3 Months Home

Well, this past month has shown that the "honeymoon stage" is over.  We had a very difficult week last week.  We were prepared; all our adoption education told us that our little man would most likely try to push us, especially me, away, and he tried pretty hard last week.  My two-year-old tornado tried to get into everything and do every dangerous thing he could think of - all at warp speed.  Jumping on the couch? Grabbing at the burners of a hot stove? Pulling the dog's ears? Climbing Furniture? Trying to open the oven?  Trying to get at the (child proofed) electrical outlets?  Check on all, with a steady dose of physical aggression towards me.  Yet, when Nathaniel got home, he was fine.  He's mainly tested me, and to a much lesser extent, Lydia.  And, our house has been very child proofed specifically for his safety, so there's only so much danger he can get into.  I was so amazed and thrilled at how Lydia responded to him when he was pulling her hair and poking her in the eye.  She's a bit of a tornado herself, and willing and able to punch anyone who messes with her, but she chose to be gentle with Gyunay, and to model to him gentle touch with my help, over and over.  She never hit him, which is itself a huge victory!  And now he's back to being her happy shadow, giving her abundant hugs and huge grins.  As for him and me, he's doing so much better now.  Our days have calmed down.  He's trying to say, "I love you."  I know he will still push me sometimes, but he seems to be settling into the fact that I'm not going anywhere, and he's much calmer.   He obviously loves all of us. 

 

He started therapy this week.  He had speech first, and today a developmental interventionist.  Honestly, neither one is doing anything that Nathaniel and I don't already do with him, but I still think it's good for him.  He enjoys playing with the visitors, but he's obviously still checking in with me the whole time.  The therapist today was blown away by his understanding of English, and she made my day when she said, "You can tell he's really attached to you.  You're his anchor."

 

My heart overflows with love for all of my kids.  This little guy is so firmly planted in our family that no one can imagine life without him. 

 

 

 

You have been told, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: Only to do the right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.  -Micah 6:8 

Weekend

I'm a bit behind on the blog, so I figured a catch-up post is in order.  We had a nice weekend.  Malachi got a kayak:

 

So now he can kayak along with Nathaniel and Elijah.  The three of them had a nice paddle around a lake yesterday.  Lydia also got in some "Daddy time" on Saturday.  They went to Build-a-Bear to spend the gift card she got for her birthday.  She's now the proud owner of a Princess Luna stuffed My Little Pony.

 

Saturday was rainy and cold, but Friday and Sunday the kids got to play outside. 

 

And I've been able to get some sewing done after the littlest ones are in bed.  I made some things for the shop, including this doll outfit:

 

I'm really happy with how it came out. 

 

I'll be posting an update on Gyunay and one on the chicks soon, but that's all for now!

Big Helper

 

I decided to let Gyunay help me make granola.  It was interesting.  He needs lots of help to be a big helper, of course, but he did enjoy it.  And he loved wearing the apron.

 

 

Sofia shirt

I never posted any of our photos or info about our trips to Bulgaria, because before we had Gyunay home, we weren't supposed to post which country he was from.  Now, I can post whatever I like, so here is Lydia's shirt from Bulgaria:

 

It says "Sofia" in Bulgarian.  You can see how different the words look!  Bulgaria uses the Cyrillic alphabet. 

 

I'll post some pictures of Sofia (the capital of Bulgaria) soon, once I figure out how to transfer them from the flash drive to the blog. 

First Fish!

Gyunay caught his first fish today at our friends' pond.

Chicks!

Y'all knew it was going to happen...

Today, Nathaniel took off of work, and we headed to Frankfort to apply for Gyunay's social security card.  On the way back home, we stopped for chicks.  The kids are ecstatic.  They actually had mostly pullets, so that is mostly what we got. 

Lydia wore this chicken dress in honor of the occasion.

I was thrilled with the choices of chicks. I had just researched australops, and wanted to try those, so I naturally got 3 australop pullets.  They also had buff orpingtons, which we all were excited about.  Sol, our deceased-but-fondly-remembered mama hen, was a buff orpington.  We got 3 pullets of buff orpingtons.  Then, they had these really cute silver laced Wyandotte pullets, so we got three of those, too.

 

And lastly, because we wanted the chance at a good rooster or at least some good table meat, we got 3 straight-run, unknown chicks.  So we will end up with at least 9 hens, with the possibility of up to 12.  Of course, that's not counting the 6 we already have, which are 4 Plymouth barred rocks and 2 red sex link hens.  Elijah really wanted some Americanas (to lay blue and green eggs), but they had sold out of those. 

 

I converted the broken toddler bed into a brooder with cardboard and duct tape.  Very fancy, I know.

Book Review - Together with You by Victoria Bylin

My latest book from Bethany House Publishing is Together with You by Victoria Bylin.  I really enjoyed this contemporary story, although at first I was unsure if I would because the premise involved the nanny falling for the dad of the house.  I feared that it would be a simplistic romance, but I was very happy with the depth of all of the characters. 

The main character, Carly, is working on her phD when she meets Dr. Ryan Tremaine and his children.  She is pulled to his young daughter, Penny.  Penny has Fetal Alcohol Effects, and Carly has extensive expertise in this area.  She is reluctant to take the nanny job that Ryan offers because her big heart has been broken by past mistakes, but she does agree to the job.  In the process of taking care of Penny and her teenage brothers, Carly shows Ryan how to connect with his kids.  The growing attraction between Ryan and Carly is not welcome by either one, and is compounded by the fact that Carly is a devout Christian while Ryan is agnostic.

The characters are well-developed and the Tremaine family and Carly both show character growth throughout the book.  The author does a good job of educating about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome without sounding like a textbook.  I also like how she made flawed characters who had made serious mistakes but were still likable.  It is nice to note that Ryan has made the choice to redeem himself from past mistakes and live by a moral code even before he realizes the necessity of relying on God.  Sometimes Christian authors portray Christians as "good" and agnostics/atheists as "bad", but this gives more realistic and nuanced characters. 

I enjoyed this book very much, and I would recommend it to others.  I was given this book by Bethany House for the purpose of writing a review, but all opinions are my own.