Our First Week Together . . . July 31, 2011

While I so desperately wanted to have Aleeya the week before our vacation (the week she ended up going to camp), I can now honestly say that I know God had his hand in those details.  My heart just wanted us all to be together as soon as possible.  I missed her and wanted to get her settled in to our home, but God had other plans.  With all the details that needed to be done to get us on vacation, as well as getting everyone's school supplies bought and put together, it was such a hectic week, and one that wouldn't have been a good first week to have together.  Her time at Royal Family Kids Camp went really well, and we keep hearing bits and pieces of it.  Her two favorite songs from the week were "Mighty to Save" and "One Way," both songs by Hillsong United that we too enjoy and have been playing lots for her this week!  In fact, they have been added to our Vacation Mix 2011 (this is an ipod playlist that we put together of our favorite songs for that year, and each family member gets to pick a few).

As well, I am so thankful to have this vacation time to spend together without the normal "daily grind."  This is an amazing couple of weeks for us all to get to know one another, enjoy time relaxing and doing some fun things together . . what wonderful timing our God has!  Having our first two weeks with her while being on vacation gives us all a chance to spend some major quality time together, and allows her to have uninterrupted time with Scott with us so she can really understand our family dynamics!

Here are some of the memories from our first week together:

In the evening, we would often watch movies and shows together.  I found that she likes to be close and put her head on my shoulder!  She's a bit of a cuddler, and I'm glad she is willing to give and receive love so easily.  One of the movies she picked to watch was "Blindside," which is a movie about a family that takes in a teenage boy.  During this movie, she realized that foster families receive money for having foster children (something I was sad she learned, but is true).  As well, this boy started out not doing very well in school, and she said that he was probably too sad to care about school work.  I think she was right.  It was so interesting to hear her perspective on this movie, and it's such a great movie about hope and love.

We also enjoyed some time in Monterey, and the girls and I watched the boys play golf for 9 holes.  I let her steer the golf cart part of the way and she really enjoyed it!  We took it slow (I was still doing the pedals), and she thanked me for not grabbing the wheel from her but telling her how to do it instead.  While the boys finished the last 9 holes, we headed to a really fun park.  The girls got to run and play, and while we were in a round tunnel sitting to rest, she told me she thought I was really pretty.  It was a sweet moment.  We also shopped some together, and we got her some shoes and a watch (we had gotten the rest of the kids watches last year on vacation and wanted her to have one too).  We looked at ideas for bedding for their room as well.

Since two of our kids had done some extra reading and earned passes to Six Flags, Discovery Kingdom, we decided it would be a fun day to have while on vacation.  We had never been, but she had been quite a bit since her foster sister worked there.  She really loves the Shouka show (a really big orca whale), so I emailed them ahead of time to see if we could somehow have her be the volunteer for the show.  They said they couldn't do that for us (and actually didn't have volunteers at the shows we went to that day), but offered us VIP seating.  We were thrilled and said that would be great.  But then, we didn't hear back.  So, about half way through the day, I decided to try to email them once again and give them my cell number in case it could still work out, and they called me back immediately!  We got to sit right on the edge of where Shouka comes up to pose!  We were the only ones in this small section, and she was so excited!  It was a great memory, and she thanked me for working it out!  I think it made her feel really special!

We also decided to start our "Little House on the Prairie" series fresh with her.  We love the show and thinks it teaches great things about family, friendships, hard work, and faith!  We were somewhere in the middle, but decided we wanted her to experience it all with us.  Thankfully, she seems to like it too!

On Thursday, Nana and Pop Pop came to our vacation spot for a visit since they are still here in California at the state fair.  It was very sweet as they walked in the door, gave Aleeya a hug, and brought gifts for all the kids!  She could tell they loved her already, and they were able to see how she was fitting right in to the family.  I was glad they could spend a little bit of time with her while they were out here from Florida since we don't get to see them very often!

Thursday afternoon, we went to part of the beach near Half Moon Bay and let the kids play at the ocean.  At this beach, not many kids really get in the ocean because it's so cool, so they just went and played in the sand and got knee deep in the water at times.  All the kids were writing in the sand and playing while Scott and I sat on a bench and watched them from a short distance.  The kids yelled out for us to come and see what they were doing, and we said we would be there in a bit.  When we got there, we saw "I, a Heart made with seaweed, my family."  It was a beautiful site and great reassurance that she was doing well and enjoying being with us.

