Random

I'm so excited to have a new niece! My brother and his wife had their first baby yesterday - Annaliese Lillian Reilly. I can't wait to meet her when we go to NC in July!

Sora is SO SO tough. She will hit her head and not cry. We'll be outside and her knees will be bloody from falling on the concrete and she'll still be going and going. The funny thing is that the last few days I think she is starting to realize she gets attention when she falls. So sometimes she'll fall, wait a few seconds and then come over and fake cry to get some hugs. It's pretty cute.

I'm starting the HUGE task of going through all of our stuff. It's hard to know what to keep and store and what to get rid of. It's a daunting task and I get a little overwhelmed when I start to think about all of the things I need to go through. So I'm just tackling one thing at a time. I'm selling some things on ebay, and I've started listing some of our books on half.com, etc. I get exhausted just thinking about how much we have to do. How many decisions to make. What do we get rid of? What do we keep? And although we're not leaving until September, we have to get things done pretty soon. After next week we leave for New Orleans for 10 days. When we get back we have only 6 weeks before we leave for a two week trip to VA and NC and then a month long training in NC. We get back the second week of September and then leave around the 25th! So that means that I pretty much have next week and then the six weeks after New Orleans to do EVERYTHING. AHHH! Actually, I know God will give me the strength and I know things will get done.

Orin is always asking questions. I swear, all day long. I love it. If we're having a conversation and he doesn't understand a word he'll asked, "what does ___ mean?" All.of.the.time. He is also always trying to figure out if something is real or pretend. He'll say, "Are braces in this world?" Or, "Are ghosts in this world? He is soaking in so much and applying it. We were reading the Bible the other day about how Saul was troubled by an evil spirit so David played the harp for him. The other day he had a stomach ache and he asked me, "Do you think an evil spirit went into my stomach and is making it hurt?" And he is ALWAYS listening. I had on NPR the other day and they were talking about people being "trapped" in their mortgages and not being able to sell their home. "He kept asking why they were trapped? Why can't the get out?" He's always asking questions like this about things that are impossible to explain to a 5 year old. Like "what is electricity" or "is God angry at us when we sin" or "will we ever have a fire in our house" or "why are there leaves on trees" or "how is Jesus God if he is God's son?" Some things he can understand but often I just can't explain it in a simple enough way...or I just don't know the answer. The child definitely keeps me on my toes!

The kids have a new favorite dinnertime game these days. "Daddy, ask us the numbers!" They just want Damien to ask them addition and subtraction questions. It's crazy, I know. So Damien sits there for 15 minutes while we eat and asks them, "What's 5 + 3" or "What's 7 - 2." They love doing it. Micaiah can't answer most correctly, but I really think it's helping Orin with his math skills. I keep thinking they are going to wake up and realize it's work, not fun!

Our lawyer filed the adoption finalization paperwork. The good news is that we got a good judge. Sometimes judges can give people a hard time when they want to finalize early, but she said she knows the judge well and he/she is very lenient. I'll just be so happy when July 12 comes and we are done and Sora is officially a part of our family!

We're working on Sora letting Damien put her to bed. She loves Damien all day but at night she really clings to me for some reason. She really wants me to put her to bed. So we've been working on Damien being able to do it. We've made progress but she definitely still wants me in there. At first Damien would just sit next to us while I read and sang. Then we had Damien hold her in the chair while she drank her bottle and I read to her. Now Damien is reading and I just stand there. But she's always looking to make sure I'm still there.

Damien picked Orin up from school the other day and his teacher, Mrs. Lark, told Damien that she was amazed at what a great understanding Orin had of numbers. She even said that she's been teaching for a very long time and has taught very few kids who understood numbers as well has he does. I was surprised. I never thought of him as being a math person. We thought reading was his "thing." But it's still nice to have a teacher say something like that!

And just because I like to have a picture or two...This is Orin getting a care bear from Mimie for birthday a few weeks ago. He still LOVES Care Bears. He sleeps with all of his every night. The other day I asked if he wanted to bring one from Show-and-Tell at school. He said, "But the kids might think it's silly." So sad! How is it that at 4 or 5 years old kids already have "cool" and "uncool." Poor guy. He brought something Star Wars instead.