It's the last week of school. I have to say, I am looking forward to less homework and more time outside.
I am not a play date mom. I forget to call or email, hence nothing is ever scheduled. But God has blessed us with a neighborhood in the city with neighborhood kids. Many go to the same school with Elaina and Zoya. They play in the parking lot and have lots of fun. A blessing for me, a mom who can't seem to schedule.
I look forward to watching the kids make up new worlds in the parking lot with friends.
It's good for them to feel the stretch of a long afternoon, to get past boredom and tap into the vat of imagination they each hold.
We also look forward to a few weeks of camp for Elaina and Zoya. Elaina is going to a theatre day camp a few times a week and Zoya opted for typical camp. And Polly and Evie will do four weeks of summer school. This year it's at their school with the teachers they love. Hurray!
My plans for the summer include finishing the second draft of my memoir, hugging my children more and sitting out on the porch with Sergei at night.
We may take a family vacation in August, but that is still in the works.
What about you? What are your summer plans?
I thought I was going back to Ukraine like last summer and the year before. Somehow I thought that would be the case for the rest of my life because now that we adopted our daughter from there (Ukraine), we are in love with her country. And somehow it makes me feel connected. In a strange way I need that and want that at the same time, maybe I even feel obligated because if she can't go back, then I want to. I just don't want to forget the wonder of all God did when we were there. It felt like a dream and truthfully, I don't want to wake up or forget the many wonderful people we met there. On top of this love for our daughter's country is the loss I feel deep inside for every orphan that remained in the orphanages we left behind. My husband and I had the opportunity to visit the baby house Lera lived in her first 5 years and of course the orphanage we adopted her from, and then on my return trip last summer, I visited Torez, the institution we prayed God would keep her out of, and PTL, He did. We were able to adopt her out of a nice orphanage in Druzhkovka, yet even from there, we were the first couple to adopt out of there in its entire 30 year existence. Oh well. I am rambling. Just sad, I will not be joining His Kids Too! this year, but hopeful to go the next year. In the meantime I am happy to have my book to tell about it and hopefully I can raise some support to give back. Thanks for helping me do that. God bless you! I can tell you are doing such an awesome job being a mom, on top of being a Pastor's wife, with 4 little girls to keep up with and 2 of them have special needs. Amazing! I hope you have a great summer :)
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