Hello School!

Natalie started school on Tuesday. She is really enjoying school. Other than adjusting to getting up at the crack of dawn (really it is before daylight) and working out the bus schedule, everything has gone well. Last Sunday there was an open house as she is attending a brand new school. I got to meet her teachers and tour the school. Tuesday there was a brief meeting for all kindergarten parents and it took me longer to get to the school (due to traffic and finding a place to park) than for the meeting itself.

She was disappointed yesterday as it was Saturday and she didn't get to go to school. This weekend I have spent a lot of time catching up on things that needed to be done around the house and especially outside. Natalie has been a great help and it is amazing how fast she is growing up. The other day we were in the car and she told me about a boy at school who had a cut above his eye. Her next remark was that we needed to pray for him. So I told her to go ahead and pray since I was driving. She prayed for him and I was really touched. It is sweet and encouraging to see her compassion and concern for others.

The last several weeks we have been going through tons of winter clothes for her to try on. It is unbelievable how many clothes she has outgrown. The pants and sleeves are too short and some things are too tight. She is definitely having a growth spurt as this child is eating more than me at times. But the good thing is that she likes healthy food and she is not a picky eater at all. Joey Cat even got in on trying on clothes!

It is hard to believe that it was 2 years ago this time that I received word that I had a referral. All I was given was her name, age and one primary diagnosis. Based upon that, I had to decide if I would accept the referral or not. If I did, I would receive more information later on and then still could change my mind if I wanted to. I spoke with the doctor and decided to accept. I would have to wait another 3 weeks before I got all the other information. I can still remember that time so vividly and how surreal it was. Now 2 years later, I still marvel at God's goodness and perfect timing. I am truly blessed by this little girl!! She was so little and now she is in kindergarten. Everyone tells me how fast the time will go and so I am trying to cherish each moment. She has learned so much in day care and I think she will learn even more this year. It is hard to believe that a year ago she spoke very little English. Now it is hard to believe that this little Southern Belle ever spoke Russian. She is amazing!!

Good-bye Summer

Several weeks ago, Natalie and I had what I hope will be an annual camping trip. All in all we had a good time. She was a big help in setting up the camp site and she was good at entertaining herself when I was busy cooking. We learned some valuable lessons along the way. One, if possible try to check out the campsite ahead of time. I chose it online and picked it because it was close to the bathhouse. Well, not only was it close to the bathhouse, but we could hear every time the door opened and slammed shut and even when the toilet flushed!! The site also was VERY rocky and had a lot of tree roots. Poor Natalie was always tripping. Second, flip flops are good only in the shower. Natalie would live in flip flops all year long if I let her. She was always falling out of them, falling or stubbing her toes. Third, bring bug spray. I know that sounds a bit odd, since we are camping outside and there are bugs outside, but we had bees (small and large) flying around all the time. It would have been very handy to have a large can of Raid to aim at them!! Fourth, never leave your garbage hanging in a tree. Since I had not seen any type of critters throughout the day, I figured that the garbage would be fine and I left it in the tree. About 3:40 AM I heard scurrying feet outside and I am not sure what all was out there. I stayed put in the tent and Natalie slept through it all. The next morning when I got up the bag had been ripped out the tree with a big hole in the bottom of it and it had been opened up and gone through. I did find a banana peel at the end of the campsite. Fifth, always clean your dishes before going to bed. We had made some s’mores. We ate them over a plastic bowl. I figured I would wash them in the morning since there was only a small amount of marshmallow residue on the bottom of the bowl. So I stacked the two bowls together and left them in the dish pan to wash the next morning. After I got up and saw the garbage bag on the ground, I realized the bowls were missing. Now these bowls were about 6” X 6” and I never did discover what happened to them!! That made me even gladder that I did not get up at 3:40 in the morning to see who was outside enjoying my new camping bowls that I had just bought. Needless to say, the next night everything was washed up, packed up and in the trunk of the car! Sixth, the tee pee style of campfires is not effective. I tried this style (remembering my Girl Scout days) the first night with limited success and the next night with limited success. I then tried the box stack (don’t know that it is the correct name) and had the best campfire. It lasted all night long and it was great sitting by the fire while Natalie entertained me with her own original song and dance routine! I had originally planned to cook our supper in the fire but when the second attempt failed to produce a good and long lasing fire, I ended up cooking on the stove. Seventh and most importantly, camping is a wonderful way to experience God’s creation, to slow down the pace of life and a great way to have lots of one on one time with the people in our lives who are the most important to us.

Natalie outside our tent.

The lake we swam in. It was sooo COLD!

We have had a great summer and have done so many things. I am looking forward to the pace of life slowing down just a bit!

