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!

Julia is 5!

Hello Kitty

Queen Elsa

On March 9, 2009 a beautiful little girl was born and now she is 5 years old!  We celebrated her birthday with just our family.  She requested breakfast food for her birthday meal and a Frozen birthday cake.  I did not have the time to do justice to a Frozen cake so I needed to buy one.  There was only one store in town that had gotten approval to make Frozen birthday cakes- so glad we could get one! Julia loved it.  This is the year of Frozen.  Julia loves listening to the soundtrack and watching the movie.  She dresses up as Queen Elsa and acts out the song "Let it Go."  She is still hoping to get a Queen Elsa dress.

Julia is 43 lbs and 43 inches- perfectly proportioned.  She is in the 75th percentile for height and weight.  I was curious if she would pass the hearing test because she just doesn't seem to hear very well.  But, she passed.  So it is probably selective hearing, haha.  I think she has a hard time blocking out background noise when someone is talking to her.  She is hitting her developmental milestones and doing so well.  She continues to be very social and loves talking to people.  Julia's favorite activity is having books read to her.  It is fun to watch her imagination while she plays.  Julia loves to wear dresses and loves to play in the mud.  She knows how to provoke her brothers and she loves to play with them.  A recent funny quote from Julia.  We were grocery shopping and I had to tell her no to several items.  She then said, "When I'm a Mom I'm going to buy my kids whatever they want."  She can't wait to grow up so she can wear make-up, have a cell phone and make the decisions.  Slow down little girl.  Julia is doing great in preschool.  She loves the crafts, music and learning about letter sounds.  She is going to be an early reader I think.  Julia loves the social playtime the most and often blazes through her work so she can get back to playing.  Julia's best frenemy is Asha.  They love each other and antagonize each other.  I can't keep up with if they are happy or angry with each other at any given moment.  Julia loves Jesus and has a good memory for Bible verses.  She asks interesting questions about God at this age.

We are thankful for the gift of Julia!  She brings us joy and challenges us to be better parents.  You are a precious little girl Julia and we love you very much!

March

Rocking the provided swimming lessons swimsuit

Birthday girl loves her Starbucks gift card

Happy  Birthday Dallas!

1 year old

Fancy Nancy book

Celebrating with a Frozen birthday cake

Dad's pinewood derby race car- Lightning McQueen

Ahh spring, season of mud

Sick baby, fell asleep right on the floor

Handsome little Nolbi- 6 months old

Nice visit with Enedina and Nolbi

This might be a new record for me, catching up on the blog 2 months later.  Let's see if I remember what we did in March.  Nate finished the outage in March- yay!  That was a long 3 months and he was exhausted.  We were all exhausted.  One of the hardest things for him was being disconnected from life, friends, church.  He couldn't go to church for 3 months, crazy.

The day after Nate finished the outage, I did a week long training.  I know, timing is everything.  I went to PRIDE train the trainer.  PRIDE are the classes all new foster parents have to take.  Learning how to be a trainer wasn't earth shattering, but I'm excited about training new foster parents.  I was struck that week with the fact that I have knowledge to share.  The training was mostly child welfare professionals and I was the only foster parent.  They wanted my input and kept saying they wished more foster parents became trainers.  I do not consider myself an expert on being a foster parent, but my professional background as a social worker and being a foster parent for 7 years has given me certain insights.  Pretty cool how God can use us.

I started Spanish classes again this spring.  My ability to speak Spanish has really improved, although it is much easier to read and understand Spanish then it is to speak it.  Anything beyond conversational Spanish is difficult.  Like trying to have conversations with people at church about faith and spiritual insights, no can do.

Enedina and Nolbi spent the weekend with us.  This was her first overnight since she moved out last summer.  Enedina was so excited to be back and she got Nolbi all dressed up.  She was really happy to attend our church again.  I wish she lived closer so she could attend our church.  Nolbi is 6 months old and adorable.  Enedina was proud to tell me all of her classes are taught in English and she got 2 B's.  She is doing well overall, but struggling to learn English.  Please keep praying for her and Nolbi's future.

Big news in our house, Julia turned 5!  And of course we had a Frozen birthday cake.  As I am typing this I realized I never wrote her birthday tribute.  Stay tuned for that.

February

New car- 2008 Ford Expedition.  It's really a truck, it's huge

Need a bath time picture

Wacky hair day at school

Celebrating the Korean Lunar New Year

No teeth

Loves his blankie and pacifier

Trying out the pool at the aquatic center

Daddy and his boys playing outside

Fondue- on President's Day!

6:30 pm and it's light enough for the kids to be outside. Still freezing, but spring is coming!