Often throughout the week, she would talk about being adopted and being a sister.  She continued to call us "Mom and Dad," and fit right in with the kids.  She would also bring up her "real mom" and talk about her "sister," who was her foster sister at her last home (a college age girl that seemed really nice and worked at Six Flags.  They had spent some time together this summer).  Since she is open and talks about her foster families at times, I asked her which family she most enjoyed being with (speaking of her foster families), and she said ours!  Then I explained that I meant foster families, not her adoptive family, and she told me that she enjoyed one the most because the mom was fun and there were kids to play with there.  Then she said that I was a fun mom and she likes our family.  I told her that I try to be a fun mom (especially on vacation), but that there are times we have to get things done and we work hard together.  But I also know that I will give her great love, great security, and will work through whatever is needed.

There were times that she did things that we weren't comfortable with and times I'm sure that we did things that she was uncomfortable with!  We let much of that go at times and would talk about some of the things as well.  I was proud of her when she would say she'd prefer not to do something when asked.  And there were times we said that she needed to do something and she would go along with it.  There were some things that, as a mom, I wanted to be sure she knew how to do properly and I spent a little time explaining some of that.

One of my favorite memories of this week was when I had reminded Alec and Ashley to go and read their Bibles (do their quiet time), and she went and found her Bible and showed me that she had written down some verses from what she had read the previous week at camp.  It was the Bible we had given her during her weekend visit to our home.  It thrilled me!  The next day, I asked Austin to remind everyone to spend some time reading and I mentioned to Aleeya that she may want to read part of the storybook Bible Ashley had given her on her first night with us.  I had looked at it the night before and realized that she probably hadn't learned any of the "normal" Bible stories our kids had heard tons of times.  This little picture Bible seemed easy to understand and tells many of the main Bible stories in an easy-to-read format.  She ended up on the couch reading longer than Alec or Ashley that day.  It was awesome!!!  I prayed that God would use this time to open up her eyes to who He was and how much He loved her!

We spent Friday doing some light cleaning, and Scott and the kids did some yard work.  We had her join in and they got the job done pretty quickly.  I thanked her for helping, and she said it's good to do "team work."  Later, we went into San Francisco and took her across the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time.  We also went down Lombard Street and did some shopping.  While at the mall, she and Ashley located some necklaces that said "Big Sister" and "Little Sister," so that was purchased with great enjoyment!  They put them on immediately!  As well, we were able to get her a really cute school bag and lunchbox.  I was glad she could pick it out!  Each of the kids were shopping for some specific items, and it was nice that she could feel part of it all.

We did notice that this non-stop time with all of us together was wearing on Scott and I a bit by Friday afternoon.  All the silliness and great fun they were having was at times exhausting to us, and we needed some quiet.  While the kids were definitely meshing together as family, it was a little bit like having a great new friend with us.  It was hard to tell them to quiet down in the back of the van when they are having so much fun, yet it's what we would "normally" do.  We found that "the quiet game" was a nice change of pace at times, and tried to play some music they all enjoyed singing as well.  We were all learning how to "be together," be honest, and enjoy one another.  This was all still so new!  There were also many times when everyone would be playing, and I'd find her wondering in just to be close to me.  I remember at times when I was young that I too would just want to be close to my mom, and this was a good thing!  I would try to stop and talk or just give her a hug to reassure her.

On Saturday and Sunday, we had some friends visit and had a great time!  They had a girl her age whom she had met before, and their friendship continued to grow . . . it blessed my heart!  So thankful for good friends!!!  We went to church together on Sunday morning, and the pastor spoke on sin and our need for a Savior.  I was thankful she was hearing it, and am really looking forward to fully discussing who Jesus is and how much He loves her!  Seeds are being planted :).  Sunday afternoon was spent with some more friends coming to play at the beach with us and have dinner together.  As each family arrived, she would come up to meet them, which was so thoughtful.  She didn't seem nervous about meeting new people for the first time, and really fit in so well.

We would all have to say that we are completely amazed by what God has done!  He has blessed us with this precious girl, a new daughter to love, a new sister to enjoy, and a wonderful addition to our family!  Each night as we read our family devotional together, the closeness just continues to grow.  We are all learning so much together, hoping that she will feel very loved and secure, and looking forward to a great future!  Thanks again for all your prayers and support!!!

***One more note, many of you have mentioned that you can't wait to see pictures of her, and I so wish I could post some!!!  Unfortunately, we are not able to post any until the adoption is finalized (up to a year away).  Thanks for your understanding on this, and we will gladly post our new family picture as soon as we are able!