Miscellaneous

Here's Adah's new 'do for the coming week (hopefully week and a half!). I did much smaller braids and then added beads and snaps to the ends. Now she makes great sounds when she snaps her head around! :) I thought the pattern turned out pretty cool, which is why I took a picture of the top; I was trying to do triangles throughout. I REALLY have to get faster at braiding, though. This style took me 3 1/2 hours from start to finish!


This is my Cora reading to Nathaniel. She is such a sweetheart and really tries to include him in whatever they're doing. Today she took him outside to play with him while I did Adah's hair.
THIS face really melts my heart. She can exasperate me more than any of the other children because she goes off into "Cora-land" with no warning and she can be a real nudge to Shiloh. On the other hand (and it seems contradictory), she is also the sweetest. She is the most empathetic, the most trusting, and the most forgiving. She has a growing love for the Lord and a burden to pray for those who need it. I am so thankful to be her Mommy!

I'm off to get on the treadmill while Daniel cleans the garage out. We're preparing to move next Friday! YEA! (well, not the preparing to move part - just the moving part)

Love,
Casey
p.s. Babs - when your treadmill started going on the blink, did it run slower on the sides than in the middle? If I don't stay in the very middle, I can get tripped up. Obviously, that's not the best thing when running on a treadmill that backs up to a wall. :) (Don't worry - I have a safety belt!)

Three Year Old Humor

Overheard this evening as the kids were playing with the phones:

Abigail: "Hello, Adah? How are yoooouuu? Would you like to come to a tea party tomorrow?"

Adah: "No, thank you. I'm busy. Jackson like to talk wif you. Here Jackson."

Jackson: "Hello, Abigail?"

Abigail: "Yes? How are yoooouu, Jackson?"

Jackson: "I'm fine, but my underwear is falling down. How are you?"

Much laughter from all three.

I know it only gets worse from here. :)

Big Brown Eyes

Adah said to me this evening, "Why you not bring Josiane home to us, too?"

I'm thankful that I had a VERY good explanation that Josiane already has a family who loves her and is waiting on her to come to THEIR home, or else those big brown eyes would have done me in. :)

I think she has started the grieving process for her first home and her friends, and although it is painful to watch, it is a good step toward truly bonding and attaching. I pray for wisdom and guidance to help her through this process.

Off to bed now-
Casey

p.s. Dear Flu,
It was not you who afflicted my husband, but your annoying offspring, the massive ear infection. Tell him to back off! Don't you know we are moving next week?
Thanks for your help-
Casey

Note to the Flu

Dear Flu,
It's not enough that you took out five of my children? It's not enough that you've made me go to the doctor countless times with a $15 co-pay each time PER CHILD? It's not enough that you made me give Shiloh a bath in the middle of the night to bring down her fever? NOW YOU'RE TAKING MY HUSBAND OUT?
That's not cool.
Sincerely,
Casey

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.

Ahhhh...spring

I love spring! And I love that these kids can get outside every extra minute of the day. They are enjoying themselves immensely. I got some one-on-two time last night when Shiloh and Nathaniel and I stayed home from Bible study, and it was nice to be able to spend that time together (it was quiet, too!).

We're mostly recovered from the whatever-it-was here. I called the urgent care clinic, and we did NOT have strep. I don't know what we HAD, but it wasn't strep. So the others don't have to go on antibiotics, but it bothers me that three of the girls were on antibiotics for something they didn't have. I won't do that again.

We're off on a house-hunting trip this weekend to Charlottesville. We have a VERY exciting and beautiful possibility, so we're looking forward to seeing what the Lord has in store. Please pray for us and for the timing of everything, because it would be wonderful to do a door-to-door move. We're trying to find a place to start renting May 1st, and that looks like a possibility.

Love,

Casey

p.s. And on a very sad, and rather pathetic note, please tell me that you/someone you know has done this...

Daniel asked me where the mail was yesterday evening and I drew a blank. I distinctly remember GOING to the mailbox, but I have no recollection of whether anything was there or where I PUT it if I brought it back to the house. That's sad. That's really sad. And the mail still hasn't been found.

And This Deserved A Whole Separate Post

Yes, my dear friends and prayer warriors...

WE HAVE A CONTRACT ON THE HOUSE!

