February 2017

What We Are Reading

This month we started off with a favorite author — Carolyn Haywood. We read Eddie And His Big Deals and it was a hit as always. We love Carolyn Haywood. Then we read The Doll Shop Downstairs by Yona Zeldis McDonough. This was also a good book and I especially liked how the family worked together in hard times. Bethany loved this one as she seems to always like the books about dolls. Piper didn’t listen to this one at all from what I could tell. It was just too much for her and I don’t think she understands what is going on in many of the books we read. Then we read The Youngest Artist by Eleanor Frances Lattimore. Now we are reading Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright. I love this book. It is really a wonderful read. I just hope the kids like it as much as I do. I read it years ago to my older kids and then again to another group and now again. We have only read a few chapters so it is hard to tell how much everyone will like it. But, I think this is such a good book and I like to read it in the spring and summer — it is close enough to spring.

Unfortunately, I seem to have had another bad month of reading. We used our tracker and only read fourteen and a half hours this month. That seems so little and I have always thought we read a lot. Somehow this month ended up with so many doctor appointments and dental appointments that it must have slowed us down. But we always have a lot of apointments so maybe we don’t read as much as I thought. Hopefully, we will get back to full speed this next month.

Please remember Joey in your prayers as this Saturday is when he has his next MRI. We are praying the shadow they saw was nothing and that the chemo is doing its job.

Happy Birthday Bella

I don’t usually blog about birthdays. We have a lot of them and they aren’t that interesting to blog about anyway. But, I just really want to do Bella’s birthday for some reason. Today Bella turned seven. I can’t believe it. It doesn’t seem that long ago that she got off that airplane as a tiny one, not quite three years old and now she is seven. I truly can hardly believe she is that old. I think the fact that she is rather small also makes her seem younger. But, no getting around it, my baby is seven.

This child is such a blessing. I remember so well when we were adopting from Bulgaria. We had chosen Sophia and had considered a second child. For some strange reason, Bella’s picture kept being sent to us by agencies and then within a day they would email us that she was no longer available. This happened like three times. So, we had finally chosen Sophia and that meant we had also chosen an agency. Then we got an email from our worker saying she knew we had thought of adding a second child to the adoption and with the email she sent Bella’s picture. I thought — again? I wrote back asking if she was sure this child was even available. She said yes. Then I started the worrying. Bella was much younger than we had planned. Sophia would be five a couple of months after arriving here, but Bella was only two — not even close to the ages we considered. This was supposed to have been an older child adoption and even Sophia was younger than our original adoption plan. But only two — that seemed way too young. I worried she was too young or maybe rather we were too old. Bill had no reservations. He was a yes for her from the beginning. I had to spend a little time worrying before he finally convinced me she wasn’t too young for us.

Everytime I would look at her picture I would think – what a doll. Then I would start my worrying again. Finally, I realized how much I wanted to adopt her and to heck with what we had planned. So, we said yes and here she is. I can’t imagine not having her. I can’t tell you how many times my daughter Katie comes over to visit and the first thing she asks is — where is Bella. And Bella adores her, too. Just this past Friday Katie stopped by to pick up Bella and take her out. This child is so loved and I have no idea why I thought of so many things to worry about before I could make up my mind to adopt her. Worrying for nothing.

Bella is also one of the easiest children I have ever had. She is just so good it seems too good to be true. She listens (most of the time), plays well by herself, plays well with others (most of the time), can entertain herself for hours and is as loving as you could ever want. We are all so blessed to have her with us.