Things have been insanely busy here. And my blog has been suffering because of it for sure. Still 1 more of 6 Christmases to go. Things are hopefully going to slow down for a week or 2 while T is on his semester break. This semester took A LOT of adjustment for all of us as we learned to do life without Torrey there much at all. The first 2 months I was crazy overwhelmed and I think I scared away a few friends with my griping. But as October turned to November I finally toughened up and made the necessary changes to do it all by myself. It is hard to fully explain the amount of work that goes into caring for 4 children alone and doing it well. If I learned anything throughout this time it is sympathy and admiration for single moms...you are my new heroes. I had to make serious cuts in my extra curricular activities (ah hem....farm town on face book and other addicting apps, blogging, time with girl friends, etc.). On days that T found my bawling over the ever growing mountain of laundry he would sacrifice some precious homework time to help me out and assure me that it wouldn't always be this way and he didn't intend for me to raise all 4 children alone.....only a few more months out of a long lifetime. I am thankful to have such a wonderful husband that could take on everything that goes with working full time and going to school full time while still making time to comfort me when I am overwhelmed and while still trying to connect with his children with every available moment. On top of that he amazing came out of this crazy year with the employee of the year award :). I am thankful for this respite as we delve back into the last 5 months of full time school for T. After this semester he will graduate with is Bachelor's degree...and it only took him 9 years :). After this he will have to take another 5 classes at his leisure to qualify for the Professional Engineer exam here in Indiana (2 more calculus classes, a physics, and 2 more calculus based engineering classes). He will though go ahead and take the test Engineering Intern exam in Ohio in October to get started on the years of experience he needs to become an liscenced Professional Engineer in both Indiana and Ohio. Bottom line...we are making progress and I am glad that we are finally seeing the last chapters in this very difficult time in our lives. T is not confident that it will be any easier when he finishes but I am holding out hope that we can be a "regular" family as some point...one where the dad and mom are both home for dinner.

So how are the kids doing?
The boys are doing very well. Noah (9) has a voracious appetite for nonfiction books from the library. Fiction he says is "BORING." He checks out 20-30 books a week and reads them in bed by light of his globe. He told me what a kidney stone was the other day... He really enjoys books about forensics and the human body. So some of the titles are a bit freaky as he learns about mass murderers and how they were caught or about poisins or even an entire book about sweat or urine. He also likes to read to his siblings. They all lay on their tummies on the living room floor (well Sefan lays on Noah's back) and Noah will read them a silly story.
Carter is LOVING Kindergarten. It is amazing what a difference a year makes. Last year we had to pull him out because he couldn't physically handle the full day because he was too exhausted. He has a lot of friends and misses them over Christmas break. He is a bit of a goof as he told me once that he made a friend in his class, "because I farted on the carpet and we both thought it was funny so now we are friends". He says they play monsters vs. aliens on the playground...the girls are the monsters. Noah and Carter like to play together but often Noah is involved in some computer game and so Carter will play with his sisters. The 3 youngest are so close in age that they play very well together. Last week they made a restaurant in the living room complete with well crafted menues.
Wubitu is getting sooooo big. She is losing her baby look for sure as her little cheeks thin out and her amazing profile takes shape. She is becoming more mature and has gained quite a large vocabulary including some surprising big words. Our insurance guy gave me a sideways glance when she told him something was disgusting (vs. gross)and then later said that something else was ridiculous (vs. weird). She is LOVING her school! At her Christmas program she kept stroking the boys next her...she patted his head, rubbed his face, put her arm around him....relentlessly. He didn't flinch, move, or say anything like most people would with that kind of treatment. Later I asked her who that was...she said, "That's Adam...I can do anything to him". We think she got it from when I playfully swatted Torrey's leg for making an ornery comment....and Wuby scolded me for hitting and I told her that I could do what I wanted to him because he was my husband???? Over the last 5 months she has learned ALL of her uppercase and lower case letters and their sounds and has started to read :)! She also started swimming lessons; her tenacity and competetive spirit have taken her far as she has quickly progressed through the first 2 levels of swim and can go pretty far on her own. Her first love though is dance and she loves to help Sefan to learn the steps. It melts my heart to see the 2 of them dancing together.
Sefan is learning English VERY VERY quickly! Since the girls talk to each other ALL DAY LONG she gets A LOT of practice. She understand 99% of what people say and can express anything she needs very easily....well with a trained ear....she has most of the words there but sometimes they are in a mixed up order so you have to have your mind ready to straighten out the sentence structure. She also has a very strong (cute) lisp and has retained the roll in her "r".
She also learned all of her letters and sounds in the last 5 months but isn't ready to read yet. We have had the most trouble with the competitiveness between the girls. When Sefan came home she was incredibly behind academically and physically compared to Wubitu who is only 6 months older. Sefan has made incredible gains in both areas but she still has not caught up to Wubitu and that makes Sefan upset. You can see the green grow in her eyes anytime Wuby does something she can't do.....she starts to melt into a puddle of fuss....and it takes a LONG time to get her to snap out of it despite any reassurances that she can do just as well and that it only takes practice. We are working on getting her to realize that giving up and feeling sorry for yourself or getting a bad (muttering) attitude will not change anything but progress has been slow. The other major issue she has had is that she was used to being the only child before coming to the orphanage. It has been quite an adjustment for her to now be the youngest when she was essentially an "oldest" with her birthfamily and in the middle in the orphanage. She has had trouble with the fact that she is "last" as she puts its it. We are working on letting her know that she is special because she is "our baby" which helps sometimes but the little green envy monster still rears it head quite often here.
But....like I mentioned before Sefan has made INCREDIBLE gains! When we started tumbling in September she couldn't sit up from a sumersault....she would flop and lay flat on the mat due to lack of back and ab strength. At her last class a week ago she was rolling and standing right up like an old pro. In swimming in September she didn't have the core, arm, or leg strength to hold on to the side of the pool and paddle her feet. Her abs and back were to weak to pull her body up parrallel to the water and her arms were to weak to keep a grip on the side and her legs could only kick for short periods. Now she can hold and kick like all of the other kids in her class and is learning to be more confident in the water. Her neck strength has also improved dramatically as she can hold it straight without it flopping back like she is looking at the sky. She has cute little muscles now from her work in dance, tumbling, and swimming and from her rather large intake of meat (she is quite carniverous!). Her fine motor skills are also improving...but she can write Wubitu's name better than her own :).
The girls really are absolutely FABULOUS for each other. They LOVE to play dress up, Barbies. kitchen, and computer together. They are truely best friends. We knew from a few days of bringing Wubitu home that she needed a sister and Sefan is a perfect match for our family. They both have filled a hole in my heart that I never really knew existed. There is something every day that they do that makes me smile from ear to ear. Really every day I have to pinch myself because I can't believe how blessed I am to have 4 FABULOUS children and an absolutley wonderful husband. While the circumstances with work and school are difficult right now my family brings me such joy that it makes each exhausting day worth it.