Enjoying the last days of the year

We are enjoying the last few days of 5770. Tomorrow evening we are lighting the candles to usher in the new year: 5771. We are busy with homeschooling Noa, and Ezra had his eye surgery. It ended up a same day surgery, so he was home yesterday afternoon. He slept through the aternoon while I gave the other kids away to my step-mom to spoil them. My step-mom loves all the grandkids and great-grandkids (which, being 41 and pregnant with her second child is kinda funny. Oh yes, I'll be a big brother once more).

Saturday was my newest nephew's bris. This time there were no surprises with the name, he is named Shimon Avi, and he barely cried. He was mostly sleeping through the party. He was loved on by a gazillion cousins. That kid will have to have a very strong immune system if he wants to survive all the cousin exposure. He did great, though, and it was very endearing watching Noa and Shiri hold him and play with him. Asher is a proud big brother, he added Shimon's name to his vocabulary, and he goes around saying "achi, achi" (my brother). Too cute.

Homeschool goes well with Noa. Twice a week she has Armenian lessons with an Armenian school teacher over Skype. She seems to love that! She is still talking to her foster parents about once a week, and she just realized what a great thing e-mail is! So at this point she is teaching herself to type. At this point we have English (US), Hungarian, Hebrew, Russian and Armenian keyboards lying around the apartment... yeah. Does anyone know how I can get Armenian Windows for Noa? Not that she has any issues navigating English. She is actually soaking up English, and we are having more and more conversations in English. Kevin is also learning a lot of Armenian from Noa. Kevin is a linguist at heart, and he loves learning languages, so I can see building his Armenian up.

Last week we were contacted by our social worker about another respite/disruption situation. She hoped we could take the children for a few weeks while the family tries to work through their issues, but at this point we had to turn the offer down. We are not in the position at this point to accept, even temporarily, two more children into our family. It's not a financial thing, not even that we don't want more children, but at this point we have 4 kids in the family who have been with us less than a year, and they do deserve the time and attention to help with their adjustment.

Yes, I still count P as a "new" kid. He still has his struggles and he is not completely attached yet. He is adjusted to our family, to our routine and definitely has found his place with the other boys, and he likes us all right, but the process is not complete yet. He is actually suspicious about our motives at certain things, like why I didn't want him to convert right away. So after consulting with my own rabbi and with my brother (an Orthodox Rabbi) and another Orthodox rabbi, we decided to go forth with P's conversion. While he is still a minor, the bet din (the Jewish court, comprised of three rabbis) were kind enough to meet with him and us at our request, and it was a lovely meeting. P understands all the physical requirements as well, and the time was set for his hatafat dam brit. Can I say I have one super excited 9-year-old? The funny thing is that this way I will have a bat mitzvah girl and a bar mitzvah boy exactly 6 months apart - with Noa's celebration first and P's second.

This afternoon the kids are over at my dad's again, they will all go to pick up my twin brother at the airport. It's just amazing that this year, for Rosh Hashanah, all my dad's children will be together for the first time ever. It will be my first time of meeting my eldest half sister!

1 week home

So we have all been home as a family for a week. It has been such an interesting week. 

Do you remember how Ezra has trouble sleeping while we were in the States? Well, luckily, that has resolved itself and Ezra is now sleeping well at night. He started to nap in the afternoons with Shiri a few days ago. He seems a lot more regulated. He is still not really speaking, we can distinguish about 4 words (3 in Armenian, one in English) at this point. On Thursday was his appointment with the cardiologist, eye surgeon and developmental pediatrician. We got the eye surgery scheduled, (September 6), a follow up cardiology appointment in October after he turns 2, and a possible heart surgery in about 8 months time. That will be scheduled later.

The developmental ped ordered genetics to see why some of the delays Ezra has. In his paperwork from Armenia it says that he is generally delayed due to prenatal alcohol exposure, but then his twin sister is not only not delayed, but is advanced in some areas. Ezra also lacks all the facial markers (which I know is not a decisive factor), and there is no known history of maternal alcohol consumption. The developmental pediatrician thinks that it is not FASD (though it could be), but it is more connected to the heart and kidney issues Ezra has been having since birth. We are not 100% sure at this point.

