Time / Transition

WOW, time flies...it seems like my goal to post once a week was a lofty one :O)

"How are the Blaske's?" seems to be the question of the hour by all who see us.
We are BLESSED, busy, a bit tired, did I say BLESSED, and yes still laughing.

About two weeks ago the feeling of "newness" seemed to slip away and things seemed to kick into gear a bit more. Our big kids and our small kids started to act more and more like siblings...."who's sock is this in my room?" and " I think it is your turn to do the dishes" and "does John have to wake up soooo early every day" questions began to get asked. It has been good for all of us to transition to the place of knowing who's space and place is where and when.

Some things we did these last few weeks to help the kids and all of us transition:

* Drove John and victoria to Dave's work. (to anwswer the question that gets asked everyday "where is Dad?"

*Went to the place that has the BIG "M" out side (as Victoria calles it) to play in the play place. The one in Bellingham, creates LOTS of out loud giggles because the slide is sooooo high. My heart is full when I see the joy on Tristan's face as he gets to show the kids the play place as the "big brother" He is so gentle and fun loving with them. (tanner was in CA when we went)
CUTE thing: There is a bench in the play place with a life size Ronald McDonald sitting on it ...made out of plastic...
John took off his shoes, turned to run up the tube, STOPPED, carefully walked over to Ronald, and waved his hand right in front of Ronalds eyes...(like a windshield wipper type of motion) as if to check to see if he would Blink...was he real? FUNNY!

*We had a REVELATION the other day, we realized that by trying to keep the Beacon House routine we were building in more than we thought. We have a clock in our kitchen that is set to Ghana time, so as we "took our snack" (as the kids would say) we would look at the clock and see what the kids would be doing at BH. This has made for some great story times, some times of tears of missing kids/mum's and Romana, as well as setting the stage for what would be coming up in our day. (ie...dinner at 6:00, if beditme routine is done by 7:00 then a family movie)

The kids have had a firehydrant amount of change...new culture, new family, new people, new food,....new new, new....we did not realize that something this simple could cause our hearts to attach in new ways...by old things.

*deer in the headlights: this is a look that Dave and I know quite well by this point. It means I hear you talking, but I do not fully comprehend what you are saying.
Most of the time it is just in everyday conversations.
Funny thing, remember what I mentioned above about the "routine".
It hit us this week that the movie night thing
is kind of a funny "language arts / comprehension" thing that is happening.

We were all gettiing a bit frustrated when it came time to snuggle in, get the popcorn , pick the movie, only to hear John and VIctoria say "Flushed Away" or "Jungle Book"
AGAIN we would all say...you have seen it 100 times.

Ohhhhhh, Dave and I laughed tonight....yes they want to watch the same ones over and over again...they are getting familar with the songs, the funny sayings, it is
FREE FUNNY CONVERSATION
that they do not have to Stop and Think about whether or not they are "understanding" or not.

Very freeing! (kinda annoying, but very refreshing to sit and talk and talk and laugh and laugh about movies with them...with no pause in the conversation)
So, if you see us and want to talk the deep details of "Flushed Away, Jungle Book...now the new favorite...Alvin and the Chipmonks" we will do our very best to give you a good overview. (movies...could give you some hightlights, but as for the kiddos...TWO THUMBS UP...WAY UP!)

*we hung 16 faces that show different emotions (kids faces) with the emotion written below...onto our main wall in the familyroom. WOW...this has been a great talking tool. We found out that the BIG emotion they feel may not have an "english" word they can pull out at the right time to describe what is going on. Victoria may have a lot to say in a certain situation, but often will say to me "Mom, you are not understanding me...it is not like this or that" Now she takes me by the hand and says "mom this face here is the one!" and then we can work things out...sometimes it takes a few shots at it...but unconditional love is a journey and we are taking it step by step.
I said to one of the big kids the other day, "have you ever been given a consequence by someone who you do not know very well or very long? How did it make you feel? We you looking forward to when me or Dad would return, so you felt safe? Were you worried if that person would accept you later even if you were sorry? This is how John and Victoria feel..only times 100....because the peopple the knew and trusted are half way around the world...so building patterns of love, correction, love....are important, but we have to see if from their eyes. It is a journey.

