Birthday Time for Sweet Girls!

This past weekend we celebrated Meghan's 12th birthday and Brigitta's 7th. These are two of the sweetest, happiest girls any mom could wish for! We had a wonderful time going out to eat and enjoying an ice cream cake.

Meet the yard crew

Bryan took some time last week to try to tame the wilds that is our yard. He enlisted quite a bit of help, and the place really shaped up!

And some did more goofing around than actual helping, but I think we'll keep them anyway!

Update on the new & improved Stumpf Family

Here’s the long-overdue, much-asked-for update on how things are going around here.

The children arrive last Monday (April 2, 2012) at around 7pm. Tuesday morning started before 6am! Fortunately, everyone is waking at a much more acceptable (in my mind) time now!

Last week was a tough one for me, not because of anything the new children were doing, but the stress and anxiety going on in my head. I stopped sleeping and was an emotional wreck. It reminded me of bringing my first few babies home. The overwhelming “what have I done?” feeling.

Once I was able to get a few nights of quality sleep, things started looking up. Not crying over green beans was a blessing to everyone.

Bringing home a 12 and 14-year-old and integrating them into the family is not without adjustment! Bryan equated it with having foreign exchange students with the bonus that they speak English.

There is a learning curve as they try to fit into the culture of our family. We’ve been blessed with two children that are very anxious to please. They are trying very hard to learn how we do things. Emelie says that she’s noticed that they are even beginning to talk like Stumpfs!

Because of state law, the new children will need to be in public school until the adoption is finalized, about six months. Trying to enroll children this close to the end of the school year has not been a speedy process. By the time they finally get into school (looking like next Tuesday), they will have only about 28 days left until summer break.

I’ll admit that venturing into the public school system has been one of the things that was stressing me out. Things like gym clothes, proper school supplies, and lunch money are things I’ve never had to think about before. God has resolved many of these issues. I should have let Him handle things from the beginning! Shocker!

For the fall, we’re looking into an on-line public charter school to plug the gap until we can officially homeschool them.

I cannot express how much I appreciate all the prayers and support from my family, near-to-home friends and my on-line friends. Knowing that our family is being lifted up to the Father has gotten be through my days. This adventure is just beginning, and in four weeks we will get to meet the newest member of our family.

Our double blessing arrived today!

As I posted on Facebook earlier today, a change in the placement plan resulted in the our two children coming home to us this evening!

Last Friday, as Bryan and I pulled into the parking lot of a Japanese restaurant, we received a phone call telling us that the placement might need to be moved up. We were attending the state homeschool convention and suddenly we had a hard time keeping focus!

This morning we had a meeting and knew it would likely happen this week. We found out at 1 o'clock that confirmed that tonight would be the night.

So now it's 10 p.m., exactly one month after we received a phone call asking if we would be interested in these children, and 8 of our 10 children are settled in bed. Not sure that anyone is actually sleeping yet!

On tomorrow's agenda will be getting things unpacked, trying to figure out how to handle the rest of the school year, and loving on two children that have just entered their forever home. I'm thinking that making Easter clothes might have to wait for a while!