Clutter

I've been thinking about writing about this for several days. Recently I was talking with several friends who were in the process of removing clutter. One was downsizing to a smaller home and another in preparation for moving. When we think of clutter, we tend to think about all the physical "stuff" we own. But I've been thinking about clutter in a different aspect too. Since I started the adoption process, I have "joined" 6 chat groups specific to Russian adoption. You cannot begin to imagine the number of emails that I get related to those groups. One group I actually have to sign in and read in a general site so that does not fill up my mailbox, 3 groups I have changed my status so in order to read the emails, I have to go to the website to do so and the emails do not arrive in my inbox. Two of the groups, I don't usually get a lot of emails from and the other group tends to have quite a few emails that I never read. The other day I decided to join Facebook based on a lot of encouragement from other people. I never knew I had so many "friends" out there. :) Seriously it has been nice to hear from some people and other people I'm not sure why they want to be my friend since I barely knew them before. The jury is still out on how I feel about the new "clutter" in my life.
Another area that I seem to be experiencing a lot of clutter is the busyness of life. This summer has been almost nonstop. I am actually looking forward to slowing down as the school year begins and the summer activities end. Please don't get me wrong, I have really enjoyed all of the things we have done this summer (and the few remaining things left to do) but I am also looking forward to having quiet evenings at home where we read books, color, play babies and just enjoy being silly together.
Other things that clutter my life include time on the computer and emails. Again, I love being in contact with people and seeing how people's lives are going, especially those who adopted around the time I did, but it is amazing how much time I can spend on the computer. I recently watched a movie and in one scene a woman talks about dating and how now you have to check so many places (home answering machine, cell phone voice mail, email, MySpaces, etc.) to see if the guy had called. I find myself caught up in some aspects in the same scenario. Two months ago, I added email access on my cell phone. So not only was I paying for it on my home computer, now I was paying an additional $20 a month just so I could check to see if I had any emails. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that there really was nothing that urgent that I had to see my email the minute it arrived compared to checking when I got home from work or home from a vacation or weekend away. So I cancelled the service.
At times I have to confess that watching TV or having it on for background noise can also be a clutter that I really don't need. I can honestly say, I really don't watch much TV, but the temptation can be there to allow it to be clutter. When I say watching TV it can be as simple as having the news on or a sporting event.
Lately work has been super busy and my desk always seems to be in a state of clutter. When I feel overwhelmed by the clutter on my desk or in my home, I reach a point where I just can't function until I get things back into some sense of order. The clutter is far too distracting.
In my spiritual life, the clutter can be so distracting and overwhelming that it can be difficult to hear the still, quiet voice of the Lord.
So as I go through and pack up the clothes that Natalie has outgrown and remove that clutter from the house, I am also going through and removing the "clutter" from my life so I can focus on the Lord and hear that still quiet voice.

Beach Trip

My favorite picture


Fun in the sun


A Bathing Beauty

Hmmmmm

The other day I read a quote in Reader's Digest (sorry I don't remember the name of the author at the moment) something along the lines of: "In raising small children: the days are long but the years are short" Wow! How profound. There have been days when I have felt like Natalie was never going to get the concept of what I was trying to teach her or the values I am trying to instill in her. Today I picked her up after work at day care and her teacher told me that the children were just wild today and just not listening. BUT she said that there were several children who did a great job listening and those children got suckers. Well, I am very happy to say that Natalie was one of those children. It was about a month ago that she got a "red" string in class for not listening to the teachers. We have talked on and on about how important it is to listen and obey. She has been doing so much better at school and at home since this incident (she did have a few things taken away from her as a result and since has earned them back) and it was so encouraging to me to hear that she did not follow the crowd but instead did the "right" thing.
So on those long days when I feel like I am repeating myself over and over, it is such a joy to know that she is hearing what I am saying and when the "tests" come, she is choosing to make good decisions.
May God continue to give me the wisdom and patience needed to raise Natalie and to help her to chose the right thing to do!!

Summer Fun

Several times I have sat down to blog, but then gotten distracted with other things to do. First of all I want to say that both Selah and Maxx are doing well. Maxx had his stitches out and lost a pound (which he needed to do) and Selah is no longer needing fluids subcutaneously and gained ½ pound. Truly both situations were an answer to prayer and I especially want to thank Hannah who was praying so faithfully for my cats. God is good!!
As I have said in the past, we have had a busy summer. After we came back from vacation we had a play date with my friend Christy and her son Evan. Christy took this great picture of Natalie and Evan.
In so many situations Natalie has been the younger child that others have lead around, but here it was so sweet to see her in the role of “big girl.” Every day she tells me how she is a big girl and the things she can do. She is becoming more independent and I am giving her more responsibilities. On one hand it is hard to let her grow up (because she is doing it too fast for me) and yet on the other hand I want her to be challenged. Her personality continues to shine through. Unlike her mother, she is a very outgoing child and makes friends so easily.
This was evidenced in the next week when we went on a camping trip with the church. She not only made friends with the other little girls in the camp, but won the hearts of many of the other people. She also won first place for the biggest leaf on the scavenger hunt with her partner Austin.
The next week was Natalie’s birthday and she was so excited about the children singing Happy Birthday to her at school. That weekend we continued the celebration of her birthday by going to the Museum of Life and Science. We saw butterflies and bugs, how the wind works, a variety of “wild” animals and lots of fun things related to NASA. For this trip we took Bashka along and had a great time.
The next weekend, Natalie headed to VA and spent the weekend with her cousin. They had a great time, but when it was time to come home, she told me that she was glad to come home. Such a difference from last year when she cried and cried and did not seem happy to see me. I continue to see how much we have and are bonding.
Weekly Natalie has been taking swimming lessons and I have seen such an improvement in her skills. She is also swimming 2 days at week at day care and at home in her little pool.

Natalie is growing up in so many ways and I am always amazed at the changes in her and her language abilities. But the area that I have seen a lot of growth is in her spiritual life. We have always prayed together before bed each night, but now her prayers have so much for depth. She prays for family, for my friends that she has met, for the soldiers, for people to be healthy and now in her prayers she not only thanks the Lord, she also tells Him how much she loves Him and wants to praise Him.
This weekend was very restful and we just spent the time around the house and playing. Next weekend we are off to the beach. We are having a great summer!