JAPANESE STUFF

We have had such a great week with Natsuho. She is delightful and so easy to have around. We have dragged her to several basketball games, the Mall of America, a Japanese restaurant!?..and other "American" restaurants, Walmart, Cub and Target, the bakery!, church, the library, Caribou and anything else we can think of that might be of interest to her. She and Steph made chocolate chip cookies last night. That was totally new to her! I'm sure it has been interesting watching how a large family operates. She has one brother at home. We have had fun learning a few Japanese phrases. Dinnertime has been really fun! I can't believe that we only have a few more days to go with Natsuho. I am hoping to bring her to SHOW-AND-TELL in Rigo's class this afternoon. That will be a hit, no doubt. She is very good at origami. Here is a few pictures of our time together. Steph has been a wonderful hostess. I knew that I couldn't be in charge of filling the time for our exchange student and Steph had definitely been leading the charge on that one. It helps to have other willing siblings in the house as well, but Steph has done a great job. Here are a few pictures from this week.

WRINKLIER and WRINKLIER

"Mom, I feel like you are getting wrinklier and wrinklier."

Stunned and stammering to know how to respond to such a statement, I started to say something, but was quickly interrupted...

"No, Mom, Really. I'm not kidding!"

All I could do was smile. Kids just say it like it is.

NATSUHO

Yesterday, our exchange student arrived! She is from Japan and will be staying with us for 10 days. Our high school has a sister school (Taikyu High School) where we make visits back and forth. We have already had so much fun with her. She is darling! Last night when I took this picture, Natsuho had been up for about 30 hours! (That doesn't include a nap on the plane and a quick snooze at our house.) Anyway, I was amazed at how well she looked at 9 p.m. in the evening! I'm sure she was a bit overwhelmed by the NUMBER of people in our family, but she seemed to take it all in stride. No doubt it was a bit confusing as well! We are looking forward to learning more about Natsuho and helping her to learn a little about "normal" (if you can call it that) family life in the US!

CHANGES

Two big changes happened this week. Can you guess what they were?

MARCH 4, 2010

Yesterday was Roselyn's 17th birthday! I can hardly believe it. She is such a beautiful young lady. The number 17 makes me happy because it is the mark of so many great things that are still coming in her life. I'm glad that we will have her for at least 2 more years. It makes me sad because we missed out on so many of her early years. We were all at home (the 6 of us!) for dinner last night. It lasted only about 20 minutes, but well... we did get a few minutes to recognize her. We had chicken wild rice soup at her request and Steph made the cake. We will have a bigger celebration in a few weeks with another cake, candles and gifts. Our two girls, Kristin and Roselyn share the same birthday month. Add in my mom's birthday and there are lots of reasons to celebrate!

Roselyn's good friend, Janice (from CSC) surprised her with a skype call last night. Janice now lives in Colorado with her new family. I love that fact that these two girls are still friends. They have both been in the States for 1 1/2 - 2 years. They have been a support to each other even though their paths met for only a short time. They talked for a long time. It is amazing that we can connect with people all over the world through something called skype. The best part - it's free!!

Happy Birthday, Roselyn!

Other highlights from the day...

*I volunteered in Rigo's room yesterday. One little boy came up to me and said..."My parents haven't decided if I can come to Rigo's birthday party yet." The funny thing about this is that there has been no talk of a party at our house. Evidently Rigo has invited the entire class to his alleged party. They are supposedly all going to Chuck E. Cheese (which is also rather funny because I'm pretty sure that Rigo has no idea what the heck Chuck E. Cheese is)! I tried to bring him down easy and explain to Rigo's friend that we haven't exactly decided what kind of party Rigo will be having.

*Another little girl came up to me and said..."My mom is very sad because my dad is going to fight..." I, of course asked if he was going to Iraq or if he was in the Army. She said, "No, he goes to a bar and fights. He is a boxer." I had totally misunderstood. A little bit funny, but maybe more sad than anything. I love the simple honestly of little people. They just say it like they see it.

*Rigo busied himself while I was in the classroom. I sometimes wonder if he even knows I am there. When I got ready to leave, he came running over to me, jumped into my arms and gave me a big hug. It felt really good. He walked back to his desk and yelled "Bye, Mom!" as I left the room. I guess he did notice that I was there after all.

ADOPTION THANKSGIVING CELEBRATION

CLOSURE

This weekend was a milestone for my family. We had an adoption celebration to express our gratitude to family and friends that have been significant in our adoption journey. More importantly, it was a time to give thanks to our God for his faithfulness these last 15 months. It was a great time. For me, it brings closure to a chapter in the life of our family. It was good. I'll post a few pictures later. I don't have any yet!! :)

Life is not that different this week than it was last week but I feel like we have turned the corner and are heading toward some new goals and events. The next big thing will be to launch Steph into the...big world. I know that she will be ready, but I am already sad for the day she leaves our home. Kristin will also graduate at the end of next year. How can that be?? Where does the time go? I'm trying to put the calendar together for the busy summer months. Life goes on.

I go back and forth as to whether I should keep blogging. If I do it, I should be a bit more diligent about it. If I don't, I think I should just close up shop. I don't know... Anyway, for today...I am content to just enjoy the day. Hope you are enjoying yours! :)