Five Fun Days

This past five days have been a whirlwind of activities. Devon and Ethan came for their second visit at our house. As many of you already know, we are in the process of adopting two boys through the foster care system. It has been a really long road so far and we feel so blessed to have these two special boys join our family.

On Wednesday Ethan decided to join Sydney, Josiah and Logan (our neighbour) for AWANA. Ethan and Devon arrived at the house around 4:30 and Ethan was ready to go by 6:00. Devon decided he'd rather spend some time with Greg and get some of his homework done.

Thursday Sydney boarded the bus for kindergarten with the neighbors. I had to take Josiah to an eye appointment, which gave the boys time alone with Greg. He let them ride the dirtbikes around the yard and then they all went fishing. They drove about 10 miles to a little spot by Grand Meadow with no luck. They returned home and fished across the road and were much more successful. Devon caught a pretty big small mouth bass. He was very excited. Ethan caught a couple of little ones too. Later we played outside and went walking through the woods together. The fun really started when all the kids came home from school. That's when the acorn wars began. Our oak trees have dropped millions of acorns, so the kids would run around and throw them at each other and targets. The little kids were collecting them. Their pockets and buckets were full. They had the time of their lives. I love activities that require imagination and no "stuff"

On Friday the boys met Grandma Pat and Grandpa Chuck for the first time. They also got to have a tour of their "new school". Devon found our he could join the band and that he would be going to Eagle Bluff in May. He thought that sounded pretty cool. Ethan's class welcomed him with a class book. He already had a desk, locker and his name up around the class. He made a new friend who showed him where his locker was. He had to stop by Sydney and Josiah's classrooms to say "hi" too. Later that night we had a bonfire. Of course we had to have smores. Devon and Ethan spent 2 hours collecting and breaking up sticks for the fire. It was another one of those great activities that comes with living in the country.

On Saturday we watched Saturday morning cartoons. This is a novelty when you only have 5 channels. Devon found out and could not believe that we didn't get cartoon network, or nickelodeon, or the military channel. It didn't seem to be too negative though, all in all. Then we went on a PATH outing and got to go bowling. Sydney is actually pretty good, although she doesn't care. She doesn't even look to see how many pins she got over. Josiah always gets the left hand pins. Devon beat dad, but mom is the reigning bowling champion of our family. :) Devon loves buffets and everyone else loves pizza, so we went to Pizza Ranch for lunch...talk about a win-win situation.

Sunday we went to church and Devon met Jared (his cousin) and Ethan met Connor (Jared's brother) They are in the same grades at school and so are in Sunday School together. They really seemed to hit it off. Although Connor and Ethan are cut from the same cloth, so we will try to keep them seperated from now on. :)

Greg took the boys all the way back to Fargo after brunch at Perkins. He'll make the return trip tonight. An exhausting 12-14 hour trip. I volunteered to stay home with Sydney and Josiah, so they wouldn't have to travel all day. (I'm a a martyr, I know) It was hard to say good-bye to the boys knowing this is where they belong, but soon they will be here for good. We are planning to see them every weekend until the transition. That will take place sometime in October. Hopefully sooner than later.