Christmas Cookies This Year

A:

About this time last year we wrote a post about baking Christmas cookies together and how we were excited to teach our new little sisters to do it with us next time.  When we wrote about it last year, we had already received our referral and were preparing to travel to Rwanda, but I still found it hard to imagine that T and K would ever be with us.  But now they are here with us and we have enjoyed doing many things together with them, including baking Christmas cookies! 

Yesterday we looked forward to making cookies all morning until we were finally ready to decorate our cookies.  We all had a lot of fun and I think T and K had as much fun as the rest of us did, if not more!

Here is a picture of us with some of the cookies we made:

Lost Tooth

T:

I lost my first tooth last night. I am so excited! The one next to it is almost ready to come out, too.

Rwanda Reunion

N:

A few weeks ago, we went down to Huntington Beach to spend some time with the Fisher's and the Watson's. It was fun to see all the kids interact and to connect again with some of our travel friends. Here are a few of Becky's pictures from our California Rwanda reunion.

We also scheduled some time for Becky to take family pictures for us. That's how we were able to put a new picture at the top of our blog finally. She did a great job and we will treasure these pictures!

Our Summer

L:

We’re about halfway through our trip home from Door County. I just have to say it again. These kids are great travelers - all 4 of them!

The summer seems to have gone by faster than any other summer. It was filled with many firsts for T & K - riding in a real boat, swimming in Lake Michigan & Green Bay, eating ice cream cones, seeing the goats on the roof, meeting lots of new relatives, etc. Here are some sample photos of our fun.

6 Months!

We went out for pizza and homemade ice cream tonight to celebrate the six months that Kalysta and Tryana have been part of our family. Here are a couple pictures of all the sisters together. We'll try to post more about our summer soon.

A Long Drive

L:

We left yesterday on our annual drive to Door County. We are very happy to report that all of the girls are great travelers! Of course, T & K had no concept of what this trip was going to be like or how long 4 days is. The girls watch a movie each day, they have games and activity books, I am reading a book aloud to everyone, we listen to lots of music, and K & T spend a lot of time coloring. K & T sleep a little bit, but we try hard to keep them awake in the car because we want everyone to sleep at the motel. Everyone slept great last night - yeah! - so we are hoping for an equally great night tonight. It rained most of today, but it's always so beautiful driving across Utah and Colorado. Two days down, two days to go.

Thank you so much to those of you who have been praying for us. We truly appreciate it.

Funny Kalysta

L:

Whenever we get out of the car away from home, Kalysta and Tryana have to hold someone's hand while we walk through the parking lot or across the street. Now when we ask whose hand she is going to hold, Kalysta answers "Kalysta!" Then she puts her two hands together like she's holding hands. We laughed quite hard the first time she did it. Cute, Kiddo, but we're not going to go for it.

My Gym

L:

Tryana and Kalysta have been going to My Gym for the last few months. They have fun, structured fitness classes for kids with music, gymnastics, games, etc. They have a blast! We thought you might like to see some pictures.

Kalysta's Birthday

L:

Today is Kalysta's 3rd birthday! It was a fun day for the whole family. We chose a farm animals theme. All of the girls helped to make pig, sheep, and chicken cupcakes. We had a little party at the park. Kalysta wanted balloons and bubbles at her party. Here are some pictures from Kalysta's big day.

New Hairdos

L:

I was warned by the ladies at the salon not to keep the girls' hair out until I'd gotten used to working with it, so I've been braiding it faithfully each week. I couldn't find any chunks of time to fit the braiding in this week, so I just left it out after I washed it. And it hasn't been that bad :) It's so beautiful when it's clean and curly and soft. Unfortunately, it does get matted down and needs to be combed again. Kalysta likes to put on a little drama and ask Tryana to hold her hand so that she can endure the combing out. Tryana, on the other hand, tells us that it doesn't hurt. Don't they look cute?

Picture Worth a Thousand Laughs

N:

This is a picture that is in a book that Tryana & Kalysta look at to become familiar with relatives. Almost from the first time they saw it, they would point and yell, "Ee! Ee! Ee!"... and run away. Take a look at my floating arm! We have had some good laughs with this one.

Hugs & Kisses

L:

We are so encouraged to be receiving spontaneous hugs and kisses from Kalysta and Tryana the last few days! K is pretty cuddly and has hugged us from the beginning, but the kisses are new. And this is a huge change for T. We are so excited for this positive step in our bonding!

Shower

L:

The staff at Nick's school threw a shower for our family today. We really appreciate their generosity and support. And I think Tryana and Kalysta liked all the attention.

Tryana's Birthday

L:

It was Tryana's birthday yesterday. We "tested" her throughout the day by asking how old she is. She would get a big smile, hold up 4 fingers, and say "Four!"

We had a small family party last night. We had a car theme since Tryana is so fascinated by cars. Here are some pictures from her big day.

 

  

  

 

Update on Sleep & Friendship

L:

I'll start with an update on our sleeping. Kalysta still wakes up many nights screaming. Please pray for her fears to go away. It's not every night and she usually calms down and falls back to sleep quickly when Nick goes in to her, but of course, we don't like to see her so frightened.

