Recovering and Comfort

With each of our boys, I know exactly what to expect when they are sick or recovering from something. Each one of them responds differently... one whiny and wimpy, another is so peaceful and calm (a welcome relief) and another is just snuggly. 

With Irina, we are learning how she handles sickness/recovery. She has been very lethargic, but generally very cheerful. She is one tough cookie. No surprise there! She is a survivor! For those of you wondering, she slept well through the night as long as we were close by. She has her first cold, so it is hard to separate which symptoms are bothering her. She has little appetite and we are regularly treating her mouth pain. I think she'll bounce back soon, but I'm of the opinion that it's been good for us to coddle her a little. I'm not sure she's ever had all this special treatment. (balloons, flowers, packages in the mail, etc.) :)

She had the day off from school and sat on the couch reading books while I did school work with the boys. (Which I confess I was TOTALLY NOT in the mood to do!!! But we pushed through. Phew!) The boys are eagerly enjoying the special soft foods that I bought for Irina to enjoy. She insists they get whatever treats she gets. Sweet girl! After school, they laid around on the couch with her commiserating... all the kids still in their pajamas! Maybe it's the gray weather contributing to the lethargy?

I've learned recently about friends of friends who read this blog looking for encouragement and inspiration. That made me very nervous. I started this blog to advocate for Irina's adoption. Then it became a place to share the story of US pursuing her adoption. Next, I used it to communicate with family and friends while we were in country. Now I use it to personally keep a photo diary of our days and what God is teaching me as we bumble along. I'm truly humbled that any words I type here would be a source of hope. That must come from God, because I am a broken pot.  I hope and pray HIS light is shining from this cracked vessel. I surely don't want this blogspot to be a place where I elevate myself. All glory be to Him!

"For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness", made his light sine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. " 2 Corinthians 4:5-9

My life is very intertwined with the spiritual side of things. As I've blogged, I know there are readers who are not interested in that aspect, but I cannot keep quiet. If that encourages you, I am blessed. If it makes you mad, then the Spirit is at work. If it leaves you with questions, please ask more. Without Christ, I am nothing. He loves us with an everlasting love. 

"For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again." 2 Corinthians 5:15

I love this from the Heidelberg Catechism.
Q: What is your only comfort, in life and in death?

A: That I belong-- body and soul, in life and in death--not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who at the cost of his own blood has fully paid for all my sins and has completely freed me from the dominion of the devil; that he protects me so well that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that everything must fit his purpose for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.


*** Note: A couple hours after I posted this, I came home from taking Ethan to gymnastics to find Irina running around and riding her bike. I guess she is feeling better! Hooray!

Surgery a Success!

Sincere thanks to those of you who prayed for Irina's surgery today! Everything went just as to be expected. Irina is resting comfortably on the couch.

* I asked you to pray she would be able to refrain from food and drink overnight and she did GREAT!

* I asked you to pray that she would not be afraid. She showed a few nerves, but no fear. In fact she was a little silly...almost excited for the procedure. It was hard to tell. After hugs and kisses, she walked bravely back with the doctor and nurses. They said she seemed to understand exactly what was happening and that she was very sweet.

* I asked you to pray for her recovery. Please continue to pray. So far, so good. She is DELIGHTED to have a quiet day to herself with Daddy and Mommy. (The boys are with my parents.) She is so tired and not feeling great, but she has resisted sleep until now.  She requested we watch a "Cat in the Hat" dvd and our wedding video. Yes Ma'am! It was so precious to see her joy as she watched Mommy and Daddy get "may-weed." Please pray that she is able to sleep well tonight. She is experiencing a little pain, which we can treat with ibuprofen.

I am respecting her privacy and not taking any pictures as she recovers. Her front teeth are sparkly white, but there are quite a few empty spaces and three molars have some shiny "bling." If you see her, please do not draw attention to her teeth. I do not want her to be self-conscious. She has not looked in the mirror yet to see the results, so please pray that she responds well to that.