After much weeping and gnashing of teeth (poor Daniel), we received an offer on Saturday evening. Let me preface this story by saying that I had let only a few people know that I was praying specifically for an offer on the house by this past Saturday. I don't normally pray that specifically - maybe it's a lack of boldness, or a feeling that I'm being too presumptuous, I don't know. After going through 8 showings in four days and the girls getting sick, I was praying even more fervently that we would receive an offer and stop the madness already. We have had 28 showings. Phew. Saturday went by with no offer. We prayed in family worship that evening that we would trust in the Lord and His ways no matter what. We put the children to bed (after drugging them :) ) and checked our email to find that an offer had been written on the house that day at 2:30, but our realtor had not let us know. The buyer's agent said she had started to write the offer for her clients on another house, and they changed their minds at the last minute. :) The laughable offer indicated to us that the buyers thought we were GIVING the house away, so we counter-offered with not much hope. We were laughing about receiving an offer at the last minute, however, and saying that I should have been a little MORE specific in asking for a good offer. :) Well, the buyers accepted most of the counter-offer (the important parts like our selling price and showing us a pre-qualified letter) and we are in business! Both parties signed the contract today, so we are UNDER CONTRACT and due to close May 1st. That is PERFECT timing for us, since Daniel has to report in on April 28th (I thought it was the 30th - I really should pay more attention to my life) and now we get to move together! In this market, we do not take it for granted that we have sold our home in a timely manner and that we are walking away having made a little money even though we only owned it less than two years. And now we can RELAX and enjoy the last month we have here. How lovely. Poor Shiloh and Cora can again join us at the table; since we pulled out the leaf on the table to make the dining room look larger, they've been sitting at the counter in the kitchen. :)

We are so very thankful to the Lord for His abundant faithfulness to us in all of life, but particularly in the past few months. We will recount all of His blessings over and over to our children so that they will remember He can be trusted. He does all things well. I mark my prayer journal with little stars when I have a spiritual marker I want to look back on and remember, and my journal is full of stars lately!! :)

Resting in Him tonight-
Casey

Can You Guess What's Going on at our House?

Yep, we've got strep, or flu, or Ebola...something really bad, anyway. Shiloh and Cora went to the doctor on Sunday, and they were tested for strep. The rapid test came up negative, but because all the symptoms pointed to strep, the doc put them on antibiotics and took a throat culture. We should hear tomorrow if the rest of the kids need to be put on antibiotics. Abigail came down with a really high fever yesterday afternoon, but she seemed to do well today. Cora is definitely on the mend, but Shiloh's sore throat and fever are hanging in there. This is a nasty bug! Adah, Jackson, and Nathaniel are as happy as clams and as full of energy as ever. Daniel changed out all the toothbrushes, I washed all the linens, and all the cups are labeled. If WE have anything to do with it, NO ONE ELSE is getting sick. Abigail is wise about all things medical, and she was asking me if I could change out the CD when I came to "drug her" (said in a whisper close to my ear) in the middle of the night last night. :) As Adah watched Cora throw up last night before bedtime, she said in a bewildered voice, "Lots my sisters sick. THREE my sisters sick!" It all worked to her good since she got to go out with Daddy for more medicine and thereby got ice cream. It's sort of the default if you go out with Daddy on errands. We're hanging in there. As of bedtime Monday night, all fevers have broken and no one had to be "drugged."

Love to all-Casey

p.s. Cora thought that wearing her sunglasses helped fight off the bug, or protected her eyes, or something. So she fell asleep with them on.

p.p.s. Shiloh made that pillowcase with the horses on it! (totally random, but I'm a proud mama)

Short on Words, Long on Pictures

Grandma!! You're published on the blog! Everyone, meet G.G., my grandma. I won't mention how young she is, but let's just say she's a pretty hip grandma. She has a cooler cell phone than I do, and she's "thinking" about retiring this year from her job. She spoiled us with Dunkin Donuts coffee and eating out and a trip to the Palisades Mall when we visited.
This was Adah's hairdo for our trip to Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York. I got it from a picture on snapaholics, a website for beads. I think it turned out pretty well, and she really liked it. I need colorful hairbands that STAY in her hair, though - the "ouchless" cute ones snap constantly.
All the kids with Pop, Daniel's grandfather. He and Nan live in Pennsylvania in a really nice nursing home, and it was so wonderful to be able to introduce our new children to them. They haven't been in the best of health, and we're grateful to still have them with us.

Adah and Abigail being very strange.Shiloh loves the song, "International Harvester." What a weirdo. Piano lessons really haven't helped her singing, but she enjoys herself.

The boys are hanging out with Daddy. I accidentally deleted the video where they were jumping on top of him and then trying to roll him over. He was a little sore when they were done. :)

Just hanging out here - I have to get dinner on the table before Bible study, and we're taking it easy after standardized testing. Today was the last day - yea!

