Thursday, April 18, 2013

Pirates in the house!

Despite my best intentions,
it has been yet another week since I last posted.
Man.
I'll have to work on that. But anyway, this ought to be a pretty good post.
Last week our town hosted a "Pirate Fest" where they had people dressed like pirates come and
put on little shows, demonstrations and such.
Some of our pirates showed up too...
Although I'm still not quite sure why they chose pirates (generally robbers, thieves, etc.) as something to make a special day out of,
we still had a lot of fun dressing up and watching the shows.
Kaden was a little scared of the people dressed up,
but he though it was pretty cool, too.
Yeah, we had a fun day.
 
Did you all do anything fun this past weekend?
Have you ever been to a Pirate Fest?
 


Friday, April 12, 2013

Light-Works!

Not just our weather is crazy,
our town is crazy!
Let me explain,
tonight at about 9:00pm we heard these loud banging sounds. They honestly sounded like gun shots,
and I got a little anxious after 5 had gone off and they just kept coming.
We looked out the windows, but couldn't see anything. 
Then my Mom realized it was fireworks!
Yes, fireworks! 
We all went out on our front porch, (Kaden was awakened by the banging) to watch it.
I was a little nervous about how Kaden work react, (there was a lot of war in DR Congo)
At first he was timid and went back inside, but when he saw that we weren't afraid and were enjoying the strange lights he came out again.
"Lights in na sky!" He told us wonderingly.
We told him that they were really fun to watch, and he didn't have to be scared.
"light-works."  he said, and we told him, "no, they were fire works,"  but he
insisted they were "light-works", and really that makes more sense anyway.
After watching them for a while he said, "Na Congo, no.  In na 'Merica."  (not in Congo, in America)
So I guess this was his first time seeing fire works.
America is kind of neat and really strange, he must think, and it's true.
I think most Americans will agree we do some pretty weird stuff over here, but we have fun with it, right?
Anyway, just chronicling our late-Friday-night-surprise for the blogging world.
Good night!

A Taste Of Summer...

Our weather is crazy...
it went from Winter to Summer in a matter of days.
Short sleeves are on everyone in our house.  And we are enjoying the outside weather.
Yesterday it was hot enough to bring out the sprinkler.
I think the following pictures will tell you more than words ever could:)
 
Kaden loves the sprinkler, and was so excited about his bathing suit.
 
Bethany has been explore in the great outdoors too.  She gets cuter everyday!
 
I'm hoping it won't get too hot too fast,
but this first taste of summer sure is nice!


Saturday, April 6, 2013

6 months HOME!

It has been 6 months since Kaden and Bethany came home!
I was surprised when I heard that it has been 6 months already - time sure does fly.
And so much has happened in those 6 months.  So, so much.
Our family has changed, and grown.
Kaden has grown so much, physically and mentally.
He talks in English pretty much all the time and understands nearly everything.
He has been going to a half-day preschool at our church for the past couple of weeks and has really enjoyed that.  He was excited that he could go to his "school class" just like we go to homeschool
 co-ops once a week.
We measured him recently, and he has grown about 2 inches in the past 3 months!
He is a bundle of energy and is always on the go.  Such a contrast to when he first came home.  He was always so tired then, and didn't really have the energy to run around. 
Now, though, we can hardly get him to stand still.
We have also discovered how social he is!  When we are out somewhere, like at a store or something, he will point to people and ask "You name?"  "Woppee you name?"  (what is your name?)
He makes us laugh so much.
 
 
 
Bethany, too has grown - a lot!
She is crawling all over the place and loves that she can get to where she wants.
We haven't started finger foods yet, but we did try puffs, which she likes.
It will be her 1st birthday soon...
 
Looking back at this time last year I have mixed feelings.
We had lost our first referrals, Chance and Benjamin, and we were in the mist of what was probably the hardest part of our adoption journey.
I wondered why we had to go through the process of getting their referral, seeing their pictures and loving them.
We started to buy clothes and toys, we talked about who would sleep with who, and we discussed names.  We loved them and thought of them as ours.
But God had a different plan.
I can see now how He was working everything out.
Bethany had to be born, the new orphanage had to open so that Kaden could go to it, and so many things had to fall into place for us to find Kaden and Bethany, who God planned for us.
Still it was hard.
But this year I am so, so thankful that we did go through that hard time, because we wouldn't be where we are now if we hadn't.
We wouldn't be a strong as a family,
and we probably wouldn't have Bethany and Kaden.
"And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love God, and those who are called according to his purpose!"
Romans 8:28

Numbering the Days ~ 1 March