Off to busy summer

We have been having a lot of fun, a lot of activities. Bonding is going really well. I mean REALLY well. I just don't even know what to write because it seems as if life is normal.

Except....my exhaustion.

I am so very tired by night fall. I have nothing left to give to anyone but my immediate family right now. I should have realized that would be the case. After all, this is the 4th time we have brought a new child/children into the family. And every social worker under the sun reminds you the transition is 4-8 months (sometimes longer if things are tough). But I sort of forgot how exhausting it really is. Lily and Aaron were pretty easy transition since Dale was home full time, I had help. Now he's working full time, it's just me. And that is a different ball game. I'm not about to begin to list what all it takes to help a new/older child transition & keep a household running normal so I don't personally lose my mind, because I would surely forget something and then it would sound like whining anyway. And I have nothing to whine about. Life is good! Really really good! But it does end up just taking all of me.

But even in my exhaustion, as my head hits the pillow at night and my feet literally ache so terribly from the days work, I am happy. We are all happy. And I can see what an awesome God I serve. He is faithful and true. He has helped me with our tough adoptions, he's us blessed with each child, he's given us immeasurable Joy, shear Joy. And it feels good to serve him emotionally & physically each day in a life that is surrendered to my king and his kingdom.

About the pictures....we have lived in this house over 3 years now and I'm not sure why we never did this before, but we decided to built a fire ring this weekend for Sunday night hot dog roast in the summer. It was so much fun. Being our first, we took tons of photos and enjoyed hot dogs, s'more and firefly catching.

On Memorial Day we went to NYC. Years ago Kya and Autumn badly wanted a Chinese doll and AG is one of the few doll companies that actually sells Chinese dolls, so after about 18 months of begging, we finally drove them to AG in NYC to get their Chinese dolls. That was such a sweet day, that now we have sort of made it a tradition after the age of 6. And here we are with our 3rd Chinese blessing and well, she wanted a doll, an AG doll of course like her sisters. Turns out Memorial Day is the perfect day to visit the city. There was basically about 1/2 the traffic. We visited AG, Carnegie Deli, Central Park, FAO, the Lego Store at Rockefeller Center and had pizza before leaving the city. We were gone from 6am to 10pm but it was a great day! And....Lily cannot wait to go back in April when turns 6 to get her Bitty Twins from AG.