. One of the kids had some behavior that needed correction, we walked through it, there was forgiveness offered, and recieved..yet there still was an awkward stillness of questioning in the air.
Just quietness etc. We gave them space, but were still in the area where they were, so we got out the BIG Walmart tub of bubble gum and started handing each person handfulls of bubble gum.....
Ready, set...who can blow the FIRST bubble? Who can blow the biggest bubble....and off we went. The child started to engage, by taking a piece of gum, still not wanting to look at anyone, but we all kept chomping away.
We sat and blew bubbles for 45 mins...and watched this child blow bubbles, come and sit by me, pop my bubbles, watched Dave try to pull gum out of his beard, bubbles as big as our heads pop all over our faces... laugh and laugh.

It started out as a Holy Spirit moment of a wisper..."do a bubble blowing contest"...okay i said, but what I did not know is that He was going to use it as a stepping stone on the road to "unconditional love"
I am always amazed at how creative and loving God is!

*The power of the dollar store...yee haw! It was an "awww, haaaaaa" moment for me to put them in the car, drive to the dollar store and let them pick out the prizes for the "Blaske Store" We filled up a 3 shelf plastic tub with different values on each shelf...and as the kids get "caught" obeying the first time, beign kind to others, sharing, getting their own body ready in the a.m. or when it is time to go somewhere...etc, they get a star. Stars get counted and kids get prizes that they picked out at the store...INCENTIVE is a Beautiful thing!

*

It is hard to describe to people what it is like to have two new, very amazing children in your home....who you have only known for a few months.....who have lived a life sooooooo different than they are living now. To tuck them in each night, to see their sleepy little eyes greet you in the morning, to put a band aid on a skinned knee, to listen to them pray and pray....who are these beautiful children that You God would trust us to have in our lives to call our own? WOW,

So, there ya have it...How are the Blaskes' doing?....God has his loving hand us, we are FULL of thankfulness, living real life day by day, looking to please Him only...and hoping in the process that "God" in us draws more to HIM!

Blogging.....an opportunity to give you a "snap" into our lives, but something that can not have a real high priority at the moment...so please call or come by...life in real time is soooo much more FUN!!! In the mean time, I will give it a shot when I can!
BLESSINGS!

Horton Hears a WHO

Or better yet....the people in the theater with us "hears" at all....over the laughter!

We decided to take the Blaske Bunch to the big movie theater for the first time all together!
Oh my!
After taking a small "loan" against the house
We all got in, bought the LARGE (re-fillable) bucket of popcorn.
(movie theater really lost money on this option for us hee hee)

We entered into the theater.
Grabbed a booster for John, got all kids situated and seated.
The pre-previews of local commercials were rolling...not to exciting, then the lights go out and pre-views start....

"Is this it? no...it is coming" "Is this it? no...it is coming"
You know how many pre-views they show before the show...you can imagine how many times this question and answer session went on :O)
Kind of like the "are we there yet?" question while you travel.

The movie starts...the characters start to appear on the screen.
One thing you need to know about Victoria...she DELIGHTS in any kind of animal who has a voice, wears shoes, funny hats, WHATEVER!
So her DELIGHT was showing in great forms of giggles and gut laughter.

John sat glued to the screen...not even moving anything except his hand to and from the popcorn to his mouth. Every once in a while he would reach over and say
"mom I like this"

As the show went on funny parts would come and go where the whole theater would laugh...as well as Victoria, but it was the random gut giggles at things she saw that tickled her that had us all rolling with laughter.

I think it was a combination of something NEW, something BIG (seeing those cute characters larger than life) and just plain VICOTRIA at her joyful best!

So, to all those people in the theater who got to enjoy her "contagious" laughter that first time at the theater with all of us....you can give us a call if you would like a re-cap on what happened in the show....in case you could not
HEAR "HORTON HEARS a WHO"

Family...ha ha ha!

I know I said I would try to blog once a week....but I can say that life is so full and so fun at the moment that it is hard to get to the computer to "play" on my blog!
So, you guessed it....while the kids are in bed, my amazing husband smooches my cheek as he stumbles up to bed to leave me to "blog" at 11:00 at night...here I sit and DUMP a LOT of posts on to my blog. sorry...! Enjoy the posts below!

What can I say, this is our first "offical" Blaske Family Picture where we are all in the same "snap" (as J and V would say) together.
We have all been together, just have not had someone else there to "snap" us.
This pretty much sums up how we are and have been since our feet hit US soil...
LAUGHING!

We are not bi-passing parenting issues, or organization craziness, lack of milk, or shortage of bread (who knew adding two kids would change how fast things disappeared in the house :O) or trying to keep at least enough underware clean so each person can have at least one pair.....BUT, in it all, and around it all there seems to be this crazy kind of LAUGHTER all day and so far...for 3 1/2 weeks straight!

