Truly Blessed! Three weeks, 2 days

Sweet sibling kisses!

Our little engineers at work!

We're tired, but happy, after a long day and a little restroom accident : )


Six dear children after a fun frolick at the park : )


Kara's first Ice-Cream Cone!!!



Brandon's first cone too! : )




Amazing how the days fly by~ especially when they are so full! : ) Blogging has fallen by the wayside unfortunately...

We've been home with the twins over 3 weeks now and count ourselves truly blessed!! They are such dear little ones and we love them so much! They are transitioning so well! Didier and Annie took such great care of them in Africa and prepped them terrificly in most areas. What a huge blessing! In ways, it's like having a little bit of them here with us...

So many areas to praise the Lord for!

FOOD: The twins are eating really well for the most part. Salad was a bit strange at first for them (don't think they had much, if any of it overseas), but with continual exposure and seeing the rest of us consume it like rabbits, they are eating it now. Kara even asked for seconds tonight! She was also asking for rice almost every day, but has now found a new love: pasta : ). They would eat rice with beans almost daily in the Congo. That's a quick, nutritious fall-back when it's time to eat around here. They had their first ice-cream cones last week when Grandpa Ray and Danichou visited, (my Mom and Dad). What a blessing the visit with them was and the twins especially thought so too when they were brought to the park with ice-cream and cones. Kara and Brandon loved them! We weren't sure as they didn't ever have anything frozen in Africa. What a treat!! : )

SLEEP: What a huge praise that they are sleeping through the night almost always now!!! Less and less, little Brandon will get up, cry LOUDLY, be brought to the restroom and then fall back to sleep. The beds have been moved around a bit as we are re-configuring the boys room. Gabe and Andrew are building a triple "L-shaped" type bunk. Can't wait to see it done!

RESTROOM issues: Kara is potty trained day and night!!! : D Brandon, 80% of the time is fine during the day, but we started a pull up at night for occasional 'accidents'.

BONDING: What a joy it is to have them fit right into our family! The kiddos are enjoying their siblings very much. The twins love for me to hold them; Brandon loves to be held like a baby. My heart melts when he reaches his little dimpled hands up to my face and stroke my cheeks and my hair. Sigh... : ) Kara often comes up to me throughout the day, reaches her little arms up and says, "Mama, tien moi!" (Mama hold me : ).

LANGUAGE: What a wonderful gift to be able to communicate with our dear ones! To understand what they wish and to know what they are having trouble with has been so amazing and helpful. We are determined that they keep their French. Not only is it in the family, but perhaps the Lord will call one, if not both, back to the Congo one day to maybe work with Didier. Who knows??

PERSONALITIES: Though twins, they are very different little people. So fun to see their personalities emerging! Brandon is a very analytical, more careful little boy and tends toward being more introverted. Kara is a fun-loving, gregarious, little girl who for sure has a mind of her own, yet loves to please us. They both do and are really so very sweet! Kara also loves to be my 'little helper' throughout the day : )

Oh how God has truly done exceedingly abundantly above all that we could have asked or thought!!! How amazingly good and kind is our Father...