Many people have asked us how they can help during this time of transition. We really appreciate that, but it's hard to know how to answer sometimes. We have come up with one answer, though. You can help by just being our friends. If you don't live near us, send us an e-mail. That will really encourage us. If you live here, invite us to do something. Focusing so much on training and bonding with our new daughters/sisters can be isolating and it all is very tiring, so we don't have the energy to initiate much ourselves yet. Spending time with us in adult conversation and/or playing with us would be a wonderful gift.

Still Sleeping

L:

We've now had three nights in a row of sleeping all night with no screaming! Nick is especially grateful. A full night's sleep makes it so much easier to face the challenges of the day. Thank you for praying and for your kind words.

Slept All Night

L:

Both girls went to bed last night without giving us grief. And Kalysta slept all night without waking up screaming (Tryana always sleeps all night). We know it's only one night, but we are so thankful and wanted to report the good news.

Moving in the Right Direction

L:

Life is not easy right now, but I feel so encouraged and thankful overall. We are seeing progress with Tryana and Kalysta in so many areas daily - using words and signs to communicate, playing nicely with each other and with their big sisters, sitting still longer to be read to, etc. We'd like to ask for prayer for one big area, though - sleeping. Bedtime is quite the production. While we have seen some progress even here, they do not like to go to bed or stay in bed. There's quite a bit of screaming and crying.

My husband is so super with the sleep issues. He takes most of the middle of the night duties because he says he can handle the loss of sleep better than I can (he's right). Please pray for his energy level.

Alyssa and Myranda are being amazing big sisters. Alyssa is such a patient teacher. I truly am impressed. Myranda is so willing to help with even the not-so-fun jobs. They're both so good at helping to keep consistency in our lives (like gently reminding their little sisters where the toys need to be and not be). I don't know how I would make it through the day without them.

First Experience with Snow

L:

We decided to drive up to Tehachapi (about an hour away) to play in the snow this afternoon. It was actually a good day to experience snow for the first time for these girls who have always lived near the equator until now. It was about 50 degrees up there today. Sledding was filled with fear and fun - but mostly fun.

Kalysta and Tryana sang songs in Kinyarwanda while we drove back home. It was beautiful! If only we could have understood what they were singing. Our ten phrases or so don't help much in a situation like that.

 

 

Learning About Hair

L:

We took Tryana and Kalysta to a salon on Tuesday to have their hair rebraided. The ladies there were very helpful and gave us many tips for taking care of their hair. We expected the braids to stay in for a little while so that we wouldn't need to tackle their hair for the first couple weeks home. Wrong. Yesterday, they used a doll's brush to pull out part of their braids. That meant that I got to make my first attempt on their hair sooner than planned. The nice ladies at the salon showed me a couple hairstyles that they thought I'd be able to handle without too much trouble. I decided to try what they said is the easiest to do. It really wasn't too hard. Here are some pictures of this first shot at styling their hair. I think it turned out pretty good. You can judge for yourselves.

School & Other Funny Things

L:

I've been asked how we're managing school at this point. Basically, Alyssa and Myranda are taking turns playing with their little sisters when I need to be doing school with one of them. It's taking much longer to get through our schoolwork, but I think it will get easier as Tryana and Kalysta learn the rules of our family and how to speak English better. Alyssa and Myranda are having a great attitude with it all.

Yesterday, Tryana was dancing like a cow with our peace basket on her head just like the dancers we saw our last night in Rwanda. It was adorable!

T & K are fascinated with the vacuum cleaner. They have a look of fear on their faces, but they follow right behind me and keep touching the machine. It's quite funny.

Yesterday was the first day we didn't go anywhere in the car. T & K kept asking to go in the car. It seems to be one of their favorite things so far. They don't even mind being buckled into their car seats.

First Day Without Dad

L:

I'm shocked to be writing this. The girls and I had a great day! Kalysta did not freak out when Nick left for work and when she needed a hug or wanted to be held today, she happily came to me. Those who spent time with us in Africa will understand what a big deal that is. Thank you, Lord!

I'm off to get ready for bed now. Good Night :)

Last Day in Kenya

L:

We already posted about receiving the girls' visas on Friday. Boy were we all rejoicing!

After spending the morning at the embassy or in the hotel room, we were all ready to get out and walk around the city for a little while. When we were just about ready to go back to the hotel room to get ready for checkout time, torrents of rain fell and the thunder almost knocked us off our feet a couple times. It was actually very fun, but we had to get out of our hotel room so that we wouldn't get charged for another night. We finally had to run out in the rain when it let up a little. We were pretty soaked by the time we made it back to the hotel and we were pretty much out of clean laundry. Everyone had a pretty good attitude about it all, though. We used the hair dryer to dry off a little and found some clean, dry socks to change into. It really didn't take that long for us to be completely dry again.

