Coming Home

I have this sense that I am missing out on much of my life with the boys because I'm not recording it in any way. It's been over a year that I posted to this blog. I started it to keep my family updated on our activities, then it morphed into an adoption journey. Now I want to meander with my thoughts and keep up on the boys lives so that we have something tangible to look back on and remember.

We have just come home from 6 days of spring break vacation at Universal Studios. Dave and I had been to the Universal in LA, but never Orlando. We decided to take this trip because Bren and Jace were close to finishing the Harry Potter series. We wanted to take them to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter while the story was fresh in their minds. Tonight is my first night back at work and I feel like I have been gone for ages rather than just a week. It was interesting to have a time when the most important thing to know was the length of the line at the next ride I wanted to go on. Rather than contemplating suffering, or grieving over loss, or trying to keep up with all that is demanding my attention in life, I got to stand in line, talk to my boys, and consider what was the next thrill we would pursue. There was talk about holiness, and living in a way that is holy. There was talk of social norms, ie. don't continually bump into the person in front of you. There was the moment when someone said it was "Unnatural" for us to have black children in our family. The difference between this and normal life was that nothing we were concerned about lasted more than a few minutes.

So now I have gone through the mail and made a list of all the stuff I have to catch up on and emailed Dave about all the stuff he has to catch up on. I am still holding onto vacation euphoria. Hopefully it will last as the cares and suffering of life worm their way back into my world. I had a nice afternoon though. Harry Potter robes + Harry Potter wands = an afternoon of play and no one asking about electronics. Priceless!!

Christmas card

Merry Christmas!

If you have been keeping up with the Routlys this year, you will know that it has been a wild ride over the last 12 months. We would like to thank all of our family and friends for their prayers and support over the last year. Without it, who knows what would have happened!

This was, of course, the year of the adoption. In January, we were eagerly awaiting our court date in Addis Ababa so that we would be approved to adopt our two boys. This was approved, and we spent the next few months waiting and preparing. After a very difficult delay in March, we were able to travel to Ethiopia in early April, to pick up Seth and Zane. We have spent much of the remaining year integrating them into our lives here in the States and enjoying our new, larger family. Just recently, on December 16, we went to court and completed the last step in the adoption. They are completely and officially ours, and we couldn’t be happier about it.

So some family updates: Bren and Jace are both nine now, and in third grade. They are both doing well in school, but finding the gradual increase in homework and responsibility to be a challenge. They have been a fantastic help with the new boys, especially Zane. Joel is seven, and in first grade. He is a sweet and loving boy with a great personality. His giving spirit sometimes amazes me. The three older boys had the chance to attend an overnight camp for the first time this year, which was a real highlight. They are currently taking a break from their regular karate lessons to join a wrestling team at a local high school. The coach of the team says that they are “too nice for wrestling,” but he is trying to make them a little more mean. The stated goal of the boys participation in wrestling, however, is to eventually be able to beat me in a fight.

Bryce began kindergarten this year, and appears to have taken over the school Bryce hides a very strong personality under a very sweet and cute demeanor, which proves very effective at getting what he wants. Every Friday, he leaves school with a pocket full of candy received from other kindergarten teachers that he visits on the way out of the school. He has been challenged by the fact that he is no longer the baby of the family, however he seems to have taken on his new “twin” very well. He and Seth compete on everything, but make very good companions.

Seth has been working hard to learn English and settle into our home. We have often felt like we have been cramming five years of parenting into the eight months that we have had him, but he has a great spirit that has allowed him to deal with all of the massive changes that have occurred in his life over the last several years. He is enjoying preschool currently, and is learning to read and write.

Zane is now fifteen months old. He has been able to walk for the last six months or so, and currently runs everywhere. He a healthy, happy, chubby baby with an infectious giggle. He loves his big brothers, but also seems to have a strong enough personality to deal with being the youngest of six boys. The adjustment back to the diaper phase has not been easy, but it is brief and we are enjoying it while it lasts.

Maia continues to enjoy staying home during the week and working on weekends in the Emergency Department at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. She has tried to focus on developing more and better relationships with people in our community and on serving the teachers at our elementary school.

I have continued to work as a counselor with Gwinnett County Mental Health over the past year. In May, I was ordained as an elder at our church, where I have been teaching a few classes, including those for lay counselors.

Other highlights this year have included our third summer with the Thunderbolts swim team, a trip to Huntsville, AL to visit the Space and Rocket Center, and a great weekend away for Dave and Maia running through a zipline canopy tour. One of the best things that our family has done this year, though, has been to begin to have friends over every Sunday afternoon for lunch. We have started to build some really good friendships through these lunches, and look forward to continuing them in the future.

Family pictures

Family pictures

Family pictures

Family pictures

Flames

This week was a strange one. Amidst all the repairs we have been making summer life rolls along. I managed to find a new cell phone and Dave fixed the upstairs toilet just in time for the kids to break it again. Guess what he is doing this weekend?
Our home phone and internet were down this week so I felt a little cut off. I am down to about 1 major meltdown a day, but yesterday I had 2. First Seth locked us out of the house. We have to break in through one of the windows. Fortunately everyone was with me and we could get in without calling a locksmith. We have been tell Seth not to lock doors since he got here. There is something about the mechanism or the fact that you can't open it, or something that appeals to him, because despite numerous disciplinary actions, he still locks them. Maybe I yelled loud enough to get something through to him yesterday.
Later that day I discovered that one of the boys had not closed the freezer Wednesday night when he had put something away. This is our large storage freezer. The first shelf and the door were entirely melted as were several items on the other shelves. This when I had my second emotional breakdown. As I was fussing over the fact that they can't be trusted with anything, and I have go check behind them with everything, Joel is his calm sweet voice said "Mom sometimes I feel like you are going to burst into flame."
That gave me pause. I said "Joel, sometimes I feel like that too!". We laughed and managed to have a good evening.