LOOK WHO IS......

learning to ride their bikes without training wheels!!!!

Last Thursday Becca proclaimed she wanted daddy to take the training wheels off the bike so she could ride like Andrew. We were SHOCKED! It's just so out of character for her...she isn't brave like that.

John said she had the best attitude about it even though she isn't all that gifted in bike riding right now. :)

Sunday afternoon John had the kids playing outside and Becca wanted to try some more...so John was helping her. I guess Elizabeth wanted to try and she took to it easily.

We knew Elizabeth would do well...she seems to be the most athletic of the group...and she's the most fearless!

if you watched the videos, you saw Becca is QUITE wobbly...and Elizabeth is a natural at it.

We're still a bit amazed at how beautifully Elizabeth can balance given she only has the one ear for equilibrium. She only rode the bike 10-15 minutes...she's doing pretty darn skippy for such a short time. We're betting a few more lessons and she'll be riding around the cul-de-sac with Andrew. Rebecca will need a few more lessons :) but she'll get there.

AND THE STOCKINGS WERE HUNG.......

by the pool table with care. :)

we have nowhere else in this house to hang them! In our other house we had a mantle of sorts above our TV nook...but here....it's the pool table. :)

Also a note about Christmas cards.....we didn't send any out this year. :) We were hoping to be able to share some exciting news about Ethiopia in our card but because of our paperwork delays, we don't have that news to share....just yet! We're hoping we can send out "Happy New Year" cards though!

I hope and pray y'all have a wonderful Christmas.

OUR ROLLER COASTER WEEK RECAP-BULLETS AND PICTURES

Here is a quick recap of last week. I figured the easiest way to blog about our very full week was to do bullets and pictures. Enjoy!

*Monday -We had Elizabeth's attachment therapy appointment. With John and I at various stages of sickness over the past 2 weeks, Christmas prep, and finishing up our adoption paperwork, Elizabeth has been struggling some with insecurity. It hasn't been overwhelming -just makes our days a bit more difficult AND thankfully, not nearly as difficult as they were before we started attachment therapy.

The appointment didn't go well. 1/2 way through the appointment our counselor tried something with Elizabeth that triggered an unexpected response and subsequently a REALLY hard day for Elizabeth and I. Without going into detail, we're glad Elizabeth reacted the way she did so that we now know there is more to her recovery than just attachment.

Tears were just under the surface for me the entire week. Sometimes I would just look at Elizabeth and leave the room so she wouldn't see me crying.

It is extremely difficult to NOT KNOW what happened to your child before they were put in your arms. We are trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together for her...but it will never be complete. And that is hard for me as a mom.

*Wednesday -we had 2 of our nieces spend the night!

Joanna is on the right. She and Becca are like 2 peas in a pod even though Joanna is just 2 weeks younger than Elizabeth. I didn't get a picture of Julia -but that is probably because she was either busy playing with Andrew OR busy helping me out. She is just the sweetest girl!!!

*Wednesday we also received our final piece of adoption paperwork in the mail.

YIPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

*Thursday we got that piece of paper notarized!

*Friday -FIELD TRIP DAY!!

the kids and I drove downtown to our State Capitol to have our adoption paperwork "state sealed". It's the 2nd to last step in this process.

***********not only were we able to get our dossier State Sealed in a matter of minutes, we walked across the street to Vital Records to check on Elizabeth's US birth certificate. It was ready 3 mo. ago, but they didn't type her Chinese middle name correctly -so the paperwork had to be completely re-done and process thru the courts. UGH. BUT.....it was correct on Friday!!************

My little girl has a REAL birth certificate that lists US as her mommy and daddy!!!

LOVE IT!

we had a celebratory lunch at Carl's * Jr. :)

**Still Friday -we raced home after lunch, I made a bunch of copies of our paperwork and then we raced to Fed*Ex to send our dossier on to the Assistant Stork! They will walk our dossier through the State Deparment and Ethiopian Embassy in Washington*DC for us then send it to our agency.

