Lately....

Lately I have been starting posts that go left unfinished and then forgotten. Too much to say right now, I guess, and not enough energy or time to say it well. So, here is a a little summary of bits of our world that I have been wanting to record....

Lately,

* I have had a little girl attached to my side every where I go.

* Their wonderous words have made me smile. "Deeeelicios" says Sam whenever he drinks a cup of milk. " The way they call the pet store "Pep Store!" The way they jabber to each other in the back of the car, "Look, Sambo there's a crane right there! Big crane workin' so hard." .....

* Amelia's thankful heart. "Thank you mama," is such a common phrase from her these days, but it makes me smile every single time I hear it. Creating the habits of "please and thank you" was the first "railroad tracks" I worked on laying with them. Amelia has obviously formed the habit, we are still working on it with Sammers:)

* Watching Sam go to sleep is one of my favorite parts of these days. Listening to him recite his favorite stories in the dark of the room like, " Sun came out and POP! He hate one apple, still huuuungry! Ate two pears, still huuuuungy!" .....FAT Caterpiller! " Then his 'Jesus loved me" recitation, then he just lays down and looks up with his eyes open and then slowly, slowly he drifts away to sleep. I guess because Amelia is just so opposite from this, it seems like a small miracle every time I see him do it:) Be wary of one size fits all sleep training methods, you new mamas out there. Sam and Amelia are living proof that you can do things the same way with two children and they just have different sleep patterns/preferences/tendencies. Don't freak out if your six week old isn't sleeping in six hour stretches (or whatever those books promise)--you may just have an Amelia on your hands. In the same way, don't get puffed up if your infant does sleep for long stretches and think every other mama out there must be doing it the wrong way--you may just have a Sam:)

* There is an excitement in the air about moving into a new house on the first of October. It is bittersweet, of course, as we have loved this home and walking every where, every day. But this new home, it is closer to our church community, it is next door to a sweet adoptive family, it is in a very diverse area. It is bigger than we thought we wanted, but it is a clean slate and we are happy about that.

* I am so thankful for our new family mentor relationship. We had such a great experience with Taleb and Khoula and hope to see them still even though our official mentoring time is over. They are in English classes all day now and are pretty tired at the end of the day.Such a precious couple. The new family is a refugee family from Eritrea and have been living in Ethiopia for 9 years before coming here! Daili is the mama and she has been coming over twice a week to train to be a Mother's Helper. Um, I cannot even tell you how fabulous it has been this week with her here. To get to help someone with their English while being productive along side each other. From the two days she was here I now have three meals and three dozen muffins in the freezer waiting for our upcoming guests! And the companionship is so sweet and welcome. It has furthered my belief that we are just not meant to do life alone! She is so warm with Sam and Amelia and I love to see how their play also becomes so productive when she is here and we are working together. I am so thankful to have them in our lives! Please pray for her and her family if you think about it. She has four children (9,8,3,2) and their government assistance for housing has run out. They are desperate for work but have been unable to find it with their limited English and the present economy. Her husband and father just traveled by bus to another state following a lead on a possible factory job.

* Sam and Amelia have been bickering over things/space often:( I guess it is just a new stage in our journey and I'm trying to find new and effective ways to keep the peace. So thankful that this is a new issue and for the looong stretch of general sharing and caring we have experienced between them:)

* All I have time for for now. Hope you all are doing well! Jen