We're also on our 20th showing for the house. Tomorrow's showing will be the 21st. Pray. Pray without ceasing for it to be over. :) Daniel reports to work in Virginia on April 30th, and if we haven't sold the house by then, he'll go on up and we'll stay here in the house until it sells.

Love, Casey

*Edited to Add* I should be nicer to Shiloh; her voice actually HAS improved from her piano lessons. She just sounds weird trying to do the accent in the song. :)

Quick! Quick! Before the kids get up!

I have to hurry and post this before I hear little voices: "Mommy! Mommy! Where are you??" :) Here are some random pics from the last few days. 1. Daniel and ALL the boys hanging out (technically, is Roscoe really a boy? Or an "it?") 2. Cora reading to Adah and Abigail 3. 4. 5. Look what happened two days ago! Adah lost BOTH front teeth! She knocked the first one out banging her mouth on a walking stick outside (don't worry - it was already loose) and then she wanted me to get the other one out. In the last picture, she doesn't have an abcess in her mouth; it's a marshmallow for being brave while I was pulling her tooth (and by the way - ICK! Pulling teeth is definitely NOT my job!!!!). 6. Abigail and Adah in the bathtub - can we all sing "Ebony and Ivory" one time? Could there be a more stark contrast? :) Adah was trying to impersonate "Pere Noel" and had a beard as well, but the picture didn't turn out well. 6. Nathaniel with his new backpack on. I was trying to get a picture of the backpack, but he kept turning around to say, "Cheese." You can tell he's saying it by the way his mouth is curled. Too cute. 7. Now THAT is a handsome young man. He wanted a shirt and tie to look like Daddy on Sunday, and we finally found him one at Kohl's. He had the jacket from a friend of ours as a hand-me-down, and boy was he pleased with himself this past Sunday. "I look like a man, Mommy - a big man! Wif my tie, my belt, and my shzacket. And my shoes. My tie-up shoes like Daddy." 8. And this photo makes me cry. Look at what a LOVELY young lady my big girl is. She looked SO beautiful and so graceful in this outfit that Daniel and I kept looking at each other and saying, "When did this happen?" (And for all you thrifty people - TWELVE DOLLARS that dress was - TWELVE. Down from $68. Uh-huh. I know you're jealous of my bargain hunting skills.)

Okay - quick funny story about Adah and her teeth (okay, not quick - are any of my stories quick? Please.). I told her about the tooth fairy coming (if you think the tooth fairy is an elaborate ruse meant to deceive children and give them the impression that their parents are liars, you might want to stop reading here.). She was clearly confused about all of this and wanted further details. So she proceeded to follow me all over the house asking questions. "I dough-no dis toof faireee." (She was hard enough to understand before. Now? Forget it.) "What is toof faireee? He fly in my bed?" (She's having trouble with pronouns right now.) I told her to get a baggie and put her teeth in it, the tooth fairy would come while she was sleeping, take her teeth, and put some money under her pillow. "Moneeee? What moneee? I dough-no dis moneee." (Whenever she doesn't understand something, she says "I don't know dis..." whatever it is.) I took her upstairs and motioned to her what would happen, and then she looked truly alarmed. "In my bed? In my room? No, no. I'm being scared. Toof faireee scary." The girls tried to reassure her (all of whom know who the tooth fairy is, but they're willing to play along if they get moola out of it). Then she wanted to know all about what the tooth fairy looked like. She was finally convinced to give it a try. When I went in to deliver the money, she had hung the edge of the baggie WAY out from under her pillow, and she went to sleep with her head under the covers. She told me in the morning she did that on purpose so she wouldn't have to see the scary tooth fairy. She was THRILLED with the results of the tooth fairy visit, but she also wanted her teeth back. Then she thought she'd try to take out another tooth to get the tooth fairy to come back. Then she wanted to discuss ad nauseum how the tooth fairy got in to her room, what she looked like ("She not small. She haf moneee - not small. BEEG!" gesturing with her hands how big she thought the tooth fairy was) and where her teeth might be. All in all, I came away thinking that this really was a bizarre ritual. And a little scary, too.

Love,

Casey

Oh? Is this my blog? Do I write here?

