Things You've Missed

Real quick update...I've been really busy the last few weeks and have slacked in the blogging world. I have to work soon but I just wanted to jot down a few things that I haven't mentioned.

• Having my parents here for my birthday was absolutely wonderful! I took them to the church I attend, we went to a park close to my house, we ate some great food and they got to play with my kids, who they of course fell in love with. They made my birthday very special and I loved having them in my new home.
• My Grandpa Al died sadly and suddenly on Halloween, so I had an impromptu family gathering on the next Friday for the memorial service. The service was very nice and it was so nice to spend some unexpected time with my whole family together. He will be missed, he was a very special guy.
• I got to spend an extended weekend with Zach and it was perfect. It was so great to see him and spend some quality time together. I will post pictures from this weekend sometime this week. He is doing well and recently started a job at Target, for those of you wondering. He is very excited about a cool job opportunity that begins in January and so the seasonal Target job is perfect. We got to do so many fun things, eat lots of good food and cuddle :) I also got to see my sister, Danika, and Zach's brothers and sisters. We had so much fun spending the day up in LA with everyone.
• We have a new kid. A boy who is 22 months old. He is a train wreck. He has the most high pitched scream I have ever heard in my life. It actually hurts your ears to be in the same room. Needless to say our whole house has not gotten a lot of sleep the last week. He definitely needs prayers. He is having a hard time adjusting to our schedule. He is slowly learning how to play. Until yesterday he would flip out if you tried to read him a book, now he will listen and sit on our laps. He is doing better but has a long way to go to settle down.

Happy Thanksgiving early!!! We got our food delivered today so we don't have to make anything we just heat everything up in the oven. We are all very excited for tomorrow. We're going to put on the Thanksgiving Day parade and let the kids sleep in and we all (all the adults too) are going to eat dinner together and watch movies. The kids only get to watch tv once a week on movie night so this is very exciting for them. It will be weird not to be with family, but I look forward to celebrating with the kids. None of the kids even knew what Thanksgiving Day was so we don't think any of them have ever celebrated it before.

Side note: for those of you who know what apple turkeys are..I am making them with the kids tomorrow morning :) I'll try and take a picture to post. I love you all and hope you have great Thanksgivings wherever that may be!!

Happy Halloween

"God knows what I need." This line in a song at church today just really stuck out for me. It is so simple and I feel like we are told this all the time, but for some reason today it really made a point. I don't know where everyone is at right now, but this is what I am going to try to remember this week. God knows what we all need.

One song that has been played the last couple Sundays has one line that is particularly powerful and it makes me think of my kids. "Give us souls that never close, to the grace that you bestow."

With everything these kids have been through they are still open to being loved. They crave that grace and we need to be open to receive that as well. These children prove that hope is real. Hope lives in them. These beautiful children who have been physically, sexually, and emotionally abused, neglected, used, and forgotten can still learn to love again and have faith in the world.

So here are some pictures to make you smile! We celebrated a birthday today and got to take the kids trick-or-treating. There is nothing like a Halloween spent with 6 young children who have never celebrated Halloween before, please imagine the excitement and chaos in our house!

So we had a fish, a spider, a bumble bee, a cheerleader, a witch, and a butterfly princess. I was a ladybug...sorry no pictures :) They were all completely adorable, especially our baby in her fish costume. In the picture of the two girls the one on the right is a bat. She used to live in our house and the last picture is of trick-or-treating..YAYY!!!!! What a wonderful reminder of what is good in life.

Backyard Adventure

A typical afternoon, playing in the backyard is a favorite for the kids. So many wonderful things to do and see just beyond the kitchen door.

We caught some frogs. Five in all. We had 4 in one bucket and 1 in the other. The kids like to hold them in their hand and tend to squeeze them too tightly so we made homes for them in buckets. We added grass and a little water from the sprinkler, which the kids loved doing. Then we set them free when we went inside. Our little two-year-old girl named hers Froggie and her brother named his Froggie-a-saurus #1, #2, #3, and #4.

