One Year!

It's been one year since Tryana and Kalysta joined our family. What a year! God has grown and provided for us in ways we never could have imagined. We are so thankful for these 2 little firecrackers!

We celebrated by going to John's Incredible Pizza. T & K have never seen anything like that before. Wow!

Here are some pictures from our celebration of our family.

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.