Six Week Update and Prayer Request

We seem to have entered the next stage of adjustment. The first month was the honeymoon. Then for about a week and a half Austin and Tatum were sick of Ashley and Joshua-serious reality setting in. This last week everyone has been getting along much better and learning to appreciate each other, warts and all. Joshua seems to have turned a corner in the last week. He is much happier and acting more like a kid. We have been talking a lot about how he chooses his attitude, he can either choose to be mad and grumpy or happy, and thankfully he is choosing the latter more often. We moved his bedroom upstairs after he spent about two weeks sleeping in our bedroom. He told us a story of how he heard knocking outside his window one night in the basement, and he was scared to sleep down there. Tuesday was our first post placement visit with our social worker. Even after describing one of our hardest days with the kids, she said she thinks we are all doing really well. That was reassuring. We have had a lot of trips to doctors, and the medical diagnoses are starting to roll in. Ashley and Joshua had positive TB reactions-not surprisingly. They had chest x-rays Friday, and we should hear from the doctor tomorrow about a course of action, which will probably be nine months of antibiotics. Joshua has a mild case of scoliosis and needs to see an orthopedist. Their immunization schedule for the next six months makes my head spin. We noticed Joshua doing pushups with his toes curled downward this weekend. He said he broke both feet when he was 9. He was running and fell into a hole, and they were never treated. So we will have to see what an x-ray reaveals about that. We measured Joshua last week, and he has grown an inch already! We are realizing how far behind he is in his education. He uses his fingers to do single digit addition and subtraction. I hope we can help him start to catch up, but with the language barrier it still seems so daunting. If anyone has experience in this area, please leave a comment on what worked for your family.

On Saturday we went to Casa Bonita. Austin met up with the IFM team from Kansas that he junior staffed for last summer in Juarez. We had an awesome table right by the waterfall, and Joshua thought every show was hilarious. Jim and I have fond memories of going to Casa Bonita as children, and it was a lot of fun to see Ashley and Joshua experience it for the first time. On Sunday Joshua went to his first birthday party for his cousins, Jack and Curtis. He has asked me every day for the past couple weeks how many days until the party. He was so excited about it. Ashley is really enjoying soccer and has her first game tomorrow. One day I picked her up from soccer practice and she said, "Mom, coach says I much better. Is that good?" She has been working hard to not say no as an initial reaction to things and decide after she has tried what we are asking of her. Jim and I are so thankful for all four of our kids and often talk about how blessed we are by each one of them. I think Austin summed up our life the other day when Amy, our hairstylist, asked him how things were going at home. He said, "It seems normal now."

Prayer Request-Our friends, Jim and Teresa, are flying back to Ukraine next week. God has moved a mountain for them to be able to return and adopt the three boys they fell in love with last December. Please pray for their safe travel and that nothing would hinder them from bringing their boys home forever.