Riding Bikes

This week was a big week for Alyssa. She practiced and practiced until she is now finally able to ride her bike all by herself. After all of the "I can't"s over and over again, she finally said that she'd do it. She wasn't scared anymore after she figured out that she could do it if she practiced and now can start and stop and balance on her bike without any help! She's so proud of herself. Two years ago, though, when she was first trying to learn how to ride Micah had told her that if she didn't know how to ride a bike then she would never be able to ride a motorcycle. She loves motorcycles and wants one someday so that motivated her big time. Well, now that she knows how to ride her bike she asked when she was going to get her motorcycle. We had to explain to her that Daddy didn't mean that she'd get a motorcycle whenever she learned how to ride but that when we do get a motorcycle she'd be able to ride. Oy! How do you explain these things to a 7 year old. Anyways she's so happy about learning how to ride she wants to do it ALL the time. Good motivation for Samara because she wants to be right alongside Alyssa. It shouldn't be too much longer before she knows how to ride her bike as well... and then there's Nattie. I'm not worried about her learning. She will take her cue from her sisters probably like she always does. I haven't taken pictures of her on her bike yet but when I get them I will post them.

Fun at the Creek and Geocaching

Yesterday Auntie Erin showed up to hang out for the weekend. We love Auntie Erin and wanted to do something fun with her so Geocaching is like an adult scavenger hunt. You can go online to geocaching.com and then punch in coordinates in a GPS to where the "treasure" is. When you find the treasure you get to look at it take one thing out if you want to, but if you take one thing out you have to put something in of equal or greater value. It's a lot of fun to do these treasure hunts but we didn't find any today. I don't think our GPS is good enough for the coordinates. Anyways here's a picture of us in the car trying to find our first set of coordinates.




After we geocached and found nothin we decided to go to the creek. We brought the girl's swimming suits and water shoes and two boogy boards that they could float on. So we started pulling the girls on the boogy boards and wading in the water just a bit. It felt good on a hot day like today. Especially after geocaching, searching for treasure in the hot hot sun! We then got a little deeper and a little deeper. Before we knew it we were swimming (literally) in the creek. We had gotten to a part that even the three adults couldn't reach in parts. Thank goodness we had those boogy boards to keep the girls on! We found a rope that was tied to a tree so Micah swung on it into the creek, then Erin, then Alyssa, followed by Samara, then of course Nattie had to try it. Okay then it was my turn. I got ahold of the rope and stood on the tree roots that everybody else was standing on, and then I got scared. I hadn't planned on being scared. It was just a rope tied to a branch on a tree that you swung out into a creek with. My (almost) three year old had just done it. Wow. Anyways I got up the guts to do it and there was absolutely nothing to be afraid of. It was so much fun. The girls had a blast too! We will be adding that to our list of Saturday adventrues for sure!

Micah and Erin trying to build a dam to make a place that the kids could ride their boogy boards down on. They loved it.

Nattie got tired of being in the water so Mommy got out with her. She wanted to sing for the camera and take pictures with the camera. She's so cute! I'll post some videos later of the songs that she sang for me. Well, I'll try to remember and try to find enough time to do that.

Samara going down the "water slide".

Syssa going down the "water slide".

So all in all it turned out to be a great day! Even though we weren't able to find anything while geocaching. Better luck next time I suppose.

Feeding the ducks and...

I watch two beautiful girls during the week and so I decided to take all five of the girls to feed the ducks. Well, it turned out that there was more than just ducks to feed. The fish ate the bread, and so did the turtles. I didn't even know there were turtles in the river! It was so much fun to see the girls faces as the turtles swam up to eat the bread. Here are some pictures of our adventure.

To Homeschool or Not to Homeschool... That is the question

Micah and I have talked about whether or not we should homeschool for a long time now. It's what I really want to do. I want to teach my kids Biblical principles, which we feel are the most important things that they will learn anyway. I tried last year while Alyssa was going to school to try and teach her the Bible when she got home from school. This did not work out well at all. She was so tired when she got home from school that she wouldn't pay much attention, which would frustrate me and in turn frustrate her. We are looking into a school that they would go two days a week and be home the other days for homeschooling. I REALLY like this idea. It would be awesome to get them into this school. We are looking into it more and hopefully can get them in it. I will most definitely homeschool Guerline and Fafane when they come. I don't want to put them in school without knowing much English. Although we got to Skype with them last night and they are learning English! I'm so excited. Maybe by the time they get here they'll know how to communicate, at least a little. In the meantime I'm trying to learn as much Creole as I can before they get here too. Any suggestions would be EXTREMELY helpful!

