Lolis working on her laundryLolis, 13 years old, has been with our family for a little over 10 months now and as her life ever changed! One of the biggest changes, and one that has been noticed even more so in that last several months, is her level of responsibility! The older girls must all do their own laundry and each have a day assigned in which they have priority for the washing machine. We used to have to be after Lolis time and time again to do her laundry. Then, once it was washed we would have to be after her time and time again to not leave the wet clothes in the basket, but actually hang them out on the line! Then, we would have to be after her time and time again to take her clothes OFF the clothesline. Then, we would have to be after her time and time again to fold her laundry and put it away! Now all we have to do is remind her to fold it and put it away every once in awhile, but that is that last step in the process. Praise the Lord that she has learned the other steps!
The other place that her responsibility has really shown through, and a tremendous change in attitude, has been in school! Our homeschool curriculum is very self-driven. The students set their own daily work goals, then must meet those goals, check their own homework and set new goals for the next day. When Lolis first arrived, I would help set goals, but she wouldn't meet them; she would mark goals as done when she had never finished them; she would check her homework sloppily and mark wrong answers as correct. On a daily basis, after checking all of her books myself, I would have to call her back to school for another entire hour's worth of work just finishing or re-doing what she claimed to have already done! It was quite a battle and led to many angry faces and bad attitudes.
Praise the Lord that those days are gone! She sets her own goals, realistic yet not easy goals; and I still go over her books at the end of the day to make sure she is on track, but I rarely have to call her back up to school to make any corrections. I NEVER find an error on a page that she has checked and, if I do have to call her up to school, it is for a missed accent or two on some free exercise whose answers aren't in the key. When I call her up she comes up with a good attitude, laughs at her mistakes, corrects them and leaves whistling! Praise the Lord! One of the biggest signs or symbols of this change has been her cursive handwriting. When she arrived last year she couldn't write in cursive at all. Well, now, Lolis has the best cursive handwriting of all of our students! She writes slowly and meticulously. I praise her handwriting on almost a daily basis. Others will have great handwriting on a day that they felt like truly doing their best, but Lolis' handwriting is consistently gorgeous! To me, her change in handwriting: from not knowing how to write in cursive to having, consistently, the best handwriting in school, is an outward symbol of the incredible inner change that the Lord has worked in her life in the last 10 months.
The other place that her responsibility has really shown through, and a tremendous change in attitude, has been in school! Our homeschool curriculum is very self-driven. The students set their own daily work goals, then must meet those goals, check their own homework and set new goals for the next day. When Lolis first arrived, I would help set goals, but she wouldn't meet them; she would mark goals as done when she had never finished them; she would check her homework sloppily and mark wrong answers as correct. On a daily basis, after checking all of her books myself, I would have to call her back to school for another entire hour's worth of work just finishing or re-doing what she claimed to have already done! It was quite a battle and led to many angry faces and bad attitudes.
Praise the Lord that those days are gone! She sets her own goals, realistic yet not easy goals; and I still go over her books at the end of the day to make sure she is on track, but I rarely have to call her back up to school to make any corrections. I NEVER find an error on a page that she has checked and, if I do have to call her up to school, it is for a missed accent or two on some free exercise whose answers aren't in the key. When I call her up she comes up with a good attitude, laughs at her mistakes, corrects them and leaves whistling! Praise the Lord! One of the biggest signs or symbols of this change has been her cursive handwriting. When she arrived last year she couldn't write in cursive at all. Well, now, Lolis has the best cursive handwriting of all of our students! She writes slowly and meticulously. I praise her handwriting on almost a daily basis. Others will have great handwriting on a day that they felt like truly doing their best, but Lolis' handwriting is consistently gorgeous! To me, her change in handwriting: from not knowing how to write in cursive to having, consistently, the best handwriting in school, is an outward symbol of the incredible inner change that the Lord has worked in her life in the last 10 months.
Jocelin-8 years oldJocelin's mother, Pati (Victor's sister), passed away a little over a year ago now and Joce is doing very well! She has really shown a greater and more genuine joy in the last several months. She talks about her mom much more than she used to and in normal, everyday conversation, which is a very good thing. When something reminds her of her mom she will pipe in with: "Mom would do ..." or "Mom always liked...."
