A Gingerbread House

We put together and decorated a gingerbread house for the first time with the kids.  Wow, was it hard!!  They had a great time building and decorating it.  Although they would love to eat it, we think they will have to settle for gingerbread cookies.  Their house is much too hard to eat!

Decorating Christmas Cookies

Like so many other firsts, the kids made and decorated Christmas cookies for the first time this weekend.  They loved it, and did a great job.  The best part was eating them!  They are very good at helping us in the kitchen and usually help us make our meals.  Although we are really trying to work on it, they are doing better about following decorations as long as you stay with them and you are doing a structured activity, like cooking together or an art project when we are right there helping them.  When we look back over the past six months since we have been home, we have seen a lot of improvements.  With each new day, we are all adjusting as we continue to transition to work together as one big family.  Here are some pictures of the kids making and decorating the cookies.

One Year Ago!

This past Friday, on December 16th, we celebrated the one year anniversary of the first time we learned about our kids from our adoption agency.  It is hard to believe all that has happed since then!  Through all of the ups, downs, challenges, and good times, we have been very blessed.  Although life is a lot busier and more challenging  now, God has granted us the opportunity to raise three beautiful chuldren.  Here are the first pictures we received of our kids, along with the most recent one of them together.  These first pictures of the kids were about a year old when we met them in April.  They have grown up so much!!

Fun with Legos

We bought a lot of Diplo legos for the kids, and they love them.  Their imaginations have really improved over the past month, and they are really getting creative now.  Sometimes they get out their train set and build a whole village of houses and buildings with their legos to go around the train track.  Other times, they just build creative things like a Christmas tree!

A Dinner Theatre

Each year, our church puts on a dinner theatre.  This year's program was about The Christmas Story.  We are blessed to have so many talented people in our church, and they did a wonderful job.  They told The Christmas Story from the time Joseph met Mary until Jesus was born.  The kids loved it, and really like going to church.  Right now, we are going to church and Sunday school but hope to become involved in more church activities after the first of the year.  We are thankful that they enjoy it so much, and are learning a lot.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

The kids really enjoyed decorating the house for Christmas, and it was their first time.  They said they have had a tree before but had never been able to decorate it.  They all did a great job helping with the tree, and we only dropped one ball!  The kids were also a great help outside.  We are now the proud owners of an eight foot Santa for the front yard!  As we have started talking about Christmas, there is so many new things.  Jingle Bells, Rudolph, Frosty, and Santa Claus are just a few of these new things. In school, we are learning a lot about Advent and the real reason we celebrate Christmas.  They understand the celebration  of Christmas is for the birth of  Jesus, and we give gifts to each other out of love.  It is such a special season for us all this year!

We are helping with the tree!

It's time to decorate outside!

Special Celebrations

November has been very busy with school, activities, and special times.  Angie celebrated her 11th birthday and is growing up so fast!  She wanted a Barbie theme and had a great day.

We had the opportunity to go to MN a few weeks ago to meet Dainis's Grandparents, Aunts, and cousins.  Dainis's Grandparents are 90 years old now, so we were so excited we could go and see them.  They were so excited to meet the kids!  It started to snow there for the first time this year, and the kids had never seen snow before!  Juan learned the hard way that taking off his gloves to play in the snow was not the best thing to do.  We all had a great time, and it is always sad to say good-bye.

A Very Special Thanksgiving

A Special Thanksgiving Dinner

As we prepared for Thanksgiving, the kids learned all about the Pilgrims, Indians, and the Mayflower at school.  We read books, had creative writing of stories about Thanksgiving, and made art projects.  The kids are doing a great job writing their own stories in English.

The kids had never seen a turkey, so they helped us buy a 22 lb one!  They helped with all of the cooking, along with stuffing the turking with dressing yesterday.  They enjoyed eating it much more than preparing it!

God has blessed us with so much this year, and as we celebrated our first Thanksgiving, we all reflected on God's goodness to our family.  Although the days are challenging at times as we learn how to parent three adopted children, we are thankful that God chose these children for us.  It was an amazing Thanksgiving dinner to sit across the table and look at three precious children and know they are ours.  It will be a very special holiday season for our family.

Happy Halloween

The kids enjoyed carving pumpkins for the first time!  They were pretty slimy when they were cleaning them out but loved the pumpkin seeds we baked afterwards.  The kids have been learning all about pumpkins in school, and how pumpkins turned into jack-o-lanterns once they carved their faces.

Last night, we dressed up and went to a Fall Festival at our church.  There were lots of games, candy, bounce houses, and food.  We started the night off with a healthy snack of Cotton Candy!  They came home with so much candy!  The kids did celebrate Halloween in Colombia so they knew what it was.  In Colombia, they dressed up and went to different houses for candy, but never had a pumpkin.

A Night For Adoptions

Our church hosted an adoption awareness concert last night, and it reminded us of why we felt called to adopt.  There are so many children out there waiting for their forever families!  The night was focused on  foster care and adoption, and what we can all do to help.  Some people feel called to adopt like we did.  Some people feel strongly about supporting a child overseas that is in need of sponsorship.  Some people are gifted to just help and support those who have adopoted or are foster parents. 

We made a video of our kids to show last night, and we have been very blessed with the support we have received from our church.  Thank you for all of your support, prayers, and friendships!

Juan's First Tooth

Juan lost his first tooth yesterday, and was so excited!  The tooth fairy (Raton Perez in Colombia) left him fifty cents.  He is growing up so fast.  We are so glad we took as many pictures as we did in Bogota because all of the kids are changing so much.  They are all doing well, and we are still working on the transition of new rules, structure, and expectations.   Although it has been a lot to be new parents and teachers as we continue to homeschool, they are learning a lot and trying hard.

Fish Time

We bought a large aquarium before we left for Colombia.  Dainis loves fish and thought it would be a lot of fun for the kids and very educational for school.  The kids love looking at all of the fish every day, and they are so excited to go and buy new fish and help Dainis clean out the fish tank.