Praise the Lord, from whom all good things flow. We are rejoicing that this is done and we can move on. I think Irina is feeling well loved and nurtured. :) Thank you, Jesus!

Dental Surgery

It is time. We are all ready to get this behind us. Thursday morning is the day. That's TOMORROW! We ask for your prayers. Will you join us in praying? Here are some specific requests:

* We need to keep Irina from drinking or eating from midnight tonight until the surgery. She routinely drinks water throughout the night. Will you pray that we can explain how important it is to refrain and that she’ll do it? It’s not as simple as removing the cup from the bathroom. She’ll use her hands or drink from the faucet if she is thirsty. 

* This weekend we explained the surgery more carefully to her.  She understands. She knows that she will be “sleeping” throughout the procedure. She does not seem to be scared. She is most excited about having me take a picture of her white teeth to send to her friends in the orphanage. Will you pray that she continues to be excited about the procedure and not afraid? 

* Will you pray for her recovery to be quick? I really hope that she is feeling much better by her birthday which is one week from tomorrow. 

* Will you pray that this experience is an opportunity to show her she can trust us and that we will take care of her? Pray that I will be a loving nurturer. 

Thank you for praying. I'll post an update sometime on Thursday.

Belated St. Patrick's Day Celebration

Yesterday, we joined Luke's history class again for a belated St. Patrick's Day celebration. (They were on spring break during the actual holiday.) We dressed in green and brought green food to share (kiwi, grapes, celery and cucumber...boring, but that's what I had in the house! The kids didn't seem to mind.)

Okay... I know it looks creepy, but I blurred the faces of Luke's
classmates since I didn't have permission to post their picture. 

 We did fun crafts, enjoyed our food and listened to the history of St. Patrick's Day. 

Luke was put on the spot and asked to share the testimony of how he accepted Jesus as his Savior. 

I LOVED listening to him tell his story!!

Side note: Mrs. H shared the green headband/big green bow with Irina and she excitedly put it on. The girls at the orphanage ALWAYS wore HUGE bows on their head for special occasions. Take a look at a few from the past...wow!

Pink Makes Me Cry

God blessed me with a really special moment last Friday. I had the night off from the bedtime routine (thank you Darin!) and was out and about buying a few things for Irina’s upcoming birthday. As I stood at the store picking out pink and purple birthday plates I began to get emotional. As I found the perfect birthday card, tears began rolling down my cheeks. At that moment, all the trying times were washed away with an unmistakable joy at the gift of being Irina’s mom. God knew before the beginning of time that we would have the privilege of being Irina’s parents at this time in her life. A little over a year ago, I would have never thought I’d be picking out pink and purple plates! God knew. He chose her for our family and He chose us. 

I'm so excited to celebrate her and the work that God is doing in her on her special day. Irina is literally counting down the days until her birthday. It's the first thing she tells us in the morning. As of today there are NINE days. She has made some special requests (what food she wants to eat, what gifts she would like, what she would like to do, who she would like to see, etc.). Most recently she told us she would like to wear a ribbon sash. Apparently, at the orphanage the child celebrating a birthday would wear a sash from their shoulder to their hip. Fun! I've got nine days to get my act together. Ack! 

* Maybe it's time I update this blog design with a little pink? What do you think?

I Scream. You Scream. We All Scream for Ice Cream!

I am in complete denial that we are going to get wintry weather tomorrow. Come on spring! On Saturday, we had four happy kids wearing shorts in anticipation of a warm spring like day. On the top of Irina's mind was bringing Daddy to go see the "emuls" (animals) and eating ice cream. It was the set up for the perfect day.

We have never taken Irina to an ice cream shop before. When she requested ice cream, we assumed she knew what to expect. Ummm... not so much. Here is what we forgot: 1) She is still learning to make decisions and does not do well with lots of choices. 2) She does not do well under pressure. 3) A lot of people in a small enclosed space talking excitedly about their ice cream choices is sensory overload.

