A Family of Seven

We have been home now for almost 4 months.....wow, does that seem weird. On one hand, it seems like the girls have always been here, on the other, it seems like we just flew to Ethiopia to meet them for the first time. So much has changed.

When we first came home I felt like I had to walk on eggshells around the girls. I just never knew what would set them off or upset them. The language barrier was so hard with Ava. She would get so frustrated. Now, she is talking English about 90% of the time. I have a few videos of her singing and talking in her native language. I am soooooo glad that I took those. One day I am guessing she will remember very little, if any, of her language. She still has an accent, but I wonder how long that will last. It makes me sad that she will not be able to maintain her language skills. And Eliza knew only a few words in Wolyntinga. Now she is picking up so many english words it's crazy.

The girls seem to be doing ok, I guess. We had a few rough weeks at first. Ava was really grieving. She is so young, but she had to understand that she lost her family and everything she knew as "her life". It took some time but I think Ava finally feels like we are her mom and dad. She immediately took to Darren, but she seemed a bit distant towards me. Then just one day it kind of clicked. I put her to bed and laid down with her, she laid there for a bit squirming around. I held her hand and told her that I loved her. She leaned over and kissed me and went right to sleep. At that moment, it seemed like she "let me in". Ava's personality has really come out. She is silly, very particular about certain things, very much a "motherer", and the girl loves to clean. She has really attached to her brothers and she loves Hannah to do her hair and her nails. I think she is still on the fence about Liza...... :)

Eliza is a ball of fire. She is a teeny tiny ball of fire. She is almost two but is still wearing 12-18 month clothing. She is on full speed at all times. Liza is so afraid she is going to miss out on something that she just runs from one end of the house to the other and usually wiping out 2 or 3 times along the way. She is a monkey, she climbs everything. Up on the barstools, on chairs, up the stairs, down the stairs, and she FALLS off the stools, chairs, and stairs. She trips over her own feet, she is a wild child. And so darn funny. We laugh a lot at her and she eats it up. Liza is also very strong willed. She wants to do everything herself. Stubborn stubborn stubborn. But she is so stinkin' cute it's hard to stay mad at her too long. Liza loves her sister Ava....follows her everywhere and tries to do everything she does. Ava gets very annoyed with all of it. Ava bosses her around but Liza usually stands her ground.

The girls are very jealous of our time with each of them. It does get hard sometimes. It's those days that I am home alone with the two of them and they are both having a very "needy" day, that get so hard for me. I can tell you that I have had some rough days. I just feel overwhelmed sometimes. There are days my house is so loud that I can barely stand it, but I do. I have to, that's my job as a Mom. God has entrusted these girls to us and I really don't want to screw it up. I can honestly say there has never been one moment that I have regretted or questioned adopting these beautiful girls. I know they are supposed to be here. I just question my ability to parent them. I just want to be the best mommy I can be.
Like I said, we have our hard days....but there are so many good days too. Or even great moments. Both girls are silly. We laugh a lot and the sound of their laughter almost makes me cry. Ava was so shy and quite at first, now she talks non stop and sings, dances and loves to wrestle with her brothers. Liza is a show off, shoot-she makes herself laugh. Her smile melts my heart.

I honestly can't imagine our lives without them. Hannah, Luke and Owen have done so well adapting to our new larger family. I didn't know how they would feel about the girls once they were actually home. They are so good with them. They help out, they play so well with them....and the girls absolutely adore them. One of Liza's first words was Owie.....and she repeats it over and over and over.

We have been so blessed. We are so lucky they are now apart of our family. Whenever anyone stops me and asks about the girls, I tell a quick story of their adoption. And usually they say something like "oh, they are so lucky to have you as parents". No, we are lucky to have them as our daughters. We have been blessed by them. They have changed our family for the better. It's funny how your priorities change. We are currently looking for another house....and not necessarily a bigger one, which would make sense considering we added two kids to the mix. Our house is big, we have plenty of room for all of us. We would just like to be in town, a little closer to my job and closer to the school. Which means less running for all of us. There are many days I make 2,3, sometimes 4 trips a day back and forth into town. We actually found a house we like, it is smaller, but we really like it. I guess I was usually a" bigger is better" person. I like houses, I like clothes and I love shoes. But now....none of that really matters. I just want my kids to grow up happy and know that they were loved fully. I don't want to toot my own horn, but being ok with buying a smaller, less fancy house than what we now have is huge for me. Huge. It just doesn't matter. I now have to think about putting 5 kids through college. All I have to do is pull out our pictures of Ethiopia and it puts all material things in perspective. I think it should be a college requirement to travel to a 3rd world country, seriously. I hope it has changed my oldest daughter's thinking about things. I hope it has touched her heart like it did mine.

So to sum it up......we are all doing pretty well. We seem to have found our groove.
I want to thank all of my friends and family for being so supportive through these first few months. It has helped so much know we have people out there praying for us.