So it's officially been 5 weeks since the boys have been home, and even though life is still definitely stressful and hard, each week has gotten a little easier, the boys have continued to settle in, things have settled down a bit, and Kate and the boys are starting to show signs of liking each other. :)
It's been really fun to see the boys learn English, and right now they are able to understand a lot of what we say. The day to day phrases and words are very familiar to them now, and they're saying all those in English. When there's something out of the ordinary we're able to get the point across with our limited Amharic, basic English words that they know, and gestures.
Here are a couple specific language things I don't want to forget:
- We sing "I Love to See the Temple" with the kids each night, and Tam and Yeb have learned it, with it slowly morphing into more English and less Amharic sound-alike words. Their current version includes "I love you too ah tampo", and "to listen and to play". We did a lesson about temples last Sunday with them where we showed them pictures of temples and our wedding pictures, and Tam especially got really excited about it.
- Both boys like to pray before meals. Yeb's prayer has degenerated into a yelled "Amen!!", and Tam says a memorized prayer in Amharic that makes me smile.
- Kate has gotten into learning Amharic words that the boys use all the time. She now refers to bread as dabo, calls cars makinas, and will use the Amharic words for shoes, socks, ball, and hat. However, the one word she learned first was Ababi, which is Daddy, but still pronounces it "O Poppy". It cracks me up!
- The Amharic words for hat and open are very similar (gofeta and gofia). When I was outside with the kids and the boys were riding bikes for the first few times, I had to really stress that if they wanted to ride a bike they had to wear a helmet. But I used the wrong word, and I think that's part of why there were so many meltdowns about having to wear helmets. Poor kids. Looking back I can now recognize that the confused looks they gave me at first were the language gears in the brain going into overdrive trying to reorganize the meanings of those words. Yeb still refers to his helmet as "open".
Something super fun right now is watching the kids start to enjoy being together. Kate and Yeb are starting to hit it off, where they will play together and think the same things are interesting and funny. They have such different personalities, but somehow they've started to click. They'll chase each other around, have picnics with blankets and play food, and yell simultaneously for fun. Tam's sense of humor and fun is a little older than Kate and Yeb, so a lot of the time he kind of is doing his own thing. I've gotten a lot better this past week at keeping him busy helping with things around the house so that he doesn't get bored and into trouble. He is such a helper! I feel like maybe I should feel a little guilty about having help out as much as he does, but I don't. It sure beats constant negativity from both of us when he gets bored, and instead he gets praise for all the work he puts in. What I really need to do is make a picture list of tasks that he can do so that self start on them if he wants. Which probably won't happen anytime soon because life is still too busy and a little too crazy.
I feel like we're inching toward normal a bit more each week. From day to day it doesn't feel much different, but there really has been a ton of progress.
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Starting to find the new normal
We survived the 15 hour flight from Hades where we were seriously very close to walking away from luggage and children at the endpoint, and either Heavenly Father took pity on us or the boys realized they were THIS CLOSE to making their parents truly snap, because they both slept during the last 2 flights home. Looking back, I have no idea how we all made it home safely, and it reaffirmed our prior feeling that our family is now complete, because we are not going to repeat that experience any time soon.
The current update is that both boys are doing really well. We're still working hard on attachment, and on the boundaries in our home, and thinking back to two weeks ago just amazes me at how far we've already come. The boys have made so much progress, and overall it's getting a little easier to manage life each day, which is definitely progress for Kerry and I compared to when we first got home.
Kerry and I are starting to experience moments where this parenting and family thing is actually fun again, which is weird, and gives us hope that those moments are the new normal that we're working toward. Their personalities have been coming out full force this while time, but now we're starting to appreciate them more and more.
The part of this whole thing that has been the hardest has been watching Kate try to deal with all the changes and challenges that have been happening. She really has done so amazingly, but it has been so hard for her. The boys have required a lot of attention this first little bit, and learning to coexist with 2 new brothers has been difficult. I've been so proud of how much she's been willing to share and help out. Even with all the difficulty, there have been plenty of moments where she has a blast playing with the boys, and enjoys being silly with them. We've been trying really hard to carve out some Kate time each day so that she gets some one-on-one with one of us.
