21 Months Home

21 Months home! (A few days late!) This month has been busy and eventful with the move, but it has also been one of the best months with the kids yet. The big move has drawn us all together really beautifully somehow. All the long carrides up here to look for housing, all the excitement of making our new house a "home" and having John home with us so much of the time (though he's not anymore as of Wednesday).

It has been interesting to me to hear surprise from the neighbors/new friends that the kids are from Ukraine. One neighbor just yesterday told me she never would have known! (The kids have been playing with their kids ever since we moved in, so she's had lots of chances to hear them talk). I think they have a bit of an accent yet, but probably she wasn't paying too much attention... ? She also had asked why we homeschool, and that was why I mentioned the "Ukraine thing" in the first place. She was really surprised and said they sooo good and well adjusted. *big grin from Mama*

Food is still big around here. I wish it wouldn't be horrible to pin signs on my kids asking people not to feed them! There is a self-proclaimed "Candy Man" at our new church, and we've had to ask him not to feed our kiddos. (We didn't really have the nerve to do so at our old church, but we figure we're starting over, and can do so here). Adam's attachment to us has probably been the most affected by people *everywhere* giving him treats that we don't normally give him. I don't just give candy and sugary snacks any and every time the kids are around me, and yet there are/were neighbors, folks at church, etc., that would give our kids these things just because the kids said "hello" to them. Sunday School teachers give snacks, candy, and gifts CONSTANTLY, and it makes John and I into caregivers that don't do as well of a job as these Most Wonderful People. Some would even write them notes in the mail, give gift cards, presents, etc. (Ask me how many times I've given my kids gift cards!) Anyway, that stuff has not helped our relationship along At All. It is SO hard to explain, but those of you out there with older adopted kiddos might know what I mean, and if so, I'd love for you to comment, so it can be better explained for the rest of the world reading. (Penney, Brenda, Cath, are you out there???) If anything has been "the hardest" about our older kids, this has been it.

The day before yesterday, I made apple juice for our morning juice instead of our "usual" oj/other fruit juice, and Adam told me that Grandma Fisher gave him/the rest of the kids some apple juice boxes on the way home from the airport in the car. That was 21 months ago the day they came home from Ukraine. And he still remembered the flavor of the juice. Food is definitely a very big deal. Our relationships aren't as shaky as in those first months home, but because food is still so huge to them, we do need to be careful... (And know what? Liana just asked me for about the 5th time if I've forgotten that she was hungry for her lunch, and wondered if we were going to have it today.) (And, btw, I've NEVER forgotten to fix the kids lunch in all the months we've been home. I myself have an affinity for a full tummy, and had to explain that to her just now.) I should add, though, that food is NOT an issue for Leks. Never really has been, except for the texture-thing she had when she first came home that quickly wore off.

One day this spring, Adam was playing a video game and the girls were outside. Well, they came in and asked if our neighbor could give them a cookie (or whatever it was.) I said it would be ok, and instantly, Adam dropped the video game to go with his sisters to the neighbor's house for "his cookie." (HELLO! We have cookies here!) I should have stopped everyone dead in their tracks and fed them one of our kinds of cookies, but I think I actually let them all go. *sigh* Occassionally, when Adam is feeling sorry for himself, he'll ask me to make him cookies "right now." And if I say no, he'll go sulk. (If I let him, he would anyway... I don't allow complaining unless I don't notice it right away.) The funny thing is, that he usually waits until I'm up to my elbows in something else. Like during our move, come to think of it. Half of our kitchen was packed in boxes and we were using papter plates, etc. He asked me to make him cookies. What. Ever.

Ok, off the food talk. The rest of life around here is wonderful, and the food issue is actually sooooo hard to "see" that most of the wide world looking in on our family would see absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. No squirt-guns with red ink, no soap being used up in one day, the tp is lasting as long as it should, nobody scaring Mama to death with their crazy behavior. If it never gets better than it is right now, I'd have to say that I'd still be the luckiest mama in the world!