Our sweet girl crumpled. She was adamantly against leaving the ice cream shop, adamantly against me choosing a flavor for her and adamantly against choosing a flavor for herself. So we stood in the corner and I hugged her while she cried and expressed various complicated emotions. Eventually we were able to comfort, calm and soothe our little butterfly. My heart was breaking and I felt foolish for not anticipating how overwhelming this would be for her.

In the end she quickly pointed to a flavor and buried her head in Daddy's chest. We found a seat and she told me that she had never had an ice cream cone before and never been to an ice cream shop. Once seated with her cone, her happy demeanor returned. Can you see the smile behind the cone? I promise you I didn't pull out my camera until I knew she was recovered.

Here she is watching Daddy teach her the finer points of ice cream cone eating. He is an expert!

In the end, I'm pretty sure Irina is glad we went to get ice cream. Sometimes I forget how many new things she is experiencing because she is settling in so well. This was a good reminder for me to tread carefully as we try new things. 

Spring Posers

Each of our four kids took turns being very difficult this week, so I was delighted to see the forecast for sunshine and warmer temperatures on Thursday. 68 degrees! We all needed to get out of the house. I personally needed to get away from our mess, my long "to do" list and my obsessive need to be busy "doing." I was tempted to coordinate our outing with friends, but knew that if I did I would not engage with the kids the way I knew we all needed. This post is all about pictures!

After school, lunch and quiet rest time we loaded in the van ready for our adventure. 

I guess I have programmed them so much to pose for pictures that at every scenic spot 

they would huddle together and say "Picture!" 

This was my view unless they were posing for pictures. 

I had to run to keep up with them, which I loved! :)

I think everyone nearby knew Ethan's name. Will I ever stop being a nervous nelly?

"Ethan, not so high. Ethan, come down now. Ethan, be careful."

 Phew! No one fell in!

 through the bamboo maze 

 Did he make it across? 

 No, he had a wet foot. Then 2 others decided they needed to have one wet foot. kids!

Yes, the park patrol did drive by and ask him to not climb so high. 

"Please come down, young man."

Do you think she looks happy? I do!

"Mommy, please picture."

Save the Trees ?

On an average day, Irina will draw and color at least 10 pictures. 

Thankfully, she's happy to use scrap paper but oh my! we are running out of scrap paper. 

We are ALL the happy recipients of her artwork. One of the boys said the other day, "What am I going to do with all these pictures? I don't want to throw them away and hurt her feelings." We each have a large stack of her drawings. They are taped all over our bedroom doors, bathroom doors and they're even hanging above our bathroom toilet. I'm not sure if she is more joyful while she is creating or when she is delivering the artwork to her family. Sorry trees... but I'd have to say it is worth it. 

She Did It

This post is a two-fold praise. Hooray!

1) Last night, for only the second time in Irina Smith history (which is 117 days), Irina slept in her bed in her room by herself ALL night! Thankfully, her night time fears have been much more infrequent. However, she has grown comfortable relocating to an air mattress in our room every night when she wakes to use the bathroom (between 10-1am). We never want her to suffer with night fears alone in her room,  so it will continue to be a process. Last night when she woke up, all on her own she went back in her room, turned on some soft music, and went back to sleep. Hooray! I couldn't believe she wasn't in our room when I got up to go running this morning. She was very proud of herself. "Mommy, Irina one last night." (Which means, she slept in her bed all alone last night.) I asked her if she was scared and she replied, "No, Irina read Bible." awww...

2) We dropped off Irina at Community Bible Study today for the first time. For those of you who prayed for this transition, thank you! It went great!! I dropped her off at 9:30 with Luke and her friend R. Irina reminded me that I would come back for her at 11:30am. Yes! When I came around the corner at 11:30, I saw her standing at the doorway watching for me. She has been telling me little stories about class ever since we came home. "One boy prayed for no more snow." She thought that was funny. Luke reported that she did a great job and had fun. Hallelujah!

