Thankful! Week Six

So much happens every week and I think I must remember to log that... and here it is the end of the week and the best thing I can remember is that we have celebrated our first Thanksgiving as a family of four! What a day, 17 adults and 8 children all in our house and dinner was ready almost on time!!! I am a little proud of that!!!

All week Jo1 has been talking about "HER PARTY" (Thanksgiving) she has no idea just how much this party was about her and her lil sis. Bill and I have been telling the girls how thankful we are that they are in our family!

Monday on our way to school this week as we were singing the Zacchaeus song... I ask Jo1 if she knew that God has a BIG plan for her life and she replies, "Yea, Uh-huh...what is it?" I explained to her that I didn't know but we get to spend the rest of her life discovering what it is! She says... OK! She melted my heart once more last Sunday!

Saturday night baby Ja2 was up most of the night and momma was too tired to get us all up and ready for church so the girls and I had our first Sunday School lesson at home while Daddy went to preach the Word to the College class!

I wasn't sure what I was going to tell them about so I was thinking and praying about what we should learn over breakfast and I was looking for something to teach and God said...uhhh HELLO.... how about Zacchaeus! That was the same story I taught for my very first VBS in Peru! I got to tell our girls a little bit more about my trips to Peru and how Aunt Amy was in Peru right now with Miss Laci picking up Laci's forever little girl too.

As we went through the story and the girls colored their pages it was just such a sweet time just to get to tell them how God took me to Peru to help build a home for other children who are waiting for their forever families just like us.

As we came across photos of the orphanage and I explained that this is what mommy helped work on while she was there; Jo1 says to me... “I wanna do that too, and I want to go on the air plane to Peru!" That was it... I had a good cry over that, I said you made mommy cry, she laughed and said, "No I didn't!" and here I am again tearing up. I know she is only 4, but what if that is God's plan for her life, and He did take me all the way to Peru twice to set us on the path to find this little American girl so she could grow up and go serve the orphans of Peru like her forever mommy!

I remember telling Bill in 2009 that whenever we do find our children I want to take them to Peru so they can see where God planted them in our hearts!

I want to get on a plane with her right now and take her there!

She always wants to help me with whatever I am doing even if her favorite show is on. Is this a servant’s heart or is this a typical 4 yr old that wants to be just like mommy and do everything mommy does?

I guess we will see in the years to come...

I think Poor lil baby Ja2 has allergies like me... between her teething and sneezing, her lil nose is all red and runny most of the time. Hope she sleeps well tonight! I know that alarm in my mattress is going to go off as soon as I log off here and get into bed, so we will have some sweet time in the rocking chair again! Although she did act like she wanted me to put her to bed tonight... maybe she will sleep good!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

                                                                                                         

Scene overlooking the unfinished portion of Hannah's in 2010 the moment after God confirmed His calling to Adoption.

The mountain to the right of my camera's view on the same day

Psa 113:9He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the LORD.

Everyone is learning

Today is 5 weeks and were all learning each other pretty well, and my body is adjusting to all the lifting and the spring in my rear that pops me up just about every time it sits down... ha ha ha...
The girls now have their own rooms so nap time is so much smoother the last few days and mommy can do things like journal some memories!
Jo1 loves her stickers so those are great tools for helping us listen the first time! We're doing so well this week, only 1 bad day out of 5 so far!!!
Mommy and Daddy have learned so much about how we really appreciate grace when we mess up so we have been giving much grace to the girls also. The first time I told Jo1 that I was giving her grace she started crying and told me she didn't want to go to grace!!! Lol, Oh it was so hard not to laugh... I explained to her that grace meant that instead of putting her in time our or taking away her sticker for the day that I was not going to do either of those things even though that's what should happen because of her behavior. Now she understands grace, it was kind of a neat teaching moment for both of us!
Both girls have been sick this week so mommy is learning how to nurse little noses and coughs... it's so scary when babies are sick but they seem to pull right through... these girls are real troopers!

This week Ja2 let me rock her to sleep for the first time! She loves her lil feet and tummy rubbed. My heart melted just watching her sleep in my arms, I wanted to hold her all night... looked like a sweet angle.

Both girls love watching mommy in the kitchen & get to help sometimes! They even like to help with the laundry but that doesn't usually help to much we end up with laundry from one end of the house to the other... so funny, then mommy gets to re-fold. This is now  a nap time chore! ; )

Daddy is so sweet with the girls! He took Jo1 on their first special outing last week to get Ice cream then to the Bass Pro Shop to see the BIG HONKIN fish... that's what she likes to call them... hee hee! She got her picture taken with Santa too and told him all about the BIG HONKIN princess castle she's wanting for Christmas... she cracks me up with some of her words... like thirsty that comes out as sirsty  and stirred and skerd . I especially love it when she starts asking WHY... Bill and I love to do it back to her... it's so funny because she really gives us an answer for a while then she goes... You don't say WHY I say WHY!!! It's so funny!
Daddy helps Jo1 be a big girl with her things and has so much fun with Ja2 for bath time, her laugh fills the house and makes me smile while I clean up dinner I hear it, so great! My favorite is still when he does story time and fills in Jo1 name to the story... it's so funny! I hope she's not disappointed in a few years when she learns to ready and finds out her name is not really in the story! LOL!

We had our first official family photo's taken a few weeks ago and our Christmas pics too, they are so good... wish I could post them on here.... it's killing me not being able to share our pics...
We did find out the adoption may be able to get finalized possibly around January so I REALLY hope so! Then we can have a BIG HONKIN party!!!!
I think it's finally settling in with me that this is really our life now, the life I never thought would really happen is here now and all the things I ever dreamed are coming true! These two gifts from the Lord are so precious.