Yes, apparently I've forgotten the purpose of the blog, which is to provide my mother with updated photos of the children. :) I'm also supposed to keep y'all up-to-date with what's going on in our lives, but I can't very well do that if I only post every two weeks or so, because A LOT can happen in the Houseworth household in two weeks. Let's take a look, shall we? In between numerous house showings, homeschooling, and feeding the growing horde, my dad came to visit on February 21st, Nathaniel's 2nd birthday was the 26th, my birthday was the 1st of March, and ohbytheway, we found out we're not moving to Texas. Yeah, that happened last Monday, so it's just old news by this point. But here's the good news. We're moving to Charlottesville, Virginia!!!!! As you can see by the many exclamation points, (which I love to use but which irritate Daniel) we are very excited about this. Here's the backstory to the new location: I get a call February 6th after Daniel's interview with the folks in Charlottesville (Can I post the agency's name? I think it's okay, but Daniel's asleep, so I can't check. I won't, just to be on the safe side. Don't worry - he's not a spy or anything like that. :) ). ANYWAY, this is Daniel: "Casey, I totally bombed that interview. I mean, I can't even tell you how awful I was." Me: "What happened? You never bomb interviews. Could you not answer the questions?" Daniel: "I don't know what happened!! I had to do the interview in the car and after I got on they told me it was going to be an hour long and I looked at my phone and thought, 'I'm not gonna make it! I'm not gonna make it!'" His phone was about to die, and he was slightly panicky. He was still a little panicky AFTER the interview. He brooded about it for about three days, every once in a while looking at me dolefully and saying, "Man, I can't believe I totally bombed that interview." But since we thought we were already on our way to Texas, it didn't really matter. So, Daniel was home on February 25th because he wasn't feeling well. He took a phone call upstairs, talked for awhile, and then came downstairs laughing. Uh-huh. Totally bombed the interview, huh? They offered him the job he wanted. A BETTER job than the one in Texas, (qualitatively speaking, not monetarily speaking :) ) a GREAT location, WITH the opportunity to get an advanced degree, WITHOUT deployments except for some sweet TDYs to places like Germany. And we think we found a church home as well from talking to (interrogating, whatever) the pastor of an OPC congregation. There are only two downsides: we were looking forward to being near Daniel's sister and her family, and it's cold in Virginia. Okay, that second one is just according to Shiloh and me. Everyone else is excited about not enduring San Antonio heat. We also have an additional month here before Daniel has to report to whatever-the-agency-is on April 3oth. That gives us an extra month to sell the house and experience all the fun of house showings. :) We've had 13 showings but no offers.
Okay, so without further ado, I now give you pictures of the wild and wacky kids in the last couple of weeks. Adah has REALLY gotten into birthdays around here, having experienced four since she came home. She made Nathaniel and me presents for our birthdays, and she was talking about her birthday daily until we counted how many days there were until November 13th. She got awfully quiet, and then said, "Too long. That's too long." She doesn't really talk about it anymore. :) The girls made and decorated the birthday cake for Nathaniel, and I stayed out of it except to get the pans out of the oven. I think they did a nice job, but it was much too subdued for them. "Mommy, we need blue icing, or red icing, or both! Or something! More sparkles maybe! Can we put M&Ms on it? What about whipped cream on top of the icing?" That last one was Abigail, of course. Nathaniel seemed to enjoy everything, and I found myself alternating between total joy that he was home and wondering about his birthmom and how she remembers that day. It was an odd, disjointed feeling. I can't write too much about it as I'm still processing it and my thoughts probably wouldn't make any sense. So, on to the pictures...
The first picture is Jackson's impression of the Home Alone kid, I think. The second is my little Mommy Cora Dora snuggling with Jackson. She had a boo-boo on her nose; she hasn't gone for plastic surgery. The rest of the pictures are out of order, but you can get the idea. I love the picture of Adah and Abigail hanging out; they are becoming good friends during their alone time in the afternoon while I'm still doing lessons with Shiloh and Cora. In this picture they were discussing recipes. :) With Adah this mainly consists of turning the pages very quickly and saying, "Oooh, I like dat. Oh, I no like dat. OOOOHHH, I like dis one. Mommy, look at dis one. This one yuummmmy." Sorry my arm is in the picture of Nathaniel with his cake. I just didn't want him to incur second degree burns by sticking his face in the candles.

And that's all folks. Nathaniel was up quite a bit last night coughing, so I'm hoping for more sleep for everyone tonight. Daniel got a head start on me, so I'm going to go catch up.

Love,

Casey

p.s. Ange, we're also so sad that we won't get to be near your family and meet your three girlies! Adah still wants to pray for them, and she wanted to write them a note the other day!

p.p.s. Sorry for the red-eye, folks. I'm too tired to fix it tonight.

