Busy with Appointments

It seems as if I have 5 appointments a week.  Actually, I have had that many appointments a week since our family has expanded!!  Teeth have been cleaned and pulled, eyes checked and prescriptions filled for glasses(poor Paxton, not happy at all about that one) and shots up to date. Also, Isabelle broke her arm this week on her scooter, so today she sees the doctor to get a permanent cast put on. Poor kids have been poked and prodded quite a bit lately, but hopefully we are on the down side of that after this week.

Life has been settling a bit into a routine- not always an easy routine, but more so.  All of the children are loving the nice weather and it really helps mom to not have 5 bored children asking her to entertain them.  We are finally looking at decent weather for the weekend, and we are so happy.  Paxton even has his first sleep-over at Andrew's house (boy from his orphanage that we traveled with).  

Thank you for your continued prayer.  We are needing it daily as our life changes into what God has planned for us.  We know that our schooling will look differently next year, probably the local public schools, and after 8 years of home schooling, I am getting sad.  Just a lot of changes.  All is good and God is ever-present in our lives.  We are blessed in so many ways and thank Him daily for his goodness!!

Happy Birthday, Paxton

Happy Birthday, Paxton.  Here's to many more. 

Feels like home

Sorry folks for the terrible blogging.   If anyone is still interested, I will give a run-down of our first 2 months home:

Kids started school and doing well. Paxton has friends in the neighborhood from his class and has already had play dates.

Still a lot of Russian thrown around the house; our biological children LOVE to use the words and speak Russian instead of English : ) 

Some of the crazy adjustment things have mellowed. (Thank you, Jesus!!)

All 5 children are enjoying getting to know one another- My heart still skips a beat when I realize we have that many children.....

Costco has become our store of choice.  Everything is bought in bulk!

Celebrated Berkeley's 13th Birthday!!!  And Daron's 40th!!!

Preparing for Paxton's (10) first birthday in the states; he's never had one, but has experienced many from our family in the last few weeks! All I need to say is SPIDERMAN Isabelle will celebrate her 9th birthday 4 days after Paxton!

Many dentist and doctor appointments- all is ok.

We laugh a lot and are truly blessed in God's choice for our children.  This was a path He set us on and saying that we are amazed is an understatement!  What started as a simple hosting of an orphan for a few weeks last summer, has turned out to be something that has changed our whole family forever!  The love we had for Oleg, spurred us on to follow the path of helping the orphan and pursuing God's children for us. Did I ever mention that we never spoke of adopting before our hosting??  God is soooo Good in that even when we do not think we are up for the challenge, He pushes us forward.  We are so glad for His gentle nudge!