Shiri is yapping away in English a lot. Noa still speaks to them in Armenian (and so does Kevin quite often), but now she is speaking her English words to the boys and me. She loves our dog and the goldfish. Unfortunately, she loves to feed the goldfish as well, which resulted in a sudden decline in the goldfish population. Luckily she cannot reach the big fishtank. She is loving the Red Sea and that she got to see dolphins yesterday!

Noa... Sweet Noa is fitting right in with the boys. Like 5 peas in a pod. She is into all mischief with them. She is actually picking up some Hungarian from them. Crazy, I know. She is also teaching them Armenian words, so now they speak an Armenian dialect of Hunglish between each other. Funny, because this way we absolutely have no idea what they are up to. I am thinking about producing a paper on their makeshift language, so maybe I can use it for a home assignment or something.

The boys are happy to be back to Israel - even P! He had a lovely time in Hungary, and he had a lovely time in Ireland, and he is having a lovely time back home now. He is loving visiting great-grandma in Eilat. Actually, he loves the fact that as he has been here once before, he is showing Noa around the place. All too cute. :)

Day 2 at home

Sorry about the very interrupted post last night - I was literally dozing off at the keyboard! Having toddlers again has taken up all my energy. And just to think that Kevin is starting back at work on Sunday makes me feel exhausted. Especially since being in home office means that I still get to work. Luckily Janice is off work this week, so the she will be around to help, and then Kevin's schedule is empty for Thursday, so Thursday morning we are heading down to Eilat and won't be back in town till Monday mid day. Kevin's coworkers have been wonderful in supporting his extended leave and now that he is back we found out that they haven't taken adventage of his absence in signing up for the Thursdays to be off work, plus with the intern who substituted for Kevin he has every other Sunday off for a long time. (Kevin didn't use any paid vacation for the adoption trip, so he still has like 9 days left.) This will work out just great as Thursday and Monday are my client days, so child care will be covered. 

Last night we had a lovely time at home. We did out usual Friday thing, which included a dinner outside. As i mentioned before, usually we are joined by the neighbors for this, and it being Ramadan, it was an especially joyous Friday dinner. All the kids had fun, and they ate and ate and played till they dropped. :)

Noa loves her room! She already rearranged all the toys and books, which leads us to a funny situation. It's the bedtime story reading issue. Since Noa already knows how to read Armenian, Kevin purchased quite a few age apropriate books for Noa and the twins as well. Noa often asks  Kevin to read her a bedtime story, and brings out one of the Armenian books. The problem is that while Kevin speaks some Armenian, he does not read it. Noa cannot figure out how her dad can't read it if he can speak it. So now she is teaching Kevin to read the language. I think she is doing a pretty good job. To the left is the cover of her currently favorite book. I have the same book in Russian, too, for my cousin's kids. And a copy for my brother Sergei. 

Shabbat Shalom again!

Taking a break from baking challah with Noa while Kevin is playing cars with Ezra and Shiri is making her own challah. Or, at least, making her own mess from the dough. :)

This whole thing with Jewish living is going easier than I expected. Actually, it went easier with P than I expected. Noa asks a lot about what we do, and where Jesus comes into the picture, and at first she seemed a little baffled at the idea that we don't believe Jesus was the son of G-d. He is pretty much at the point in her life when she has some ideas for herself, but she also takes guidance from authority figures easily. Not that she brought deep religious convictions from her previous family. It will make for some interesting conversations though. 

We are actually on our second batch of challah now. The first batch I am sure we can reuse at our next BBQ... as charcoal. After all those years I had spent in the States, I could still not make a proper conversion from Fahrenheit to Celsius in my head... So yes, there was great smoke and a smoke detector going off, much to the delight of Ezra. The US should really switch to metric. Imperial measurements are so out of date - besides, with Independence, shouldn't they have adopted SI? The only TWO other countries, who haven't adopted the SI measurements are Myanmar and Liberia... What does that tell you? That said, once I heard an (of course) American preacher say that the metric system was the mark of the beast. Oh well.