Edited to add: Daniel laughed when he read the post. It's not a secret where he's going to be working - the National Ground Intelligence Center - and he shook his head at my ignorance. :) He said, "People are going to think I'm working for the CIA." Which is akin to working for al-Qaida in his mind.

Hi Y'all!

This is a big THANK YOU to my Aunt Babs, who sent the girls these adorable socks for Valentine's Day. They were thrilled with them, and they promptly put them on OVER their tights (ever the fashion-forward girls) for the rest of the day.


This has been Adah's hair-do for the last two weeks. I can BARELY put it up into two puffballs, but they are adorable. She likes them because we can change ribbons or barrettes to match the outfit. She's a pro at smiling for the camera even when the camera isn't even on her face. :)



The rest of the pics are from our wonderful neighbor's Valentine's Day party. Obviously, I'm not the best photographer, and the kids were too busy playing to pose for me. These aren't the "organized" shots where we were doing Kindermusik activities, making adorable crafts, or eating chocolate cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies. The kids had a wonderful time, and I met another homeschooling mom in the neighborhood (too bad we're moving!!). Do you see the baby slings that Cora and Shiloh are wearing? Aren't they cute? My friend Kelly made me one for Nathaniel and then decided to make Abigail and Shiloh miniature versions for their birthdays. Cora borrowed Abigail's for her doll Susanna. (Or, as Cora still calls her four years later, "Zuzanna")
































So here's something strange. Apparently the word out there is that we're the parents of SIX children. Yep, I had one of "those" moments today. I was just thinking about nothing in particular when: Wait a minute! I have six children? How did THAT happen? (Okay, obviously, folks, I know HOW it happened - these were rhetorical questions to myself). Then I told myself to get a grip before the kids started noticing that I was acting weird. And then I smiled because it's just been a great day to be a mom to all these wonderful kids. Sure, Nathaniel threw a temper tantrum at lunch, Jackson spilled an entire cup of water that he was trying to prepare for his brother, Abigail and Adah continued their ongoing Chutes and Ladders feud and took it to new heights with Uno, and Shiloh got a little emotional during Latin (Latin?? How in the world does that make you emotional? I can understand math, but Latin?), but even WITH all that...it's a good day. They're all here, they're all healthy, they're all happy, and life is good. We are seriously, abundantly blessed. And apparently Cora is my favorite child today since I couldn't think of an example of evildoing for her, but wait...there's a funny story coming...
Cora had a spelling test today and after she wrote her second word, I told her that the words needed to be in cursive. So she went back to erase the other words, concentrated on getting the cursive correct and was preparing to write her third word when she looked up and said, "So, does it matter if the words are spelled correctly?" Um, yeah. It's a spelling test, sweetie. She's not naturally blonde, but she sure does act like it sometimes.

And the BEST PIECE OF NEWS FOR LAST! We got Adah's and Nathaniel's readoption paperwork in the mail the other day! They are officially Adah Resilia Houseworth and Nathaniel Erickson Houseworth, U.S. citizens. They will be issued North Carolina birth certificates, although the birth certificates will say they were born overseas (it sure is easier to have those than to try to track down Haitian birth certificates when they need them in the future!). We are DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE with the mountain of paperwork that has plagued our very lives since August of 2005. We have been encouraged to get Certificates of Citizenship for them, but since those are a whopping $420 per child, we're waiting until we have their social security cards and then we'll just get their passports. Much easier and less expensive.

Well, I'm going to prepare our schooling for tomorrow. We're pretty strict around here, what with actually expecting the kids to spell things correctly for their spelling tests, so I better stay on top of things.

Love,
Casey

Phew! Part Deux

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post! Apparently I can homeschool, hang out with the kids, keep up with laundry, make meals, and blog, but I can't do all that AND show the house to try to sell it, so something had to go. That one thing threw me all off; it's kicking my booty. The kids are grateful that making meals didn't get thrown off the list. :) Actually, I COULD blog and do all that, but I actually like having a conversation with my husband over a cup of tea in the evenings so that we can catch up. (Now that he's actually OUT AT WORK now. Bummer.)

So the previous paragraph was just to say that HEY! I've missed you. I've missed blogging and sharing our precious kiddos with you. I had big plans to post about the rollerskating birthday party we had for Abigail and Shiloh, but when I got to the rink, my camera was chastising me: "Change Batteries!" Ugh. I'm waiting on a friend to email me some pictures that she took. If I waited until then to blog, though, it might be another two weeks before I get around to it. Right now the house is REALLY quiet, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to write. Daniel has taken the girls to see "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" at our cheapo movie theater, and the boys are napping. It's weird to have the house this quiet. I love how full of life our house is, and I can't imagine that someday it might be this quiet all the time. (Well, not ALL the time - the grandkids will be hanging out and making noise!) Sometimes my ears are ringing when the kids are finally in bed at night, but having grown up with my sister Kira, I'm used to loud. HA! (You have to admit it's true, Mom.)

