The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

The Good: When Conleigh came home, she flew to the U.S. with 2 other kiddos from Haiti Children's Home. One of those kids was a little girl, Julie, who is about 6 months younger than Conleigh. Julie and Conleigh have spent much of their lives together at the orphanage and Conleigh grieved Julie's friendship for months after coming home. Julie's family was headed through our neck of the woods on their way to visit relatives in Canada and they got to eat lunch at our house on their way by. The kids played great with no fighting. Even Julie's older siblings were generous and played well with the three much younger kiddos. We got a chance to visit with other adoptive parents. It was just such a blessing to have them stop.

The Bad: Since the Fourth of July, we've just been in kind of crazy mode. We spent the 4th-the 7th at my folks'. Then D and I came home while the kids stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's. We were actually only home one day and then we headed out to our marriage enrichment weekend. We got home on Sunday at 11 and then hosted soccer boys for lunch. We spent part of Monday picking up the kids and then every night that week doing VBS. My laundry situation is B-A-D. So is the dish situation. I've already decided that next summer we will be converting to disposable plates, cups, and silverware. I just can't keep up when we are all home all day and I cook two meals a day. (Well I could but that would mean hand washing....the horrors!) As far as laundry goes, too bad there's not disposable underwear...

The Ugly: Vacation Bible School...just that should explain a lot. Our church does an evening program from 6-8:15 every night for a week. It's fun but knowing now what I know, I probably wouldn't have had my kids do it. My kids had an amazing time but I found myself wondering why I making them go every night. While I don't doubt God uses all sorts of things, I just found myself feeling like I was making them go because I felt like they needed to go out of obligation. The reality is they're three and being out until 9 every night for a whole week with minimal benefit was something we could have lived with out. We're still dealing with some ugly cranky behaviors. (And the kids are having problems too.)

and...

The Unusual: I got my hair cut today. It's short. Really short. No pictures, sorry. You'll just have to see me in person.