Well, after 27 hours of travel back home from O's country, we hit the ground running! It is hard to believe we have already been home for two weeks. We had so many activities going on as soon as we got back home. It was the end of the school year here at home and so lots to see and do. It has been a very busy 14 days, which is why I haven't been able to post anything on here since getting home, but we are so very thankful that our travel timeline worked out so that we could be here to celebrate all of the end of the year festivities with our children. Here's a quick recap...
Abbie promoted from the 6th grade to Middle School. It is so hard for us to believe that all of our children are out of elementary school and into secondary school. We now have a senior, a junior, a freshman, and a seventh grader. We are so going to miss having a child at the elementary school next year, but we know that it won't be long before O will be here and we will be getting her ready to start her years there. Randy and I laughed as we reflected during Abbie's promotion ceremony. We were so intentional about having our children close together so that they would be in the same season of life and be close in school. Once O gets home and she starts school, we will have at least one child in college with the rest in High School at the same time as she is starting elementary school. Yes, we will be the "old" parents at Kindergarten Round-Up! Well, let's call us "seasoned" parents instead... So very thankful that our plans were changed and that we are starting with a little one again, but it is funny the paths life will take you on.
So, Abbie promoted to Middle School!
Abbie was also the recipient of the American Legion Award! She joins her sister Emily in receiving this honor. The winner of this award is voted on by the staff of the school. One boy and one girl in 6th grade receive it each year. Students must exemplify six qualities that define character: courage, honor, leadership, patriotism, scholarship, and service. We are so very proud of her for winning this award and for being the wonderful young woman that she is!
After a day of celebrating Abbie's promotion, complete with a 6th grade class party, we headed to Jessica's 8th grade promotion. Jessica received an award for Gold Honor Roll and promoted to High School.
We are so proud of how hard she worked and how well she did this year!
VERY happy to be back and see these four sweet faces again!!
Later that week was the last day of school. At our elementary school, the tradition is to retire the colors and ring the bell one final time as the students load the bus to leave school for the year. As winner of the American Legion award, Abbie got to ring that bell. She was very excited to get to ring the bell as she said goodbye to North Fairview!
During the week, we also got to attend the High School Track Awards and Dinner. This mom failed and didn't get any pictures that were decent, so no pictures to post, but Tyler and Emily received several medals and were congratulated on successful track seasons! Way to go-we are so proud of you and can't wait to see you out there again next year!
The end of our first week home took a very sad turn. A young woman and friend of ours from school and church unexpectedly lost her life. Brenna was eighteen years old and had graduated from SHS only five days earlier. She was an absolutely beautiful girl who loved life and lived it to the fullest. The absence of Brenna leaves a huge hole in our community. She taught all of us so many important lessons and left a beautiful legacy in her short life. She truly lived each day to the fullest and with such joy that it just radiated through her. We know that she is in Heaven now with her Lord and that she is in a better place. But, she will be greatly missed here on earth and we pray for her family to heal from this great tragedy and loss.
It is so sad that it takes a reminder like this to realize how fragile life is and how precious each day really is, but that is exactly what it does. We are so blessed to have our four beautiful children here with us and have been holding them a little bit closer and tighter each day this past week.
However, we are also thinking of and missing our sweet daughter on the other side of the world. It is hard to believe that we said goodbye to her sixteen days ago. It was an amazing week of getting to know her and falling more in love with her. Adoption is a process to say the least-it's a difficult process. I can say that we have already been changed for the better because of the process, but it isn't easy. Seven months ago we fell in love with a picture of a little girl and I can't explain it, but we knew that she was our daughter and that we wanted to be her forever family. The paperwork process has nearly consumed us for several of those months, the waiting seemed like forever, but finally we got to meet her. It was truly just like meeting our other children for the first time-we knew she was ours and we fell in love as soon as we held her in our arms. We got to know her, we connected with her, we fell in love with her, we bonded...and then we had to say good-bye. Nothing could have prepared us for that. Leaving her was the hardest thing we have ever had to do. We could be logical and know that this is what we had to do, that it was part of our process. But does she understand that? Does she know that we will be back? Does she miss us? Does she think we left her? These are the questions that keep running through my mind and make my heart ache. We showed up to visit her everyday for a week. She seemed so happy to see us walk through that door and scoop her up into our arms. Was she waiting for us the next few days after we left her country? What must have been going through her mind when we didn't show up? I'm so afraid that she will forget about us if we are gone too long. What if we don't get to go back for a few months? Will we have to start all over again with the bonding and connecting or will she remember us? These are the many things to ponder as we sit here waiting for a court date to be scheduled and to return to see her. So, we hope and pray for that date to come soon so that we can return to her and get one step closer to having our five children here together.
