Easter and April

Our usual busy lives remain.......busy! 

This month two of our kids began soccer through our church's Upward ministry. Somehow Jeremy became an assistant coach. The kids love it! Honestly, it is pretty neat to see them out on the field. Rebecca and Benji have been loving the competition. 

Could you ask for any more perfect weather?

Enjoying the sun.

Action.......

Coaching.......

More action......

Then this sweetie stood on the sideline and very loudly said, "Hi, Boo!" to her brother across the field.

It was a fun opening day. Both of the kids scored goals and love it!

Ben had an Easter program at church and was one of the disciples. He is in the bottom left of the photo.

This was Selah's first Easter. Our hearts are so burdened for her to hear and understand the Gospel. Jeremy and I took every opportunity to help Selah understand. 

Our neighbor's little boy had his own Easter egg hunt for the kids.

Selah was confused but played along!

She thought that candy inside the eggs was pretty cool.

Then we colored eggs! This is always a favorite.

Everyone joining in.

Even Mariah!

I ended up staying home with Mariah from church on Easter Sunday. She had been running a temperature.

Easter baskets are very basic. Chocolate bunny, lots of chocolate, and one very small gift.

We headed to Pittsburgh for two doctor's appointments. Kids are doing great.

On April 25th we had an appointment for Selah to take her oath of citizenship. It is a little confusing but she became a citizen when we landed in LA. However, because she was 14 the US requires these kids to take this oath in order to close out their case. This "ceremony" also allowed our daughter to receive her Certificate of Citizenship. 

After the 1 hour and 20 minute drive we were told we may have driven down there for nothing. Selah's middle name was spelled incorrectly. Interestingly her appointment letter had her first name as "Sarah" but the CoC had her middle name spelled wrong. For now we will endure. One day we will possibly laugh at this. 

The oath!

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.^[1]

The coveted Certificate of Citizenship! We could not keep this but it served well for photos!

Family photo after we got scolded by another worker.

Our worker said the photos were fine and encouraged us to take several more.

I had this post written last week but it still needed some work. To be completely honest, it is tough. We can only prove to be trustworthy in time because Selah simply does not believe we can be trusted. It is so hard for her. 

She is beginning to understand our cultural expectations. She is learning how to be a sister. She is beginning to learn how to allow Jeremy and me to love her for who she is. She is beginning to realize we are not bad people as she was told. Selah is learning how to be a big sister to Mariah. This will all take time. 

We do ask that you pray for us. There is not one minute that we doubt where God has led us. We do ask for prayer. We have medical concerns that weigh heavily on us. 

It is beautiful to watch Selah blossom. She is finally showing a little affection to me in front of the other kids. She has a really tough time showing her affection. So when others ask her how it is here in our family she truly cannot answer that question. I think she believes the veil will be lifted and everything she previously thought would come to be true. But we are exactly what we are. 

We were blessed to be completely surprised this past Friday. We attended a graduation party for our dear Spanish teacher for the kids. As we were leaving the ladies at the party offered balloons to Mariah and Jeremy noticed Selah was interested. They offered her balloons as well. She ran out the doors and was running through the parking lot like a small child. That gave both of us perspective. We had no idea! It was probably the very first time she ever had balloons. We saw a glimpse of the childhood that was stolen from her.

I am wrapping up some of our schooling but my days will still be quite busy. Benjamin is starting vision therapy on Monday. We will be at the optometrist's office daily for 4 weeks (Monday-Friday). Then twice weekly for the next 6 weeks. 

I am looking forward to a little break from learning about American history and Botany. I love it but I need a break.