One of the biggest changes recently has been Joce's incredible willingness to serve and help. When Pati was alive it was a constant battle to get Joce to do her own chores, much less help with anything extra. After Pati's passing, we continued to battle for a time with the chores issue, but that gradually improved. Well, the improvement just continued and, now, it is rare that I have to go look for Joce to do her chores (except on Saturdays, which continue to be a challenge.) Now, not only does she do her chores, but she offers to help out, a lot! She really loves helping Rosa in the kitchen. This may even be slightly therapeutic, as Pati was our cook and even looked a little bit like Rosa. Joce will come up to me several times throughout the day and ask if there is anything I need. She will help make chocolate milk for the little ones before bedtime, will sweep the house once again, will help me carry my many bags on Sunday morning when we go to church, etc. The other night we had a girls' movie night, which Joce doesn't always get invited to, depending on the movie we are going to watch. However, this night I included her and boy was she excited! She "pretended" to go to bed so that the little kids wouldn't suspect anything out of the ordinary and complain about not getting to stay up and eat ice cream, too. Then, when it was time to pull out the ice cream, whipped topping, chocolate syrup, chips and pop, Joce began to play waitress. She was serving everybody's ice cream, pouring all the pop - before the rest of the girls had even come down to the kitchen. I was thinking: "They might want to pick their own flavors of pop and put their own toppings on their ice cream." I didn't quench her willing service and, sure enough, I got to drink the extra glass of pop because she had picked the wrong flavor for somebody. Oh well, that is not too high of a price to pay :-) to be able to watch Joce willingly work and serve!
One of the biggest changes recently has been Joce's incredible willingness to serve and help. When Pati was alive it was a constant battle to get Joce to do her own chores, much less help with anything extra. After Pati's passing, we continued to battle for a time with the chores issue, but that gradually improved. Well, the improvement just continued and, now, it is rare that I have to go look for Joce to do her chores (except on Saturdays, which continue to be a challenge.) Now, not only does she do her chores, but she offers to help out, a lot! She really loves helping Rosa in the kitchen. This may even be slightly therapeutic, as Pati was our cook and even looked a little bit like Rosa. Joce will come up to me several times throughout the day and ask if there is anything I need. She will help make chocolate milk for the little ones before bedtime, will sweep the house once again, will help me carry my many bags on Sunday morning when we go to church, etc. The other night we had a girls' movie night, which Joce doesn't always get invited to, depending on the movie we are going to watch. However, this night I included her and boy was she excited! She "pretended" to go to bed so that the little kids wouldn't suspect anything out of the ordinary and complain about not getting to stay up and eat ice cream, too. Then, when it was time to pull out the ice cream, whipped topping, chocolate syrup, chips and pop, Joce began to play waitress. She was serving everybody's ice cream, pouring all the pop - before the rest of the girls had even come down to the kitchen. I was thinking: "They might want to pick their own flavors of pop and put their own toppings on their ice cream." I didn't quench her willing service and, sure enough, I got to drink the extra glass of pop because she had picked the wrong flavor for somebody. Oh well, that is not too high of a price to pay :-) to be able to watch Joce willingly work and serve!
Diana - 15 years oldDiana and Angie, biological sisters, have been a part of our family the longest of any of our adopted children. Josiah was about to turn 3 years old when they arrived and Caleb was born two weeks after they came. So, it has been nearly 7 years now! My does time fly!
The Lord has blessed Diana with mountains of talent and tons of brains! She is one of those students who doesn't have to study much, gets really nervous about tests and aces them all! She plays piano and violin and has an incredible ear for music. (In fact, I have to make sure that I don't play a song for her because she will just play it by ear, rather than reading the music!) She is a very creative writer and wrote an incredible short story several weeks ago and even composed a song this past week. Diana is a natural born leader who you very rarely see alone- there is always somebody tagging along behind her (Diana is always the one out in front!). She is the comic of the family and regularly makes us laugh! (Like the time she was taking a shower and says to me: "Mom, hand me the shampoo, would you?" I am thinking: "I just gave the little ones a bath and the shampoo was right there!" As she sensed my hesitation she says: "There is a bottle of shampoo here, but it says that it is for dry hair and mine is wet already!" (I died laughing. For the other blondes out there: the shampoo was designed for dry hair that needed to have special treatment to rehydrate.)
