Twin City Photos

The Girls had fun at Mall of America...met Sponge Bob and Patrick

Sweet Sisters

Molly just a swingin'

Molly the model

Strike a pose

Molly loves to take pictures with my camera...makes me a bit nervous. It is an expensive digital.

Another photo by Molly

We had another fun weekend in the cities. We had dinner Saturday night with family and a friend of ours that is adopting from ET. She just got her referral this past week for a 3 month old baby girl. We got to see photos of baby T (can't share her ET name as the case has not passed court). She is about the cutest little baby I've ever seen. Molly was very excited to see the photos and find out the baby's name as it her favorite name.

We had a bit of a bummer going into the weekend as the reason for our trip was to meet the Korson family at the airport on Saturday. That didn't happen as they didn't receive Visas for their two youngest children until today. Molly was not happy that she didn't get to welcome her friend home to the US. She is really good friends with their oldest daughter (Almaz 12 yrs). The next chance we will have to meet up with them is in Sept. when we take the girls to Mary Poppins.

Gotta go...to much to do being away for the weekend.

Blessings,

Bliss

?????

Molly has been going to VBS at another church this past week and enjoying it. I don't know what took place last night but I think she was encountering some spiritual warfare. She came home and seemed fine but when it was time for bed (shortly after she got home) she began to cry uncontrollably. It was very strange. We have seen her cry several times (mourning, not getting her way etc). This was very different...it was like she was very frightened by something. She just clung to me. We've known since before we adopted her that she has a very strong faith...and it is completely obvious. The only thing that would settle her down was us praying and rebuking spirits. She did finally quit crying but refused to sleep in her bed by herself...hence the photo of her and Hannah sleeping in the same bed.

We are headed to the Cities this weekend (again). Molly doesn't know it but we are going to the airport to welcome home the KorsonFamily . They have been in ET the past two weeks picking up their 3 new children. Molly is good friends with the oldest (Almaz age 12). We met all three children when we were in ET and their 5 yr. old boy is just a crack up. Can't wait to see him too. We will have fun making signs.

My Girls

The girls got matching swimming suits from their aunt Cindy and wanted to model them for everyone.

Molly is always trying different looks with her hair. This project took her nearly 2 hours. We love it...and have I mentioned she never takes a bad photo.

Last evening we had dinner with Ron's sister, brother and father. It was so yummy grilled shrimp, marinated flank steak and several side dishes. It was a feast enjoyed by all. After the meal Molly entertained us with concert. She had written out several songs she learned at her church in Ethiopia and sang them all to us (in Amharic). I was blown away at how she had no fear singing by herself in front of us (and 2 she had just met). I am kicking myself because I didn't video tape it but I didn't want to drag myself away from the performance. Hopefully she will do it again.

Blessings,

Bliss

Braiding Party

Molly met her Aunt Cindy and cousin Jackie this weekend. They are visiting from Connecticut. Hannah actually got to sleep in her own room the last couple of nights as Jackie slept in Molly's room. Hannah did say this morning she missed sleeping in her sister's room. I am so happy the girls love each other so much. Molly is a perfect fit for our family. I am so thankful and blessed that God changed my heart to adopt an older child.Finished product

Silly photo of Molly at the park

Blessings,

Bliss

Gymnastics

Since Hannah was been able to speak all she has wanted to do is gymnastics and ballet. This summer she was old enough to start gymnastics and she is loving it. She will start ballet in the fall. She is so flexible and strong gymnastics is a pretty natural fit. It has been fun to see her progress each week. Her coaches seem to be impressed with her skills. Her splits on the floor and leaps are flawless. I have no doubt she could become an outstanding "gymnastics girl" (that is how she refers to herself) if she keeps with it. She has absolutely no fear and definitely has the little body built for gymnastics. Her sister is a different story. Molly is all muscle but a big scardy cat. I predict she will be our track & field and soccer player super star.

Blessings,
Bliss

3 Months Post Placement Visit

Wow it has been three months since we have been home with Mahlet (Molly). Monday was actually our 3 month anniversary of "Meetcha day" and today is the 3 month anniversary of "Gotcha day". Our agency requires a report from our social worker after 3/6/12 months. So today our SW made her visit to our home and met Molly. We all love our SW. She has almost been a part of the family for 4 years. She did all our pp visits for Hannah and did our home study for our attempt for baby #2 from China before we dropped out of the program. She also did our home study for adoption from Ethiopia..we started out seeking an infant. So we had to have more visits with her once God put the breaks on that and called us to Miss Molly. Once our SW is done with her reports we have to continue to write a yearly report that our agency will send to ET until Molly is 18.

Of course we had to answer a lot of questions today...we have been through the process before so it was no surprise. Thankfully we have had two pretty easy children and we know our SW pretty well. The only thing we had to report that we were not expecting was Molly's selfish behavior. If she does not get her way or we don't do what she wants to do right when she wants to do it...she throws a pouting or bawling fit. We can not stand this and the only thing that works is totally ignoring her. This behavior really confuses us. We know there is no way she would get away with this in her orphanage or the Transition Home. We know we are not alone in this struggle as other families from our agency have shared that their older children do the same thing.

That's about it for now.
Blessings,
Bliss

Twin Cities Again

We had a fun time in the cities this weekend. Molly went to her first Twins game and had fun for about 5 innings...she became very bored. The Twins won 13-7.

Molly never takes a bad photo

The girls gave a fashion show...their aunt Bonnie took them to Macy's

We took the girls to the zoo and this poor lion was so tired.

Blessings,

Bliss

Hannah's Haircut

Finally got Hannah's haircut. It has been a while because she didn't want it cut. She wanted it to be long like Rapunzel's hair. She finally agreed to get it short again. I was so happy. I like it shorter. I love Hannah's great big smile, but I lose her beautiful eyes

Hannah did really good getting her haircut. She sat still and did everything Becky told her to do. This was a huge difference from her previous haircuts. Hannah used to be such a wiggle worm in the chair Becky always said it was like hitting a moving target. Today was so nice we were in and out in no time. I do think Molly was a little freaked by the whole thing. I don't know if she has seen anyone get their haircut before.

The rest of the day was a bummer as the weather prevented us from enjoying the water park. So Molly decided to park herself in front of the TV all afternoon. This drives me absolutely nuts but there were a couple of reasons I let her get away with it today. First there was not much else to do and second it is a really good way to learn English. We had a foreign exchange student years ago and he was pretty fluent in a few months (slang and all) and most of it came from watching TV. Anyway the weather seems to be clearing and she will spend the evening outside hopefully playing at the park.

Blessings,

Bliss

4th Fun

Girls being patriotic in their US flag shirts...although Molly is not a citizen yet.
Look at those pearly whites.

Girls and cousin Bodi (Molly was scared to death of this dog when she first met him)

Grandpa Wes

What's the 4th without s'mores (Molly is not a fan...she likes marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers but not them all together)

Hannah gives them the thumbs up

Just a swingin' (Molly actually had to learn to swing are there no swings in ET?)

We had a fun 4th of July. Introducing Molly to our nation's Independence day. I don't think she understood much of it. That is a tough one to explain but she had fun anyway. We went to the water park for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Then we headed to Uncle Rich's house for some yummy 4th July eats. After that we went to the park and played and then listened to the Municipal band (Molly LOVED that). We came home a shot off the rest of the fireworks we had purchased and then finally watched the fireworks display from our house. We live just a half mile from the park they set them off at so we didn't have to find a parking place or fight traffic after...thank God because it was a long day and late night. Hopefully by next year Molly will understand what the heck all the flags and hoopla was all about.

Blessings,

Bliss