A New "Twist" on Block Play

I have be corresponding by email with a family who learned about our adoption story through our blog. Layne most often keeps our blog updated, but I wanted to share a paragraph that I copied from an email I sent to her regarding bonding and attaching to an adopted older child. This was truly an idea God laid on my heart one day while playing blocks with Levi. I had been praying for a way to know him in a deeper way and for him to feel closer to me as his "momma". God was so gracious to give him this way to express himself and all that he has been through over the last 9 months.



Probably the most tender times that draw our hearts closer together has been him gradually sharing about his life and family in Ethiopia. God has given us the idea to recreate the journey of him coming to our family forever, by using wooden blocks. This only began about 2 months ago after his language was more proficient. We make circles of blocks to represent where he has lived before coming home to us. One circle is his hut in the village he was born. He carefully chooses the blocks to put within the circle, to represent his Ethiopian family members. Then we make a circle to represent the drop off site, where he stayed for a short time before traveling to Addis. Next a circle to represent the care center (Jesse gets a separate circle because he was at a different location, and finally a circle representing our home. He uses a large rectangle block to be the airplane we came on to come and get him. We use words that remind him how much God loves him, how much his family in Ethiopia loves him, and how much we love him. We remind him how he is in our family forever and how excited we are that God brought us together. We talk about how God laid him on our hearts and we couldn't wait to get on the plane to come and bring him home. This block play has been the most amazing time of bonding. He gradually shares more and more each time we "play". He usually asks to get the blocks out. He seems so excited that we are interested in all the details of his life and history. I see him trust us more as he shares and realizes we value every part of him and his history in Ethiopia. God is so good and we are thankful for this avenue He has given us to get to know our son in a more intimate way!

Meeting Great- Grandma Gladys

Today, Levi and Jesse met their Great Grandma Gladys (Layne's Grandma Henn) for the first time! She lives in a nursing home in Spirit Lake, Iowa. We took the drive up there today and had a little Christmas/Anniversary/meet the new great-grandkids celebration. It was fun and Grandma was very happy to finally meet her newest babies.
Isaac and Kaylee both wore their Heelie shoes and the people at the care center enjoyed seeing them rolling in the halls with their shoes on. Tanya and aunt Joan did manicures for Great Grandma, Grandma Barb, Kaylee and Erin. Their nails were looking great! Kaylee played her violin for people eating dinner with Meema on piano and Isaac played piano and did a duet with mommy. Uncle Bob and Aunt LaRae enjoyed snuggling Jesse and he crashed asleep under their watch.

Christmas Day

I wrote about Christmas Eve, so I should really write about the rest of our Christmas Experience 2007.
Christmas Day, we got up early (of course!!) because Santa Claus had made a visit. What a job he had at our house! He ate every cookie, all the carrots were gone and the milk glass had narry a drop left! There was a flurry of stockings and wrapping paper and all the kids were talking at once and trying to get our attention - It was soooo very exciting-- we had to say WHOOOA. (I got most of it on video ) Santa brought some very exciting stuff. I think Isaac's reaction to the Packers football uniform was the best. He jumped about 3 feet off the ground and exclaimed "YES" after just a mere peek into the box. "This is exactly what I wanted!" He shouted. I don't think I could've been smiling any bigger. Kaylee got a new American Girl Doll, Levi got Sizzlers race track and cars, Erin got a BittyBaby and Jesse got a BB gun (just kidding) Jesse got a little battery powered QuadRunner.
We then tore ourselves away from the excitement, bundled up in our coats and headed over to Bopie's for some brunch eggs and more presents! The food was DEELISH and it was so fun because cousins were there and the kids loved watching everybody open gifts and playing with all the toys.
The day continued on as we ventured over to South Sioux City for the Matney Family Christmas. More food, more presents, music, playing, riding scooters, more food (did i mention there was food?)
However, The stimulation and excitement of the day proved a little too much for the boys, so I took Isaac, Levi and Jesse Bear home and put them to bed around 7:30 pm. Isaac wasn't feeling well and the other 2 hadn't napped, so it wasn't bad getting them down.
I worked a couple of days last week and I go back on Thurs. Today the tree came down and the house is much less Christmassy. We even have totes for most of the toys that were acquired. We know that schedules and normalcy will soon return. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas Eve 2007

On the eve of our first Christmas with a family of 5 children there are so many new experiences.
We went to the Meema and BumpaKK Henn's today and ransacked their house with our crew. It was such a wonderful day. I tried to take lots of video, but it seems like you always miss the best stuff. I wanted to write down the best ones I heard today from the kids.