Ezra can be quite a handful. With orphanage living, one would think, comes routine. It seems, however, that Ezra  has never experienced the concept of having routine. We are working hard on establishing a routine that is very much like the routine we have at home. Ezra will have none of it. Bedtime is usually a 30-minute screaming fest, and any activity involving slowing down for more than 2 minutes results in a melt down. Or rather... resulted. In the past 3 weeks we figured out that he reacts really well to soothing and happy sounds: certain songs, sounds of nature, etc. I have a nearly 20-year-old CD titled Guitar By The Sea. Ezra loves it! Depending on the tune he knows it's time for sleep, time for a nap, quiet time, story time etc. So bedtime is less of a struggle now. Unless, of course, it means being separated from his beloved TV. 

Oh the TV! The twins love the TV! It's kind of odd for us, as we didn't watch TV at all till Justin and Matthew fell in love with books, and they still rarely watch anything on TV. Ezra and Shiri, on the other hand, just love watching... comercials. And Teleshop. 

Hopefully it will be getting better when we finally get home.

Shabbat shalom, everyone!

The happenings in our household

First of all, with two Shabbats behind us, the kids are doing wonderfully at shul. Noa does bring up things reflecting her Armenian Christian background, but apparently her foster family didn't emphasise Christianity too much. Which is making things a little easier for us. :) 

She quite enjoys doing Jewish things that are familiar to her. We bought her a Noah's Ark toy, and we have Torah stories, coloring books and stickers she can play with. She is soaking up English, and at this point I'm super happy that she reads and writes Armenian, because she has her own little dictionary: picture, Armenian, English and Hebrew. She is super smart, and that was recognized very early, hence her placement with a foster family. I do hope for Noa's sake that they continue to keep in touch and bless her life. I still cannot find the proper words to express how very grateful I am for them. 

The twins are also doing great. They love to torment each other, but also are inseparable. The two weeks I have been with them they really have started to blossom. I know attachment takes a long time - bonding from my side also does - but I see the beginnings. Based on our experiences with P, things are going better than we expected. 

I am not too fond of the synagogue we are going to while here. There are a bunch of awesome places in the southern part of the county, but apparently this region has less of a Jewish life. I do contemplate driving down to Santa Ana, though - once I get in the car on the Shabbat it doesn't matter how far I drive, I figure. I know that the congregation there is a lot more open than here. Plus Janice's family go there as well, so we wouldn't be totally unknown.

Shiri and Ezra are doing great feeding themselves, and our great eaters. So is Noa. She is willing to try just about anything and makes up her mind only after getting through at least half of the meal. She is not too fond of pizza, American Mac and Cheese, broccolis and zuccini. Other veggies are great for her. Shiri takes care of Noa's broccolis, though. :)

The boys have left for "serious camp", which means they are not on Skype. When I put Noa to bed tonight she remarked, "I miss talking to my brothers."

Jet Lag? Nah

So, for me to come away for most of the summer means that I do have to work remotely. Part of the work involves online meetings and presentations. Of course work runs on Tel Aviv time, and I would run on California time, but no. The last two nights I was up most of the night and took an extended afternoon nap. Now I could possibly be sleeping, but I can't fall back asleep. Jet lag has nothing to do with my messed up sleep schedule. 

It's also a challenge to lie low and do not do exciting activities when you are staying in a house that your family hasn't lived in for 8 years and it is in between renters... even if you have furniture, it's just not like home and all we want to do is get out. There are some great parks around, the beach is not too far, and great areas to hike and have a picnic. And then, as I mentioned in the previous post, Disneyland is close by. So is Knott's Berry Farm and Universal Studios isn't terribly far away. The San Diego Zoo is also accessible on a same day trip. There are so many things to do with the kids. And Noa is super excited about all of this. She is treating the whole thing as a vacation, so maybe I should be less concerned about all the literature I read? Of course we don't want to overload her with experiences, but... Tough choice. Especially because her life with a foster family and the twins' experiences in the orphanage were very different. She has been exposed to many different things that the twins haven't. She craves the adventures - and she is very happy to share them with her former carers at the orphanage where she stayed for a few months (she couldn't be adopted from foster care, so she went to live in an orphanage for a few months, from where her foster dad picked her up every morning to take her to her old school) and with her foster family. I like her excitement to write letters and talk to them online, because if it lasts, it should help her keep her Armenian. 

And now.... meeting!