First Day

There is no way I'll keep this up every day, but today was full of so many firsts. The kids were up and playing happily by 6am. 

I heard the noise and found them singing to Christmas music and playing.

 Working at her school desk and trying out her new supplies.

 And of course we like to keep things interesting. Our washing machine broke on October 27th. (The day after we returned from our first trip to Ukraine.) A working new part finally arrived on November 18th. (The night before we left on our second trip.) In that span of time I visited the laundromat several times, as well as took advantage of my friends and parents washer.

Darin worked this morning to finish fixing the washer so I could do the mounds of laundry waiting for me. 

I'm so thankful Darin is handy. What a luxury to do all my laundry at home. Yeah!

 We rode scooters.

 She loved her new bike (a terrific craigslist find!)

 She was determined to learn to ride on her own and she almost nearly has it! 

She didn't want me to help her at all! Remember last Christmas, she rode Aaron's bike with training wheels? 

 

We had a blast playing soccer together!

 Playing on the swing set

 running races

 first dinner at home together

The kids all fell asleep by 6:45pm. They were exhausted.

Why am I still up? They will certainly be up by 5am. :)

Overall we had a great day, but it was very tiring both emotionally and physically. It will take time before I can leave her unattended. She goes back and forth between toddler behavior and 10 year old behavior. I'm thankful that the Lord gave me the encouragement of some really special moments (which I'll share later) to balance out the hard ones. I was reminded today by a friend that the "God who got [us] in and out of Ukraine so quickly will be [my] strength each hard minute of each day." He is faithful and true!

*(They were all up at 4am! Pray for my patience and energy today.)*