So...the State of the Household. Trying to sell a house right now really stinks. That's honesty for you. I know I stress the kids out right before a showing because I'm so particular about how it needs to look. And yet they put up with me anyway and pitch in wherever they can. They're earning money for vacuuming, a chore I don't usually have them do because it's still a little much for them. Shiloh likes feeling grown-up, though, so she happily volunteers. Nathaniel doesn't like the vacuum, although he's much better now because we've been vacuuming so often. Adah and Abigail do things at their level like cleaning the windows from Roscoe slime. :) We've had 7 showings in two weeks, so that's a pretty good amount. No offers yet. We've set up temporary housing in San Antonio, which turned out to be a bigger problem than we thought because of our family size. :) The relocation specialists who are supposed to be helping us said that they couldn't put us in a 3 bedroom apartment because their regulations stipulate only two children per bedroom. Has anybody ever heard this? I mean, I understand the regulations if someone is trying to cram three families and their relatives in an apartment, but a single family with small children? I thought it was weird. We found a place on our own that has no problem with our family size. Daniel has his physical on the 13th and then we'll get orders to start the whole process. We're praying we'll sell the house before we leave, but we have two months of temporary housing paid for in San Antonio if we don't.

Despite showings hanging over our heads, we've been getting our regular schooling done, and I'm enjoying re-learning (or learning as the case may be) Roman history with the two older girls. Abigail is doing really well in math, which is always surprising for one of our offspring. Adah is reading simple books and re-learning her numbers in English. It's so nice that she can already read! For some reason, that's the biggest hurdle in my mind when it comes to teaching the kids. So when I discovered that she could read, I immediately thought, "Wow! I only have two more to teach to read!" :) I LOVE to teach them to read; I just automatically assume that I can't do it proficiently enough. Ah...the guilt of a homeschooling mom. If your child can't read, you can't blame it on another teacher!

Adah Tomata ("Tuh-may-tuh"), as she is now known, is doing exceptionally well (Daniel calls her this, and then she responds with "Papa Potata!"). She is speaking so much more English these days, and she finds ingenious ways to explain things to us when we don't understand. She's curious about everything, and she's game for anything. She LOVED rollerskating, although she decided after about 2 minutes on the real skates that she wanted the little kid skates that Jackson had on. She definitely has a zest for life. Our biggest hurdle with her is dealing with her entitlement mindset. If she wants it, she feels she deserves to have it. It's hard to explain, because it's not a grabby, 2 year-old mindset where she's going around taking things. It's more sophisticated than that. It's a "you shall cater to my wants whenever I have wants and whatever those wants are." If she wants your attention, she wants it now and will sulk if she doesn't get it. If she perceives that she's been treated unfairly, then she will sulk. If she doesn't like the dress she's wearing that day, she will comment, "I like that dress" and point to one of her sister's dresses. In other words, she's just a sinner like the rest of us. :) She is getting SO much better, though, and we are heartened by the progress we've seen just in the two months she's been home. She went to bed unhappy last night over being corrected for something, and she didn't want any goodnight kisses or hugs. We told her we loved her, blew her kisses, and told her we'd be there whenever she was ready for hugs and kisses. We went back in a few minutes later and she put her arms up for hugs. YEA! That's good progress. If we had had any Moose Tracks, we would have celebrated. (SOMEbody ate the last bit we had. Oh, wait. That might have been me.)

Nathaniel is 99.99% recovered from his surgery. It's amazing how quickly those little bodies recover! He is also full of life aka VERY LOUD. I remember this age with all the kids when they would say, "Mommy?" and I would answer, "Yes, __________," and they would proceed to babble for a couple of sentences. Then two minutes later, "Mommy?" and I would answer, "Yes, _________." You get the picture. They're not great conversationalists at this age, but they really want to feel connected. :) This happens especially in the van, where I think I hear "Mommy?" an average of fifty times. That could be our fault for living 30 minutes away from everything. :) Nathaniel has been more of a challenge than Adah has been, and I joke that I prayed too hard for Adah and not enough for Nathaniel. :) We certainly thought Adah would be harder to integrate. Nathaniel is learning to trust us, and that comes with a lot of rebellion to see if we're going to respond the same way each time and whether we'll still love him. We are still working on eye contact, and we see a little improvement though we're nowhere near where we'd like to be. He wants affection on his terms, and the boundary between normal two year-old ornery behavior and pushing us away can be hard to see sometimes. We pray for guidance and wisdom, and we love on him all we can. He LOVES chasing games, being thrown up in the air, belly kisses, and tickling. He especially loves it when we tickle his feet. His laugh is addictive, and I can forget what else I'm doing if I'm trying to make him keep laughing. :)

