A blending of cultures...

Silly boys!
Mercy loves music...here she is listening to bible verses on tape and trying to follow along with the illustrated book. Odesco falls asleep in the oddest places and positions! Here he is as "Baby Jesus" in a wicker basket ('manger')-courtesy of his big sisters! Soon after this picture was snapped, he groggily tipped the basket, dumping himself out onto the floor....he crawled over to the couch and slept standing up but with his torso bent over on the cushions!
Here he is snoozing away with the stair leading up to the kitchen for a pillow!
Here is our little guy asleep at the table after a rather exhausting meltdown...

An interesting thing is happening in the B household...our homegrown kiddos are becoming a bit "Liberianized"! The other day I was listening as G and Mercy played a counting game, I smiled as I heard G counting ...one, two, tee-dee, four.( Both Mercy and Odesco pronounce "3" so that it sounds like "tee-dee". )I have also heard G refer to stars as "far-sky" and the entire family(except Mercy!) now calls Liquid Bragg's "doup"...Odesco's version of "soup" -the word used to describe any liquid poured over rice, eggs etc. The words "plenty and small,small" are utilized quite frequently by all the younger B's. Of course, there are now shaking bodies whenever lively music is played and doll babies are no longer cradled in arms but swaddled on backs~ African style :) I am so grateful Mercy and Odesco are old enough to share their past with us- (most of the time inadvertantly)...it is opening our eyes to the world around us -quite literally!
On the flip side of the cultural blending, Mercy is still adjusting to the necessity of dressing appropriately before heading outside in the middle of winter. Yesterday, as the other kiddos were donning snowpants, winter coats, boots, mittens, and hats, sweet(and impulsive!) Mercy darted outside- no coat, no shoes...by the time I raced to the door she was on her way back inside-loudly laughing with snow covering her entire back,bottom and legs! Seems she just couldn't resist the urge to make a snow angel before piling on all the winter accessories. She was not a happy camper when I told her to head upstairs to put new dry clothes under her snow gear and was even more perturbed to see and hear her siblings frolicking in the yard before she was! Do you think this might help her remember the next time this temptation seizes her?! I'll keep you posted :)
Recently, Odesco and Mercy have been playing "Acres of Hope" with our dollhouse set. They set up the rooms like the orphanage, name all the Fisher Price people in honor of their little friends, the nannies etc.What a blessing it is that their orphanage memories are a bright spot in their little lives! A day does not go by without some reference to AOH or Liberia. The other day, we viewed the AOH dvd we had purchased as a fundraiser several months back. Seeing it for the first time months ago when our hearts were sorely yearning to have Mercy and Odesco home was quite gut wrenching...especially when we realized they were actually in some of the footage!!I remember being in tears as we paused and and rewound the dvd multiple times just to be sure it was them.I was blubbering and waving wildly at the images of Odesco and Mercy(as if they could see me!?!) -what a sight , I'm sure. (Our 4 older kids are used to my tears by now!)
Now as we watched there was quite a contrast... Odesco was perched safe and snug on my lap! He and Mercy had such fun shouting out the names of"Grandma Patty", their friends, and nannies.They were even singing along with the songs. (We did skip the war footage, though!).

I am taking an online seminar on the importance of Lifebooks for adopted children(from Adoptive Learning Partners for all you fellow adopters)...all of these happenings make me want to write everything down as I am sure someday the memories will fade . As important as it is for Mercy and Odesco to be acclimated to life here, I don't want them to lose this piece of their lives. It is a significant part of who they are. I also want to be more purposeful about videotaping them speaking as their accents will likely wane over time...that makes my mommy heart a wee bit sad :(
Every day I say to Odesco,"Who loves you soooo much?!" He answers, "Daddy and Mommy"...then I ask him,"Who loves you even more than Daddy and Mommy?"
Odesco answers,"Je-dus" When I ask him how he know this he declares,"Because he die on da cro for ma si!" He usually demonstrates this by outstretching his arms. These moments are oh, so encouraging in the midst of our daily issues :)
Last nite' during our bedtime routine, Mercy prayed out loud for the first time. She often does this during times of play...she will pray loud emotionally charged prayers over her food or thanking God for some other thing that has struck her fancy. She is obviously imitating prayers she has heard...although I'm sure those prayers were not over a jar of red hot pepper flakes! Her prayer last nite' though was different...she was serious-her eyes were closed and her hands folded (...if you have had the privilege to meet our spicy girl , you know why this is a surprise-she loves to tease, joke and be silly!) She thanked God for Acres of Hope," Grandma Patty",for the nannies,a few of her little friends ,and then she thanked God for each one of us! It was a precious moment!