The medical update is that the boys are both really healthy and within the normal ranges for growth and health. Since there's no immunization record, they just have to start from scratch, and they've been champs with all the shots. We're also having them tested for any other possible bugs, and Yeb is currently being treated for lice. Yuck. The boys also had their dental appointments today, where we found out that Yeb has wonderfully healthy teeth, and that Tam will have a premature pumpkin smile after having his top four front teeth removed soon. It will be so nice to get all this initial dental/medical stuff out of the way!
We have hardly any pictures of the boys because any time the camera comes out there is an inevitable meltdown, so we've avoided bringing it out at all. We need to get going, though, because I really do want pictures of this stage of our family.
Thanks again, everyone, for all the love and support!
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Still At Extremes
After suffering from some over scheduling yesterday and the resulting meltdowns and other behavior, we decided to take it really easy today, and overdid it a tad. The only outing we had planned was to go to the airport right after breakfast to get the luggage, which left the ENTIRE rest of the day unplanned. Of course we had a few ideas of things we could do here at the guesthouse, but in reality we were sadly underprepared. The critical error is our reliance on parks and other outdoor spaces that we have such awesome access to at home, so killing an hour or two isn't that hard at home, but there just aren't places like that here. To try to keep ourselves from going insane, we ended up going for 3 walks to various destinations (or with no destination), colored with chalk, played with balloons, played in the hose that was running when we came home from one walk, played soccer, hide and seek, tinker toys, Legos. and Yeb got a good nap this afternoon. Despite all that, we still suffered the effect of some boredom.
The guesthouse is in a nice residential part of Addis, where the streets are cobblestone, the outside of people's gates has some trees or other foliage, and the people we met while walking around seemed more well to do than most of the city. Our 2nd walk of the day was to search for a little store that sold soccer balls. Our big mistake was to take the double umbrella stroller that we brought for the airports coming home, but we thought it would be fun to let the boys ride in it. As we were leaving the guesthouse I realized that I hadn't ever seen any strollers here in Ethiopia, and yep, as if we weren't already very visible, the stroller pretty much made us into a circus act. Both boys were really excited to ride in it, but as soon as we got outside the gate Tam was embarrassed and insisted on walking, and then commenced to make fun of Yeb for being in the stroller. Fortunately, Yeb was still waking up from a nap, and couldn't care less. After we found and bought a soccer ball, Tam decided he wanted to ride, too, until a passerby made a disparaging remark about strollers, and then Tam wanted nothing to do with it again.
After buying a ball we went down a quiet side street to kick it around, but after about 5 minutes the boys seemed ready to go, and as we started heading back to the guesthouse we realized that there was piece of wire wound in one of the stroller wheels. We stopped to try to get it put, and after about a minute a young teenage boy came up and asked if he could help. Pretty soon a whole bunch of his teenage friends were gathered around, with them and Kerry all trying to get the wire out, and a couple of them kicking the ball around with Tam. They were such good kids! They were able to fix it after about 15 minutes with the help of some pliers one of them borrowed from his house, and we were sad to say goodbye. The funny thing was the actual conversation I had with one of them where I had to explain the purpose of the stroller, and where he politely tried to hide that he was perplexed about why anyone would need such a thing.
The day ended with us walking to the little store to buy some snacks for the trip home, where we as ones that the price of snacks and juice was going to be a lot cheaper than mental health treatment if we stayed put all evening. After buying some cookies and mango juice awe sat on the ledge next to the sidewalk and ate them and watched cars go past. The highlight (for me at least) was watching the boys reactions when a man herded a cow down the sidewalk right in front of us. They seriously had no idea what to think, and we had to convince them they weren't in danger. The weather was beautiful, people were out and about, and he sun was starting to set, and it made me really sad that we're leaving tomorrow. On the other hand, living out of a hotel room long term isn't tempting, and we sure miss Kate and are excited to get home to her and family!