Have a wonderful week and hold tight to those you love. We will keep you posted on our process as we hear anything...thanks for checking in with us!
Abbie promoted from the 6th grade to Middle School. It is so hard for us to believe that all of our children are out of elementary school and into secondary school. We now have a senior, a junior, a freshman, and a seventh grader. We are so going to miss having a child at the elementary school next year, but we know that it won't be long before O will be here and we will be getting her ready to start her years there. Randy and I laughed as we reflected during Abbie's promotion ceremony. We were so intentional about having our children close together so that they would be in the same season of life and be close in school. Once O gets home and she starts school, we will have at least one child in college with the rest in High School at the same time as she is starting elementary school. Yes, we will be the "old" parents at Kindergarten Round-Up! Well, let's call us "seasoned" parents instead... So very thankful that our plans were changed and that we are starting with a little one again, but it is funny the paths life will take you on.
So, Abbie promoted to Middle School!
Abbie was also the recipient of the American Legion Award! She joins her sister Emily in receiving this honor. The winner of this award is voted on by the staff of the school. One boy and one girl in 6th grade receive it each year. Students must exemplify six qualities that define character: courage, honor, leadership, patriotism, scholarship, and service. We are so very proud of her for winning this award and for being the wonderful young woman that she is!
After a day of celebrating Abbie's promotion, complete with a 6th grade class party, we headed to Jessica's 8th grade promotion. Jessica received an award for Gold Honor Roll and promoted to High School.
We are so proud of how hard she worked and how well she did this year!
VERY happy to be back and see these four sweet faces again!!
Later that week was the last day of school. At our elementary school, the tradition is to retire the colors and ring the bell one final time as the students load the bus to leave school for the year. As winner of the American Legion award, Abbie got to ring that bell. She was very excited to get to ring the bell as she said goodbye to North Fairview!
During the week, we also got to attend the High School Track Awards and Dinner. This mom failed and didn't get any pictures that were decent, so no pictures to post, but Tyler and Emily received several medals and were congratulated on successful track seasons! Way to go-we are so proud of you and can't wait to see you out there again next year!
The end of our first week home took a very sad turn. A young woman and friend of ours from school and church unexpectedly lost her life. Brenna was eighteen years old and had graduated from SHS only five days earlier. She was an absolutely beautiful girl who loved life and lived it to the fullest. The absence of Brenna leaves a huge hole in our community. She taught all of us so many important lessons and left a beautiful legacy in her short life. She truly lived each day to the fullest and with such joy that it just radiated through her. We know that she is in Heaven now with her Lord and that she is in a better place. But, she will be greatly missed here on earth and we pray for her family to heal from this great tragedy and loss.
It is so sad that it takes a reminder like this to realize how fragile life is and how precious each day really is, but that is exactly what it does. We are so blessed to have our four beautiful children here with us and have been holding them a little bit closer and tighter each day this past week.
However, we are also thinking of and missing our sweet daughter on the other side of the world. It is hard to believe that we said goodbye to her sixteen days ago. It was an amazing week of getting to know her and falling more in love with her. Adoption is a process to say the least-it's a difficult process. I can say that we have already been changed for the better because of the process, but it isn't easy. Seven months ago we fell in love with a picture of a little girl and I can't explain it, but we knew that she was our daughter and that we wanted to be her forever family. The paperwork process has nearly consumed us for several of those months, the waiting seemed like forever, but finally we got to meet her. It was truly just like meeting our other children for the first time-we knew she was ours and we fell in love as soon as we held her in our arms. We got to know her, we connected with her, we fell in love with her, we bonded...and then we had to say good-bye. Nothing could have prepared us for that. Leaving her was the hardest thing we have ever had to do. We could be logical and know that this is what we had to do, that it was part of our process. But does she understand that? Does she know that we will be back? Does she miss us? Does she think we left her? These are the questions that keep running through my mind and make my heart ache. We showed up to visit her everyday for a week. She seemed so happy to see us walk through that door and scoop her up into our arms. Was she waiting for us the next few days after we left her country? What must have been going through her mind when we didn't show up? I'm so afraid that she will forget about us if we are gone too long. What if we don't get to go back for a few months? Will we have to start all over again with the bonding and connecting or will she remember us? These are the many things to ponder as we sit here waiting for a court date to be scheduled and to return to see her. So, we hope and pray for that date to come soon so that we can return to her and get one step closer to having our five children here together.
Have a wonderful week and hold tight to those you love. We will keep you posted on our process as we hear anything...thanks for checking in with us!
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