Today, the big boys and Daddy went skiing with our homeschool group.This morning at around 6:30 am,P asked if he should go in and kiss all his siblings goodbye before leaving for their outing...sweet thought, but NO...don't wake them now, please!! The little boys were up on their own a few moments later,anyway so P and C were able to give out ample hugs and kisses to their little brothers who were quite sad when they left:( Both P and C are very affecionate with our newest charges (and with L and G too-!). The other day as we were watching the kids' homecoming video, C declared that he thought we should adopt again! Mark and I got a laugh out of that(definately not on our radar screen !) but I am glad to see that the intensity of these few weeks has not jaded his view of adoption and God's plan for our family!! P and C have been such a help to me! They are quite adept at getting Odesco especially out of his funky moods...they also help with the 4 carseats that need to be fastened before every trip out- On Sunday morning when I was on my own (since the big boys and Daddy go early for church set up), I realized I had not strapped them in since their homecoming! How did I know this? I fumbled around like a first time mom with the the buckle apparatus on our newest carseat-it took me a while to get it figured out!
L is having some challenges adjusting to life with 2 new siblings. He announced the other morning ,that" it just wasn't fair...Odesco is younger but he is bigger and stronger and it's not supposed to be that way! "I am grateful he is vocalizing his struggles but it does make the days a bit interesting!(I'll leave it to your imagination! :)! We talk about God's sovereign plan for our family and that this is His best choice for all of us and an opportunity for him to grow(not necessarily physically!) as well. We talk about God's wisdom in making L the way he is (little!) In fact,L was the only one for the job of climbing behind the couch the other day to collect the assortment of misplaced belongings gathered there...he is the perfect size and for a brief moment he was quite thrilled with that! We try to instill vision for the day when they will be best buddies...(O Lord, hasten the day !!) On a positive note,there are pockets of each day where L and Odesco do really well playing together. Usually this involves toy weapons, helmets and other amusing props!-Oh and they usually do well tandem playing with duplos for long stretches of time as long as they don't both want the same piece simultaneously!
Today, to make the day a bit special for the littles, Daddy suggested taking them out for lunch and I had decided last night that we would make our first trip to the library. (Could be an adventure!!) This morning, we reviewed "library etiquette"(ie: we must speak within appropriate decibel levels, no running, no taking books off the shelves without my permission and each child may choose up to 5 books). I should have mentioned no fighting over the self check out machine buttons...oh, well...now I know how to prepare for next time. Odesco and Mercy had their first ever elevator ride as we couldn't manage lumbering down the open staircase with our overfilled book bags pulling us off balance...they were both fearful of this strange room that closed on us but when the doors opened and we were on the first floor, they were pretty impressed!
I'm happy to say we are all in one piece, we didn't get kicked out or 'shushed' at the library and we ate a tantrum free meal at Wendy's! This was our first time ordering Kid's meals and not surprisingly, the quantities did not satisfy Mercy and Odesco's appetites(they both ate a half bagel when we returned home!) but L and G brought some of their meals home to finish! Our sweet Mercy's deep, full (ie:Loud!) voice just carries in small places and it is always a challenge for her to use an 'inside voice'. In both locations, I'm sure we were noticed for more reasons than one!
This afternoon we have been reading our many library books--the favorite seems to be Curious George, (who is from Africa) so we had an informal geography lesson at our huge map in the foyer. Right now the boys are watching a video and the girls have orchestrated a birthday party for their American Girl dolls...complete with gifts! When these girlies work together, they are really quite creative!
So there you have it....life in our buzzing hive is never dull :) Oh, the new word of the week is
"see-no"...aka:snow~The other night when we had spaghetti for dinner the kids were calling the parm cheese 'see-no' just like they exclaimed earlier in the day when the flakes started falling from the sky!! Too funny.
Thanks as always for checking in and for your prayers...we feel them and appreciate them so much!!
Love, MamaB