So, see our smiles, hope it makes you smile, and know we are blessed to have all of you in our lives...even if we have not had a chance to meet!
We send LOVE and Joy in the name of Jesus...the ONLY reason why we are so full of JOY....straight your way!

Peace man!

Date night with the Daddy!
Girls are getting ready for "70's Father Daughter Skate Night" at the skate rink.
Anyone say "cool man!"



SISTER LOVE and PEACE

Daddy-0 and his cool chicks! (minus the mamma...:O)

They skated, did the limbo, had a BLAST...even won the prize..."Funky Fresh Family!"

Way to go "Cool Cat Blaske's"

Books

This is a HAPPY day!
John and Victoria LOVE LOVE LOVE books!
Each day they read and read, color and read some more.
The library became a weekly outing two weeks ago...just to keep the variety of books coming!
We got library cards and spent a little bit of time teaching them how to pick books and scan them all by themselves and collect the paper that tells them what they have checked out...now they are "Pro's"
They know they can only take 7 books and one DVD a week. (you should see the struggle when they have more than 7 and have to choose)
Tanner and Trstan are seeing the library with new eyes again, and Ash even paid a fine she had obtained (while in Hong Kong....you can imagine it was not so small) but now all is clear and books are coming and going and it is FUN!

Hello!

What does a mommy do when your beautiful new daughter looks right into your eyes at night as she prepares to pray and says "Mom, can you go and collect some more kids from Beacon House and bring them here?"
Each night we pray and pray for families to come and "collect" the precious children from Beacon House.
It was an exciting day when we got the news that Victoria's good friend from Beacon house had arrived to her new family in America. (about a week or so ago)
We waited each day, to let thm settle in a bit
(boy do I remember those first few days...so much JOY and FUN and soooooo tired)

It was very hard for Victoria to wait because she knew her friend was "collected to her new family" (she also got to meet the mommy when the mommy came to Ghana to file her papers, then had to leave to wait out the Embassy timeline)

Today, I was at the computer working on Beacon House applications of new families looking into adoption at Beacon House. Victoria came by singing a song to the tune of farmer and the del "my mom is on the phone, my mom is on the phone, she is working on the computer and on the phone"

I paused and realized that she had been painting and was finished and was a bit bugged that I was busy....her little tune was her way of saying
"hey....stop and play with ME"

I put my arm around her and asked her if she knew what I was working on...she said "No" So i showed her the papers, she recognized the BH logo on the application and her
eyes lit up.
We talked about FAMILIES who wanted to do papers so they could go and "collect" the a special child to live in their family.
(please read the "collect" word as a vocabulary/culture Ghana thing...)

She was a bouncing girl of JOY...."MOM, MOM, LOOK at ALL the PAPERS.....THIS IS GOOD!"
So she sat on my lap as I typed away for a few more minutes.

Then the idea....
We should email the family who just arrived home in America and ask for their phone number so we could call her friend soon.

We drafted an email and sent it off.
We talked about checking the email later to see if the number was there, got up and went on with the day.
About 15 mins went by and the PHONE RANG!
On the other end was a BEAUTIFUL VOICE!

"Hello, is Victoria there?"

I handed Victoria the phone and after the hello there was a good 2 long minutes of just LAUGHTER....no words!
SOOOOOO much JOY!
The girls talked about airplane rides, new bed rooms, brother and sisters, SNOW (more laughter) food, and so much more.
So I share with you the "Hello" moment!
WOW!
My heart is so FULL!

Let it Snow...NO!

Any body wondering why it was snowing in March in WA....It could be because of two terrific kiddos in the Blaske house (and a few more terrific kiddos in Lynden...) who had NEVER seen snow...who HAD been praying for snow!
There ya have it!
Each time we open the door to leave the house, leave church, leave the grocery store, the library, the ANYWHERE, both kids say "Ouch, it is COLD" as they lean backwards onto you as you try to walk OUT the door.
Not this day...if you look closely, they are in their P.J's..YES....they woke up, put their shoes and coats on and were OUTSIDE....no "ouch it is COLD" just delightful laughter and lots of tongue sticking out to catch the SNOW.
Victoria got to talk to Romana on the phone a few days later and told Romana that the snow was cold cold and tasted like water. (or as she says "Waatahh")
We loved watching them see their first snow, but now have asked them to move on to praying for some warm weather. Even anything in the high 50's would do!