The guesthouse is in a nice residential part of Addis, where the streets are cobblestone, the outside of people's gates has some trees or other foliage, and the people we met while walking around seemed more well to do than most of the city. Our 2nd walk of the day was to search for a little store that sold soccer balls. Our big mistake was to take the double umbrella stroller that we brought for the airports coming home, but we thought it would be fun to let the boys ride in it. As we were leaving the guesthouse I realized that I hadn't ever seen any strollers here in Ethiopia, and yep, as if we weren't already very visible, the stroller pretty much made us into a circus act. Both boys were really excited to ride in it, but as soon as we got outside the gate Tam was embarrassed and insisted on walking, and then commenced to make fun of Yeb for being in the stroller. Fortunately, Yeb was still waking up from a nap, and couldn't care less. After we found and bought a soccer ball, Tam decided he wanted to ride, too, until a passerby made a disparaging remark about strollers, and then Tam wanted nothing to do with it again.
After buying a ball we went down a quiet side street to kick it around, but after about 5 minutes the boys seemed ready to go, and as we started heading back to the guesthouse we realized that there was piece of wire wound in one of the stroller wheels. We stopped to try to get it put, and after about a minute a young teenage boy came up and asked if he could help. Pretty soon a whole bunch of his teenage friends were gathered around, with them and Kerry all trying to get the wire out, and a couple of them kicking the ball around with Tam. They were such good kids! They were able to fix it after about 15 minutes with the help of some pliers one of them borrowed from his house, and we were sad to say goodbye. The funny thing was the actual conversation I had with one of them where I had to explain the purpose of the stroller, and where he politely tried to hide that he was perplexed about why anyone would need such a thing.
The day ended with us walking to the little store to buy some snacks for the trip home, where we as ones that the price of snacks and juice was going to be a lot cheaper than mental health treatment if we stayed put all evening. After buying some cookies and mango juice awe sat on the ledge next to the sidewalk and ate them and watched cars go past. The highlight (for me at least) was watching the boys reactions when a man herded a cow down the sidewalk right in front of us. They seriously had no idea what to think, and we had to convince them they weren't in danger. The weather was beautiful, people were out and about, and he sun was starting to set, and it made me really sad that we're leaving tomorrow. On the other hand, living out of a hotel room long term isn't tempting, and we sure miss Kate and are excited to get home to her and family!
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Panic Attacks On Airplanes
When we were on the really long flight from DC to Addis there was an older Ethiopian woman who had what I can only assume was a panic attack. We're talking a couple hours of full out panicked screaming. The flight attendants did what they could for a while, and then they paged for a medical professional to come help. It didn't seem like it helped much, though, because she didn't calm down for quite a while. Well, today Kerry and I felt a bit like a medical professional stuck on a 13 hour flight with someone having a panic attack. Not the entire day was like that, but we had our embassy appointment and a lunch with Yeb's birth mom, so there was a lot of time where we couldn't gear what we were doing as much to the boys, and it showed.
However, there were some really good things today. Tam came up and gave me a hug and a kiss today, we walked down the street to the little store and bought ice cream bars and had a blast seeing the boys eat ice cream for probably the first time in their lives, and Kerry and the boys wrested before bed. It was also fun hear the boys jabber to each other in Amharic and laugh together.
Another fabulous thing is that Yeb really is potty trained! We only brought diapers for him, and after yesterday's fiasco I don't feel bad having him wear one, but he does a good job of telling us when he needs to go, and is pretty independent about it. Wahoo!
Now for the grunginess. We didn't end up getting our baggage today because between the embassy appointment and lunch with Yeb's birth mom, we figured the boys had had enough running around. Which means that by this evening we were feeling very gross, and hand washed clothes to tide us over till first thing tomorrow when we REALLY have to go get the luggage. It also means that my hair has looked amazing without bobby pins, blow dryer, or curling iron that are all in the bag. Oh well.