My hope is that our agency will receive it the week after Christmas, and send it to Ethiopia the first week of January. Praying it happens!!!

the kids were going to go in with me so I could get the official picture, but Miss Elizabeth fell asleep -so John (who met us there) stayed with them while I went in. Andrew is holding the file with 3 1/2 mo of papework!!

this is what I found when I returned...the kids jumping around in the trailer and John drinking a chocolate milk shake. :)


*Saturday -Walk Through Bethlehem

A town about 25 minutes south of us had a church doing a Walk Through Bethlehem...so we loaded up the kids and headed out with some friends.

Roman solider standing guard at the gate to Bethlehem

it was basically a big round area blocked off with "walls" and it was set up as a marketplace with several booths with things the kids could do.

the kids making olive oil with an olive press

making a "salvation" bracelet

the food market

they had oranges cut up for anyone to partake in.

do you see what's right underneath the oranges on the board?

Andrew asked if he could have one of the carrots! the woman was surprised but chopped off the end and handed him his carrot. :) He gnawed on it ALL the way home -and finished it off before we actually got home. what 6 yr old boy asks to snack on carrots?!

sorting thru cotton -picking the seeds out then putting the "clean" cotton into the crushed seeds to die it red

making unleavened bread

outside the "city" was a stable set up with of course, Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus


It was a roller coaster week for me emotionally -incredible lows as we dealt with a new development in Elizabeth's therapy and recover -to incredible highs as we finished our part of our Ethiopian paperwork AND received Elizabeth's proper birth certificate!!

I'm so glad we rounded out the week not only a high note, but "walking through Bethlehem" and remembering the humble beginnings of our Savior.

SATURDAY SNOW DAY!

We got a good storm last week down here in the desert...which means our "high country" -just 2 hrs. north of us -got a good snow fall.

Our weather is a bit unpredictable and with our January and February already so busy we didn't know if we'd get another chance to make it up to the snow. I was just getting over my sickness and John was coming down with something -but we decided to head up north anyway. :)

SOOOOO glad we did. We had an awesome Snow Day!!
**although now John is really sick!**

Here are lots of pics from our day and several really short videos (think 5-8 seconds) of us sledding!

Elizabeth's orphanage was nestled into the side of a mountain and it did get cold there and probably snowed -but we have no idea if she ever really played in the snow before Saturday. She acted as if it were totally new to her. :)





Becca doing a snow angel in the background

Elizabeth doing her first snow angel

We didn't have any snow boots for Elizabeth so I double socked her and put her cowboy boots on her -those boots don't have good traction so she would slip and slide everywhere -so she ended up crawling in the snow quite a bit. :)

isn't that pretty?!

it's a bit foggy because it was snowing on us. it snowed on us several times throughout the day -quite novel for us desert rats!

Becca taking a break :)

building a snowman with daddy

Becca kept eating snow -goofy girl

the first part of the day we had found an "off the beaten path" area to mainly just play in the snow. we went to a SMALL local joint for pizza and to warm up, then found another place really good for sledding.

before we knew it -Andrew had climbed this really big hill -so John hauled the sled up there for him-that's them in the above pic.

then all 3 kids decided to hike up the hill :) John has them all lined up ready to sled down

here we are at the end of the day. 2 are really happy. 1 isn't. you probably can't tell but Elizabeth was crying by the end. Apparently right before John took this pic she said with tears rolling down her face "I hate snow". poor baby. she was tired and cold.

and this is how we drove most of the way home!



here are a few sledding videos. none of them are all that long...5-8 seconds..enjoy!

sorry this was side-ways. I didn't know we couldn't turn the videos!

mommys can have fun too!

ATTACHMENT-"forgetfulness"

my poor baby! if she skips nap she will usually fall asleep at dinner. This was my sweetness Sunday night. :)

Elizabeth has struggled a bit these last 2 days. It's not exceptionally difficult -it's just this sense I have. I've known her long enough and know her personality well enough to just sense when she is struggling with insecurity.