After checkout, we had one final meal in Nairobi and headed to the airport. Checking in at the airport was not Tryana and Kalysta's favorite time. We were concerned that it was going to be a VERY LONG trip home with the start we had there. However, our flights went much better than anticipated. Again, we were very thankful.

Wednesday & Thursday in Kenya

L:

I am happy to report that we had a good sleep last night. We are still far from well-rested, but we are thankful for the sleep we are getting. Nick goes back to work tomorrow because he doesn't have any more days he can take. Nobody is ready for him to go back. We're praying for a good sleep tonight and a smooth day without Papa (what T & K call him) tomorrow.

Now back to Kenya. We returned to the medical clinic on Wednesday. All 5 kids who were tested for TB (those over age 2) had negative results! Unfortunately, though, they had to have lots of shots in order to travel to the United States. We were very thankful to leave the clinic with the paperwork we needed to take to the embassy the next day.

As I already posted, when we went to the U.S. embassy on Thursday, we found out that the final clearance needed had not yet arrived in Nairobi. We were given an appointment for Monday and told that they would call us if our clearances came on Friday. Without these, we could not go home. We are not sure exactly where the problem occurred. I have some advice for the AWAA families waiting to adopt. Trust AWAA, trust your POA, and most importantly, trust God. Worrying and getting upset will not help you or all the orphans still waiting to be adopted. Expect glitches in international adoption. It is not always easy, but it is so worth it.

One more thing. Tryana and Kalysta were well over their fear of elevators by this point. In fact, they were asking to ride in the glass elevator at the Nakumatt behind our hotel.

Tuesday Safari

L:

We had such a good sleep our first night home. It's amazing what a difference that makes (especially after 2 weeks lacking sleep)! Our second night was a different story. Tryana and Kalysta woke up around 2 a.m. and thought it was time to start a new day. It took about an hour and a half to get them back to sleep. We were so thankful it didn't take any longer because the rest of us wanted to sleep more. Unfortunately, Nick and I weren't able to sleep much after that. After feeling some refreshment yesterday, we felt pretty crummy today. After I finish this post, we're off to bed and hoping for more than 4 hours tonight.

Continuing with our attempt to summarize our trip...Tuesday was safari day for the families who adopted 2 children (the Woodman, Snead, and Dokolas families). This was definitely a highlight of our trip. We headed out early in the morning for a driving safari through Nairobi National Park. Alyssa wrote down each of the big animals we recognized or our driver identified for us. There were about 20! Some of the animals we saw were gazelles, warthogs, giraffes, zebras, and ostriches. Of course, we had to stay in the van, but sometimes it seemed like you could just get out and walk right up to the animals and pet them.

After lunch, we walked through the Nairobi Animal Orphanage, which is like a zoo for animals that have been injured or abandoned. It was fun to see lions, leopards, and cheetahs since all the cats were hiding from us on our safari. The kids were intrigued by each animal and it was difficult to get them to move on to each new animal.

Then we did the Nairobi Safari Walk. This was also a type of zoo, but the animals had more room to roam around. We saw even more new animals. We were impressed by how well the kids held up during this long day. And we took tons of pictures!

 

  

  

  

  

 

We're Home!

L:

We made it home last night. The flights were pretty uneventful. Everyone took a nap on the 5-hour flight from Nairobi to Dubai. We had a short layover and then about a 16-hour flight to LAX. The individual screens were a big hit for Tryana and Kalysta and they took a couple long naps again. Alyssa and Myranda were terrific travelers on the way home also. The Watson's and the Fisher's flew with us. Nick's parents picked us up at the airport. We stopped for dinner about halfway through our 2-hour drive home. It still seemed like a long drive since we were so tired, but it felt great to arrive home.

We've spent the day unpacking and introducing T & K to our home. We'll try to fill you in on the rest of our time in Kenya very soon. Thanks again for all of the kind comments and e-mails and for your prayers.

Quick Update

L:

We get to go home as planned!!!

One parent from each family went to the embassy a little while ago. They just called and told us that the approvals came for all of the families - yeah!

We fly out around 11:30 tonight and arrive at LAX around 1:00 p.m. Saturday. We are very excited to get home! Please pray for the six of us on these long flights. I'm sure this will be quite the experience.

We will try to post more if we have internet access in the airports. Otherwise, it'll have to wait until we get home.

Unknown Departure from Kenya

L:

We’ve had the last couple posts written for a couple days but didn’t have time to access the internet until now. The Woodman’s have been generous to allow us to access the internet from their room so that we can share the expense because it is very expensive here!

I don’t have time right now to post about the days since Monday, but I will tell you that we may have to stay in Nairobi until sometime next week. Our last piece of paperwork for the kids’ visas somehow did not make it to the U.S. embassy in Nairobi. It is yet one more criminal check. We just have to wait for them to receive it and then we will be able to pick up the visas and return home. Please pray for these clearances to make it to the embassy before they close at 1:00 p.m. tomorrow so that we will still be able to fly out tomorrow night. We want to go home and certainly do not wish for our return to be delayed, but we do trust that God is still in control of the timing of everything. Thank you for your prayers.

Some Pictures from Kenya