We also dug in the dirt for bugs, played some baseball,

we rode bikes and played in the sprinkler.

We even had a brief game of butterfly chase,

the butterfly won and would not listen to

shouted requests of "Slow down, please!"

(The butterfly is the small yellow dot you can see in the top middle of the fence.)

There is so much trust in the simple action of holding hands. Someone always want to hold your hand. It makes them feel safe.

The two kids in the picture where I am holding hands, left yesterday. It was very sad and I miss them so much. It is so hard to say goodbye to the child that has learned to trust you and love you. I could not help crying as I buckled them into their car seats to leave and they looked at me with such honesty and whispered, "I love you, Emily." I pray that they are loved and cherished and understand one day why we had to say goodbye.

OPA!

So a couple of days ago a big thing happened for me. My little three-year-old boy told me he loved me. This was really big because it was completely spontaneous on his part and it takes him a long time to trust people enough to attach to them. He would repeat it before, if I said it to him or say he loved me too. But this time he just walked up to me, kissed my hand and said, "I love you Emily." In the cutest, most sincere little voice ever. It almost made me cry.

Yesterday Nicole and I went to church and afterwards we went to a Greek festival. It was awesome! There were dancers performing, a greek marketplace, live music outside, and all kinds of yummy greek food. We had some authentic lamb gyros and honey puffs for dessert. It was so much fun and we spent hours there. There are so many wonderful things going on in Houston all the time. Here is a little video of the dancing!

We had a couple dogs visit today. This is always really fun for the kids!

My parents arrive today!! I am so excited to show them where I live and have them meet my kids.

High Tide

It seems everything at Casa comes in waves. Nothing really happened for like a week so I felt like there was nothing really to report. Then I had to work three shifts in a row. So I worked from 10 pm- 6 am over night, then I had 8 hours to get things done AND sleep, then I had to work from 2 pm- 10 pm, then I had 8 hours off and had to work again at 6 am- 2 pm. So I was very tired Monday and had to help run errands after I got off my shift. Yesterday I worked again at 6 am. Today I finally feel like I can breathe and then my world gets shaken again, I just had a meeting with my two supervisors...

The two girls that are in charge in my hosue are moving to an FBC (family-based-care) house. Which means that the other girl I live with, Nicole, and I are now in charge! Ahh...time to sink or swim. I feel like I just got here. The next week and a half of my life are going to be crazy busy. There is so much stuff we have to do.

Also, we discharged a little girl and got another one on Monday after my three crazy schedules. She is turning 3 in a month and she is an utter mess. She is the hardest child I have had to deal with since I've been here. I want to kill her parents. She needs some serious love and prayers if you want to send them her way, but she is adorable as all get-out.

I also saw a very cool Asian-Amercian dance show at the outdoor theater in the park near our home. They put on free shows every week showcasing all different acts. It is very cool, and we got free tickets to the Carrie Underwood concert tonight! I'm thinking of you Tanicia :)

Goodbye for now. I can't promise consistent updates but I will try. Hope everyone out there has an amazing week and feels the love of God.

P.S. Shauna Niequist spoke at church on Sunday and was amazing. You should read her book "Bittersweet."

Birthday Party

Today was one of our little girls' birthdays. She turned 2!! It was so fun. We made a little crown of flowers, a birthday sash, and put her in a pretty pink dress. The theme was fairies so we had fairy napkins and a big Happy Birthday Fairy balloon. We decorated with pink streamers and a Happy Birthday sign. We had cupcakes decorated with Swedish fish and Dots to resemble flowers and fake pink and yellow flowers with Pixie stick stems as fairy wands. She was so adorable and all the kids had a lot fun! It was so fun being able to celebrate her birthday.

Twinkle, Twinkle

So our new little girl often gets scared at nap time. If she wakes up, she starts to cry. She shares a room with another little girl who is almost 2. She did the cutest thing today. I could hear her all the way upstairs yelling "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." She was trying to sing to her so she wouldn't be scared.

I don't know how soothing having Twinkle Twinkle yelled at you is but it was possibly the sweetest and cutest thing I have ever heard.