This week

We met Gma (that's her camp name) at Pine Cove 3 years ago.  She graduated from college in May and is about to go oversees for a year for mission work.  We will miss her!  She came over to spend the night last weekend.

She brought her friend "Brushes" who was Allie's counselor at family camp two weeks ago.  Brushes goes to college near us! YAY!  I love making new college friends!

I took Allie to overnight camp on Sunday.  She could never get enough:)

She was pretty torn up when I said good bye...yeah not really.

 

I have loved staying up with Mary watching the olympics.  She loves it!

This was her idea last night.  We made hubs an olympic snack.

Papoo

I don't remember what my dad designated as his "grandfather name," but what my niece, Olivia, came up with was PRECIOUS.  

He's  Pa Poo.

David says quite a few words right now, but one of my favorites is PaPoo.  He said Nana long time ago.  He's still working on Bunny, but Pappy is easy for him.

Last week, after we came home from camp, Abbott turned three.  (My sis and BIL's little girl)  

Does it really get any better than that?  ....Not a care in the world on her birthday.  We had a great time celebrating.  The kids LOVE Emmy and Adam, so it was a great pool party.

My parents came down to celebrate.  Papoo is not really the type to leave people alone.  He just has to be pestering you...in a good way.  David is still snippety with people he doesn't know well.  He screams...NOOOO (insert whiney  chalkboard scratching tone).  We are working on a politer...NOOO..and it's coming along.  

But Pappoo persisted.  

And it worked.

Now who is pestering who?

Nana won him over by letting David feed treats to their little puppy, TJ.  He was so excited.  I got a great pic of it, but Nana was in her pajamas.  Spared you this time mom.

Here's a sweet clip of Mary (MAMEE in David language and David)

I realize my summer blogging is all about David.  I haven't forgotten about my other kids...trust me:)  They won't let me.  I am so thankful that David came home during the summer.  The girls especially have been so so so so loving and caring of him.  He would have had such a hard time if they had to go to school every day.  Even Garrett and David are coming along.  There have been several instances lately where they are sharing readily, and when David says, "BATH" he immediately runs to find his bath buddy.  Garrett always runs to the potty before getting in.  David always follows him.  Tonight, David said, "Tee Tee" and jumped up there like big brother.  He did go tee tee, and Garrett and I went CRAZY.  David was sooooo proud!  

The last few days have been tough.  David hasn't felt well, and he's been screaming a lot.  Tonight was a very good night, though:)  I'll take it!

More Pine Cove

I can't say enough about Pine Cove.  It is our week to refill, and I was running on empty.  It is a total mommy vacation.  You don't have to go to the grocery.

You don't have to do the laundry. (until you get home of course:)

You don't have to figure out meal time.  It's done.

In fact, at meal time, they won't even let you pour your own drink.  If your toddler starts screaming to get out of the high chair after 2 minutes, they scoop them up and take them to the sand pit out side.  

Every morning there are speaker sessions for the adults.  We are challenged and encouraged every year.  After lunch, we nap.  We read.  We rest.  It's AWESOME.  The little kids nap.  The big kids continue with their crazy programs....zip lining, water sports, pool parties, scavenger hunts.

I threw together some pages for the ole year book...

I can't believe Mary did the zip line.  It's really high!  

Most importantly, Pine Cove is intentional.  Check them out.

How did David do?  He did so great.  He slept all night every night.  He LOVED Cove Kids.  He would cry when we walked away, but stopped quickly and played so hard.  He fell in love with a certain counselor named Tonka.  I'm so thankful!

Pine Cove

We've been at Pine Cove all week and had a BLAST!

Our first descent family pic.  

I am weeding through tons of pics.  We all stayed in one room, and it was still AWESOME!  How does that work?

 I-passies of course.

More later!

Love letters

Mary made these a few weeks ago for the whole family.

I couldn't trash them, so I scanned them in for the book.  

David's foster mom wrote a letter to him and a letter to us when we left Korea.  I can't remember which is which, but we had our social worker translate both.  As she translated we both cried.  They loved him so much.  I am thankful to be able to share this with him some day.

Catching up

David had a great birthday!  He seems to have turned a corner.  He seems VERY comfortable.  He's not fighting bed time anymore, and he's throwing lots of two year old fits.  That is supposedly a good thing in the adoption world:)

Last week, Pine Cove came to our church for Base Camp.  It's a fairly new program where they are going to communities around the state and neighboring states.  Allie had a ball.  We love everything about Pine Cove.

These three girls "camped" here in Garrett's room.  They were so so sweet, and the kids fell in love with them.  We stayed up one night playing basketball with them and other counselors and hubs and I learned one thing....

We are not 20 years old anymore:)

Blast from the past

This past weekend, some very dear friends of ours from

Ra cha cha came for a visit!!!  I have missed Rochester since the day we left.  

We were in that phase of life where all of our friends didn't have kids or were about to have their first kid, so we PLAYED together and spent a lot more time together than we are able to spend with friends now. 