Snow day #10- homemade play dough

Eating the Cheerios bird feeder Julia made

Well, that groundhog predicted 6 more weeks of winter and it's been quite the winter.  Now that it is March 1 we all feel desperately that spring has to come SOON.  This past week we had snow day #10 and then a 2 hour delay.  We're all curious how the end of the school year will be affected.

We are still plowing through the outage and hoping March 14 will be the end.

This month the kids and I attended a foster/adoptive family Valentine's Day party.  We ate food, caught up with other families and made Valentines crafts.  We also went to a Korean Lunar New Year celebration here in Holland.  Julia enjoyed having a friend along that she could show her hanbok to and watch the event with.  The traditional Korean dances/costumes are always beautiful.  The tae kwon do demonstration wasn't quite as impressive this year as it was kids doing the demonstration.  However, my kids are still amazed when boards are broken by hands and heads.

Grandma DeMaster came for 5 days during February.  We all appreciated having her help and company!  The kids enjoyed celebrating Valentine's Day during her visit and made lots of cards for her. Nate was off that evening so we were able to spend time as a family and he could visit with his Mom. I held my rescheduled birthday party that weekend too.  The turnout wasn't as large as it would have been in January, but it was still fun.  It was slightly stressful setting up for the party.  I had jewelry and other handmade products from WAR International.  I didn't realize how much product there was to display and some 1 year old kept walking behind me and pulling down everything I set up!  WAR stands for Women at Risk, and it is an agency that helps women around the world who have been rescued from sex trafficking and slavery.  The party sold $330, nice!  Ruth Ann flew out just in time, flights were cancelled soon after she left.  Winter weather strikes again.  Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of Grandma with the kids, next time.

I helped out with a MARE matching party this month.  MARE is Michigan Adoption Resource Exchange.  The event is for teens who are waiting to be adopted and prospective adoptive parents.  It can be an awkward thing, so we make it fun.  We have the kids and adults play minute to win it games, eat food and just hang out.  The end of the event always breaks my heart.  The adults leave the room and the kids are trying so hard to make a good impression so that they can be adopted.  No child should have to perform so they can have a family. So far, two children have been matched with an adoptive family!  I'm praying there are many more soon.

Julia had two cavities filled this month.  The dentist tried to tell me it was because she ate too many sweets or drank too much juice.  I don't think so.  She has the same diet as the two older boys and their teeth are fine.  Some people are just genetically prone to cavities, etc.  Anyway, the process was quick and painless.  She was given laughing gas and was coherent the whole time, just very mellow.

Stephen is sleeping better at night, not always ending up in my bed at 5 am.  He is still teething, hopefully they will all be in soon.  He says, "ma,da,uh-oh,shoes, and all done."  There might be more words, but I can't remember them at the moment.  He shakes his head 'no.'  He wants to hold his spoon and put the food into his mouth by himself now.  He loves to run and chase with the older kids.  He likes to run away from me when I tell him it's time to get your coat on.  He will also go limp and throw himself on the floor.  Sometimes he arches his back when I put him in the carseat so I have to wrestle him to get it buckled.  Ah, the joys of children testing their independence.  He has developed bad eczema on his legs, not sure where that came from.  Maybe it will decrease as the weather gets warmer.

January

Dutch style New Year's Eve- ollie bollen and banket

Celebrating Christmas with the Jongsma Family 

Celebrating my Mom's 60th Birthday!

In the bleak mid winter

One of many snow day movie afternoons with the neighbors

Julia is OBSESSED with the Frozen soundtrack

Queen Elsa

35th Birthday!

New hanbok

Sleeping baby, so precious

We kicked off the new year by celebrating Christmas with my family.  We opened presents New Year's Eve and enjoyed being all together.  By 9:30 pm Nate and I were the only people awake, my family knows how to party- Happy New Year!  I went to bed by 10 because I knew Stephen would wake up. I think he woke up around midnight and ended up in bed with us.  On New Year's Day we visited the Winebrenner's and saw their new baby, Zac.  He is adorable and Cardale seems to enjoy having two younger brothers.  We also celebrated my Mom's 60th birthday! We left the kids with babysitters and had an adults only meal at a nice restaurant.  I can't remember the last time we did something just the adults, it was nice!  Steph and Mom were sick, but they rallied and we all had a nice evening.  My siblings and I contacted Mom's friends/family and collected memories to put into a memory book.  I enjoyed reading about my Mom and the impact she has made on people.  And Mom really appreciated the gift.

