Catching up (again)...

As I sit down to write about what has been going on in our busy lives over the last 2.5 months, I am very much enjoying naptime :) We are down to 1 nap a day, but if we time it right, it can be a very much-needed break in the day.

So much has happened since I last updated. Christmas was an awesome experience this year. We always travel as a family to Bryan-College Station to spend Christmas with our families. We have a total of 4 Christmases in 2 days, which can definitely be overwhelming at times. We have Christmas with Matthew's Dad and Susan on the 23rd, then have Christmas Eve morning with Matthew's Mom, and then end the time in BCS on Christmas Eve with my side of the family before making the 2 hour drive back to Austin so that we can have Christmas morning as a family. This year, it took until Christmas morning for Joshua and Josiah to realize that there was actually a point to all of the chaos. At the beginning, they would simply pull at the paper and rip it off, not realizing that there was a prize inside that they might want to play with. It was quite funny to watch their expressions change with each gift that was opened. It was SO MUCH FUN! This year was a neat Christmas for many reasons, one of which being that we were able to spend Christmas morning with my Mom, sister and brother-in-law and my niece and nephew. The last time that we were able to do that was the year that I graduated from High School and we won't even discuss how long ago that was! Just assume that it's been awhile :) All kidding aside, it was such a blessing to do that again.

Joshua and Josiah doing one of their

favorite things: climbing on top of boxes!

Christmas Morning

Josiah and Joshua in their new "treehouse"

A few days after Christmas, Matthew's Dad took them (Matthew, Jessica and Christopher) deer hunting in Stephenville for a few days. They had a great time together, especially since Christopher shot not 1, but 2 deer. I don't quite understand the joy that comes with shooting a deer, but I'm happy that they enjoyed their time together. Christopher, being the 12 year old boy that he is, immediately compared his deer antlers to Jessica's (that she shot last year). I'm calling it a tie, but they might beg to differ on that.

One of my gifts this year came from our sweet Ethiopian friends, Mesfin and Genet. Their gift was a cooking lesson to teach me how to cook some traditional Ethiopian food. They LOVE spending time with Joshua and Josiah and we get to spend some time with great friends. What a neat time we had with them. I'm not ready to open a restaurant, by any means, but at least I can cook a couple of things now :)

In early February, Matthew and Jessica went back to Acuna, Mexico on a medical mission trip with Hill Country Bible Church and Global Outreach. They spent 2 days in Acuna (just across the border from Del Rio, TX), ministering to the community through a medical/dental clinic. It is an amazing experience to be a part of and is something that Jessica particularly feels drawn to. In past trips, she has helped the dentist with tooth extractions, teeth cleaning, etc. This trip, however, she and Matthew spent their time with the children (no surprise there!) who come to the clinic. They did things like face-painting, skits, water balloons, etc. By the time that they got home on Sunday, they were very tired, but also very blessed by the people that they'd spent time with in Acuna.

As we are getting into the month of March (I can't believe that!!), we're getting into the frantic spring schedules that come with having teenage kids. We just finished up school basketball and are getting into baseball full-swing (literally). Christopher's first game is tomorrow and we've only had 1 week of practice. Yikes! It will be very interesting to sit through 1 1/2 hour baseball games with twin (almost) 2 year olds. I'm praying that the other parents don't run for the hills after the first few minutes with us in the stands (I'm kidding). It should be fun, but baseball is not nearly as fast-paced or interesting as basketball, so I'm wondering how they'll do. We shall see!

Speaking of the twins, they are really developing little personalities and changing so fast! I love this age, when they begin to discover all kinds of new things and you begin to see tons of development going on. Joshua and Josiah still love, love, LOVE to dance. They can find a beat in absolutely the most random things, like whisking eggs - seriously! If there's any kind of beat at all they will find it and start dancing. Christopher taught Josiah some crazy dance moves that are absolutely hysterical to watch. Josiah is also becoming quite the bookworm. He loves to get a book and will sit for 10 minutes at a time just looking at the book and turning the pages. Joshua, on the other hand, doesn't sit still for a second! He runs everywhere he goes and has a smile on his face at all times. He runs through the house over and over again, laughing as he goes. Josiah is just now getting the hang of running and doesn't necessarily like the fact that Joshua can run faster than him right now. Josiah is still the charmer and the first to reach engage new people that he meets, especially pretty little girls. The two of them have the charm down to a tee. It is comical to watch them in a group of people. If there's a pretty 4-6 year old sitting anywhere near them, they do everything that they possibly can to flirt with her. They are so darn cute, that we have yet to meet a woman of any age that isn't smitten with them immediately!

It looks like nap time is over and it's almost time to pick up Jessica and Christopher from school, so I'm going to end this post. I'm going to try to sit down every week to update the blog, but I'm not making any promises ;o) Hopefully it won't take an hour to read the next one!

5 months and counting!