"C" man is on the right with Garrett.  He was born about 9 months before Allie.  His parents were in our small group, so to see them after all this time was just such a treat!

Their oldest is 10 now!  Their youngest is 7, and she was born about 9 months before we left.  The kids hit it off so quickly, and they had a great time all weekend.

I am so thankful for life long friendships.  Sweet "B" I enjoyed every second of our time together.  Thank you so much for making it down here!!!  

Two!

Happy Birthday David!  

Wow, the time has flown! :-)  The time has not exactly flown, but we spent most of his first two years waiting to get him, so it is a little strange to have had him only a month and be celebrating his SECOND birthday!

We received a picture book, so I scanned a few early photos.

Have you ever seen cheeks like this?

This picture cracks me up!  

The pics are not dated, but I'm guessing this one is around 8 months?

Again they were not given to us in order , but this looks like a summer time photo, so it had to be around his first birthday.  He walked pretty early.

He doesn't look too happy about the hat:)  We were given this hanbok that is worn traditionally on first birthdays.  

I took this one last night.  We had 20 Pine Cove counselors over for supper, and David was the life of the party.  (not to confuse...it was not his bday party but a party to thank them for doing base camp here in town all week.)  I'll try to get some pics of him today, but he's a tough case! Every time we would get updates on him, I'd be a little sad that he was never smiling, but now I know why.  He's too busy to stop and smile.  He smiles all the time, but to catch it is a whole other problem!

David you are happy, expressive, playful, and cuddly.  You are definitely getting into the "me do it" phase.  You climb into your car seat without assistance  (b/c he screams if I try to help).  You climb out of the car without help.  You eat very independently and will not be fed.  You love to help.  When I'm bringing groceries in, you make grunting noises as you lift the sacks to try to carry them in.  When we are putting toys away, you like to help too.  You seem a lot like a first born:)  You are saying quite a few words now and are using a lot of signs.  You follow several simple commands.  

You love a big crowd, and you love for everyone to be in same room.  We love you and are thankful God placed you in our family.  Happy Birthday big boy!

Four Firecrackers..revised edition

Aren't they sweet?  Hmmm.  When I say four firecrackers I mean it.  See that one on the far right?  The boy?  The four year old.....

So we were driving home from my sister's house after swimming.   I had to pull over not once but TWICE to spank G because he was outright not obeying.  

About an hour after our return home, I was putting David in the tub and Garrett came up behind me, and clawed my legs with both of his hands.  I turned around with a shriek and said, "What did you do that for?!"

To which he replied, "That's for spanking me!"

Oh YES HE DID!

Yes there were fireworks at our house tonight and I don't mean the ones with beautiful colors.

I realized after I wrote this last night, that my tone was a bit "irritable."  Garrett survived the night, and is happy as a clam this morning.  As I was posting this picture originally, I just thought it was funny that they looked so happy, and for the last two hours of the day, no one was happy including me.  I just couldn't let it slide and thought I should just be honest!  


It is very hard to see Garrett acting like this.  I know it's "normal," and I know it will get better.  I know also that it's not "excusable" in any context.  I am having to constantly discipline him, and that is the new reality for now.  Before David, he was honestly very sweet and compliant much of the time.  He is 4.  I am 34.  I have had days since David came home where I struggle intensely to act like a 34 year old..to love unconditionally...to hold my temper.  Many days, I am failing, failing. I cannot expect my 4 year old to act maturely in this situation either.  Thank you for praying.


I chose my theme verse for the year to banner my blog carefully.  I knew this season was going to be difficult and it is.  I've not even paid much attention to it recently, but it was like this morning, the Lord just drew me to it.  


"My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."  


  

Family time

My BIL, Adam, went on a mission trip to Africa about 2 weeks.  He just came home this past Sunday.  So proud of him.  I can't wait to hear about it.

He came over to say good bye and hang with David because he had only been around David once. 

There isn't a kid in Texas...or Africa now..that doesn't love Adam.  He's a kid MAGNET.  David took right to him.

Emily and I were able to spend a lot of time together while he was gone since the girls and hubs gone too.

Is it me, or are the cheeks getting chubbier?

On Thursday, my SIL, Melissa (my oldest brother, Hudson's wife) flew in.  David had been home maybe a few days when she called and said she HAD TO GET HER HANDS on him.  I knew she wouldn't last long:)  David and Garrett loved having her.  Usually when we are all together there are so many kids that we don't have a chance to spend a lot of time with each others kids.  The kids all just play.  With it only being Garrett, David, and Abbott, Melissa was able to play with them a lot and Garrett especially ate it up.

David can say Emmy's name.  From Day 1, he's not had a shy moment with her.

My mom came back into town on the weekend so she was able to see the girls too.  They worked on Emily's nursery (baby girl due in October), and we hung out by the pool. 

Guess who didn't want Mel to leave...

I don't know if I'll ever get a pic of everyone looking again.

Maybe in July I'll start wearing make up again...gee whiz.  I love love my family...both sides.  I have the BEST SILs (and sister of course) ! I do.