Two weekends ago we met some friends in SC for a weekend of camping and here are some of the fun pictures. We swam in the lake, swam in the creek, hung out, and hiked. We enjoyed visiting with friends we only get to see a few times a year and some more friends that we see often. Our friends from NC hadn't met Joy yet and my friend's name is Joy so our Joy thought that was cool that someone else had her name.
We went to my cousin's wedding this weekend and even though the drive was long the kids enjoyed the wedding with all the festivies. They liked, well the girls anyway, getting dressed up. We enjoyed swimming at the hotel, seeing relatives, and we also went to Dinosaur World on our way home. On our way back to GA I told Clayton how exhausted I was from having been SO busy this summer and driving distances out of town for two weekends in a row. Our kids get along so well for the most part when it is just them but when we add other kids to the mix it tends to frustrate all the girls. I think Grace and Faith are so patient with Joy normally but when they have friends around they just don't want to take the time to understand her and explain things to her. Joy ends up feeling lost in all the English chatter. I think Joy gets exhausted from constantly trying to figure out what others are saying. So it lends itself to some stressful, less than desirable attitude times from all three girls. Clayton and I end up hanging out with Joy a lot but I still think it is hard on all the girls. I told Clayton I have to wonder what Joy thinks about us dragging her EVERYWHERE so quickly after coming home. For the most part she seems to look at life as an adventure and has just done so well it has been easy to keep a busy pace... but we have to do a better job at stopping before the breaking points. This week we are having some much needed time at home.
Last week some time the girls realized that there was a bird building a nest in the birdhouse that our boys made. It was so sweet to see Faith and Joy looking at it for the longest time just talking in the versions of English, Chinese, and sign language that we do these days. All those times I wondered what our new daughter would be like and longed to see her interact with her siblings came flooding back to memory. Though times are not always the easiest with language barriers and sibling rivalry we are so glad ALL of our kids are part of our family. Parenting and adoption are definitely not for the faint of heart but it is so worth the blessings we have!
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