Amazing Girls!

While in the Philippines for two weeks, I have to confess that we wondered what the honeymoon phase was that everyone talked about. It was no honeymoon for us. We were all trying to get used to each other. Some of us more than others. From one daughter the meltdowns were frequent and bold. Another one won't go near the males of the family, and one daughter -- well, she's just amazing. I'm still not sure we're in a honeymoon phase. Perhaps because there is three of them and the fact that they had such good care in the orphanage, we won't have a honeymoon phase. They are happy, loud, inquisitive, boisterous little girls -- and I'm not say that like it's a bad thing. It's a good thing! Exhausting, but good nonetheless!

As I said before, the trip home went very well, despite the loooong wait to finally be on that last plane. Poor Bella was so confused when she understood we were landing in China and not Canada, but she took it all very well.

Once we got out of the airplane, our biggest fear was getting them all into car seats. 1) Would they even let us, and 2) would we have to listen very loud protesting for a very long time. Through God's grace, there was neither. They thought it was pretty funny to be strapped into seats; declared themselves babies. They chatted away to each other and quickly fell asleep.

Upon arriving home at 4 am, they were ready to face the day. Good thing their older sisters we're so excited to finally meet them that they bounced out of bed ready to get going too. It was a loud boisterous busy day, but everyone was in bed and asleep (adults included) by nine pm and no one stirred until 6 am.

This morning was a different story. I was awake before 4 am and could not fall back to sleep. The little girls joined me at 5 am. Of course they felt the entire household should get up, so I had to put a stop to that as quickly as possible. As I am typing this at 6:30 am there is only person in bed and that is Squirt. She is not a morning person, so it's good that she's still asleep.

We started "school" already yesterday. It is very hard for the girls to see their older siblings all get on the bus and go away for the day. Bella and Bright Eyes both think that they should be getting on the bus and going to school too. I'm thrilled with the fact that they both know all their letters already and have a pretty good grasp of numbers too. I don't know about actual math. We'll just work on recognition for now. Today I'm hoping they'll sit for a bit so that I can read to them, but we'll see. The Engineer did Bible stories with them last night and the two youngest never sat still at all. Oh well, it's just another thing that we need to work on learning. In some ways I feel like we have a toddler in the house. Someone has to be watching them all the time or they get into everything.


We got brave and took the girls grocery shopping yesterday. Unlike in the Philippines where they were like a bull in a China shop in the grocery store, here they were quiet and calm and just took it all in. I couldn't believe it. I guess even though to us, a grocery store is a grocery store, things for them were quite a bit different than back in the PI. The smells, the sounds, and of course everywhere you look, the people are white -- not the beautiful Filipino that they're used to.



They each got to enjoy a box of Smarties on the van ride home.

The only bone of contention here is the dog. The girls just don't know what to make of Maverick. Sorry girls, you had better get used to him because he is staying.The Engineer will hopefully be installing the invisible fencing for him today. We'd like him to be a mostly outside dog now that the weather is improving. I'm sure our contractor and crew will be mighty happy to hear that :o)!

Well, that's it for now. Time to get the rice cooking :o)! Hope you're all feeling more awake than we are :o)!