We were ready for school to start again on January 6, but just kidding we ended up with 2 snow days.  And the day before Christmas break was a snow day too.  My friends and I dubbed it the longest Christmas break EVER.  And my two oldest were even gone for a week in Florida during break. It was a nice Christmas break though with the kids.  This winter has been crazy.  Nate has had many scary drives to/from work. I think the kids had school the whole week of January 13. Then they had only two days the week of the 20th.  This week they only had two days of school again.  We do have alot of snow, but it has been the negative wind chill temperatures that caused the school cancellations.  The kids were mad about the last couple of snow days.  They know that too many snow days means more school in the summer!  Snow days have lost their magic.

Nate's plant has the outage this winter and he is on night shift.  He works a 4 nights on/1 night off rotation until March or whenever the outage is done.  We're all tired of the outage and we still have the month of February to go. Because Nate is working so much we are not doing foster care until the outage is done.  And our family was getting tired and just needed a little down time.

When Nate was driving home early one morning in the snow, he hit a wheel in the middle of the highway.  It was a full wheel, with the metal insert and everything.  It ripped up the underside of his car and totaled it.  Thankfully he wasn't hurt.  But, we are now car shopping and we hate car shopping.  Mostly because Nate has no free time for us to really search around.  It is a blessing that he is on night shift because having one car hasn't been a huge headache. He is home from work by the time I drive the kids to school.  And an older couple from our church just lent us their car while they spend a couple months in Florida.  We are blown away by their generosity, we don't really know each other that well.

I celebrated my 35th birthday this month!  Nate and the kids gave me a Starbucks gift card and a pedicure gift card.  Nate also bought a birthday cake for me.  I teased him because he chose whipped cream frosting instead of buttercream.  Does he not know me at all?  Whipped cream?  Gross. Ha! The day before my birthday Isaac asked me if I had made my cake yet? I laughed and informed him I was not going to make my own cake. He then said, "Well Dad doesn't know how!" I think he was truly concerned there would be no cake to eat. The night after my birthday Nate and I went on a date.  We went to a local brewery.  The brewery doesn't serve food so we got some Thai food from next door.  Nate tried some brews and I tried the hard ciders.  We then went to the Peterson's house to play cards.  Rebecca's birthday is the day after mine. I think we are meant to be bosom buddies, ha! (Anne of Green Gables reference)  I had to postpone the party I was going to have with friends because of the weather.  Winter can be done now!

Isaac is now a toothless wonder, he lost both of his front teeth.  It is adorable.  He already had a hard time saying l's and r's, having no teeth isn't helping but it is darn cute.  Isaac's favorite thing to do is pick Stephen up and carry him around.  Stephen is not a fan and protests loudly.  Caleb and Isaac got the movies Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2 for Christmas.  They love the minions and now go around imitating minion talk which really sounds like nonsense talk. Awesome. Actually the minions are pretty funny.

Julia saw the movie Frozen over Christmas break and she talks about it all the time.  I downloaded the soundtrack and she asks multiple times a day to listen to it.  She stands next to the ipad and sings along.  Her less than perfect pitch is pretty cute.  She also likes to wear her Cinderella dress with her blanket as a cape and pretend she is Queen Elsa.  Julia's birthday is in March if someone wants to give her a Queen Elsa dress...  Or the movie if it is out by then.

Caleb is progressing well in his piano lessons.  I think he picks it up quickly.  However, he suffers from the oldest child perfectionist syndrome.  He is supremely frustrated every time he has new material to practice because he can't do it right the first time.  Oh how well I can relate...  Caleb is doing an after school sports program once a week.  They do a variety of sports/games and he is having fun.  He went sledding with cadets last week.  School was cancelled that day because of too cold temps and yet the cadets still went sledding.  He thought it was great.  The kids usually play outside every day at home even with the cold temps.  The snow hill in our cul de sac is a great sledding hill.

Stephen is 14 months old now.  He shows some separation anxiety, but not much.  He is quite affectionate with other women.  During the fellowship time after church he wanders around.  If he recognizes someone he'll hold his arms up to be held.  Sometimes he does this with women he doesn't know.  I think his goal is to make women rethink their decision to be done having kids.  He'll hug their necks, nuzzle their faces and just be adorable.  He also likes the game where he is being held by one person, holds his arms out to the other person to be held and goes back and forth between the two.  Stephen's molars have been coming in so he hasn't been sleeping great.  The past couple of night have been better.  If he wakes up before 6:30 am he ends up in our bed and usually goes back to sleep til 7:30 or 8 am.  He hasn't taken a morning nap for the past few days, so maybe he is down to one nap a day now?  I gave him some peanut butter and he seems to be fine with it.  I'm happy to have another protein source to feed him.

Groundhog Day is coming up and we're all hoping there will not be 6 more weeks of winter!