Although this season of the blog is dedicated to the newest Houseworths, I don't want to neglect the others. In that effort, this post will also highlight Abby-dabby-doodle, who just turned 5. Abigail only wanted a mound of frosting - no cake - to celebrate her birthday. Think she has a sweet tooth? :) Abigail is a delight, from her adorable voice to her adorable face. She is also a stinker, and I say that with equal parts frustration and admiration. She is a STRONG personality, which is excellent for being matched with Adah. She and Adah have had some heated games of Chutes and Ladders! :) Both girls are very competitive and VERY persistent. They have played Chutes and Ladders for ONE WHOLE HOUR at a time. It makes my head hurt to play one game of Chutes and Ladders. Abigail is obsessed with being a big girl and doing big girl things. She will never be big, and she must face this fact. :) She is, however, doing big girl things. She rode her bike without training wheels last year at 4 - that's the earliest for our kids. She's reading REALLY well, and she has a knack for math. She helps around the house more than the others did at her age, because she watches them and learns. She's thorough in her tasks, and I appreciate her energetic personality. I look forward to seeing what 5 year-old Abigail will do this year!

Oh, and one more piece of news. Our two lovely young ladies, Shiloh and Cora, will become, Lord willing, full communicant members of the church on Sunday. Shiloh approached Daniel awhile ago and asked if she could take the Lord's Supper. Daniel made sure that her request was sincere and began studying the Lord's Supper with her on Sundays after church. He used Scripture, the catechism, and a book our pastor recommended. Then Cora approached him and asked that she be included in the study because she wanted to take the Lord's Supper as well. We thought they were too young to understand the solemnity of the Lord's Supper and to be able to examine themselves as commanded by Scripture, but they have convinced us otherwise. They were interviewed by our Session two Sundays ago, and the Session agreed to admit them providing they can get up before the congregation on Sunday, respond to the questions put before them, and give a credible profession of faith in their own words. They have both written their "testimonies" and practiced them. Would you pray with us that they (especially Shiloh) will be able to confidently stand before their brothers and sisters in Christ and proclaim their faith before many witnesses? This is a hard thing they're doing, and I am so humbled by the strength of their desire to join with the body of Christ that they are willing to speak before the church. Would my zeal be that great? Hmmm.

That's all for now. I'm going to take advantage of the quiet and read a little, rest a little, and maybe even sleep a little. :)

Love to all-
Casey

Phew!

So far little Nathaniel is making it through the week. His umbilical hernia surgery and circumcision were done on Monday, and everything was perfectly fine until the medication from the surgery wore off WAY earlier than it should have. Poor Nathaniel!! I called the doc and received "permission" to give him Motrin which did NOTHING. I called back and received permission to go ahead and dose him with his Tylenol with codeine, which did NOTHING because he was too hysterical by that point. I called back and used my angry voice, and the doctor said, "Well, it's really important that we keep him calm." Uh-huh. No kidding it's important to keep him calm. That's why I called you TWO HOURS AGO to let you know that he was starting to feel discomfort when he shouldn't be, you knucklehead. I was trying to be a responsible parent and not overdose my child but apparently I should have gone ahead with my instincts and just drugged him right away. It took two doses to settle him down, and even that didn't really settle him down...the Tylenol with codeine makes him hyper! :) Yikes. He had a thirty minute nap on the day of his surgery. At least he was finally comfortable, though! And thanks to the power of prayer - oh, yeah, I alerted the prayer warriors about this one - he slept through the night on Monday and we all had a chance to regroup. Poor Cora was stressed OUT with Nathaniel's crying...all her maternal instincts were going haywire, and she felt totally helpless. I made her go outside with Shiloh and run off some steam, so they all crashed Monday night as well. Since then, we've kept on top of the medicine cycles even if we have to wake him up at night, and he's doing fine. The saddest thing on Monday was to see a return to some of the orphanage/self-comfort behaviors that he had gotten rid of since he first came home. He does a weird thing with his fingers while he's sucking his thumb, and he hadn't done that for a really long time. He had a hard time accepting comfort, especially since it had to be in his most vulnerable position -being held cradle-style on his back. The regression made me even more angry with the doctor. Arrgh. >:(

He didn't like the removal of the bandages, and he's walking kinda bowlegged (sorry, son - too much information), but he seems to be healing well. He goes in tomorrow for one of his follow-up appointments. It's going to be awhile before he has a recognizable belly button, but it's much better than it was. At least he can wear pants now instead of overalls all the time.

