Well, here comes part to of my majorly behind catch up and I'm super excited about part 2 because I can publicly tell you about our 2 most recent additions to our family!!!! Onah and Marie finally arrived on US soil on June 9th, 2011!!!
We were pretty excited to get back to our family after a small delay in Liberia and introduce Onah and Marie to all the family and friends who came out to the airport. From there we went home and spent some long awaited family time together :)
Since being here they have both put on weight...imagine that! Love the fact that they have their own room, own toys, and get presents!!! LOL...whenever given anything, could be a tissue, they will ask, "For me? My present?" haha! For awhile Onah was our translator for Marie, but slowly but surely their speech has gotten better and we can understand her alot more than when she first came. Every now and then she'll get off on a long story or go off on Onah or Colten and we can't understand a word.
The hardest transition was sharing...still is, in Liberia you fight for what you want with all the kids. We took an over the door nerf bball goal and ball. As I was setting it up the kids swarmed me as I opened the package and fought over the empty box and plastic! I had to break them up and explain it was trash. I put it in the trash and later found it out and them fighting over it again! Since Onah and Marie were two of the smallest children in the house they were a bit spoiled when it came to getting what they wanted. If they cried they were told by the foster moms, give it to them. So, when we came home they thought all they had to do was make a scene and they'd get their way...not so. Learning the rules and how to live together has been the hardest transition. Colten has done and amazing job as a big brother, except now he doesn't want to share his room :) ha ha!
Onah is really athletic and very good at any sport we try and play with him. Of course he's really good at soccer, which makes daddy proud :) Marie loves to sing and dance. I think she'll be my little super star! Or a reporter cause she always reports everything Onah has done wrong throughout the day when daddy comes home..."daddy! I ate all my food; Onah not eat all his food! I keep my diaper dry! Onah not keep his diaper dry!...etc." Enough rambling...here are some photos...
Onah at the hotel in Liberia. He was trying to figure out what my headband was supposed to be used for :) He has THE CUTEST smile in the world! Melts your heart!
Marie and I walking on the beach in Liberia. They had never seen the ocean before even though they spent the last 3 years of their life 10 min. from the ocean. They were so afraid of it! We finally got them to stick their toes in the water as it came onto the shore. Meanwhile we sat down to enjoy spectating a game of soccer between Matt and all the neighborhood children and a wave snuck up on us and took our camera...destroyed it :( We got back to the states and called the company that made the camera and explained our situation. They said if we'd send them the hard drive they'd do everything they could to get our pictures and videos off of it.
Onah on his first horseback ride. Marie rode too, but she was screaming and crying...didn't turn out so well :)
Matt put together a long overdue swing set in our backyard. I was about to go insane with all 4 kids in the house during the summer cause there was nothing to do outside. The house has become more quiet during the day with swings and slides outback :)
Thank you Matt!!!
Marie's 3rd birthday part in the park! She had a blast. She loved the idea of having all those presents just for her to open, Onah was not fond of the idea. He kept asking, "mommy my birthday? My presents?" Poor guy has to wait all the way until April to celebrate his first birthday in the states!
First time bowling!
First time on a playground!
Onah loves to dress up in Colten's superhero costumes. (daddy might have fun doing it too :)
First baseball game! Marie danced everytime they played a song for he next batter :)
First tractor ride with Papaw Lee.
Onah was busy in the kitchen. He had his sippy cup, a bucket, and Marie's dress inside the bucket. I asked him what he was doing, "Washing my clothes!" haha. He'd pretend to sprinkle the water on it, pull it in and out of the water, wring it out, and hang it up! Too funny!
Swimming! I was amazed at how quickly this little guy picked up on swimming. Again, fits right in with all the little fish in our family! He can swim without his floaties now! Crazy.
All three in the pool. Marie likes the water too, but still needs her floaties to get around. She's getting there though. She'll be swimming by next summer! :)
Marie just LOVES her babies! She is a little 'mini-me' which sometimes helps me to see what I should and shouldn't do :) She loves taking care of her babies like I take care of Izzy. Feeding it, giving it a bath, changing it's diaper. One day I walked into my parents living room and she had gotten out her "hair grease" and put it all over the baby, and the floor! When I asked her what she was doing she said, "I fix her hair!"...Oh my!
Marie and Izzy have formed quite the sisterly-bond. Marie loves to chase Izzy down the hall and make her squeal and laugh. One day while shopping they were sitting in the cart together and Izzy kept leaning in for a hug. They were inseparable that day!
Visit with Grandma and Papaw Huff. Onah loves his papaw. He likes to play with his belly and says, "big gut" haha!
Somebody got some new sassy red boots! Fits her personality perfectly! She loves to wear them every day!
Marie carrying around her baby Liberian style. She came to me hunched over, like the moms do in Liberia when they're trying to put the babies on their back and a towel in her hand and said mommy put the baby on my back! She carried that baby around like that for hours! :)
Onah got some new boots too. They both had their own backpacks when we came home from Liberia and Onah loves to carry his every where he goes, even around the house!
Well, there's the update on all the kids. Things are great here, crazy, but great! Matt and I had a long talk last week of how we feel like up until now we have just been in survival mode and this past week we've made some changes to how we structure our day and explain the rules in our house. I think it's helping make our home more 'normal' :) If that's possible! I've loved all the snuggle time I get with my kids. It always seems like when one of them is done snuggling another crawls up in my lap for some mommy time. I love it!
I've gotten back into playing my guitar and singing at church every other month. In my months off I'm helping Matt on Sundays in Uptown. I really enjoy it, but find it's harder to get any practice in with all the kids running around. Never fails, I get my music all laid out, my guitar tuned and start to play and someone's crying or needs me. Somehow it always works out though.
Hopefully it won't be another year before I update my blog! :)
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