May, as usual, has been a busy month with Mother’s Day, my birthday and end of the year festivities. The kids made me really cute cards and gifts in school and told me they were glad I was there mom. It warms my heart to hear Beza pray at night “Thank your for mom being my mom and dad being my dad.”
Natalie graduated from kindergarten. The other kids didn’t really get why she got to have a graduation and they didn’t. I’m not really sure why either but oh well.
Both the girls had tears on the night of the last day of school because they were going to miss their teachers. Natalie’s teacher is coming back and will actually move up to second grade and be Beza’s teacher. Beza’s teacher is moving to a different school. So of course Beza felt like Natalie’s tears were not warranted because Mrs. Leary would still be around. “Can I hug her every day?” Natalie asked me. I assured her that Mrs. Leary would love to get a Natalie hug in the mornings.
Wendemagegn keeps asking how long before they go back to school. If only all the kids were that dedicated right?
Last Saturday I was on my way to see my mom in the hospital when Wendemagegn called me to tell me that he had asked Jesus into his heart that morning. Oh did the tears flow, again. It is an amazing thing to see your children come to know Jesus as their Savior and watch that relationship build. Coming from an Ethiopian Orthodox background I had no idea how difficult it would be for our children to understand a different set of beliefs.
Wendemagegn’s flag football team, the Raiders, finished out their season in second place. He had a great time playing for Coach Greg and Coach Dave and really improved his skills over the 8 weeks. He loved to run straight at the defenders and then fake them out at the last minute (I’m sure there is some technical football term for that). We still need to work on the idea of going for the hole in the defenders FIRST and using his fancy footwork as a last resort.
We still have the normal kid issues – sharing, taking terms, etc. We’re also trying to come to grips with the fact that life is NOT fair and no one said it would be 🙂 The boys are both going to church camp this summer and Beza got a good pout about the fact that it wasn’t fair she couldn’t go (it’s for 3-5th grade). Life is tough, isn’t it.
The boys seem to be getting along better. Part of that is probably attributable to the fact that we adjusted Noah’s ADHD meds. We had a couple really rough months where I thought I might loose my mind. I was chalking all sorts of behaviors up to the adjustment of having two new siblings before it dawned on me that this is exactly the same pattern we go through EVERY time his meds need adjusting. Every time this happens I swear that next time I’ll remember to evaluate the meds before I go insane and every time it takes me weeks and weeks for the light bulb to go off.
We are so blessed to have flexible work schedules this summer so that we can take care of the kids. I’ve shifted my four short days to 3 long days while Dad is home with the kids (and getting some? work done from home). The other two days Mark works while I’ve got the kids. Since Mark works from home I’ve been trying to schedule activities outside the house so that he can have some quiet time. So that means the splash park, free summer movies and hopefully crashing at friend’s houses who have pools.
