4th of July, an FFD, and Andy's Baptism

We'll start off with a very short clip of Andy playing soccer. Watch him closely in the background. He makes a sweet kick, then does a happy dance. This boy LOVES himself some soccer!

That was on the 4th of July. And I must say that the 4th of July is the most perfect holiday for newly adopted foreign kids to enjoy as their first holiday!
I was a bad mom and neglected to get photos of all my kids that day. Take my word for it. They are all gorgeous.
It was a lot of fun. We got to spend it with my siblings, Anna, Tim and Andy, and their families. Thanks to Andy and Amber for making the trip up here from California to see us!
Watching Hana and Andy do little fireworks and watch a real fireworks show for the very first time in their lives was absolutely priceless.
I heard them shout "Happy Birthday America!" and "WOW!" with the most adorable enthusiasm.
The other day the kids dragged me off my lazy bum to go outside and see what they made me out of water on the driveway. It was quickly drying away, but it read "We love you Mom & Dad Sincerely, The Kids" in case you can't tell. Cute cute kids.
Hana and Becca in a firetruck at an FFD activity we had.
Celeste and Hana in a police car they got to take a little ride in at the same FFD.
And finally, we had a really special event happen just a couple of days ago. Andy was baptized! Unfortunately, I was too caught up with all the kids to remember to take photos, but I did get this great one of two of my cute men after the baptism.
Steve baptized Andy and the day was just wonderful. Andy was so excited (and nervous), and he did great. We had a dinner afterwards with our family and guests. We are so grateful to the awesome missionaries who taught him and our translator who sacrificed so much of her time to be with our family and translate for Hana and Andy during those lessons. We are so proud of Andy and what a faithful and good boy he is.

***

I have been kind of surprised by something that I thought was worth mentioning and remembering here. I love all of my children so very much. All you mothers out there know how that is. As I was preparing to welcome two more children into our home, I would on occasion think about how it was going to be and how I was going to love them too. I believed that I would love them. And I even believed that I would come to love them as much as my biological children. But I thought it would be a little different. Not less love, but different. Well, as it turns out, for me it isn't. Not only did I start loving Hana and Andy as much as my biological kids quite soon after bringing them home, but I have come to realize that I love them pretty much exactly the same, in the same way as my biological children. That may sound bad to some that I wasn't expecting that, but it's honestly how I felt and feel.

That's all for now folks.

Marathon Update

Deep breath. Here comes a very long post.
Andy and Hana have been here for 4 whole weeks now! Things feel so normal now that I guess I don't feel as much of a need to blog. Hope this isn't boring for you all. Things are going great and there is a lot happening, but it isn't so new anymore.
I will go with a few topics to talk about here in regards to our family.

First: Religion.

That week in Ethiopia with the kids when Steve went to pick them up to go home, he was able to take them to church. He also had them meet with the missionaries there four times and the kids were able to have lessons each time with the missionaries to learn the Gospel in their language. It went really well and the kids liked learning about our religion. They were already Christians. They both knew and loved Jesus and have been taught these things since they were young. Since they've been home, the kids have been to church with us each Sunday. They have watched over and over again, by their own choosing, DVD's called "The Lamb of God" and "Joy to the World"; both movies about Christ. I've caught Andy reading his Amharic scriptures on his own. They have participated in our Family Home Evening Lessons and love looking at the picture books about scripture stories and learning about those. They pray with us as a family each day and at meals. They say their own sweet personal prayers each night as I tuck them in bed. They've also met with the missionaries here and will continue to do so for at least a few more weeks. They understand the lessons and are full of faith and belief. Such special kids. We have an Amharic translator that has offered to translate for the lessons for us to make sure the kids are fully understanding what is being taught. She does a fantastic job. We asked the children if they want to be baptized and they both emphatically said they did. Unfortunately, Hana cannot be baptized yet and she is pretty upset about it. (I will leave a comment in this post about why if you are not a member and are curious.) We've told Hana that she must be 8 years old first in order to be baptized. Since then she keeps insisting that she is not 5. She's 7 and her birthday is soon she says. Which is too funny. We've set a date for Andy's baptism and we are all so excited, including Andy! It will be at our church on July 16th. All interested are invited.
We've also set a date for our family to go to the temple and be sealed. (Explanation of this too in the comment if you are not a member and are wondering about this as well.) All of our children will be there and it will be so very special. We have our sealing scheduled for August 2nd. Of course we'd love to have family and friends at this as well. So let me know if you need more info. We can't wait!

