Sweet Times

This is an Abigail quotation from the backseat this evening on the way back from eating out (apropos of nothing, of course):
"Mommy, will you pleeaase help me get 'Jingle Bells' out of my head?" :)
Oh, Abbadabbadoodle.


I titled this post "Sweet Times" because we have been in such a good place lately. We are so grateful for the Lord's goodness to us in bonding more each day as a family, allowing us to move to Virginia together because of the house sale, and guiding us to just the right place to live in Virginia. Daniel went up last weekend to find a place (we had a recurrence of the plague, so I had to stay home with the children), and he found a wonderful place!! We are just renting it for a year, but we have the option of extending the lease or even possibly buying it. Real estate is VERY expensive in Charlottesville (it's all relative, really, but from OUR viewpoint coming from Fayetteville, it's expensive) and we're not sure we want to buy unless we'll be in the home more than two years. :) So far we don't have a good track record as far as that goes. Here is our new home, albeit a rental home. I always knew Daniel was a sucker for a brick colonial. A brick colonial seems entirely appropriate in Charlottesville, Virginia. :) This home did not make the top three on our list, but it ended up being the best one in person. AND the rent is lower. AND it's in a better location than all the others - 9 minutes to work and 6 minutes to church. AND our landlord doesn't require deposits - he says he's always found people he can trust. AND everything we need is less than 10 minutes away. AND AND AND there is a cul-de-sac across the street which backs up to a soccer field and playground on the grounds of the elementary school. Yep, we're looking forward to our new adventure.
These are sweet times. I WISH I had blogged during the horrible, stressful, gut-wrenching, faith-questioning, sad, depressing wait for the kids, because the difference between then and now is so striking. Our Father brought us through it - He was faithful to carry us when we were too weak (and whiny), and now He is blessing us above and beyond what we could ever expect...in everything. We could never have foreseen how well Adah would fit into the family; we were worried because she was so much older than we anticipated. We could never have foreseen how much we would enjoy Nathaniel even after missing his babyhood. We would never have expected that Daniel would be offered an opportunity to switch to a job that uses his skills and yet doesn't require him to deploy. We would never have expected, especially after coming out of such a long wait, that our house would sell in a timely manner. (sorry, y'all, it kinda turned into a praise and worship session there - can I get an Amen? :) )

And now a little bit about our darling Adah Tomata. Can I just say how much I am enjoying her lately? She is really getting over much of the attitude that it's all about her, all the time. (I have, however, recently had to limit her to one complaint per day about whatever was hurting on her body - she's a hypochrondriac who would like everyone to know in depth what's wrong with her on a minute-to-minute basis). I was commenting to my sister-in-law today that I love looking at all the pictures I've taken of her where she's SMILING. I remember longing for a picture of her smiling in all the updates we got, wondering what her face would look like with a beautiful smile, and now I see it every day. She has a wonderful sense of humor and just joins in with whatever is going on. She's not afraid to be wrong about things, although it does irritate her when she is (especially if Abigail is the one who points it out). She commented today that "long vowels are vewy hard," but she gamely hung in there through her lesson. She has started telling us more about the creche and her three best friends there. Apparently, her friend Josiane had a run-in with a lizard that made her scream. I asked if she was scared of the lizard as well, and Adah said, "I'm being scared, too. I'm not screaming, though." She also remembers a time when a bat got in to the creche. Since she likes discussing all things relating to food, she commented that she used to have rice with sauce on the top for lunch. I asked if she liked it, and she nodded enthusiastically and then said, "It's makin' a mess on the table, though." (she adds "ing" to most verbs she uses and she says "though" a lot) (side note: ANGE - can you give me the recipe you use for bean sauce? It's probably closest to the one they served at the creche.)

