Prayers for Japan

It is always so sad to hear about a tragedy, either nature and man-made, but this one hit closer to home. We lived in Misawa for the first two years of our marriage and Lance was born there. We don't know anyone that is currently stationed there, but it still feels like home. Our prayers are for all of the people in Japan during this painful time. We hope that recovery efforts go well and that their lives can go back to "normal" again soon, never forgetting all those that lost theirs.

Empty Nest Syndrome Already

Right now Lance is on a class trip to Chicago. He has been away from home before, but always to a "self-contained" location. It was hard to let him go to the "big city" even though the chaperons are wonderful and totally trustworthy. He of course had no problem leaving us, and quite frankly we want it that way. We want our children to be able to go out into the big world with self confidence and know that we will always be here for them when they return. I think it makes it worse that I start thinking ahead of when they will leave for college some day. The next 4 years are going to fly by, and I have the feeling my kids will want to stretch and go to far away schools. I guess it is good because it makes me appreciate today, but it is still hard to have one out of my reach. The biggest lesson I have learned from Lance's absence this week is that I need to teach that boy how to use the phone. When I talk to him at night to get a report of the day, all I get is me asking questions and him grunting back. If these children want to move far from Mom they need to be able to supply me with information and love through the phone. I guess if that is the only thing that I'm worried about right now they are going to be okay.

Language acquisition

I'm still working on that new 2011 picture, I just can't get it to be the correct size.

Shella May has been home now 18 months and it has been great to watch her grow in many ways, but watching her language skills grow has been very interesting. When she first came home she wouldn't talk at all. We don't know what she understood those first few months, there was a lot of sign language going on. She has been a classic case from a linguistic stand point, but I think her speed has been above average. The best part now is how she is so aware of what she still needs to learn. It may be the English teacher in me, but I find this really fun. Her vocabulary is getting better and more importantly she asks questions now. No more "yes" just to answer and please someone. The three things we are working on right now are; the pronouns "he and she", past tense irregular verbs and her favorite- sarcasm. She often makes mistakes when using he or she and her brothers take full advantage to tease her, luckily she laughs with them. She knows the rules, but when she gets going fast she slips any old pronoun in. She also knows the rules of simple past tense, but she is still learning all of the exceptions to "ed", but I run into native speakers that are still having trouble also,haha. I just gently correct her on that one. Her last area is the cutest. She is really interested in defining sarcasm. She will often ask us if something is sarcastic and gets so excited when she is correct. She has the basics down, but the more advanced cases (Ryan) still get her mixed up. Overall we are so happy with all that she has learned. She is reading at a second grade level now and actually comprehends well. I will be sad the day she perfects everything and loses her cute little accent.

I just want to share my favorite language story. For the longest time she would call toilet paper, paper toilet. I often heard her and corrected her, but it was her brothers' gentle teasing that got her to say it correctly. The first time they heard her say it they both busted up laughing and made jokes out of it. Of course she has a great sense of humor and jumped right in. They were describing what it would be like to sit on a paper toilet in full detail. I think that funny image stayed with Shella May and helped her correct that one.

Wow, she wrote!

I've decided that I want to make my blog a part of my life again. I got lost in all of the stuff that needs to be done, and haven't written regularly since we got home with Shella May. I will try to be a better blogger and bore you with the day to day happenings of my little family. I always like to read about other people's adoption stories, or just life stories for the most part. It seems like there is nothing to write about when life is going smoothly, but I would like to be an advocate for adoption and this is a great way to do it. So here goes my new commitment to blogging, again. I even updated the picture to one taken in January.