Joshua playing outside

Christopher, Joshua, Daddy and Josiah
sitting together before our Court
appointment for our re-adoption

Josiah

Josiah dressed up as a cowboy for Halloween

Joshua dressed up as a giraffe for Halloween

It is so hard to believe that we've already been home for 5 months. As we get ready to celebrate the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ, I am filled with awe, yet once again, that He allowed us the chance to adopt. I am filled with wonder at the way in which He chose to allow our journey to take place. I was reading through our blog and am just filled with amazement for His faithfulness and goodness. This time last year, we were agonizing over the long wait. We'd been waiting 2 months for our court date to be scheuled and at times, it seemed as if it would never happen. While we were groaning (yes, out loud) and complaining, the Lord had it all in His capable hands. Praise God that we traveled when we did. It gave our family the time that we needed in order to adjust to having babies in the house again.

Since it's been SO long since I've updated the blog (PLEASE forgive me), I'll give you a quick update on the boys. They are both thriving and doing extremely well. They have begun taking just 1 nap a day, which isn't as bad as I thought it would be since they average a 2.5 hour nap (thank you Jesus). We've added some new words to their vocabulary, including "outside", and "no-no" (complete with the finger pointing). Did I mention how much they understand?? It is simply unbelievable how much these two comprehend. We are very impressed :)

They get the most joy out of going outside and going bye-bye. While they weren't crazy about their car seats when we first arrived home, they now really enjoy the idea of getting in the car to go somewhere. And getting dressed is a comical event, given that the two of them think that shoes going on their feet equals going bye-bye. They wear their shoes constantly, to give them better traction on the floors. It takes them a few minutes to comprehend that we're just going downstairs to play, not going bye-bye.

Halloween was a hoot! Matthew was out of town, but Jessica and Christopher and I took the twins out in the neighborhood to show off their costumes. Joshua went as a giraffe and Josiah was a cowboy. Of course, they were adorable and took great pleasure in all of the oohing and aahing that took place over them :)

Our social worker came to do our 2nd post-placement report and it went very well. She enjoyed seeing the boys again and seeing how they've grown. The post-placement reports are required by the Ethiopian governement. We will only have one more visit from the social worker, then we will be responsible for submitting the reports on an annual basis, until the boys turn 18. As we get ready to submit the second report, I can't help but wonder about the people who read the reports in Ethiopia. I wonder how they feel when they read about the children that have been adopted. I would imagine that they are filled with so much happiness, but also a sense of sadness that the children were not able to remain with their birth families.

It looks like nap time is over...later~!

Progress

A lot of things have been going on in our house over the last few weeks. I took Joshua in 2 weeks ago for yet another ear infection. Yes, this is his third ear infection in 3 months, always in the left ear. So, we started on antibiotics again. We took both of the boys in for their 18 month well-checks with Dr. Albert a few days later. The ear infection was gone, but we did talk about what happens if he continues to have ear infections over the next couple of months. If he gets to 6 ear infections within 6 months, we'll need to see an ENT for possible tubes in the ears. Please be in prayer against this particular issue. He seems to develop ear infections very rapidly. This time, his nose started running on Wednesday afternoon and by Thursday morning he was pulling on his ear.

On a happier note, both Joshua and Josiah have gained a total of 4 pounds and grown 2 inches since we've returned home from Ethiopia. This can be attributed, for the most part, to the fact that we've gotten rid of the parasites. They are walking ALL over the place and enjoy running away from Mommy and Daddy :) Developmentally, they've made great strides. They like to climb up the stairs (with us right behind them of course), love to take baths (hated them when we first came home), like to ride their cars all through the house and have figured out how to take the safety knobs OFF of the doors. They're favorite words are: Daddy, Bye-Bye, Ball, Nana (which is now Ba-Na-Na), Oh's (for Cheerios), and Bottle. They get the biggest kick out of going to one of Jessica's volleyball games and yelling "YAYYYYY!!!!!" at the top of their lungs with the hugest smiles on their faces. I really think that they have figured out how to get the entire gym to look at them and laugh.

Christopher celebrated his 12th birthday yesterday. Gosh, where has the time gone?? It was just yesterday that we were driving to the hospital for my scheduled 10am c-section. He is such a neat young man with a heart for the Lord and we are so proud of him. Have I mentioned that he's HUGE?! He's 5'7" tall and enjoys pointing it out to me on a daily basis. I keep telling him that he's blessed to have a Daddy who's 6'4" to override my short 5'2" genes.

Finally off to bed - more to come later :)

Born in September

I found this on a friend's blog who also adopted from Ethiopia. It really touched me, so I decided to post it our blog to see if we can light a fire in people to reach out to the beautiful people of Ethiopia by providing them with clean water.


The September Campaign Trailer - www.borninseptember.org from charity: water on Vimeo.

Having seen this country in person and personally experienced only one of the sicknesses that come from unclean water, I can't emphasize strongly enough how important clean water is to the people of Ethiopia. Would you consider helping?

Fireproof

Today, Matthew and I put the twins down for an afternoon nap, left them with Jessica and Christopher, then went to see the movie Fireproof. WHAT AN AWESOME MOVIE this is!! If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.