However, there were some really good things today. Tam came up and gave me a hug and a kiss today, we walked down the street to the little store and bought ice cream bars and had a blast seeing the boys eat ice cream for probably the first time in their lives, and Kerry and the boys wrested before bed. It was also fun hear the boys jabber to each other in Amharic and laugh together.
Another fabulous thing is that Yeb really is potty trained! We only brought diapers for him, and after yesterday's fiasco I don't feel bad having him wear one, but he does a good job of telling us when he needs to go, and is pretty independent about it. Wahoo!
Now for the grunginess. We didn't end up getting our baggage today because between the embassy appointment and lunch with Yeb's birth mom, we figured the boys had had enough running around. Which means that by this evening we were feeling very gross, and hand washed clothes to tide us over till first thing tomorrow when we REALLY have to go get the luggage. It also means that my hair has looked amazing without bobby pins, blow dryer, or curling iron that are all in the bag. Oh well.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Gotcha Day
Yesterday was absolutely wonderful, but much different than planned! We arrived in Addis at about 8 in the morning, but spent the next 2 hours getting out of the airport. Between being at the end of a long line for tourist visas, and then a big luggage hassle, it just took forever. The suitcase that has all of Kerry's and my clothes didn't arrive, but is scheduled to get there this morning, so that's on our to-do list after our embassy appointment. As annoying as it is, I'm just so glad that it wasn't the suitcase that had all the boys' stuff in it. Kerry and I had a change of clothes in our carryon, and we were able to go down the street to a little store and buy a few toiletries that we couldn't do without for a day.
After going to the guest house, we called the agency to check in and see what the plan was for the day as far as picking up the boys. We were told before we left that Yeb's orphanage did a farewell party for kids when they got picked up, so we decided to get Tam first then go to the party and pick up Yeb. We brought traditional clothes for the boys that we were going to change them into before they left their respective orphanages, and just envisioned it based on what we knew. Like everything in life, it didn't turn out at all the way we thought. The agency driver picked us up and asked I f we could swing by Yeb's orphanage first because there was an infant that was going to be moved to Tam's orphanage. We figured we could talk to the orphanage director or the nannies about the party plans for later, so that was great. We got there, found Yeb, but there were no party plans, and since there weren't, they told us we could take Yeb with us right then. Since the driver was waiting for us with a nanny and the baby they were taking to Tam's place, the photo op with traditional clothes went out the window. We went to Kibebe Tsehay, Tam's orphanage, and waited for a few minutes while they got him up from a nap and got him ready to go. We played outside while we waited, and I had time to realize that Yeb looked about 10 pounds lighter than last trip because he was wearing underwear instead of a cloth diaper. However, that realization somehow didn't lead to the thought that he would need potty breaks, or that he probably needed a potty break NOW due to his consuming a bottle of water during the drive. I'll blame it on the jet lag, which we were starting to feel.
Tam was led out of the building he had been napping in, and he recognized us, and seemed happy to see us. His orphanage doesn't do a goodbye party or ceremony, so we snapped a few pics with his favorite nanny and piled into the van. I think the car rides were a highlight of the day for both boys. The level of excitement they had is bout the same as American kids at Disneyland, minus the Disney meltdowns. Not joking.
Right after we started driving back to the guest house I thought that Yeb was asking for his water bottle, so I gave it to him, but would find out about 10 minutes later that he had really been telling me that he needed to go potty. Oops. Tam spent the drive alertly looking out the window at all the cars (again, imagine Disneyland excitement here), Yeb fell asleep sitting up next to me and I was finally able to convince him to lay his head on my lap. Kerry and I were really feeling the lack of sleep, and Kerry slept most of the drive, and I fought it, too. By the time we got to the guest house, it had started raining. We groggily piled out of the car, and I tried to get my brain to figure out how to get Yeb out of the car And into the guest house without getting pee all over the only clean shirt I had at that point. We knocked at the gate but it took a few minutes and a few more knocks before someone let us in. We stood there waiting, in the rain, without talking because we were all so tired, and then Yeb, who was fortunately standing on his own at that point, went pee again. It ran out of his pants and somehow flowed directly into one of his high top shoes without laces. We're talking halfway full here.
