Stress!

Well, today has been rather stressful. For whatever reason, sibling rivalry kicked in big time. All of the kids argued and argued and argued almost the WHOLE day! Constantly someone was crying, yelling, calling "mama!" (or mamu depending on who it was) and the noise just didn't stop. EVER! For lunch, I only had time for half a piece of bread with peanut butter on it and then I had to start refereeing (sp) again. Lack of food led to a headache, which the constant noise helped to accelarate! But after I fixed dinner and finally got to eat--after most everyone else was finished) my headache went away and I had renewed energy.

Don't get me wrong--the day had it's good points. Robbie (as Rebeka calls him and it really suits him) is still very loving and sweet and shares everything--especially with Rebeka. I do mean everything though--food, drink, whatever anyone else asks him for! He'll lick a lollipop and then give Rebeka a lick. At dinner, Eileen needed more juice and the bottle was empty. She started to get upset and Rebeka walked over to her with her cup and poured half of her juice into Eileen's cup. It was just so sweet to see that!

I would like prayer for insight for me though. Rebeka wants to be mommy. She is sometimes very bossy and wants to discipline the other kids. If Merrick (or any of the other kids) is bothering someone else or doing something that she doesn't think he should, she will yell, "no" (or "ne") and go to him and squeeze his hands or arms and sometimes she'll spank him! I tell her no--Mommy will handle it--but with the language barrier it's hard for her to understand what I'm trying to say. I think she feels like it's her job to make the other kids behave or something. I would like prayer to figure out how best to explain to her that she can just be a kid-she doesn't have to try to be the peacemaker!

Also, I have another thing tugging at my heart that I'm not at liberty to write about right now. Please pray for Godly wisdom for us in this matter.

Thank you!!
Brooke

Gymnastics anyone?

Rebeka & Roberts can do flips with the best of 'em! Daddy is constantly helping them flip this way and that! They LOVE it!

First--a complete miracle happened--ALL 5 of the kids slept ALL night last night!! Hooray! It really was quite amazing..and there was no arguing over going to sleep. They must have been exhausted from church and swimming yesterday. They loved swimming too. Rebeka is a very good swimmer and once Roberts finally got used to the water he loved it too! I will try to get pics up here of that as soon as possible!
Church was interesting for them yesterday. Roberts really doesn't understand the meaning of "Shhhh" which was mostly okay for kids church and Sunday school but last night there was no nursery. Roberts ended up on stage by the pulpit (Daddy was up there dressed as a Revolutionary soldier for the Independence Day special music we had) waving his American flag! I really hope someone at church got a picture of that! If so, email it to us! I ended up taking all the kids over to "The House" to play on the playground until service was over.
Well, I hear Daddy upstairs with everyone and sounds like he is being taken hostage! I better go check on him!! :) Thanks for the prayers everyone!!

Brooke

So sweet!!

Okay these kids are seriously sweet!! Rebeka is so loving towards her little brother and wants to help him do EVERYTHING. So much so that she sometimes seems to think she can't do what she wants in order to help Roberts. Roberts is a doll! He calls me "Mamu" which I find adorable! I am "mommy" to Rebeka and they both call Craig "Daddy" and it just melts our hearts. I don't have a ton of time to write now (it's go go go all day) but I just wanted to give a little update while I had a minute!! Thanks for the prayers--keep 'em coming!

This is it!

Well here we are counting down the hours. It's panic central at the Helf house as we clean the place up, stress out, get everything together for the kids, stress out, fix the welcome poster, and did I forget stress out some more? You'd think Queen Elizabeth was coming to stay with us.

We're really excited. Eileen and Merrick are really excited and cannot wait to start off to the airport. We did get some slightly disappointing news. There was a flight change and the arrival time has been bumped another 15 minutes. So now we're looking at 11:42pm. So it will probably be 'tomorrow' before we see Rebeka and Roberts.

I can't speak for Brooke but I couldn't sleep last night. It was like Christmas Eve as a kid. I'm trying to work and pitch in to help Brooke where I can. Seeing it's the end of our quarter, timing couldn't have been better...insert sarcasm here.

We'll be up late and no doubt sleeping late. We'll have pics and arrival news as soon as we can tomorrow!

Joy!

Communication with Rebeka is wonderful! She tells me it isn't her writing but someone named Anna is helping her write. (I don't think Rebeka knows much english.) But just to hear from her at all is a miracle! I sent her some pictures of our family today and she said we are a beautiful family. It's hard to email her though, cause I don't know how it will translate and I don't even know what I should or shouldn't write! :) We are not even allowed to say the word adopt around these kids while they are here--not even when talking about something unrelated to them! Whether they speak english or not, most will know that word and get their hopes up even if you're not talking about them.
Anyway, I am just very excited that she can occasionally send me an email and I can know she is okay. I can't wait until they get here!! Goodness--I love these kids!

Brooke

Rebeka Emailed Brooke Today!

Brooke called from work crying. She received an email from Rebeka today out of the blue. Talk about happiness. Here is what she said:

"hello, here Rebeka.at summer i will be with you. i am whaiting be in america. i finish first great.(help write girls)"

It's short and simple but who would think such few words would mean so much? I was just happy we were down to two weeks from today. And then Brooke called with this news. And to top it off, she sent a picture as well. Note her modeling skills. Love the fern...be the fern. We will now have to buy a fern to have something linking back home.

We truly are excited and cannot wait for these next two weeks to go by...