Great mini vacation

I know this is a few months old, but it was such a great trip I wanted to share it. I decided about a week before the 4th of July that I wanted to get out of town for a small town celebration. I decided that it would be fun to go to Southern MN and it turned out to be a great time. I was lucky to find a great deal on a really nice little "suite" in a town close to our destination 4th of July small town.
We drove down on a Sat. and had great weather. We stopped and had lunch at a state park since we couldn't check in until later that afternoon. (Picture: Kids looking at the river after eating lunch) After lunch we drove around the beautiful countryside (note: kids were pretty bored with this, but good sports because this trip was my birthday gift). We were in Amish country and we were looking for some Amish farms to visit. We checked into our great "suite", two bedrooms, full kitchen, living room for a great price. We decided to go find a goat farm that was advertised. They had a neat shop and goats the kids could pet. Of course I wanted to buy everything because it was all handmade. It is really rude to take pictures of the Amish, they don't believe in pictures, but they had a buggy display outside the visitor center (don't worry it didn't belong to anyone, just a display) that the kids posed in front of. After the goat store we drove around more looking for Amish farms. They have tours that you can take, but I was too cheap to pay for them. Then we saw a buggy going down the highway and I told Ryan to follow that buggy. He drove right past a farm that was selling goods. We stopped in and bought a basket, jam and cashew crunch. The kids had never been to an Amish farm, and watched the children there with interest. We had a nice chat with the woman that lived there about the weather and were on our way. Then we started just following horse poop and found another farm. The next farm we found we bought some gifts and the woman there was super nice. She asked if we had an audio tour, and we told her how we found her farm. She was so nice she drew us a map of the farms in the area. She also told us to go to a bakery just out of town that is great. The little girl that lived on that farm kept getting scolded by her mom in German for staring so much at our kids, she especially liked the way Shella May looked. We quickly drove to the bakery because it was going to close soon. We all got some great treats there and everyone was happy with our farm searching at that point.
We went back to our hotel, had some dinner and played card games. The next morning was the Fourth, so we went to town for the festivities. It was lightly raining, but it didn't spoil the fun. We ate some food, played some mini golf and got ready to watch the parade. It started really pouring rain when the parade started, but it still went on. It was Shella May's first parade and she thought it was great that people were throwing candy at her despite the rain. The parade was a lot of fun and just long enough. That night they had great fireworks in town. I couldn't believe how long the show went for such a small town. It was a long day, but we all had a great day despite the rain.
The next day we were taking off to go home. The kids (mostly Liam) had asked if we could go to a local cave. It was a little pricey for 5 people, but they had been such great sports all weekend that we decided to go before we left the area.
We got to the cave and it was a fun tour. It was a different kind of structure than the other caves we had been in. It was really long and narrow. It was Shella May's first time in a cave and she didn't like that it was cold. It was really interesting and we had a fun time. There is another cave down there and we will try to go to that one next time we go down for a visit. What a fun, inexpensive family trip we had.

Finalization!!

I finally got some pictures from our court finalization. My friend was wonderful and came to take pictures of our special day, but we both have been so busy it took a while to connect to get them. Thanks Ann!

There isn't much to say about the entire process. We sent a bunch of paperwork in and then we called for the court date. We planned it for when Grandma would be visiting from OR. We got to the court house early because we didn't know what traffic would be like. Since we were the first family to sign on, we got to see the judge first. It was so great to not have to wait all day. We went into the courtroom and met the judge. He went through all of our paperwork and asked us several questions for court record's sake. He was really a funny judge and made jokes a few times.

At the end we got to take pictures with the judge and the boys even got to sit on his bench. Shella May didn't want to go up.

So now I proudly introduce our little girl: Shella May Marie!!

Easter weekend

It started with a nice Easter egg hunt at Liam's classmate's house. They invite hundreds of people and hide over a thousand eggs. Lance was too old to hunt, so he just helped eat the little ones' candy.Then we had the kids' cousins over. They all played outside and then came in to decorate eggs. As you can see Liam had a little fall during the outside playing part.Easter Sunday was a beautiful weather day and we played it low key. Liam relaxed in the sun, while Shella May and Lance played baseball with Daddy.We took Liam to Urgent Care later Sat. night because he couldn't sleep due to the pain. They gave him a splint, took an x-ray, and told us to see our doctor on Monday.
After having the x-ray read, it was decided to put a cast on his arm. He says it feels much better now. He only has to wear it for 3 weeks and then back to the splint. The downside is that a new session of orchestra started on Monday that Liam will not be playing in.