So whenever I hear a story like this I usually look at this moment in the story as the rock bottom moment, or the sad part that is the flip side to the happy ending. But standing there as a family (minus Kate) In the rain with a shoe full of pee just made me so happy, and was much more like a wonderful beginning to the story of the boys joining our family. Kerry and I just laughed like crazy, and then got in the guesthouse and got those boys all cleaned up.
The rest of the afternoon and evening went really well. The boys were both ok with us giving them lots of loves, and the communication factor that I had started to stress about wasn't a problem, either. Between gesturing, pointing, and facial expressions, we all seemed to be able to figure out what everyone else meant.
Bedtime went a lot better than expected, too. Kerry rocked Yeb to sleep, and Tam wanted to lay down on the big bed with us, so we all piled on and fell asleep. Kerry woke me up about a half an hour later so we could put Tam in his bed and get us ready to go to sleep. Everyone slept really well. Yea!
After going to the guest house, we called the agency to check in and see what the plan was for the day as far as picking up the boys. We were told before we left that Yeb's orphanage did a farewell party for kids when they got picked up, so we decided to get Tam first then go to the party and pick up Yeb. We brought traditional clothes for the boys that we were going to change them into before they left their respective orphanages, and just envisioned it based on what we knew. Like everything in life, it didn't turn out at all the way we thought. The agency driver picked us up and asked I f we could swing by Yeb's orphanage first because there was an infant that was going to be moved to Tam's orphanage. We figured we could talk to the orphanage director or the nannies about the party plans for later, so that was great. We got there, found Yeb, but there were no party plans, and since there weren't, they told us we could take Yeb with us right then. Since the driver was waiting for us with a nanny and the baby they were taking to Tam's place, the photo op with traditional clothes went out the window. We went to Kibebe Tsehay, Tam's orphanage, and waited for a few minutes while they got him up from a nap and got him ready to go. We played outside while we waited, and I had time to realize that Yeb looked about 10 pounds lighter than last trip because he was wearing underwear instead of a cloth diaper. However, that realization somehow didn't lead to the thought that he would need potty breaks, or that he probably needed a potty break NOW due to his consuming a bottle of water during the drive. I'll blame it on the jet lag, which we were starting to feel.
Tam was led out of the building he had been napping in, and he recognized us, and seemed happy to see us. His orphanage doesn't do a goodbye party or ceremony, so we snapped a few pics with his favorite nanny and piled into the van. I think the car rides were a highlight of the day for both boys. The level of excitement they had is bout the same as American kids at Disneyland, minus the Disney meltdowns. Not joking.
Right after we started driving back to the guest house I thought that Yeb was asking for his water bottle, so I gave it to him, but would find out about 10 minutes later that he had really been telling me that he needed to go potty. Oops. Tam spent the drive alertly looking out the window at all the cars (again, imagine Disneyland excitement here), Yeb fell asleep sitting up next to me and I was finally able to convince him to lay his head on my lap. Kerry and I were really feeling the lack of sleep, and Kerry slept most of the drive, and I fought it, too. By the time we got to the guest house, it had started raining. We groggily piled out of the car, and I tried to get my brain to figure out how to get Yeb out of the car And into the guest house without getting pee all over the only clean shirt I had at that point. We knocked at the gate but it took a few minutes and a few more knocks before someone let us in. We stood there waiting, in the rain, without talking because we were all so tired, and then Yeb, who was fortunately standing on his own at that point, went pee again. It ran out of his pants and somehow flowed directly into one of his high top shoes without laces. We're talking halfway full here.
So whenever I hear a story like this I usually look at this moment in the story as the rock bottom moment, or the sad part that is the flip side to the happy ending. But standing there as a family (minus Kate) In the rain with a shoe full of pee just made me so happy, and was much more like a wonderful beginning to the story of the boys joining our family. Kerry and I just laughed like crazy, and then got in the guesthouse and got those boys all cleaned up.
