Friday, February 29, 2008

Keenan time

Lately, Keenan has been changing so much. He is becoming more cuddly every day, is now eating more age appropriate food and just seems more willing to laugh and smile. Sometimes, changes just sneak up on you.



Funny Girl

Our little girl is so sweet and funny. We will try to teach her something and she doesn't seem to be the least bit interested or paying the slightest attention. Suddenly, she will surprise us by demonstrating that she figured it all out some time back and just didn't feel like letting anyone know. The most recent example happened with singing her ABC's. We have been singing it to her for the longest time and she would only sing the ABC part and then drift off. Tonight, my jaw dropped to the floor when I suddenly heard her sing the whole song form A to Z, hardly missing a letter. She did something very similar with counting. When I praised her, she just smiled and ran down the hall.

These moments, combined with her incredibly astute observations, have solidified a feeling I have had for some time now, a sense that I am in the presence of a mind far greater than my own....just a tad disconcerting.

Meanwhile, she loves to make people laugh and spent the better part of an evening playing the bridge for Keenan in the "London Bridges" nursery rhyme. Tonight, she threw a wet paper towel across the dining room table at Keenan (this was after she systematically cleaned her spot at the table) and they both laughed hysterically. I scolded her and said "that's not funny" she just smiled, laughed and told me in a very serious tone, "yes it is". I couldn't help but laugh and agree "well maybe it was a little funny." This was met with more gales of laughter. Fortunately, most of the time, the kids make it difficult to stay in a bad mood.






Friday, February 22, 2008

The joys of dancing

One of our favorite bands is Keane and we have passed this along to Sophia and Keenan (probably because we play their CDs a lot). Both kids love to listen to music and sway and dance along to all of our different types of music, but when Keane comes on, they go crazy and start dancing madly around the room. It is so sweet, I wish I could capture their joy on film but since our camera is slow and the kids get self conscious, this was the best I could do.





We have Barrettes

Seems like such a simple thing but at 2 1/2 years old, Sophia's hair finally will hold barrettes. This is good news because her hair is so fine and wispy that if it is not restrained, she has a tendency to look quite disheveled. Next stop....pony tails? OK, I'm not holding my breath but maybe by summer?

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Squeaky kids.............

Sophia quickly outgrew the squeaky shoes we got for her while we were in China. I scoured the internet to find replacements and suffered a little sticker shock along the way. I finally stumbled onto a site http://www.chinadirectstore.com/squeaky_shoes.htm that had them at a reasonable price so I bought both kids several pairs. Keenan has always coveted Sophia's squeakys and he was overjoyed when he got to put his little shoes on and tap dance his way down the hall. After bath time, both kids now insist on putting their squeaky shoes on over their pajama feet and then proceed to make lots of noise.






I have had some general questions about fostering a Burmese refugee. It is important to know that most of these kids have living parents or relatives but the kids have been forced to flee Burma and cannot return. For this reason, the refugees are not in foster care for the purposes of adoption. Our role would be to provide them a home and a supportive family environment until they can live independently. I will be happy to answer any other questions anyone has.

Here is a link from Amnesty International which provides some background about the political climate currently in Burma (Myanmar). This does not mean that this will be our child's story and because there are issues of confidentiality, when a child gets placed in our family, we will not be able to disclose the details of their specific story. Suffice to say, the current regime has made Burma inhospitable for many of its young people (and older people too)........ http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/video-and-audio/activists-tell-myanmar-witch-hunt-20071018











Friday, February 08, 2008

Snow Days

The weather has been pretty harsh this winter but it has also left some beautiful scenery at times.

I have been debating when to bring this up, and I guess now is as good as time as any. I am going to preface it by stating that we have not lost our marbles, at least, not yet.

We are in the process of being licensed as a foster family for a Burmese refugee (or sibling set). We have had to jump through many of the same hoops we did for our adoptions. We have attended the required training, all the paper work has been completed and we were fingerprinted today. There are still some more things to cross off our checklist, but things have been progressing and our time line could be 6 to 12 weeks from this point.

While we realize this decision means we are taking on a lot more responsbility and a non English speaking teenager is unchartered territory, we are excited....and nervous. Mostly excited. We will post more news as it unfolds. Anyone who is interested in this program who happens to live in Phoenix, Michigan, New York (Rochester and Syracuse) or California (San Jose and L.A.) who would like more information about this opportunity, please e-mail me, I won't post your comments but I will respond with the information I have.



Daddy's Little Helpers











New Trike







Sister and Brother