So that's been our week so far. And we've been schooling and the handymen have been at the house to do the last of the touch-ups before we put the house on the market TOMORROW. Who thought this was a good idea?? :) What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right? Or certifiably insane, whichever.

And to make matters worse, our eldest turned NINE today. NINE! That's one year away from TEN, and before you know it, she's going to be EIGHTEEN. *sigh* Only middle-aged people have nine year-olds. Oh, wait. We are middle-aged. At least one of us is, anyway. :) That middle-aged person took his daughter on a date tonight, and they had a wonderful time. She got all dressed up (Daddy, too!), and might I say we make (and adopt!!) beautiful children. What's even more wonderful is that she is a lovely person on the inside, growing in grace and in the love of the Lord. She is truly precious, and she has such a sweet spirit. Happy Birthday, Shiloh! We are blessed to be your parents, and we look forward to celebrating many more birthdays before you up and leave us in our old age, weeping and sobbing as you go off to make your own way in the world, never bothering to look back and notice that your parents are desolate without you. *sigh* This parenting deal is pretty hard. Next week Abigail turns five. FIVE! That's one year away from SIX, and before you know it, she's going to be EIGHTEEN. Not that I'm overreacting or anything.

Okay, before I hit my second wind tonight and stay up until 1:00, I better give you these pictures and head to bed.

Much Love,

Casey
I think Cora captured this unique camera angle on Nathaniel (this is a pre-op picture; otherwise, his eyes would be pretty glassy from all the good drugs). I often find pictures on the camera of Cora's dolls, various barnyard scenes created with blocks and figurines, and Roscoe. I curse the day I taught her to use the camera. :)


And here is the lovely photographer herself, posed quite nicely by Adah. Adah also took the picture. Yeah - she taught ADAH to use the camera. Great.
I really have no explanation for this picture. I just found him like this before dinner one night. Please don't call Social Services on me. He looks like a friendly hoodlum, doesn't he?Okay, this is for all you people who have watched Nathaniel's video more than once. Oh, come on. I know you have. So back by popular demand...Nathaniel. The backstory to this video: Daniel called me upstairs to see the latest haircut he had given Nathaniel. I walked in to see this crazy Mohawk/high-and-tight-gone-bad. I might have fainted. When I recovered, I said, "What are you thinking?" And he said, "Oh, come on. Now that's a cool haircut. It's awesome!" Then I said, "It's something all right." He said, "So should I take it down to the skin or keep it? Because it's awesome!" (He was pretty impressed with his skills.) I called for backup. "Shiloh, come up here!" Shiloh: "What did you DO to his HAIR, Daddy?" Thank you. You are my favorite child. Daniel called for backup. "Adah, Abigail, Cora, come up here!" This is the conversation that ensued, pretty much word for word. Daniel: "Okay, girls. Is this the coolest haircut ever and should I keep it this way or should I make your brother look like a poor refugee and shave it bald?" Me: "Okay, girls. Do you want your brother looking like a crazy person (no offense to crazy people, there are lots in our family) or do you want him looking somewhat normal? Tell Daddy to cut his hair!" Daniel: "Okay, vote now." Jackson: "Keep it. It's cool. I like it." Abigail: "Keep it." Adah: "Bon! Adah like it!" (might I add that she was laughing hysterically and this could have been sarcasm - I demand a recount!) Cora (wavering): "Yeah, keep it. I think he's cute." Shiloh: "Mommy! Do something! He can't go out like that!" Me: "I'm with Shiloh." Daniel: "Oh, come on. It's awesome!" And that's how Nathaniel came to look like a miniature Marine gunney sergeant. And what do you know, the first person we encounter when we get to church on Sunday is one of our elders who is a former Army guy: "Hey, cool haircut. High speed." Thanks, buddy. Daniel now refers to his haircut as his pre-op combat haircut. Poor little guy. THIS haircut AND surgery in one week. It's just too much.

And this is my lovely, NORMAL, right-thinking eldest daughter, my favorite child. who backs me up in all circumstances. :) She's wearing a crown especially made for her by Cora at the last minute as they were driving home from dinner this evening.