Summer flew by...so here it is in review

Lance starts school in a week and I go back to work. The littles already started school in the beginning of August, but we have still been taking weekend trips. I meant to post different things about all of our little trips, but once again didn't find the time. Therefore you get the picture menagerie which is so much more fun.

Top picture: Japanese camp, getting ready to dance for the parents. Bottom picture: Lance with one of his sensei at Japanese camp.

We rented a nice cabin up north for a weekend. The kids never left the beach.

At the rented cabin. The boys trying out the kayaks.

The kids went camping with my aunt and her family one weekend.

The boys played violin at our family friend's wedding.

A family weekend up north with all of my siblings and their families.

Family weekend with the cousins.

Family weekend on the boat.

Grandma and Grandpa brought cousin TJ with them when they came from OR. We went to a baseball game as one of the many things we did when they were here.

Birth Parents

Wow, we had some tough questions last night. This post is a little more personal, but I think it is an important part of the adoption process, so I would like to share it. Our daughter has been home for almost 2 years now, she is 8 and a half years old. Since she came home, we have tried to talk about the Philippines and life before us, but she never wanted to talk about that stuff. In the past 6 months she has slowly started bringing up memories of living in the Children's Home, she talks about favorite foods and things they used to do for fun, very superficial.

Well, something struck her yesterday to start asking more questions. I don't know if it was something she watched on tv or what got her thinking. I found out after my conversation with her that she had been asking her brothers questions about being related to people and what the wait for her to come home was like, earlier in the afternoon.

I got home from work at 9pm and she was still awake, a lot of times she is already sleeping when I get home. I kissed her good night and she told me that she missed me while I was at work. Then she asked me if she has any brothers or sisters. I answered with of course, the two in the other room. She corrected me, ones in the Philippines.

This conversation is a memory, so parts are missing I'm sure. These are the highlights or the gist of the conversation.

Me: I don't know if you had any because your birth mom was very young when she had you and she may have had other children after you were born.
SM:How old was my mom?
Me: She was only 16 or 17 years old when she had you. It is a lot of work to take care of a baby when you are that young and have no money. She didn't have anyone to help her take care of you.
SM: Why did my mom get married so young?
Me: Well, you don't have to get married to have a baby. That is a conversation for another day.
SM: Tell me, tell me. I want to know.
Me: We can talk about that tomorrow.
SM: Daddy said that I was brought to the Children's Home when I was 6 months old.
Me: Yes, your birth mom tried to take care of you for 6 months and then decided she couldn't do everything she wanted for you. She was probably afraid that she couldn't even give you food or a house or anything else you needed. She brought you to Miss Debbie so that you would have everything you need. I'm sure that was really hard for her to do.
SM: I'm proud of my mom.
Me: We are happy that she was looking out for you also. That would be very hard to do and I'm sure it made her sad also.
SM: How old is my mom now? Where is she?
Me: She would be about 25 years old and we guess she still lives in the Philippines. We can look for her when you are over 18. Until then, we can talk about her and we can talk to adults we know that looked for their birth moms. She may be hard to find because we don't know much about her except her name. We don't know anything about your birth dad, so he would be even harder to find. We can look after you are 18.
SM: What is her name?
Me: C....
SM: Okay. Don't forget we're going to talk about how babies are made tomorrow.
Me: Oh no, I won't forget.

I'm hoping she forgets to ask how babies are made today. I don't know if I am ready for that conversation after last nights. There was more to the conversation because we talked about our wait for her. She told me that the aunties took good care of her and always made sure she was safe. We shouldn't have worried so much during those 6 months. I hope the conversation went the right way. It is such a scary thing because I could mess her up with a few misplaced words. I told Ryan all about the conversation so he would know what I said. He told me about the boys' conversation with her earlier in the evening. The main message we want to give her is that we all love her and we are so happy that she is our daughter/sister.

Colorado Trip

We drove up to the top of Mt. Evans. It was a scary drive, but worth it. It was cold and hard to breath also.

Above:Liam looking over the edge of the top of Mt. Evans.
Below: Liam at the lake that was half way up the mountain. It was strange to see a lake on the way up, so we had to stop.

This is a hike we took to a really cool (both temp and fun) waterfall in a cave. It was hard to get to the actual fall. I finally gave up the climbing and just walked in the freezing cold water. I did regret the wet shoes later.

The Great Sand Dunes. Hundreds of feet of fun. It was like a huge sand box. We had so much fun at night. In the day it was way to hot to play in.

We had a week this summer that no one had school and I didn't have to work. So Ryan took the week off and we drove to Colorado. We had never been before. It was a wonderful trip with so much to see and do. We were trying to live on the cheap side, so we didn't do everything, but we had a good time. This is the second part of our trip. The other pictures are on our lap top and I'll post them later. Thanks for looking at our trip.

Gymnastics

A year ago I tried to convince Shella May that we should sign her up for gymnastics. She has a good build for being a gymnast, she is thin, flexible and strong. We were also told from the International Adoption dr. that we saw that she need to build up her core, because she was very weak in her ab area. We talked about it for a few weeks, then I finally took her to the gymnastics place the boys went to. Once she watched and saw what they were learning she was ready to sign up. She did summer session with Liam and she loved it. We have now been going for a year off and on. We can sign up for every session because it gets a little on the costly side. We took winter off and she came back to spring session full force. In fact, they just did the testing for this session and Shella May gets to move up to advanced beginners next session. Not only does she enjoy it (we go to the most wonderful gymnastics place, where they are very professional with teams, but they don't push the kids) but it helps her self esteem when she masters something new. I wouldn't go buying tickets to any future Olympics in hopes of seeing my kids, but they are having fun. They have a meet at the end of every spring session, I'll keep you updated on how they do.
The reason I posted about the gymnastics was not just to brag about my special kids, although they are great. Now when we suggest something new to Shella May she thinks about it and considers it for a bit. She doesn't just flat out refuse it because she is afraid of failure or what ever used to go through her mind. She starts track tonight, something she knows nothing about. She wanted to do a spring sport, but didn't want to do soccer with her brother. She asked what other sports there are in the spring and thought that track sounded the best. We have also been asking her what instrument she would like to play because we think the kids so be well rounded in many areas. She announced last month that she would like to learn guitar. She is growing in one of the best ways possible, confidence in herself.

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.