Erin (3): "We got beautiful presents!"
Levi (4): "I like to coming to your house, I'onna doit 'gain"
Isaac(6): "Dad, are you sure your not Santa?" My reply "Do i look like Santa?"
Isaac's reply: "I do know your not Santa, Dad, because you could never afford all the stuff!"
Kaylee (9):"I can't believe I actually have Heelies!!"
Jesse (20 mos.): "kiy kuhy" (which means thank you)

We also went to an evening worship at Meema's church. The kids were very well behaved and it helped to have Aunt Rae, Uncle Bob and Cousin Nate to help out. I was able to meet their new pastor (who gave and excellent message!) who told us how he'd been praying for our family. It meant so much to Tanya and I.
It was also excellent to see friends that I haven't seen in a long time and introduce them to each of our children and also meet their kids!
Merry Christmas!
Layne

Elves-a-plenty

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Turkey Claus

After stuffing ourselves at a Thanksgiving Feast in Cherokee, Iowa (Thanks very much G'pa and G'ma Henn!) We made our way over to Storm Lake to visit Santa's Castle. This place was fascinating and the kids had such a good time. Each little room had moving characters for the kids to watch. They were quite fascinated! A special thanks to uncle Greg and aunt Joan for buying our tickets. The kids each got a picture taken with Santa and his bride. Each kid also got a little present from Santa and special photo by themselves. As you can see from the photo, Jesse wasn't too really sure what to think. But, he took it in stride and pretty much rolled with the whole thing (we are learning that about him).
We had a great thanksgiving and we were really thankful that none of the kids even have so much as a sniffle right now. AMAZING!

Kaylee's Fall Program

Kaylee sang a solo in her Fall program last night.
She did so well! We had a good time and the kids sat and watched so good. It was very fun.
Enjoy the video! Layne

How big is Africa?

You'll want to click on this photo below to get the full effect.
We saw this on our Chicago trip in the Field Museum-Africa Exhibit. It really blew us away!
Layne

Chicago Trip

A short post to say we just returned from a mini vacation to visit cousins in Chicago! What a fun trip. We rode the train into the 3rd largest city in the U.S.
Here we are at the tracks, just about to board the train.
Went to the Field museum. It was really great!
I'll post more pictures soon, and maybe even some video.
Layne

A "SpooKtacular" Halloween

We had such a fun time last Wednesday on Halloween!
We started last Sunday and carved pumpkins,
That was really fun, it was such a nice day, we just sat out in the driveway and each kid just took turns drawing out their face on the pumpkin with a sharpie. Daddy then did the cutting out and the digging out! They were good sports about getting their hands all goopy with the pumpkin guts.
Wednesday, Tanya had a helper come over so she could be at the parade with Kaylee and Isaac at Clark School. She got to spend time with each of them in their classrooms, playing games and stuff. She took some good pictures there too. Wed. night, we got our costumes on, which was no easy task, loaded up and headed over to Aunt Susie's house for our annual Halloween appearance at the Jones' House. It was a hit as usual, but a little early. We almost missed uncle Mike! Then, it was load up again for Bopie's house for chili and chicken noodle soup. It's a bit of a tradition. The soon had trick-or-treaters banging down their door and the kids could no longer stand it! We rolled into the street and started collecting candy. It was so funny to watch Jesse trying to keep up with the other 4 dashing from house to house. Most of all, he couldn't really figure out what was going on? There were hundreds of kids on Valley Dr. (literally!) I kinda like it the DST thing pushed back so it can still be light out when trick or treating.
About 7pm, we loaded all 5 back into family truckster and headed to South Sioux, to Colonial Manor nursing home. This was my highlight of the night. To see G'ma and G'pa Matney light up when the kids walked in there was priceless. She also had little bags for each kid and each of them got a mango (which made Levi so excited). Then, they went from room to room, while G'ma Matney bragged to each resident about her great grandbabies. The kids were sharing their candy with the residents, Erin would ask "Can you have candy?" so cute.

Feet in your jammies

It's getting cooler and so tonight was the first night of the warm jammies.
Levi was soooo excited to wear something that even covered his feet! He put those jammies on and zipped them up to his neck and met me in the hallway yelling, "Daddy, lookame, lookame!!" and started dancing!! I was cracking up to see his big smile and little body wiggling around - he then ran back into his bedroom and shut the door, so he could watch himself dance in his feet jammies in the full length mirror on the back of the door.
Tanya was packing up the short sleeve shirts and shorts today into a tote to store for next summer. Levi was noticeably upset and said "no chamees up, no chamees up". Tanya thought at first he was saying "jammies", but then remembered that the word in amharic for shirt is chamois. He didn't want Mommy to take away his clothes :( Tanya then explained how we would be wearing longer sleeves because it was getting colder and longer pants. She also told him that he would always have clothes and shoes to wear, and showed him his warmer clothes hanging in the closet. He seemed very relieved and less stressed about his clothes. I thought of the verse below, how it is easy for me to not be anxious about clothes, I've always had them in excess, It brings new meaning to this verse when your son had to go without clothes/food up until 7 mos. ago.

