Seven quick takes: Bogdan and birthdays and more

:: 1 ::

Bogdan and I have made a few cards with memories from my London trip to send off with thank you messages. While looking for inspiration for the next one, I came across this. Isn't it amazing? My evening at St. Paul's and on the Thames actually looked like that. The sky was less pink, and more golden, with dramatic dark clouds over one half of the city I didn't have a camera with me, and I wished that I did, but I loved the lighting.

:: 2 ::

I have been enjoying a few spots during the week where it's just Bogdan and me at home. It's nice. He usually wants to play preschool with me.* Or paint. Or go for a walk. I've been thinking about how different life is for him now than it was for his older siblings. A few of my friends with large families have mentioned discovering that their little ones don't know basic Bible stories; we're not quite there. (I think he does know them.) But he has missed some of the Bible activities and the little kids books that everyone else revelled in. And none of them were happily going off to classes away from Mama for several hours at a time! So, really, he's not missing out, his early childhood isn't worse; it's just different. We'll make a point of reading Bible stories and the beloved books, now that I've thought of that.

*You know he loves preschool, when that's what he wants to play.

:: 3 ::

Narration: this has constantly been on my mind since getting back from London. Karen Glass does such a good job of talking about it, and then I listened to a podcast about the same subject a few days ago, too. Karen especially left me very encouraged that this is a long process, and she also gave me ideas of certain things to aim for right now.

:: 4 ::

Hannah's blog post (and other other pieces that she has written) is a beautiful picture of adoption and families. We were honoured to get to meet her and her husband when there were here adopting.

:: 5 ::

Of course, we all know that adoption changes lives, but I saw that again very clearly when I was at the orphanage last week. There's a teen there who is from a group that I don't work with much. I greet her every time I see her, but she usually answered me very shyly, if at all. I've also known that a family was coming for her, but they had various delays along the way, and I couldn't talk about that with her or even tell her what I knew. Then, her mother came for a first adoption trip. Last week, when I saw the girl again, she was glowing. I greeted her as usual, and instead of a mumbled, looking-at-the-floor answer, she looked up and started bubbling: "Have you heard? I'm going to be adopted! I have a family coming for me!" and on and on and on. It was wonderful. She's changed that much, just because she knows that she has a family; what will it be like when she actually joins them?

:: 6 ::

September birthdays here: Jaan's was back on the 10th. I was gone, but Will made it a special day for him, and then we celebrated some more when I got back.

Today is actually Asya's birthday. She has a busy, full day with her beloved art school classes, though, so we won't do much at home. (Facebook tells me that she celebrated there two years ago, too.) The art school has also started monthly birthday celebrations, and the first one is today, so she was thrilled about that: September birthdays, being celebrated on her day! We made cupcakes for her to take to that. Then, tomorrow we'll go to Jump Park, an indoor playground. Will has taken our kids there twice, but without me, and Asya wants me to experience it too, hence her choice of that for her birthday fun.

:: 7 ::

I just realised that I've at least mentioned three out of four children, but not said anything about Raia. Hmm. She is busy and happy as usual. Yesterday was her turn to go to the orphanage with me, but she couldn't, because her nose is running a little. Today she made pancakes for Asya's birthday breakfast and bought a present with her own money. Recently she entered a photo and essay contest about pets, so he had to do a photo shoot of her Martin: