Continued from last post...

She continues to be SO DANG CUTE with Marcus…they crack me up. The best is at night after the big kids have gone down and I am getting the little two ready for bed…they run in circles and hide under the quilt and just play so nicely together.

They are such opposites in size and personality. Marcus is 2 ½ and is in the 97th percentiles for height and weight. Belane is 3, and is in the 45th percentile for weight, and not even on the charts for height. He is rough and tough and goes at everything 100 miles an hour…she is very careful and tentative. He is loud and can be very serious…she is very quiet and very giggly. She absolutely cannot stand having a lot of people look at her...he thrives being the center of attention and especially getting lots of people to laugh at him. They both love to snuggle.

Today Marcus was laying on the floor watching TV and Belane came over and laid her head on his head and just kept kissing him. Marcus calls her “Beans” which I dare say it is starting to stick as a nick name…

Belane adores Josh…he gets hugs and kisses and requests for “up” endlessly. She loves to play with him and is quickly realizing how easy it is to wrap him around that tiny little finger of hers.

She is completely un-phased by the snow. She doesn’t get excited about it, she doesn’t get bothered by it…you’d think the child had lived her entire life in the Rocky Mountains. She cracks me up!

Her health has been great, and we are looking forward to her appointment on Thursday. I did keep her out of the church nursery on Sunday (although it was way fun to show her off at church!). We’ll avoid places like that (chock full of germs) until she is well settled on her meds.

I can’t even say how much I love her. What a journey it was to bring her here… a very emotional one for me. I worried that I had made more of the bond I felt with her that first day then was really there… I worried her adjustment would be difficult… I worried 10 kids would feel ridiculous. But none of that happened.

The moment I held her in my arms again I knew that the bond I felt that day in February was very real, and was actually just the tip of the iceberg. When she wraps her arms around my neck to go to sleep, or says “I luff you” or when I pick her up and just feel her body relax against mine, my heart just swells. I adore her.

And having her here and having 10 kids doesn’t feel ridiculous…it feels perfect. Someone asked me once if I thought we were “going too far” with our family. It was someone that knows us, so I asked, “which one doesn’t belong?” The answer is none! They all belong…equally as much…which is why 10 is perfect.

Let’s see…here are some random thoughts I have had to share and don’t want to forget.

-Belane is not so much pronounced “Blaine” as we thought (based on one video with someone calling her name), but is definitely two syllables. I LOVE the way she says it. It is Be-Lane…equal emphasis on both syllables, short “e” in the first syllable. The nannies would call her Be-Laney-ay (they add an ee sound and/or ay sound to show affection…like we would call a Mike “Mikey”) and she calls me “Mommy-ay” which is the dearest thing ever.

-As much as I was dieing to get home and be with my family, I do miss Addis. I miss the people, the food, the smells, the sounds…all the beautiful children. If my family had been with me there, I would have happily stayed an extended period of time. I love it there, and there are many people there that Josh and I have come to care deeply about. Josh has even said that there are people there that we just have to see again…one way or another. I know we’ll go back…whether it is to serve a mission for our church, or to volunteer in the orphanages, or just taking the kids to visit where they were born…we will go back. I love Ethiopia.

-I have been feeling very grateful lately that Belane is with us. When we started the process in May to bring her home, we were not expecting to get through the courts before they closed for the summer holiday. We were thinking that Belane would be home in February. Now that the cases are just starting to get through the courts, I have been thinking how tough it would at this point to have been waiting so long, and just now be getting close to submitting our waiver. I am eternally grateful that Belane’s process went so quickly, and that she was in our arms in October instead of February. Three to four months is a long time in the life of a little girl (and an impatient mom!)

-The first few days I was home, I was stressing the holidays. I was so over-tired that I just couldn’t imagine the effort of traveling for Thanksgiving or shopping for Christmas. That compounded with the financial hole we are in thanks to my extended stay in Addis, and I was just feeling overwhelmed with it all.

But over the last few days, I have really started to get excited about it all. I love the holidays, and how amazing it is that we have TWO new children to celebrate them with this year?

We decided to stay home for Thanksgiving and invited Josh’s family to come. Josh loves to cook, and is wonderful at it, so it will be great. I will have some Thanksgiving-ish crafts for the kids, and will pull out our boxes of Christmas movies. I am sure we will end up out in the snow. The Saturday evening after Thanksgiving our town has its “Light Parade”, which is held at night, and all of the floats are covered in lights. There is free hot chocolate and cookies and everyone goes…it is one of our favorite nights of the year.

We may not have as many gifts to give as we have in years past, but I know what really matters about the holidays, and that is love and family. I am extremely blessed in both departments…so to not be excited about the holidays would be being ungrateful. I am excited.

-Having 10 kids is not a whole heck of a lot different than having nine. Seriously, my biggest challenge in adjustment with the addition of a new child was going from one to two…my dear sweet Ryan was NOT an easy baby, and Nathan was a very busy 18 month old!

But truly…there is not much noticeable difference in the work load with the laundry or cooking or bath time. There was a lot of laundry before…there is a lot now (with a few extra little pink items mixed in).

And I guess that is all for the moment. I already have a post ready for tomorrow, so I promise I won’t disappear again for awhile. :)

I also have some things in the works for National Adoption Month and Thanksgiving. Lots to think about and lots to write about.

Have a great Monday. More soon.