Happy 18th Birthday Erick!!!!!!!!

A few nights ago Jen was listening to the CD that I made a while back. A song came on that made me smile. I wrote this song about moving to the other side of the world. At the time that I wrote it Jen and I were considering moving to South Korea to teach English. The song was about how moving away was something that we felt we had to do but that we would still miss home. Well, we didn’t make it to the other side of the world but we made it to the other side of the country. We do miss home. In the song there was a line about praying for rain, of course because it would remind us of good old Portland, Oregon. No need to pray for rain in North Carolina. North Carolina has provided plenty of rain since we have been here. When we were thinking of moving here everyone told us that it never rains in North Carolina. This is a lie. It has been flooding our yard all day. There has been plenty of thunder and lightning as well. But it does remind me of home and so it hasn’t been all that bad. Although our planned trip to the lake today was definitely cancelled.
As Jen has said in past blogs we have adjusted here quite well. But every once in awhile something reminds me of Portland and makes me miss it deeply. I’ve seen the Schwan’s truck every once in a while and it reminds me of Jen’s family. Soon after arriving at our new North Carolina I also had a dream that we were hanging out with them and it hit me that I wasn’t going to be able to do that quite as easily anymore. My mom just got a dog and I want to go over to her house with our new dog but I can’t. It was also my brothers eighteenth birthday today and I had to wish him happy birthday over a voicemail message. I also heard a song online that I had sung and played guitar on for a Portland friend. It made me miss all my Portland friends a great deal and miss all of the music that we had played together. It’s hard to see them all going on with their lives and music with out me but of course I wish them the very best and I am very proud of them all.
Things have been going well here. The kids are on Easter/Spring break now and so we will have to figure out things for them to do all day long for the next week. It’ll be fun because there are times that their attention spans last about 30 seconds before they are ready to do something new. I’ve heard the phrase “I’m bored” so many times already and they have been on break for one day. I have started to appreciate my mom and parents in general in an entirely new way. Although they sometimes try our patience we have been really blessed with the kids that we have. They keep us on our toes but they are great kids. Some of the other foster parents have had some pretty intense struggles with their foster kids recently so we feel very blessed to have the family we have for the time being. A scary thing happened with our foster baby last night. He was in his high chair and was able to reach out and knock a plate off of the table. We looked down and thought he had cut open his hands with plate shards. It looked like his hands were covered in blood. Of course it was only ketchup. But for that moment we were terrified. The baby was terrified as well. The poor little guy was shaking. Today went much better for him. He is taking his first steps while holding onto things. Today he was also able to climb into a box.
U.B. got into an epic puppy battle with the boxer/lab puppy across the way. It was awesome. Up to this point U.B. had only been able to play with dogs much larger and older than him. The boxer was more of an equal match. I was impressed; U.B. did well. Usually U.B. is more of a lover than a fighter. By that I mean that when coming across another dog (or human leg for that matter) his go to move is usually mounting. They grow up too fast. Really they do. I can’t wait until we can nip that activity in the bud if you know what I mean. Yup, we are going to cut that habit short as soon as we can. Recently the girls discovered a way to deal with U.B.’s chewing, his other ugly habit. If you want to hold U.B. you can hold him in your arms like a baby and hold his rawhide bone in his mouth like a baby bottle. It’s pretty hilarious. Unfortunately at the rate he is growing this activity will probably not last us more than a week or two. U.B. keeps on trying to crawl through chairs and things like he was able to just several days ago. It’s not working like it used to. For him the whole house is shrinking and he has no clue why.
Well the kids are finally in bed (we had a late movie night) and so I am going to take this opportunity to do the same. Another full day starts in just a few hours. Blessings on you all, we love you and miss you.