Two Weeks

OK, so I've been lazy and it's been like two weeks since I last blogged!  Hey, busy living the life with the Fab 5!  I'm gone during the weekdays and 4 of the 5 weekday evenings out either with the boys at karate class, or on "dance mom" duty bringing Alyssa or Kayleigh home from dance.  Wednesday night is our one quiet night family weeknight, depending on whether Bekah is working, or any mix of our kids go to a church youth group that night.  I'm doing a lot of running in preparation for my first marathon in February.  Kids are going through their schooling, Kayleigh & Michael are both continuing to progress very well in their english, and Alyssa has started learning Russian (I'm going to as well but haven't gotten off the ground yet...).   It's nice to have those moments when you pause and take a look, and life seems rather normal after all the time that was spent in the adoption process.

We continue to enjoy our larger family and still bask in the amazement of how good God is.  We so truly enjoy how well the post-adoption life has gone and how well K & M have become a natural part of our family.  Any issues we've had have been minor, and usually far more attributable to the simple fact that they are just normal teenagers.  It is very natural to hold them and tell them we love them, to hang out and watch a movie or play games, have tickle and tag wars, or chat with them.  We still know very little of their background, and presume that there has to be not good stuff there, otherwise they wouldn't have ended up in an orphanage in the first place.  We continue to just pour on the love, so that the time comes when the layers of the onions begin to peel away, they will know they are in a safe and loving home with a family that cares so deeply for them.

My Dad Says Hi

Today had one of those really cool post-adoption moments.  For our adoption of two orphans who were older in age when we got them (15 and 13) there are always those questions of the small yet important nature to be addressed.  One of those questions of course is what do you have your new children call you?  Because Kayleigh & Michael were older and hadn't been in a family for awhile, we decided to let it roll with what they were comfortable with, which has typically been Chris & Jodi.  We though about the Mom & Dad thing but in the end our decision was to let them grow into the intimacy that is family, rather than try to manufacture it with titles (this naturally was our call on our two kids, not a judgment for anyone else, every family and adoptee is different....). 

I got home from running errands today and Michael was playing XBox with his bestie Gabe, so I told him to tell his friend hello.  He says "my dad says hello!".  It was the first time he has referred to me as Dad rather than Chris.  I though that was pretty extra cool :)  Well, probably more like extraordinarily cool....  We continue to work them into our lives and it all seems normal now and we love having them as our children.  Doesn't really sound weird to say I have 5 kids now.

It's been over 8 months now since they arrived in America and it continues to be one of those awesome stories you don't hear enough, which is one of the reasons I keep the blog chugging along.  The media is johnny on the spot with the negative stories but don't celebrate all of the great stories of orphans who were spared a wasted (or worse....) life, to a life full of promise and potential.  Neither of them talks much (none for Michael) of their past so we know as trust grows that there will undoubtedly be things that surface that are buried deep, but we continue each to day ensure they know this is their family and home.  Forever.