I'm not sure what has triggered her -maybe it's me being under the weather and I can't love on her like I usually do...maybe it's something I don't even know about.....whatever it is, I'm trying to address it the best I can.

Yesterday afternoon, after naps, I got out the puff balls and we played "puff ball air hockey" for a bit. I made sure I gave her attention, little touches to let her know I was there and loved her, etc.

This morning we had our "school time". Andrew and Becca were gems. When they could sense I was having trouble with Elizabeth, they did ALL their work without playing around, without needing me to help (they helped each other), etc. so proud of them!

How did I struggle with Elizabeth? She "forgot" everything we had been working on these last few weeks. At first you may say "but Jeanette, maybe she really did forget her letter sounds. maybe she didn't really know the answers to the questions."

At first I gave her the benefit of the doubt. But when I would GIVE her the answer and then ask her to repeat it and she would give me something completely off the wall...I knew we were dealing with attachment stuff.

She knows this frustrates me and it's a button she hasn't used in a LONG time. If she can frustrate me and get me angry, I will push her away -which is what she is looking for. It doesn't make ANY sense -this attachment stuff -but it is what it is.

Without exaggeration, we worked on the same 5 questions of "what sound does xyz start with" for 15 minutes.

I'm sorry to say that I did get frustrated..even though I KNEW not to.

I then took Elizabeth to our 'special chair' -it's right by the Christmas tree and it's where we usually do our babytime/cuddle time.

We talked. I hugged her. She told me she was sad inside...a HUGE breakthrough for her to be able to tell me what was going on. She couldn't tell me why she was sad. I asked her if I could help take the sadness away and try to make her happy. She told me I could feed her, smile at her, and give her hugs. I immediately got some pudding in a cup and fed her....of course smiling at her...and then we sat and hugged for awhile.

Then we went back and tried that same page of school work again. She smoked it. Knew every answer on that page and almost every answer on the following 2 pages.

I wish I could take her insecurities away. not just selfishly because it would make our lives easier...but for her sake. It baffles us. Normally, someone who is insecure wants a person to love them more and they do whatever they can to get that love and attention....but kids with attachment issues attempt to push their loved ones away -keep them at a distance. We have seen such tremendous strides with Elizabeth that sometimes it's easy to forget she still struggles with insecurity....and then times like these last 2 days pop up and we're reminded of how fragile she really is inside...and how there is still a hurt little girl in there.

Our hope and prayer is that one day these attachment struggles will be long forgotten -for both Elizabeth and for us.

THANKSGIVING WEEKEND RECAP

on Wednesday morning before "school", the kids and I made carmel apples. I did the carmel part and then they got to choose what to roll their apple in...peanuts, sprinkles, choc. chips....they were YUMMY!

sometime during the weekend I decided to let them fingerpaint.
when Andrew asked me "mom -where are the brushes? how do we get the paint on the paper?" I realized that I had NEVER let them fingerpaint before. oh my!!! what a horrible mom!

needless to say -the girls really got into the whole painting thing

Thursday John and Andrew went to play in their annual Turkey Bowl football game and then we all had dinner at my sister's house. We didn't take any pics!! bummer.

On Saturday, a local farm had a free day. Turns out admission was free cuz not much was going on...but still a fun way to spend our morning out in the cool crisp air!

riding thru the hay maze

playing in one of the play yards

the petting zoo was open

It was feeding time for the 7wk old calf -they asked Becca if she wanted to feed him his bottle.....but she got shy and decided she'd just watch. :( I was bummed...I really thought she'd feed him!

I'd say these sheep need to be sheared! look at all that wool!

one of the kids favorite things was this giant slide! I think they did this thing for 30 minutes!

the corn maze

the peach orchard....during peach season, you can come pick your own peaches

all the leftover baby pumpkins

2 family photos -1 on a pile of hay and the one below on the little train that goes 'round the farm.

and 1 cute pic of Becca just cuz.

doesn't she look so "holly*wood"?!