Mathew 6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

After reading that verse Tanya and I can't help but thing about the faith displayed by Christians in Ethiopia and even around the world. God is making His Word new to us through our children each day.

Kaylee's little mouth

As if we haven't had enough surgery around here lately, Kaylee had three teeth pulled on Monday.
We had this appointment set up for many weeks, so when they bumped Levi and Jesse's surgeries up, they all fell within 4 days of each other.
Kaylee was really hurting. She had 2 permanent teeth pulled (ironically, they are the same teeth that Levi doesn't have!!) She also had a baby tooth yanked. The perms had to come out because her mouth is too small to hold all her teeth. Hopefully, this will be helpful in keeping her from braces (or at least for a minimum amount of time).
Kaylee was back on her feet by the end of the day (very brave). She went to school today and was excited to show her friends the big roots of the teeth that were taken from her mouth.
Isaac and Kaylee both started piano lessons today. How great is it that their teacher lives across the street? I feel like we live in Mayberry sometimes!

More Surgery updates

The last few days have been fun around here, but really just business as usual.
Friday last week, we had a pretty good day, other than having to take off Jesse's bandages in the evening.
It was so hard and it hurt him so much. Tanya was getting all queasy and I was having a hard time holding him. We had soaked him in the tub for about 45 min. It barely phased the sticky stuff. We then had to goop on the triple-antibiotic ointment. I smeared it in his diaper too. After we got his diaper on, he calmed down and fell asleep while Tanya held him in the rocking chair.
Saturday: Isaac final football game in the morning and a tailgate party at 8:45 am with the other parents. It was so fun and the kids loved eating breakfast (donuts) outside and drinking hot cocoa! The actual game was cancelled because of rain, but since we had the kids there, we just had a little game anyway. It was still fun. The rest of the day was kinda blah since it rained.
Sat. evening we had to take Levi's bandages off. I soaked him in the tub for about 45 min. and while I had him in there, I kept trying to explain what was about to happen. When I got him out and started the process, he didn't want me anywhere close to those bandages. I asked him if he could do it himself and he said "yes". He proceeded to remove all the bandages without one bit of crying!! He said "ouch" a few times, but was very brave!
Sunday, we went to Sunday school. They all LOVE their teachers! It makes Sunday so great to start with sunday school, and I even got to be in an adult ss class.

More to come....

Surgery update

Thank you all for your prayers today. Everything went really well. Levi had 7 fillings, one tooth crowned and one tooth had to be extracted. The unfortunate news was that underneath four of his baby molars there are no permanent teeth coming in. The dentist was explaining our options and basically the best case scenario is that he would keep his baby molars into adulthood. Seems kinda unlikely to us, but we are praying that the permanent teeth were just not able to be seen on the xray yet. The other part of the surgery went really well too. Jesse has shown more signs of pain, but we'll see the true picture tomorrow when all the anesthetic is completely gone. Thanks again for your prayers, we really felt a peace and calmness today, by grace. Layne
2 Corinthians1:10b-11 On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

Levi and Jesse's Surgery

Please pray for Jesse and Levi and our family throughout this day and our weekend. They are seeing a urologist for surgery today and Levi is getting teeth pulled.
Kaylee reminded me of this verse today:
1 Peter 5:7, 'Cast all your worries on Him, because He cares for you'
Layne

Fall Weekend Getaway

We are in Minneapolis this weekend. We have had a really good time.
We got here on Thursday night, late. Jaimee has been so great to let us crash in her downtown apartment. The kids were excited to get here, but TIRED. they went to bed quick and slept well.
Friday, we took the kids and went to visit Kristina at the Children's Home in St. Paul. It was fun to show off our little family. We had a good visit and turned in our Post-placement paperwork. Afterwards, we went to the Ethiopian restaurant in St. Paul, called Fasika. We went there before we were in Africa. However, to take Levi and Jesse there was a real treat! Levi literally shoveled the food in. Jesse was ecstatic.

