It's been over a month-time to post!!!

I can't believe it has been a month since I last posted and my angels are finally home. We arrived home 07-07-07-a day we will always remember-people say it is a lucky day-I don't believe in luck-I believe we are blessed and God timed it just right so we would always have a special day to remember their "Gotsha Day"-- a day we will celebrate every year.

The last couple of weeks have had their really high-highs and really low-lows.

When we took an adoption seminar a couple of years ago they made us write down 5 things or people that we loved the most and then crumple each answer and throw it in the middle of the tables-they said this what these children are experiencing-giving up all the people and things that mean the most to them, maybe never to see them again and everything-everyone new.

so, you can about imagine all the emotions they are going through. We had an incident with Jasmine last Sunday that started off as when we got home from church she wanted to go and see my son and his wife-we said no-she didn't want to get out of the car-I drug her in the house and told her she was naughty and swated her on the rear-boy-this was the wrong thing to do as she started crying and wouldn't move-the power struggle began and lasted about 2 hours-she is a very strong willed and strong girl. Alden, told her to quit being naughty and swated her on the rear-hence she started screaming and screamed and wanted to go upstairs and probably outside and run away for an hour-how can anyone scream for an hour and strugle at their hardest-we couldn't believe she wouldn't give up. Well, we learned, you can't even swat them. Christian got upset a couple of days ago and I didn't know why-he tensed up and wanted to run outside-no one could get him to snap out of it-not even his best buddy Michael, finally he ran into his room and I went in with him and shut the door and he tried with all his might to get out-power-struggle with him-I stayed cool, calm and collected-told him I loved him over and over again-told him Jesus loved him-I asked him if he loved me and he shook his head no-finally I said you have to tell me why you don't love me and are mad at me-he finally said school, I said what about school-he wanted to go and wondered why he couldn't. I said school is not going on now- they are on vacation just like Haiti-he understood. I asked him if he missed his mom-brother and moma Robert-he said yes-I said-do you want to write them a letter-he nodded yes-so we went in the living room and proceeded to get the tablet out to write-I said-who do you want to write it to-he said me-I said what do you want to write-he said write-I love mom, papa, Jesus and God. He came over and gave me a kiss. I told him I was not mad at him. He then went into his room and got my shoes which he had thrown across the room and gave them to me and was crying. I took him in my arms and went in his room and held him for a while and say Jesus loves you-then he was fine.

We learned we can't get even a little upset with them-we have to explain everything and they are talking better English. I got them each a photo-album with pictures of them in the Orphanage with their friends and so they can put photo's of their new life in their. The other day Christian was looking sad and I asked him if he missed his friends at the O and he said yes and we talked about it for a while.

Today, before we even got out of church they wanted to go to my son and daughter-in-laws again and I said maybe after we eat. They didn't ask again and are watching movies with Alden. they love to watch movies-they got to watch movies at Bresma 2-some movies I haven't even seen. They love-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-Batman, Superman- watching them over and over again. They both are very athletic and STRONG. Jasmine is very attached to Alden and always wants him to play with her-she can beat him making baskets. She also, wants to lock her arms and have him lift her up by them and count-she can keep them in the locked postition to the count of 30- one day he did it 3 times in a row-this girl is strong-so you can see a power struggle does NOT work.

The days are getting easier and we can let them run in and out of the house without watching them like a hawk- Also, we were up town in the park and a 12 year old boy came and played with them. I told him if he wanted to play sometime to give us a call-he called yesterday and I went and got him and he played soccer with them for 4 hours-it really gave Alden and me a break. We also had a neighbor girl say she would babysit sometime-don't know when we can leave them though unless it is with relatives.

Eating-Jasmine will try anything-Christian is so very picky-if I tell him that Jasmine is going to get bigger than him he will eat it-most of the time. They don't like our milk-they want powdered milk we figured out-I tried mixing it with regular-now they won't drink it at all. I try to pick my battles very carefully.

I called Krista Masat and asked if she would work with them until school to get them ready. She said she would. have pretty much decided I will send them to school-at least this semester so they can learn English faster-I have talked with the school administrator and he is looking into getting them tested and perhaps finding some help for them.