It's Loud At Our House!

What do you get when you have 6 kids???  Noise.  Man is it loud in our house.  5 of our 6 talking at the same time, demanding attention from us at the same time.  And it seems to just echo.  Our ears are tired by the end of the day.  That is why we like that the girls are in school.....because it's quiet during the day.  LOL  BUT...I have to say it's not all bad noise.  Lots of giggles, and laughter, and silliness goes on to make this "noise".  And that's the kind of noise I like to hear.  It's been a while since we've heard a lot of that.  And I'm so thankful that we do hear the "noise".

Hope & Maggie asked me to braid their hair yesterday.  This is the first time they have asked for me to do this. They have watched me do this for Abby & Jadyn.  I was happy to see Maggie wear her hair different. She wears a ponytail with headband every day.  Well, before she left for school I noticed that she added a hair bow where her ponytail would have been.  LOL

I just LOVE technology.  Waiting for the girls to come home, I met so many wonderful ladies who have and who are adopting from Huainan.  We have connected via email and have shared photos with each other.  Well now, Hope & Maggie are able to connect with their Huainan friends via Skype.  They Skyped with one friend while we were in China. I do believe that helped the girls at the time.  And now, last night and today they Skyped with 2 more Huainan friends.  The friend last night has been home a few months.  They were SO excited to talk to her. They talked for about an hour.  I loved listening to the girls, even though I had no idea what they were saying. Hope & Maggie were excited to show me their friend.  Then today, we connected with a Huainan friend who lives an hour away from us.  Yes, AN HOUR!  Her mom connected with me a while ago and then I just forgot.  So today we connected via Skype and Hope & Maggie were THRILLED.  She has been home 2.5 years so it's been a while since they saw her. And they were so happy.  They talked for over an hour and then I was able to talk to her mom for over an hour.  What a blessing it is to have new friends, and for the girls to be able to connect with their friends from China.  I know this has helped them adjust to their new lives here.

So, it's the middle of September and well....I'm ready for fall.  Even though it does not feel like fall, I still like to decorate. So we got out our fall stuff.  Hope & Maggie were excited. They have never seen this kind of stuff.  They found spider rings and immediately put them on.  Maggie found a trick or treat bucket and thought it was a hat (sorry, did not have camera out for that and she was quick to take it off LOL).  But I did get a photo of her putting Halloween garland on her head.  LOL

Then back to swimming.  Goodness gracious these girls are turning into fish.  Just 5 weeks ago they were TERRIFIED of the pool. Would not even put their feet in the water.  Now, they are jumping in and teaching themselves to swim.  Me, being the nervous mom that I am, am so worried about them taking the floaties off.  But I know they need to learn to swim.  Yesterday Maggie took them off and was going under the water and kicking her feet etc.  Today Hope wanted to be the big girl and she took hers off.  I'm more nervous about Hope because she's shorter.  But she did great.  She did not try to go to the deep end.  But she did go under a lot.  I did not take photos of her swimming (or trying to swim) with floaties off, but I did take photos of her trying to swim with them on.

Seeing the smiles on their faces, and hearing the giggles is awesome.  6 weeks ago they were at the orphanage not sure of what their life would be like.  Who knows if they were scared.  I'm sure they were sad to leave their friends.  But now, they are happy. They are laughing. They are teasing us, and they are letting us tease them.  Maggie has truly settled in to her role as sister.  Hope is starting to find her place as sister in the family.  She is more needy than Maggie is for attention. So right now she is demanding more of our time and not wanting any time from her siblings.  But we're working on it.  Right now, as I'm typing, she is upstairs with the other kids watching a movie.  Not too long ago, she would have put up a fight and just played her video game.

Praising God for every little milestone and positive moments.  Thankful for the opportunity to parent these precious kids.  They are so brave.  All of our kids are brave.  Adoption is so powerful.  Adoption is awesome. Adoption has changed all of us.  Have you thought about adopting?  Email me if you have questions.  I love to advocate for the kids.  And I love to talk about adoption.