Logic is not Diana's strongpoint. Several nights ago, at about 9 p.m., I heard her and several of the other girls making a lot of racket outside. I was trying to put the little ones down and the girls know they cannot be outside after dark. So, I went downstairs to reprimand them. As I am coming down the stairs, I see Diana leaned over the kitchen sink with a plastic container in the left hand and her red sweatshirt bunched up in her right hand. She looks into the container, obviously not finding what she was looking for, and so she gently shakes out her sweatshirt over the sink. Something dark, small and quick jumps out of the sweatshirt, runs across the counter and down under the counter! We all scream and jump and I yell: "What was that?" I seriously thought it was a tarantula! No, it was a mouse! A mouse! In my house! I HATE MICE! (and all the kids know that very well!)
"Why in the world did you bring a mouse into my house?" I inquired of the three guilty adolescents. Here was their explanation: They had gone to the basement of the main house to get something and ran across this mouse in the schoolroom. Diana caught it in her sweatshirt. One of the girls wanted to see the mouse better so they put it in the plastic container and covered it with Diana's sweatshirt. They then proceeded to come into the house in order to look at the mouse in better lighting. But, when they get to the sink and look into the container, there was no mouse! It had gotten into Diana's sweatshirt, which she then shook out, prompting the mouse to jump down and seek shelter....in our kitchen!
Diana asked if I was mad!? I truly was not mad - I was in utter shock and disbelief that three adolescents would even consider bringing a mouse into the house! Then again, as we discussed the situation we discovered that they hadn't considered what they were doing...they just did it! Thus, the definition of adolescent - act before thinking! Diana's developing adult side did kick in, after seeing my reaction, and she diligently set mouse traps until she caught the little sucker several days later. (She also caught a second mouse that it seems was invited into our home by the first mouse who was brought in so kindly by my daughters!)
Diana has a huge heart for Africa and dreams of being a missionary there, possibly a gynecologist! There is a saying that what you do to your parents comes back around to you through your children. Well, I left the country to follow God's missionary call on my life - but it looks like my daughter may leave the continent! At least I can look to my mom for advice on how to handle having a daughter who lives far away...and maybe I will get to retire in Africa!
The Lord has blessed Diana with mountains of talent and tons of brains! She is one of those students who doesn't have to study much, gets really nervous about tests and aces them all! She plays piano and violin and has an incredible ear for music. (In fact, I have to make sure that I don't play a song for her because she will just play it by ear, rather than reading the music!) She is a very creative writer and wrote an incredible short story several weeks ago and even composed a song this past week. Diana is a natural born leader who you very rarely see alone- there is always somebody tagging along behind her (Diana is always the one out in front!). She is the comic of the family and regularly makes us laugh! (Like the time she was taking a shower and says to me: "Mom, hand me the shampoo, would you?" I am thinking: "I just gave the little ones a bath and the shampoo was right there!" As she sensed my hesitation she says: "There is a bottle of shampoo here, but it says that it is for dry hair and mine is wet already!" (I died laughing. For the other blondes out there: the shampoo was designed for dry hair that needed to have special treatment to rehydrate.)
Logic is not Diana's strongpoint. Several nights ago, at about 9 p.m., I heard her and several of the other girls making a lot of racket outside. I was trying to put the little ones down and the girls know they cannot be outside after dark. So, I went downstairs to reprimand them. As I am coming down the stairs, I see Diana leaned over the kitchen sink with a plastic container in the left hand and her red sweatshirt bunched up in her right hand. She looks into the container, obviously not finding what she was looking for, and so she gently shakes out her sweatshirt over the sink. Something dark, small and quick jumps out of the sweatshirt, runs across the counter and down under the counter! We all scream and jump and I yell: "What was that?" I seriously thought it was a tarantula! No, it was a mouse! A mouse! In my house! I HATE MICE! (and all the kids know that very well!)
"Why in the world did you bring a mouse into my house?" I inquired of the three guilty adolescents. Here was their explanation: They had gone to the basement of the main house to get something and ran across this mouse in the schoolroom. Diana caught it in her sweatshirt. One of the girls wanted to see the mouse better so they put it in the plastic container and covered it with Diana's sweatshirt. They then proceeded to come into the house in order to look at the mouse in better lighting. But, when they get to the sink and look into the container, there was no mouse! It had gotten into Diana's sweatshirt, which she then shook out, prompting the mouse to jump down and seek shelter....in our kitchen!
