Plenty of Parentheses

We had a very eventful end to our trip!!! On our second to last day, we woke up promptly at 7 a.m. to get the whole family ready for the day (thinking we would have plenty of time) to meet up with my sister and her kids at the Arboretum and nothing went quickly.

Instead, we had lots of issues including certain uncooperative niños, hotel breakfast chaos with an out-of-control mother yelling at her son (it was not me!!!) and thus much stress and slower eaters (you can't eat very quickly when you are gawking), and then as we piled into the van and happily pulled out of our parking space..."pmpf, pmpf, pmpf, pmpf!" In horror, we realized we must have a flat tire! I hopped out to look and our back tire was totally f-l-a-t. We were already running late and now things were definitely not looking pretty. After deliberation, we decided to call for our roadside assistance (that we pay for but never use) to help us put the spare on and thankfully the guy came very quickly and changed the tire in less than five minutes (wow).

My sister arrived in her van shortly before the repair guy came and we were off in a jiffy on our little donut tire to enjoy our day together! We drove (very cautiously) to the Arboretum and it took us a while to get unloaded...when we were finally all "ready," my sister noticed big, dark storm clouds approaching along with lightning. Unfortunately, we stood in the entrance for an hour and a half waiting for the storm to blow over. It was an agonizing wait. We didn't leave because they would not refund our (exorbitant) admission fee we had just paid! Finally, the sun came out and we entered the park and proceeded to eat our lunch and had a very nice time. We enjoyed the trip so much!

When we got home, the kids helped us immensely to unpack and put stuff in the right room! We were so thankful for their eager helping hands! I was especially happy because Karl found my camera in the garage (phew)!!!

Anji started school this week and Mami is driving her to school and picking her up (along with Claudia and Andres) because somehow we did not make it on the bus list/schedule...?!?! I made some calls and hopefully she will be back on the bus soon (she loves the bus).

We are trying to get into the new swing of things with our new school schedule & bedtimes (ugh). Karl started working to compile all the documents we need for the refinalization of our adoption(s). I have been working on an ornament design for a Jesse Tree Ornament exchange. It is busy over here but going very well! For only being a family for 8 months and only in the U.S. for 6 months, we are delighted for the progress (& harmony!) in our household. Thanks be to God for His lovingkindness, mercy, & special care for our family!