The 4/5th graders have daily homework every week which they complete in a workbook. Irina received her CBS book today and was thrilled. She has already written out the Bible Memory Verse for next week. She asked me if we could work on it more today. Of course. ;)

I have a very thankful heart.

Transformation Underway

I found this photo taken at Irina's orphanage in September of 2013 in one of the classrooms. I took the second photo this past Monday, six months later. Can you even believe it is the same girl? Her feet are growing. She is getting much taller and there is such a joy to her smile. We are so thankful this precious girl is safe, loved and cared for in our home. She is transforming before our very eyes on both the outside and inside.

Four

Adding a fourth kid to the family has brought about the anticipated changes: 

more laundry, increased grocery expenses, more dirty dishes and more messes to clean. 

 However, it also brings about much more hugs, kisses and love to share. 

It continues to be remarkable to both Darin and me how much Irina fits in with the boys 

and how natural it feels at times to have her as part of our family. 

There is no questioning that she is a girl and likes girly things. Yet, she is so comfortable and happy playing with the boys. 

We are all loving our Sunday tradition of family bike rides and spend as much time outside as possible. 

She loves to be outside just like the rest of us!

 Some of the few other noticeable changes since she's been here is all the locking of doors. 

Boys who were once very unconcerned with privacy are thankfully very modest and private. 

I have to carry around a key for the bedroom doors with me at all times, just in case a door accidentally gets locked. 

 I'm also swimming in pink laundry and am able to do a full load of it once a week. 

She usually gravitates toward the pink things in her closet, but also looks pretty in blue. 

 They pretend play so nicely together. They added lots of blankets to the play set and played "house" for at least an hour. 

(Of course Irina checked in with me every 15 minutes.) 

Irina told me we need to have seven kids and get a bigger van. I told her that four was enough for this Momma to handle, to which she tried to negotiate for five. Oh my! I'm pretty sure she wouldn't like to have my attention any more diverted. 

Lego Fair

Two years ago, we participated in a homeschool lego fair with a local homeschool group. 

Last year we were all too weepy after saying goodbye to Irina post hosting. This year, the kids were ready! 

Here is Luke and Ethan's creation. (A restaurant, house and garage/work shed) It was mostly built and designed by Luke, but Ethan built some of the furniture inside the house. I was thankful that Luke was willing to share the spotlight. [I did NOT tell them they needed to match. The funny thing is that we have so many blue shirts with stripes, it is almost inevitable. :)]

 It is hard to capture the detail in the picture, but I enjoyed seeing Luke's creativity. 

My understanding was that their building needed to be their own idea and not a pre-packaged set. 

You can see in the background of this picture that there were a 

lot of eager builders there. A much bigger crowd then two years ago. 

Two years ago when Luke had to explain his creation to the judges, he was like a statue 

and hardly said anything. This time, he was confident and very talkative explaining 

each feature. I was very proud of my shy guy. 

They received the "Honorable Mention" prize.

Irina and Aaron decided to build something together at the last minute. They were hoping to win a prize and I tried to prepare them to just have fun! I didn't want to discourage their interest in participating. They built a restaurant. 

 It was the first large crowd gathering we have attended with Irina that did not have clear structure. There were lots of unfamiliar faces and lots of mingling. I was anxious and like a fish out of water. I've completely forgotten how to be social in large crowds. ;) Irina, on the other hand, was confidently circling the room on her own looking at the lego displays -- always making sure she knew where I was and where her brothers were at all times. The only time she became nervous is when one of the judges talked to her in fluent Russian. Her cheeks became flushed and her eyes became big. She couldn't believe it! Of course, she said nothing back in Russian and later told me she didn't know what he said. She explained, "Irina no talk 'russkiy.' Irina talking good English."