One Smart Cookie

I'm sure many of you are familiar with Pavlov's dogs, and classical conditioning.  Well, Darya has been conditioned to sign "cookie" repeatedly when we pull into the Publix parking lot and as we go into the store.  (Publix is a grocery store chain and they give out free cookies to kids in their bakery.)  I have absolutely no doubt the next time I take her there, she will sign it all the more until she gets that cookie! :-)  Here she is, enjoying her reinforcement:

Oh, and on a side note, what do we do with her hair??  It is very fine and kind of scraggly.  We were going to let it grow out, but we are thinking of cutting bangs and cutting the length a smidgen, similar to a page boy cut like the drawing below, though her hair is still so fine so I don't think it will quite look like this. Any thoughts?

Father of the Fatherless

Tomorrow is Father's Day.  Though it is a Hallmark holiday, it has caused me to reflect upon the father of my children.  As I type this, Joel is in the other room reading to the boys.  He is such a wonderful father. He adores his children and takes pleasure in spending time with them.  He makes the time to play with them, read to them, and most importantly lead them spiritually.  He faithfully teaches the children about our Heavenly Father.  One thing I have been reflecting upon is how he absolutely loves Darya.  Though she is not biologically his daughter, it makes absolutely no difference.  Darya is his daughter and he is her father.  Such a godly example of how our Father looks upon us.  Though we were once children of darkness, God saw fit to sacrifice his son to make propitiation for our sins, so we may be called His children.  We are redeemed and adopted by God!  He loves us that much!!   Ephesians 1:4-7  "even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.  In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,"  You should read the whole chapter.  It is such a beautiful picture of our adoption as children of God.

Psalm 68:5 "Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation" 

This morning, I was reading one of my favorite blogs.  My heart ached at these boys who do not know the love of a father.  Every day, my boys pray that the orphans would find loving families.  Are you one of those families?  I know not everyone is in a position to adopt, but everyone can pray and advocate!

I love you Joel! Happy Father's Day!

A few pictures

Happy 3rd birthday, Darya! She devoured her piece of cake :-)  I should have gotten a picture of it! But she'll get another one in a few weeks when Grandma comes to visit us from California. We'll just say this was a practice one:

I guess Darya liked her spaghetti so much she wanted to share it with her bear:

Here we are posing near her new kitchen in our matching matroyshka (nesting doll) aprons I bought for us in her birth city.  They were made by a cute old babushka:

In other news, things are finally simmering down. I feel like this spring has been incredibly busy and I'm looking forward to relaxing a bit more this summer!  Hopefully that means I can blog a bit more.  Not that I have anything witty or profound to write about, but I do enjoy it. :-)  

Happy 3rd Birthday, Darya!

Darya loves to "help" me in the kitchen, so we decided to use her birthday money to get her her very own kitchen (thanks Grandpa and Grandma, and Papa and Lala!).  Here's a video of the big revealing moment.  Mind you, she just got back from a doctor appointment where she got some shots, so her reaction is a bit anticlimactic. But I know she'll love slamming those cupboard doors as much as the ones in "my" kitchen!

My little assistant

Here is Darya hard at work helping me answer RR emails:

And here she is after a long day's work in her big bed (with "baby" and "dog" of course):

Time flies!

Goodness, I haven't posted in a few weeks.  May has been just an incredibly busy month and I'm glad things are winding down for us.  By the end of June, we will hopefully have more time to relax since there is nothing scheduled on the calendar.  Just with baseball season, our home school co-op, the college class I'm taking (my goal is to finish college before the boys do!), other random stuff, and life with four kids has just been enough to wear me out by the end of each day!  Though with 4 kids does life ever wind down? :-)  Even with the busy-ness, my life is very blessed!

Darya will be 3 in just a few weeks, can you believe it?  Of course she's going to get a big ol' slice of birthday cake to make up for missing her first two birthdays with us!

We have her IEP meeting in a couple of weeks.  I'm new to this, so hope it will go well.  She also had another PT appointment where she was given inserts for her shoes. The PT said she seems to have pretty good muscle tone and was not concerned at all with her, but she did give me some tips to help strengthen her hips/legs a bit, and the shoe inserts are to help with her balance more (she still curls her toes when walking for support).

Darya is growing and learning so fast.  Remember when I said she switched from the pack-n-play to a toddler bed? Well, lately she's been climbing up into the daybed in her room and sleeping there!  I guess she didn't feel big enough in the toddler bed :-)  Next thing you know she's going to be asking for the keys so she can go to the mall *sigh*. She is also doing much better at feeding herself and is doing pretty well with a spoon. Of course, she still likes to play with her food and cleaning up oatmeal splatters has become part of my morning routine.  She has also learned many more signs.  She probably knows at least 20-30.  We are working on verbalizing the words, and at least getting her to try to say them.  After we have our family worship/devotions in the morning we sing the doxology. She looooves to say "aaaaaaaaaah" when we get to the "amen" at the end. It's adorable! I'll have to get a video of it one of these days.

Okay, a bit about the boys (since I know grandma and grandpa read this and would like an update). Sam is finishing up another baseball season.  We are very proud of him. Not only is he a very skilled player, but he is always encouraging his teammates. He is going to go into the next division in the fall after only playing in the minors for one season!  Ben is, of course, still really into science. I taught the elementary science class at our homeschool co-op and that kid can recall all sorts of animal facts.  He also can identify rocks, birds, and many plants outside. He loves to be outside.  Nate is learning to read, and has really taken to drawing.  We had a scare with a possible broken arm (he had x-rays today but they said he's fine) and he was so sad because it was his "most special arm - the one I write with, draw with, and throw with".

I am really enjoying being the New Family Liaison for Reece's Rainbow. I love interacting with new families. The best part is when one of those families commits to a child!  It is just a great way for me to give back a little to RR.

Well, that's about it. Not an exciting post, I know, but just an update. I'll hopefully post more regularly as things slow down a bit and I'll get some pictures on here, too.