The rest of the afternoon and evening went really well. The boys were both ok with us giving them lots of loves, and the communication factor that I had started to stress about wasn't a problem, either. Between gesturing, pointing, and facial expressions, we all seemed to be able to figure out what everyone else meant.
Bedtime went a lot better than expected, too. Kerry rocked Yeb to sleep, and Tam wanted to lay down on the big bed with us, so we all piled on and fell asleep. Kerry woke me up about a half an hour later so we could put Tam in his bed and get us ready to go to sleep. Everyone slept really well. Yea!
On Our Way...
Well, we're officially our way to get the boys! The sad news is that it's the middle of the night
and The flight we're on doesn't have reclining seats. I didn't know that was possible, but it's reality, which means that my neck is sore from trying to lay my head on Kerry's very bony shoulder, but alas, no sleep. The irony in this situation is that Kerry was adamant about us staying awake until we leave Washington DC later in the morning so that we'll be on Ethiopia time when we get there, while I was more than happy to sleep as soon as we left Salt Lake. At the moment however, Kerry is the one sleeping while I am trying to kill time in my ridiculously upright seat.
The last couple weeks since we found out both boys had cleared embassy have been both exciting and nerve wracking. We've been consistently alternating between happiness and excitement, panic, and sheer exhaustion. Kerry had a crazy work week, and I was trying to get everything done for us to travel. Of course we're super excited to go get the boys, but all of a sudden we've also been faced with realizing that these boys are no longer just theoretical. The strangest moments are the ones where we've had to think past the travel stage, like this week when I made doctor and dentist appointments for them, and the many things that we've done that were the "lasts" before we're a family of 5. Just before my dad came this evening to take us to the airport, we realized that the next time we were at our house, the boys would be there with us. That was a surprising and wonderful thought. Realizing that I will soon be wrangling 3 children in sacrament meeting on Sundays by myself somehow didn't give me the same warm fuzzies. I'll just have to con someone to sit with me, which, now that I think about it shouldn't be too hard considering how cute the 3 kids in question are.
We've definitely been feeling panicked about whether we're prepared enough to parent these boys, but the good news is that the closer we've gotten to actually leaving, and especially now that the stress of preparation for travel is over, all I can think of is how wonderful it will be to get to go get them, hold them, play with them, and start the process of getting to know them!
and The flight we're on doesn't have reclining seats. I didn't know that was possible, but it's reality, which means that my neck is sore from trying to lay my head on Kerry's very bony shoulder, but alas, no sleep. The irony in this situation is that Kerry was adamant about us staying awake until we leave Washington DC later in the morning so that we'll be on Ethiopia time when we get there, while I was more than happy to sleep as soon as we left Salt Lake. At the moment however, Kerry is the one sleeping while I am trying to kill time in my ridiculously upright seat.
The last couple weeks since we found out both boys had cleared embassy have been both exciting and nerve wracking. We've been consistently alternating between happiness and excitement, panic, and sheer exhaustion. Kerry had a crazy work week, and I was trying to get everything done for us to travel. Of course we're super excited to go get the boys, but all of a sudden we've also been faced with realizing that these boys are no longer just theoretical. The strangest moments are the ones where we've had to think past the travel stage, like this week when I made doctor and dentist appointments for them, and the many things that we've done that were the "lasts" before we're a family of 5. Just before my dad came this evening to take us to the airport, we realized that the next time we were at our house, the boys would be there with us. That was a surprising and wonderful thought. Realizing that I will soon be wrangling 3 children in sacrament meeting on Sundays by myself somehow didn't give me the same warm fuzzies. I'll just have to con someone to sit with me, which, now that I think about it shouldn't be too hard considering how cute the 3 kids in question are.
We've definitely been feeling panicked about whether we're prepared enough to parent these boys, but the good news is that the closer we've gotten to actually leaving, and especially now that the stress of preparation for travel is over, all I can think of is how wonderful it will be to get to go get them, hold them, play with them, and start the process of getting to know them!
