Wow, the time goes by fast~

We've already had the kids over 3 months now. Amazing! And speaking of time, where have the days gone since my last post? Okay the busy life is among us, there's no denying that. I've come to the conclusion that getting 4 children ready and out the door is much harder than I expected. While Rick's been gone my main thing I've tried to accomplish has been rousing all children and readying them for church or gymnastics classes or whatever event we're scheduled to be at. It hasn't come together and we've yet to be on time but only twice for Marissa's testing. I continue to take Rick's kind reminders that it might require a bit more prep time but it seems no matter how early I get up, or how early I get the kids moving, we just haven't yet gotten the routine down. Oh how I long for the day when we are actually early for the church service! That's one thing that I miss when Rick is gone -- more help! In his absence I tend to rely heavily on Marissa's help. She's such a wonderful helper and great big sister! We've also had difficulties because of the close age difference between Fabian and Marissa. They're only one month and 3 days apart with Marissa being the oldest. Fabian (and Karen too) has this desire to be treated equally as his sister which is not entirely fair many times. We still encounter both Karen and Fabian saying, "Hey, he got more than I did!", or "Why can't I do that same thing as Marissa? I'm old enough." We had to explain to Fabian mostly that yes, it was a fact that he was very close in age to Marissa, but we don't set the bar on age alone. Usually these responsibilities are earned over time and it may take some time to prove his worthiness, etc. At time Fabian especially feels duped I'll bet thinking Marissa has an unfair advantage but he's a quick learner and has really been showing me a lot of responsibility lately. We also tell the children there's a tremendous size difference between Marissa and them, and that she's physically much stronger and able to do more strenuous tasks, etc. Most of the issues we've had with both Karen and Fabian are centered around their desire to take care of their little brother, Luis. This wasn't their way of life in Colombia because Luis was with a separate foster mother than the older two were placed with, so we weren't taking something away from them that they once deemed as their way of life in Colombia. There's been instances when I'd leave the room for just one minute to find Karen trying to lift Luis out of his walker. Fabian has been caught picking up Luis when I turn my back also. They're real sneaky about it and will try at every opportunity to mess with their little brother. Luis is pretty good at alerting me of danger when his brother and his sister are messing with him because he screams this screechy little squeal! It's so cute and it's hard to go unnoticed. It's instances such as this that assure me why God selected these children to be ours! He needed an experienced mom to watch over Luis especially. I think back of all the times where I would catch Cody trying to be mean to Marissa because of jealousy issues. (In case you're lost right now, Cody is my almost 16 year old stepson whom we very rarely see but he lives only a mile away with his mother. We pray that Cody will someday make better lifestyle choices and come to know of God's love. We hope for this and just keep praying for both Cody and his mother.)

It's late now and I've got another busy day ahead of me tomorrow. I'll try to be more regular with the posts and with more pictures. I was having trouble figuring out how to charge the batteries on Rick's camera but I've got that handled now. I hope to post some more pictures tomorrow. I know everybody loves to see the pictures! Blessings to you!