And this is the sweetest question that broke my heart. I knew these kinds of questions would come, but I didn't think they would come so soon. I was reading at the dinner table last Friday night because Daniel was gone, and I could tell that Adah wasn't paying attention. All of sudden she said, "Mommy, why you bringin' me here?" I said, "What?" She said, "Why you and Daddy bringin' me here to home?" I answered as best I could on the spot about the special place she held in our hearts, how the Lord led us to her, how we loved her and prayed for her for so long, and she seemed satisfied. And it got me thinking that, from her viewpoint, this probably is all VERY strange to have people take her from everything she knows to live with them in a place far, far away. I'm also very conflicted on the whole argument I've seen in several kids' adoption books that "the Lord meant for you to be in our family - you were meant to be our daughter." Of course, the Lord meant it in the eternal decree sense, but to say that the Lord meant for her to be our daughter also sounds like the Lord took her from her birth family to give her to us, when I think it's an incredible tragedy that adoption has to exist at all. Yes, it's a beautiful picture of our adoption into the Lord's family, and it creates families where parents can't have children biologically, but it also means a terribly tragedy had to occur for the adoption to happen. Either the parent(s) died, or the family wasn't intact, or the parent(s) didn't feel they could be parents - any one of those options has such sad and lasting effects. I don't want to dishonor either set of our children's birth families by saying, "The Lord meant for you to be our daughter." We're just thankful that there's grace aplenty in this fallen world, and that we were adopted when we were in tragic circumstances. Thoughts, Mary? Mom? Ange?


Well, Adah's question led to a discussion about Haiti, and I showed her on the globe where Haiti was and how far we flew to get home. ("Plane up and down, Mommy. It's hurtin' my belly.") When we had a discussion about where each of us would like to go if we had a chance to go anywhere, she said, "I'm a go to Haiti, to my another home." I told her I would LOVE to take her someday, and I really pray that we will be able to do that. She spotted coconuts in the grocery store the other day and got really excited. "Oh, Mommy - that's yuuummy. That's good. That's makin' my belly happy." :) Anyone have a machete I can borrow to open one for her?


There's so much in my brain tonight because I haven't posted in awhile. We continue to work with Nathaniel on attaching and bonding. He likes to fly under the radar and disobey right when you turn your back. It's frustrating, to say the least. He has a real sweet streak, which is heartening on the rough days when he's just looking for trouble. I'm wearing him in the sling again, but only when I'm sitting down. :) He likes to dance, and he remembers certain songs like "Rejoice in the Lord Always," because he claps at the right places. If he needs affection and he's feeling shy, he will back into me to get a hug and then just lean on my legs. Other times he's very open about it and tries to climb up my legs for a snuggle. How can I resist that? :) He's getting better at sitting still for books, and he's starting to put two words together for sentences. Roscoe was outside the other night and barked to get in, and Nathaniel came running to me, patted my leg, and said, "Mommy, Rah-ro woof woof" and pointed to the door. He also likes to shout, "Daddy 'ome, Daddy 'ome" when he hears the garage door open for Daniel returning from work.


And my sweetie Shiloh...who puts up with so much from her many younger siblings. Shiloh, I feel your pain. I understand her frustration, and she puts up with it so much better than I did at her age (sorry, Kira!). She is truly trying to seek the Lord's way instead of taking the easier way, and I see her struggle. She had to write a thank-you note for a grammar lesson the other day, and she said she hadn't received anything lately to be able to send a thank-you note. So I told her to just write a note thanking someone for being who they were, for how much they meant to her, etc. I didn't think much more about it because she does these assignments on her own and then brings them back to me to check. Later that night, Cora showed me the note that she had written to HER and placed under her pillow. The note thanked Cora for being a wonderful sister, apologized for being impatient sometimes, and expressed how thankful she was that Cora was her sister. What can I say? When they're picking at each other so much that it makes me grit my teeth, I will remember that note and the bright ray of hope it gives me. :)

Well, I better get off here before I spend the whole night writing. Thanks for reading, y'all.

Love,

Casey

p.s. We're moving in TWO WEEKS! TWO WEEKS! That's crazy. We will be in a townhouse until our rental is ready June 15th, but I'll have internet access.