Four Years Home!

No. Way. Jose. Four whole years. Were they long, or were they short? They've always been here, haven't they? Life didn't start 'til they came along, seems like. Isn't that strange? I don't know if it was a conscious effort, or unconscious, but I seriously don't remember a whole lot from before the kids "came home." The contrast in how my life is between "before" they were here, and "after" they came home is too great. It's like Dorothy going over the rainbow and winding up in technicolor instead of black and white. That's exactly how I feel.

We didn't do a whole lot to celebrate today (ice cream cake, but other than that, it was pretty low-key. Hey, we've been busy, man!) But we did talk off and on all day about how they've changed, and how much of a blessing they are to us, and how thankful we are to be a family. Adam out of the blue thanked us for adopting him and giving him a family. Awww. That boy can melt this mama's heart in about two second flat. He's such a great kid. Not kidding. He's just flat-out nice.

I should do like the "old days" and give a recap on each kid. Haven't done that in a long time.

Adam. Oh, Adam. He's come soooooo far! Remember when he couldn't count to 14? *shudder* He can now. Numbers and math are still soooooo hard for him, but he has come a long way. The move this summer to a house so near a store (we have a convenience store down the street and around the corner, and a grocery store across the street from that...) has been a blessing in helping him understand money. We lived so far from civilization in our last house that he didn't have the chance to get to the stores very often and fully grasp the "money concept." This summer we have let him take a few bucks to the store to get XYZ, and let him pick up stuff for himself too. He's still fuzzy on things, but I just took him back to Kwik Trip the other night and explained what he could get for a buck, and talked him through tax, etc. (all WITHOUT the girls, which I think was what the missing ingredient to all our previous trips). We literally walked through the whole place and talked about what a buck could buy, etc. Numbers/money has been that tough for him. What seems "no duh" to everyone else, is really, really NOT for our Adam. I'm confident, though, that by sending him to the store often enough will let it sink in, slowly but surely...

And speaking of... He must have come a long way, because there is NO WAY he could have been trusted for such errands when he first came home. Mr. Sticky Fingers would have found the temptation too great to put things in his pockets. Or walk home with strangers. Or follow a butterfly and get lost on the way home...Or... You get the picture.

We still let him read books "late" every night (late as in after the girls go to bed), and he has relished the privilege and he goes through piles of books that way. While I had great intentions of doing school (math and reading) through the summer, I wised up and ditched that idea altogether once I unpacked our first box, and let the kids just read what they wanted to, and just enjoy their new house/yard/etc. Thankfully Adam has caught the reading bug and he hasn't missed much.

My buddy does, however, like to get away with stuff if he at all can... (He's pretty normal, in other words!) The kids have nightly "bathroom chores" and he loves to not do his and then hope I won't catch him. We had to institute a new rule recently because of this. If they don't do their bathroom job, and I catch them, then they have to do EVERYONE's bathroom jobs for a whole week. Ouch. We'll see if that curbs the slacking or not!

Adam loves to help though. We just finished a week of VBS, and he was a chief helper - he helped me in my classes, and in craft time, and helped in the kitchen - wherever. He loves people, and loves to roll up his sleeves and help others. I think that's my favorite thing about him!

Liana next! I just shared a bunch about how she's doing on her birthday. She is such a little American girl lately! Tonight a friend of mine asked me if she could give Liana some of her earrings, and Liana asked "Are they from the eighties?" LOL! She had gone through my jewelry box and saw a bunch of clunky, nasty, gaudy three-inch earrings that are the epitome of ugly, and I'd never be caught dead in them now, but I had explained to Liana that that's what we wore "in the eighties." Thought that was pretty hilarious.

She's still my right-hand helper both with Abrielle, and with the kitchen. She has a bread recipe that she throws together for the family a few times a week (makes the dough in the bread machine), and we all love it. I even made a little baking corner/cupboard for her where she can keep her flour, sugar, oil, and bread machine, etc. She loves the attention and praise, and we love the bread! :o)

Here's her recipe (I happen to know it off the top of my head, so here ya go!)

French Bread
1 1/2 c. lukewarm water
2 Tbs. oil
2 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. salt
4 c. flour
1 Tbs. yeast

Make into eight rolls, let rise a bit (don't over-rise!), and bake at 400 for 25 minutes, or into two loaves of bread (not in pan - this is french bread, put them on a cookie sheet). Cut three slits in each loaf, let rise (these rise quickly - only about 20 minutes should be sufficient), and bake 400 for 25 minutes. We've used the rolls as hamburger buns (YUM), and hard rolls, and we've especially enjoyed the loaves of bread hot out of the oven with butter, or cold with cheese for a snack. The dough also makes a wonderful pizza crust, we've discovered! Num, num, num. We've also used the baked french bread loaves cut horizontally to make pizza that way. That was waaaay delish too!

Anyway. Liana is growing up, and I hate it, and love it at the same time. She's just a sweetheart. Love her to pieces. She's got a heart the size of the Pacific and loves everyone. I especially love that she loves people that other kids might not like because they might think they were "different" or whatever. She goes out of her way to love people and has commented to me that she just thinks to herself, "That's the way God made them" and goes ahead and looks for a way to connect to them. She also loves to make newcomers welcome. She's the epitome of hospitable. Wish I were more like her. I've said that before and I totally mean that with all my heart. She teaches me so much...

Aleksa Lu. My Lu-la. Poor girl has gotten lost in the shuffle a bit, I think, since Abrielle has shown up on the scene. Been trying to remedy that a bit, but she flies so low under the radar (I've said that lots of times before), that it makes it harder. She is easy to please, and while they all need their daily hugs, I think she needs them most in many ways. Well, Adam might too... I'll have to think about that... Leks just needs to be assured that she is loved. Loves that extra tickle, or hair tousle, or wink, or whatever. She just needs it. It has been easy for us to group her with the older kids, and forget that she's still "only" eight or "only" seven, or whatever. She's definitely getting older though *sniff, sniff* I miss the days when she pretended everything was food and that she was cooking it and did we want to try it... *waaaaah* I want my little la-la back!!! She's definitely stuck in "not little and not big" land. Hard place to be sometimes.

She's a good helper with Abrielle too, and will entertain the baby nicely for short periods of time... Now that baby is crawling, it is easy to lose track of her... ;o)

She's a great reader, does great in school, and her strong reading has helped her really excell. And her love of geography has made for some fun stories and pretending... "This dolly is from Zambia"... It's been a while since I've heard a magic carpet story; I'll have to ask her if she's been traveling lately...

This school year has snuck up on me entirely too fast, but ready or not, here we come! Still doing a lit-based curriculum for history/geography/reading/bible/read-alouds, but have switched to a more workbook approach for science, language, and the rest. Seems to work the best for us. This year we've also joined a newly-formed homeschool group here in our new town. Very excited about the possibilities there!

That's the kids in a nutshell... Abrielle is a teeny thing, just 16 1/2 lbs or so. Feather-weight for a nine-month-old! But, she's jabbering (says "mama" and "papa" now!) and is getting into everything, crawling all over the place, and loves to practice walking. She wants to walk *really* bad. It won't be long!

Four years. My how the family has changed!

___

Edited to add: I can tell I was exhausted last night when I typed this up. I waxed eloquent with the first two, then got too tired to say much about the last two... I really do love 'em all, folks; I just need my beauty sleep is all! ;o)