allergy that one of our girls had. We found Goat Milk Stuff, a company owned and run by a family of 10 that produced home made goat milk soap, free of the nasty chemicals that are normally found in store bought soap. They own and run a goat farm  in Southern Indiana and we have been able to visit them in the past when we went to pick up an order. The girls even got to pet the goats! The owners and their eight children, ages 3-14, are all involved in the business.  They are allowing us to use their ten most popular soaps for the fundraiser. Each bar of soap is hand cut to weigh 5-6 ounces and is cured for a minimum of six weeks. The way the fundraiser works is that people can buy soap through us at the normal cost ($6 each), and Goat Milk Stuff donates half of that directly toward our adoption costs. We are very excited to be able to raise funds for our adoption and support one of our favorite small businesses at the same time!
The scents we are offering are:
Black Raspberry- "The sweet raspberry scent is softened by a hint of vanilla. This is an across the board favorite, delighting little girls, ladies and grown men alike."
Clean Cotton- "Yes, this really does smell like freshly laundered cotton and people just love it! It is a very fresh and clean scent."
Honeysuckle - "Remember walking outside during the summer and catching the scent of a nearby honeysuckle vine?" This soap smells just like that. It is a truly beautiful honeysuckle scent with a hint of jasmine."
Lavender- "The scent of lavender is a perennial favorite and one of our best sellers. It is made with lavender essential oil."
Luv Spell- "This is a lovely, feminine scent that smells of citrus and florals. It is a very pretty, scent for the ladies."
Nautical - "This is a masculine scent (that the women love).  It's perfect for all those men out there that want a soap just for them.
Oatmeal, Milk and Honey- " It is hard to resist the wonderful fragrance of oatmeal, milk and honey. It is a very clean and warm fragrance that pulls you in with that sweetness of honey."
Ocean- "This is a beautiful bar that is swirled with different shades of blue and white. This is an amazingly clean scent that appeals to both men and women."
Pink Sugary- "It is so hard to resist the scent of Pink Sugary. A wonderful sweetness, the hints of vanilla actually turn the bar a deep shade of brown instead of pink."
Purity- "The soap has no added fragrance for those with dry sensitive skin. It's just plain, good for your skin, goat milk soap! Lots of people use this soap on babies or people with eczema."

Ingredients: Raw goat milk; Saponified natural fats, coconut oil, soybean oil; Natural color, Fragrance