Language

The kid's English is coming along quickly. They understand more and more English each day and it seems they say new things in English each day too. Kids are so smart at learning languages quickly and Andy and Hana are no exception. I'd say Andy understands more and says more than Hana though. He's a pretty sharp kid. He will even translate for us sometimes when we need him to explain something more complicated to Hana that we can't get across to her. Which has been very helpful at times.
We know a few people that speak both Amharic and English as well, and they have helped us a few times to explain to the kids things that we needed. Just yesterday I had to call one of these people to ask if they could explain to Andy and Hana that I needed them to poop in a dish for me so that I can take a sample of it to be tested. This was requested by their pediatrician. I was at a loss as to how I was gonna explain this one to them. I tried to at first in English and they understood what I wanted them to do and they were horrified. They had no idea as to why in the world I would want their poop! So it was nice to have someone explain it to them for me.
Another translator was nice enough the other day to give them a lesson on proper bathroom procedures in Amharic. They really needed that!

Our other kids

They are all doing so well. Everyone in the family is very use to the way things are and seem quite happy with it. Celeste and Eden didn't start sharing a room until Hana and Andy got here and they are getting along so much better than they use to. I love seeing their relationship get strong. Jonah and Andy get along great too. They fight like normal siblings do now, but they are buddies too. Becca and Hana are little buddies as well and rarely argue or fight with each other. And Charity, well, she's just as adorable and enjoyable as ever. She'll have a little buddy of her own as well before too long which will be so good when the kids all go back to school. I can't wait for that baby to get here! Being pregnant is no fun.

Other stuff

Now after all that long commentary, I will include some of the more fun stuff. Photos and video. We've done a lot of family activities so far this Summer. I get a little stir crazy if I have to stay in the house all day with 7 kids. So we usually go out each day and do something. I don't have photos of everything, but here are some. One thing that they've done for the first time was go to the movies. The first one we saw was How To Train Your Dragon. They loved the movies. I took them to another one the other day too. It was Despicable Me. I enjoy watching them watch and giggle.

Here are the kids at some local carnival type event, I guess you could say. They enjoyed cotton candy and snow cones.



This is at the Dentist. Hana had to be put to sleep to get a bunch of stuff done. Charity was feeling a little sorry and concerned for her sister and snuggled up to her.
We took the kids to a farm nearby. They all got to ride ponies.
They had chickens at this farm and Hana went nuts. She loves chicken! She asks to eat chicken all the time. She wanted to eat the live chickens at the farm. She'll say over and over again "Mom! Chicken!?, Mom! Chicken?!" As in "Can I have chicken?"




We've taken the kids to Ikea a couple of times just to eat. The meals are cheaper than McDonalds, and better. They like going out to eat and they like the cafeteria style. We get a lot of stares, but are getting use to it.
Hana and Andy had their first Chuck E. Cheeses experience the other day with some cousins. They had a blast. Many of their tokens were used on taking photos. They are all proudly taped on their bedroom walls now. I love these pictures so much! I wanted to include some of my favorites.




Most of my favorites were Celeste's photos. So that is why she's in most of them.

I know there have been some people that cannot view the videos I have put up before because of the format they were in. So I started a YouTube channel called AmandaBishopAndFam so that I can upload those here and all can view.



How's that for an update?