Thankful for the Good, When going through the Hard

Today had some rough moments.  Moments where I just wanted to go back to bed and sleep the rest of the day.  Just when I feel things are going well, something happens that makes me feel like life will never feel "normal" again. And I know our new normal is different than our old normal.  But times like today I feel like we will never be able to leave the house as a complete family.

Then tonight we go to church.  Tiff stayed home with Ethan, Hope & Maggie so Bill & I could both go (Bill has not been to church in over 2 months).  I'm so glad we went.  Our pastor said, and I've tried to tell myself this too, but when life seems hard and difficult, remember to thank God for all the good He has given to us.  And that is when it hit me, we do have A LOT of good to be thankful for.

7 weeks ago was Gotcha Day.  A short 7 weeks, that sometimes seems like an eternity.  The girls are definitely comfortable with us now.  They talk back to us when they are mad (yeah, trying to stop that one but they are teenage girls and so that will be hard), teasing us, laughing at jokes, trying to make jokes etc.  Their English is coming along.  I have caught them saying 2-3 word sentences.  Here are a few:

-Listen to Mommy (yes, they say this, not me saying it to them LOL)
-Time for Bed
-Teacher gave Maggie

Crafts!!!  Oh... My...Word!!!!!  The girls (all 4 of them) are crafting us out of everything!  I love it. Because so much of the supplies have just been sitting in boxes.  Well, yesterday they spent hours cutting things from the cricuit (yes, they quickly learned how to use this machine, I still have no idea).  They would glue their creation to another piece of paper and then color the paper.  Oh my.....very creative. I took 2 pictures to show you Hope & Maggie's artwork.

Maggie's artwork

Hope's artwork

Then today they found these beads that we have that you make into shapes and then iron it to make it stick into the shape.  They did this for about 5 hours today.

Maggie is really bonding with the girls. She wants to be included in everything.  The other night she put on matching PJ's with Abby.

We had movie night again on Friday.  We watched Kung Fu Panda.  Hope fell asleep 1/2 way through it. She was exhausted. But she liked the parts she did see.  Maggie laughed when she should have laughed. I love how the girls watch the movies, even though they don't fully understand what is going on.  Poor little Ethan....the only boy.  But....he LOVES it. He gets a lot of attention from the girls. And when they annoy him (like big sisters tend to do), he puts them in their place (or the place he feels they need to be LOL).

There are days, when the kids stop for a minute and are all together, that it hits me.  We have FIVE beautiful, hand chosen by God, MIRACLES from China.  On the hard days, I do remind myself that they are kids, kids who needed a family, kids who God watched over until we could bring them all home. Bill & I never in a million years thought we would have 6 kids, never thought we would adopt from China, and NEVER thought we would adopt FIVE kids from China.  I love how God chose us to be their parents. Because every single one of our kids, all SIX of them, are truly blessings to us.  Tiff is our miracle by birth and Hope, Maggie, Abby, Jadyn & Ethan are our miracles by adoption.