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Springtime, Easter, And The Pinterest-Worthy Campout That Wasn't
It finally feels like spring, and even with days like yesterday and today where the weather is wet, I can't complain because at least it's not snowing. Plus there have been a lot of really nice warm days where we've been able to enjoy being outside. Kate has been riding her little bike everywhere during the past week since she got it, and has been pretty disappointed when I've had to tell her that the grocery store and Grandpa and Grandma's house are too far for us to ride a bike.
In honor of spring, we decided to do a family cookout and campout last Friday night. Our paper shredder broke quite a while ago, so we needed a good excuse to burn the shred pile. We put a fire ring together with broken cinder blocks that we dug out of the backyard last summer, and got a fire going. We cooked hot dogs, and Kate loved helping with everything. I have to say, as ready as I am for us to tackle the backyard this summer, there have been moments the past few years where it's been kind of nice to just do what we want back there without having to worry about logistics. Build a fire ring? Sure, no problem. Pick a spot. Seriously, anywhere. It probably helped that backyard looks the nicest during the spring when the layer of small bright green weeds can still pass off as faux grass. I'm sure this feeling of benevolence will be short lived as the weather warms up and the backyard returns to a sunburned wasteland. :)
After we ate, Kate played on our dirt mountain for a bit while Kerry and I sat and chatted, and then we slowly added our shred papers to the fire. Kate thought that was pretty awesome.
We headed inside, got Kate ready for bed, and then set up our tent in Kate's room for us all to sleep in. It's still too cold to sleep outside, and our backyard isn't fenced in, so we planned to do an inside campout. It was all so cute: Kate was in her jammies, we had laid out blankets for our beds, Kerry read her the bedtime story in the tent, Kate thought that life was amazing and was so excited to sleep in a tent. 
But the happy pictures that you see are where the fun stopped for the evening, because Kate didn't go to sleep till 1am. We had forgotten that she had inadvertently had a late nap, which guarantees a rough night for her. So that was sad. We were all zombies the next day. Fortunately, by about 11pm we scrapped the tent idea completely in favor of having everyone sleep in thier own beds. There was no way that either Kerry or I wanted to go to bed late plus get kicked all night by a little girl who probably wouldn't be sleeping very well. We'll try the campout again another time, because it would be really fun, but next time we're going to make sure that Kate is very tired by bedtime.
In other news, we repaired our main bathroom a couple weekends ago! It crossed my mind to take before and after pictures, but I thought better of it because then I would have solid evidence of how bad it's looked for so long. It has needed some attention since we moved in 4 years ago, but has been one of those things that you stop noticing about your house. However, it got to the point where we were legitimately concerned about the easy access kids have to large chunks of paint that were peeling off one section of wall, and we got fed up that more than half of the tile border that went around the walls had fallen off. After a full day's work and 2 tubs of spackle, it was ready to repaint, and turned out really well. The only thing we have left to do is figure out how to attach the new trim to the bottom of the walls. Those same sections of walls are now made up almost entirely of spackle, so we're not sure if nails would work, and in other sections it's the original plaster, so we're still deciding whether we can nail it on or if we need to look at maybe gluing it on.
We also enjoyed celebrating Easter this past weekend. We did an egg hunt with our friends the Bowles, and then on Sunday we had Easter baskets, church, and then dinner with my family in the evening. Kate was all dressed up for church, and I tried a new fancy hairdo on her that turned out well.
She was feeling all cute, as evidenced by her new pose:
Notice basically the same pose later that day:
And these are just a couple random pictures from the last couple weeks that I loved. :)
Oh, just a quick update about Tam and Yeb: Both their cases have been submitted to the US embassy, and Tam's case cleared within a week. That means that his case is DONE! Now we're waiting on Yeb's case to clear, which will probably be a little longer. They will be interviewing his birthmom, and from the information the embassy sent us, it sounds like the interview appointment slots are usually filled about a month out. What this really means is that we have no idea when this will happen, but it feels like it's getting closer!
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