The last time I posted to the blog was eight months ago!  It has been... well...with two kids... let's see...fun, crazy, busy, exciting, aggrravating and stressful, and a real ongoing learning experience.  I LOVE having two precious girls....but two is enough for me.  I have learned since being home with our second, Arwen, that some children act the way they do and is not the fault of the parents.  I am in the process of learning, and probably will be for the next 16 years, the techniques for attempting to raise, control, handle etc.....the strong-willed child...now that we have one!  Does any of it really work?  There are many days I am left asking myself this question.  Arwen has the most awesome smile, and laugh and is very affectionate.  She is so much fun and a very precious daughter.  I must say she has come a long way in the past eight months considering the emotional trauma she has endured in leaving her foster parents, a home, a familiar lanquage and so much more at the age of almost 15 months.  She is still quite a bit delayed in her speech, so now we are pursuing the Early Steps program to see if it is time for any therapy.  We are also having a series of hearing tests performed to make sure that this is not a complicating issue with her speech.  At 20 months of age she started using the potty chair for #1 and 2!!!!  Of course only when she wants to.  She loves the pool and the family dog, Lilah.  She loves copying her big sister and aggravating her to.  Her mobile "sercurity item" of choice is any crocheted blanket available.  We are so very blessed to have her in our life.  She will be turning "two" very soon and we look very forward to celebrating her first birthday here in the USA!

Aubrey has just turned 4 years old.  It is so hard for us to believe how fast they grow.  She has been very secure with her place in the family unit, however since we have been home with Arwen I think she is having to rediscover that same sense of security.  The first 5 months home with Arwen proved to be a very difficult time for both of them.  They both were very accustomed to being an "only child" and getting all the attention.  So we immediately experienced a lot of jealousy from both of them, which resulted in I think, a more than normal amount of sibling rivalry.  In a traditional unit you would typically bring home a newborn and only have to deal with security issues from just the first-born.  This is what makes our situation a bit different.  Arwen was already over a year old and had been in a home with foster parents and no other children since she was several weeks old.  It was obvious the day we recieved Arwen that she was grieving her losses...it was very heartbreaking.  On a positive note it was obvious to us that she found great comfort with us, and was smiling and laughing just hours later.  Anyways, back to what I was writing about earlier....after about 5 months of family interaction we started to see great improvement in Aubrey and Arwen's sibling relationship.  Those 5 months felt like forever...but when you understand the dynamics of the situation it really is amazing to see the positive changes in such a short amount of time.  Their personalities seem to be completely opposite of each other, Arwen truly fits the description of the strong-willed child.  So we have a lot more learning to do in this area.  I have to say I feel overwhelmingly blessed to have the two daughters that I have, words cannot express the love that I feel for both of them.  They have alreadly taught me so much about love & life.  I pray I have a lifetime to love them, enjoy them and watch them grow and learn.

I have finally started to make time to get back to the gym and get back to work on both of the girls photo albums.  I have recently been really involved in digital scrapbooking it is so much fun and is actually making it possible for me to actually create albums for the girls.  It is so much better than thousands of photos just taking up space on my hard drive.

Todd is still full time music pastor at Northside Baptist Church.  He has been keeping very busy singing in local operas and broadway concerts.  Despite his extremely busy schedule, he is very good about making family time and helping around the house.  We are celebrating 21 years of marriage this year and I have to say agin...I am very blessed!!!

Signing out for now!

Tonya