Diana asked if I was mad!? I truly was not mad - I was in utter shock and disbelief that three adolescents would even consider bringing a mouse into the house! Then again, as we discussed the situation we discovered that they hadn't considered what they were doing...they just did it! Thus, the definition of adolescent - act before thinking! Diana's developing adult side did kick in, after seeing my reaction, and she diligently set mouse traps until she caught the little sucker several days later. (She also caught a second mouse that it seems was invited into our home by the first mouse who was brought in so kindly by my daughters!)
Diana has a huge heart for Africa and dreams of being a missionary there, possibly a gynecologist! There is a saying that what you do to your parents comes back around to you through your children. Well, I left the country to follow God's missionary call on my life - but it looks like my daughter may leave the continent! At least I can look to my mom for advice on how to handle having a daughter who lives far away...and maybe I will get to retire in Africa!
Martita
Martita, 15 years old, is Lolis' older biological sister. While Lolis has been with us less than a year, Martita has been with us for nearly three years now! I think that I am most proud of Martita for all of the work that she has done, and allowed the Lord to do, in restoring her heart, her emotions and her ability to be loved and love others. This has been a very difficult process for Martita, but she has been very conscious of the process and makes a very conscious effort to help the process along by rejecting old habits, mindsets , attitudes, reactions and actions. As opposed to Diana, school is not easy for Martita, but she works very hard. Math is especially difficult, as well as English.
However, the dreams that the Lord has planted in Martita's heart are huge and I know they will come true because Martita is pretty stubborn! She wants to major in social work (hmmm, I wonder where she got that from! My degree is in social work.) and would like to counsel kids who have lived through traumatic experiences. She has some experience herself in that department! She is especially attracted to the idea of working in Afghanistan with children who have survived war situations. So, on my way to see Diana in Africa, I will have to stopover in Afghanistan. Depending on the political situation, that trip may be slightly more difficult with my blonde hair, light complexion and U.S. citizenship. I tease Martita that she will have to leave Afghanistan and we can rendezvous somewhere in Europe to see each other!
The other day we were talking about her dreams and goals and how frustrating it is to be so far behind in school (she is still finishing elementary school because her biological dad did not send her to school regularly). She then said: "I am going to finish college and I can't wait to see my biological dad's face the day I graduate because he always told me I was stupid and couldn't study!" Now THAT is motivation!
A closing gift: Here is our latest (almost a year old) and, in my option, best family picture ever!
Back: Jocelin (8), Fidel (9), Josiah (9), Lolis (13), Martita (15), Angie (17)
Middle: Julie, Victor, Caleb (6)
Front: Diana (15), Daniel (3), Ruth (4), Ana (4), Martha (12)
(These are the kids' current ages, not their ages at the time the picture was taken last December.)
However, the dreams that the Lord has planted in Martita's heart are huge and I know they will come true because Martita is pretty stubborn! She wants to major in social work (hmmm, I wonder where she got that from! My degree is in social work.) and would like to counsel kids who have lived through traumatic experiences. She has some experience herself in that department! She is especially attracted to the idea of working in Afghanistan with children who have survived war situations. So, on my way to see Diana in Africa, I will have to stopover in Afghanistan. Depending on the political situation, that trip may be slightly more difficult with my blonde hair, light complexion and U.S. citizenship. I tease Martita that she will have to leave Afghanistan and we can rendezvous somewhere in Europe to see each other!
The other day we were talking about her dreams and goals and how frustrating it is to be so far behind in school (she is still finishing elementary school because her biological dad did not send her to school regularly). She then said: "I am going to finish college and I can't wait to see my biological dad's face the day I graduate because he always told me I was stupid and couldn't study!" Now THAT is motivation!
A closing gift: Here is our latest (almost a year old) and, in my option, best family picture ever!
Back: Jocelin (8), Fidel (9), Josiah (9), Lolis (13), Martita (15), Angie (17)Middle: Julie, Victor, Caleb (6)
Front: Diana (15), Daniel (3), Ruth (4), Ana (4), Martha (12)
(These are the kids' current ages, not their ages at the time the picture was taken last December.)
May the Lord richly bless each and everyone of you,
our brothers and sisters in Christ,
and fellow laborers in His harvest!
our brothers and sisters in Christ,
and fellow laborers in His harvest!
1 comment:
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them!
Isn't it wonderful to be given reason for joy in one's children? May God bless both of you with more and give you the ability to raise them!
Bill K.
Post a Comment