The rest of the day, we spent at the MOA, (that's right the Mall of America). It was good though.
All the kids loved the Lego store and LOVED being with their cousins. Isaac bought a new Star Wars Lego ship. Kaylee got a little mini figure person. Levi, Jesse and Erin loved playing with the Duplo's and Legos. We walked and walked and walked some more. The 3 kid stroller, proved worth it's weight in GOLD.
We got back to the apartment about 11pm. I think we squeezed about all the juice out of that day.

Today, we started by sleeping in!! Yeah!! We got up a little after 8am, (yes, that is sleeping in).
Breakfast and then Grandpa took 4 kids for a walk down to the park. Much of the morning was spent at the park, while the women were back at the apartment, preparing for the day with lunches for the trip to the Apple Orchard. We all piled in the car and headed for an orchard in stillwater, MN. Lunch was excellent! We all had a great day. The kids played in the hay bales, drank cider, listened to music and rode trikes and bikes around.
We left the Orchard and headed for IKEA. The kids napped (except Kaylee) and slept until 5pm!
I took the kids in and we all chowed down on the swedish meatballs and pasta. The kids were very good. We headed back to Jaimee's and got jammies on and the kids hit the sack.

Updates

We haven't written in a while, mostly because we usually blog at night and by 10pm we are falling into bed.
We had planned to go last weekend on a retreat to Twin Lakes camp, but we opted out at the last minute. We know we missed some fun there, but God had a plan for us at home. We did some fun activities as a family and had a really good time! We are finding that, with Kaylee and Isaac in school during the day, times like that with the kids all together are fewer and farther between. So, we thought we would take advantage of the opportunity.
Each day, Levi's language improves. He has many words, but doesn't always know how to use them. Here's an example, if he is next to me, watching me and doesn't know what I'm doing, he'll say "daddy, where are you?" instead of "what are you doing?" It's very confusing sometimes to try to understand. It will be interesting when we start to get words for emotions and remembering. I know he is still mourning a loss, but it really, really hard to communicate that.
A short list of some recent events:

1. Isaac pulled out his front tooth at school last friday
2. Levi is getting really good on his bicycle (with training wheels) he likes to go fast and loves his helmet.
3. Kaylee has pink eye as of today 9/17
4. Erin is so excited about pre-school, saying the beginning sounds of all kinds of words.
   
5. Kaylee, Erin and mommy went on a "girl date" on Sat. afternoon, and Erin said "Mommy, I love to have "toffee" with you, as she sipped her hot cocoa.
6. Jesse is so laid back. He is learning to play with toys for longer amounts of time and is starting to look at books, too.
7. Isaac is playing football and LOVES it. He had a touchdown on Sat. and he played some QB too. He was very upset about the Huskers losing to USC.

Kaylee turns 9

Kaylee will be 9 years old tomorrow, Sept. 8th, 2007.
Meet the newest member of our family, Hottamale the boy beta fish.
Isaac's gift to his sister for her birthday.
We had a family get together for her birthday here at our house and served brownie sundaes. It was really fun and as you can see, Kaylee had a great time on her last day of being 8.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KAYLEE!! WE LOVE YOU!!

Lea to the Rescue!!

Psalm 40
<<> | Psalm 40 | Psalm 41 >>

My Help and My Deliverer

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

40:1 I waited patiently for the Lord;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
2 He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the Lord.

Tanya's sister Lea and her two children have been here this week on a rescue mission. She has been so awesome. I should be having Tanya write this post. She has been really loving all the help and time that she is putting in. A special hats off to Justin too for giving up his wife and kids to us for the week.
The kids are having a blast. It is so fun to watch them play together. Erin and Claira are like peas and carrots. They have so much fun playing dollies, singing, reading books and watching movies together.
Levi LOVES riding his bike! Rain or 98 degrees, he wants to be in the driveway riding his bike. His language gets better and better each day. Jesse is such a snuggler. He loves to play in the yard and toddle around, or swing, but he is just as happy watching the other kids play if he's sitting in a lap. Levi and Jesse had round 2 of shots yesterday, two in each leg for both of them. Ouch. They were tired and grouchy last night and today Levi wasn't walking too well.
Isaac and Kaylee are really liking school, but Isaac is ready to start his Tues, Wed, Friday schedule. Because Lea is here, Tanya was able to go and spend time in each of their classrooms on Wed. She really loved it!

I'm throwing in a couple pics that most haven't seen yet.
The corn on the cob was fun to watch. They totally mouwed that down. The plastic trike pics are from the guest house in Ethiopia. It had buttons on it that said "Readytorock" when you pushed it. Levi still says that when he rides his bike here.

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