April

The Cook family visited

Exploring downtown Chicago

Riding the train

Love vacationing with Aunt Steph

Hot tamale hair dye- ugh

Visiting the Critter Barn with Aunt Jenny and Dallas

Some hair color just like Mom

Easter egg fun

Easter with Andrea

Nice pic of the parents

Cutie

We started April with spring break.  We drove to Chicago and picked Steph up from the airport and spent the night in Wheaton with Grandpa and Grandma.  The next morning we took the train in from Wheaton to downtown.  We did not research parking at the train station so we had a mad dash to the train.  Stephen then broke out in hives over all of his skin that was exposed to the cold, quite scary.  His hands and ears were swelling up.  And of course I didn't have benadryl and we had to ride the train for an hour.  He was miserable and cried most of the way, but once we got benadryl he was good.  We stayed at a nice hotel downtown with a pool, a must for small children.  The kids loved having pillow fights with Aunt Steph and just being crazy with her.  We walked thru the Disney store, Lego store and American Girl store.  It was fun and hard for the kids, "why are we walking through stores and not buying anything?!"  That night we ate supper at the Rainforest Cafe.  The older kids loved it, Stephen was freaked out by the robotic animals.  The next day we spent the morning relaxing and swimming.  I had this great idea to eat lunch at a Korean restaurant.  I found one within a mile so we started walking... and never found the restaurant.  Disappointing.  We did get some Garrett's popcorn though!  Unfortunately Stephen kept breaking out in hives when he was cold during our trip.   I think Nate and I were a little too fly by the seat of our pants for Steph's liking.  Sorry!  Next time we vacation together we'll have a better plan.  We did a lot of walking in Chicago, it was freezing and the kids did awesome.

 During spring break we went to Hastings for a night.  The kids played with Cardale and we had dinner with them.  I love that we can keep in touch with little man and his family.  Isaac and Cardale are still best buds when they get together.  We also had guests during spring break, our friends Glenn and Becky Cook!  We got to know them when we lived in New York and viewed them as our mentor friends.  We hadn't seen the Cooks in 5 years so it was wonderful to catch up.  They are doing amazing work in Young Life and their kids are so great.  I thank God for friendships that last across time and distance.

Caleb is playing baseball this spring.  Now the kids pitch to each other instead of the coaches pitching.  And I love Caleb immensely and it gives me joy to watch him play, but watching 9 year old baseball is hard.  Nothing happens.  Alot of strike outs and walking.  I know this is a learning year, but it is going to be a long season.

We did respite care for a family one Sunday in April.  It was for two 9 year old boys.  We knew one of the boys had some behavior issues, but we felt confident we could handle it for a couple hours.  Overall it went well.  But, it is difficult when kids start arguing and fighting in a different language because you have no idea what the issue is!  We also learned our family prefers to have one refugee child at a time, not two.  Some families prefer two kids at once because the kids can talk and play with each other.  We found the foster kids only interact with each other and not our kids.  At the end of April, Andrea moved in with us.  She was a super sweet 12 year old from El Salvador.  I was thanking God for an easy transition back into foster care after a couple months off.

At the end of April we got together with the Dubbinks, our friends who lived across the street from us in South Haven.  It was fun to catch up and it reminded me how I still miss our South Haven life at times.

The social worker from Korea who facilitated Julia's adoption, DJ, visited Bethany.  Julia and I went to Bethany in Grand Rapids for a little open house to see DJ.  DJ remembered Julia and said how she was such a beautiful baby and was now a beautiful girl.  It was good for Julia to chat with DJ and also spend time with the other Korean adoptees at the open house.  Julia also received a package this month from her Korean foster Mom.  We haven't heard from her in a couple years so it was a fun surprise!

At the end of April we headed to Summit, which I'll save for the next time I blog!