LOVE

Today love is on my mind. The very being of God is love! If we are striving to do the will of our father then we must also BE love. Not just show love to people that we like but be love to ALL! The other day I was driving, oh the pleasures of driving, and a lady got on the shoulder of the road to get two cars ahead and tried to cut in front of me. Well, I wasn't going to have any of that so I tailed the person in front of me so that she couldn't get in. She persisted for a while but I was NOT going to budge! I was there first, and besides she needed to be taught that she shouldn't break the law by going on the shoulder of the road to get in the front of the line. (Wasn't she taught anything in Kindergarten about how important it is to stand in line and not get out of line!) I was so convicted that night. I knew that if my kids understood what I had just done they would know that it wasn't very loving. Even though she was in the wrong with what she was doing I still was not right. So I'm awful at quoting the Bible but I know it says this in there, I just don't remember the passage. If you know the passage please leave a comment so I remember. This is also kind of a Kim paraphrase because I don't remember it exactly. It says in the Bible to know what you are supposed to do and not do it that is sin! WOW! Sin isn't just doing bad things, it's knowing that we are supposed to LOVE and being unloving, sometimes on purpose and sometimes without thinking about it because it's been sort of engrained in us. My goal for the rest of this year... and the rest of my life for that matter, is to be loving especially when I know somebody has done the "wrong" thing... like go on the shoulder of the road to cut me off.

By the way, I may get to Skype with my precious princesses tonight! I'm so excited!!! My heart aches for them! Please continue to pray for them and for the adoption process! Pray for my heart! My MOMMY'S Heart. Blessings to ALL!

Third of July FIREWORKS

We went to Six Flags and watched fireworks there on the third of July to beat the crowd out for the 4th. We saw some fireworks from our house on the 4th but loved being able to get in and out of Six Flags with relatively no problems. Except on the way out they only opened one exit gate when there were four that could've been opened. The person in charge that day probably got an ear full of unhappy, sweaty, crowded people! Oh well, it's just another way that we can learn patience I guess. They did end up opening all four gates... eventually.


Waiting for fireworks to begin.


The girls were getting antsy so we pulled up a youtube Dora video to keep them occupied while we waited.

Alyssa waiting.

Samara waiting.

Nattie waiting

Still waiting!

The fireworks were awesome just like last year! But unlike last year we had Alyssa with us to share in the excitement. I have THOROUGHLY enjoyed having my sweet girls at home with me this summer! I have been teaching Samara how to read and Natalie has joined in a bit. Samara is reading easy books and Natalie is learning her letters and their sounds. Alyssa is learning all types of things. They all LOVE doing schoolwork and they especially LOVE starfall.com. I do too because they know how to navigate it very well. Even Natalie knows how to go to what she wants and then click on it. Sometimes she right clicks instead of left clicking and comes and gets met to click off it, but usually she does wonderfully. They are the lights of my life!!

Rain in the Gutters

One day it was completely sunny outside, this was last month, and it started to rain. The girls were so excited that it was warm and they got to play in the rain. After the rain stopped they decided to play in the gutters where the rain was gathering. So fun!

Samara

Alyssa

Natalie

My girls!

Playing in the mud in the road.

Our girls and new pictures I've received

These pictures aren't in any specific order but there are some of our girls at the orphanage and some in their hometown of Deye Mon. So happy to see that they are more healthy than they were while living in Deye Mon. We just recently found out that Deye Mon is about 200 years behind the rest of Haiti. They don't have electicity or running water. They don't have much food. In fact mothers would have to carry their children, or walk with their children, for miles upon miles to take them to the mission so that their children could have a meal to eat and then they'd walk back home. Our girls got dropped off at the mission because their mother couldn't take care of them anymore. We know that their mother is still alive, but I believe she's still not healthy and doesn't have a lot to buy anything with, and their father died before the earthquake. We don't know a whole lot but we're starting to be able to piece a few things together about them. Anyways here are some pictures, old and new.


Guerline is in the blue dress, Fafane is in the I love NY shirt, the other two are going to some friends of ours, they are Berlinda, laying on the ground, and Marguerite, in the orange dress.


Guerline, Vagline, who goes to our church here in the states, her parents were able to get here off of Humanitarian Parole before it shut down, and Berlinda.


Guerline and Fafane are on the outsides, and on the insides are their cousins. This is when they still lived at the mission probably about 2 years ago.


Guerline, I think this was in January of this year, after the earthquake.

Guerline while she still lived in Deye Mon.

Fafane catching tadpoles while she still lived in Deye Mon.

Fafane is the one to the very right and Guerline is asleep on the floor.

Guerline

Guerline while she still lived in Deye Mon.

Fafane is the one in the middle with her eyes poking out over the top of the blanket. I believe this is at HCRM.

Fafane is the one on the left.

Guerline while she still lived in Deye Mon. I got to talk to the girl sitting down. She is AMAZING! She was able to help our girls out while they lived in Deye Mon! She has had some great stories to share with us about our girls and has done an amazing job in helping keep our kiddos healthy!

Lonise is on the very right, her parents were able to get her home on Humanitiarian Parole as well, and our Guerline is right next to her. So beautiful!

Fafane, Lonise, and Guerline.

The Fab Four! Guerline, Fafane, Berlinda, and Lonise. These girls were found together and went to the orphanage together. Lonise is home, Berlinda has a family here that is in the process of adopting her, and then of course our girls have a family waiting for them too.

The Fab Four goofing around!

The Fab Four