6 Months!

As I sit here pondering whether to stay awake to ring in the New Year or to just call it good and go to bed,  it seemed like a good time to update the blog. The girls have now been home for 6 months-half of a year.....it still seems like we stepped off of a plane last week, but when I really look at all that God has done in our lives, it is obvious that they have been here for a while.  Since it is New Year's Eve, it seemed fitting to blog a top ten list.  Here goes....

Top Ten Ways that 2015 Will Look Different From 2014 For Team Yoho

1.  I will spend many more Tuesday nights braiding hair while watching a movie.  (I have to actually schedule time on my calendar for this three hour endeavor.  I am slow, not that good, and still learning on this front!)

2. I will now walk around with  the Doc McStuffins theme song (or at least part of it) in my head driving me nuts while I fold laundry and make dinner.

3. I will strive to hold my Haitian daughters and read to them from God's word each night before I tuck them in.  One of them, in particular, refuses to sleep without hearing the Word of the Lord. (thankful for this kid's insistence, especially when I am tired at tuck-in time)

4.  Our school budget will increase because James is consuming books really fast and our two newest students are burning through curriculum at an exciting pace.  

5.  I anticipate that my vacuum will burn out this year due to tiny rubber bands and beads being sucked up from all areas of the house.  Surely it can only take so many assaults before it refuses to work anymore.

6. Since 33% more socks are being worn in the family this year, surely more socks will lose their mates. Just today seven lonely socks came out of a load.  SEVEN UNMATCHED SOCKS IN A SINGLE LOAD!!!

7. The second half of the year will feel really normal because it will be full of "seconds" not "firsts." We will all know what to expect and nothing will be as scary or awkward as it was this year.  (For example, it will be more obvious that we don't throw away all of the decorations after Christmas, we just pack them up and save them until the next year.)

8.  We will begin full-time use of  the currently neglected basement bathroom because 6 children, two of whom are 'tween girls, using a single bathroom seems to be about 2-3 too many at any one point in time.

9.  I will answer at least 50 questions a day from a five year old who eagerly seeks to engage in conversation and to make sense of everything she see around her.

10.   We will praise our God together for the work he has done in each of our hearts.  We will stand in the same house and use the same language to speak praises to our God.  We will marvel at the way that He has taken 8 sinful lives, melded them into one family, and continued to pour patience, grace, kindness, acceptance, and love into out hearts to help us grow together as a team.  We will fail as a team, and we will grow as a team, and we will all experience the forgiveness and great grace of our God together.  And we will thank Him for the hard days because they help us see our need for Him.

Happy New Year!  10:30pm is close enough, I am going to bed!

Christmas 2014

I love Christmas.  I spend as much thought, energy, and time as I possibly can helping my family celebrate Christmas.  We bake, we craft, we read, we sing, and we anticipate.  December is my favorite time of the year.  This year is was sure to be even better than ever because we finally had all of our people in our home!
As we got closer to December, however, the reality of our situation hit me:  my two newest daughters both have birthday in December:  YIKES!  Other realities hit me too:  there are alot of things that they don't know about Christmas.  Aside from our family traditions, which would be all new to the girls, there are lots of other things that would be new too:  Christmas music (though they did come to me knowing Feliz Navidad!), the fact that Christmas is really Jesus' birthday, the cultural elements of Christmas like popular movies and decorations, and the idea of a school break to celebrate something.
There was so much to teach-and we loved using the month of December to expose the girls to all that Christmas means to us.  Ryan and I agreed that our main goal was to help the girls learn what it means to celebrate.  As I sit by the tree as our Christmas activities are coming to an end, I can see that our plans were once again small in comparison to what God had laid out.  Here are a few highlights from this week:
Christmas Eve service-For our family, the main event of Christmas is the Children's Worship Service on Christmas Eve.  This is a total family effort each year and is a great way for us to learn together and worship together.  Joanna joined the preschool choir and was a star-she knew her entire song, did all the motions, and keep the beat beautifully.  Naomi joined the other big kids in the elementary choir which required her to learn at least 7 new songs. Abigail was one of the two narrators and Ryan was the service host and also helped lead the worship portion of the service.  While directing the program there was no room for emotion, but as soon as we were finished the tears flowed.   Here we were, trying to give Jesus a birthday gift of worship, and really He was continuing to give us good gifts.  Having my whole family together, and having all eight of us singing praises to Jesus was a gift I had waited to receive for many longs months.
Another highlight came in the form of the Milne cousins Nativity play.  My girls have learned well what Christmas is about-and they joined with their cousins and siblings to present their version of the Christmas story-complete with costumes!!  Naomi was also able to join in the annual reading of the Christmas story this year at the Yoho family Christmas.  She was so proud to be able to join with the big kids in this family tradition.
Not being a musician myself, I am always thrilled when my brother-in-law pulls out his guitar on Christmas and lea
ds us in carols.  This year we capped off our festivities with several family favorites and were blessed to have Ryan's grandparents (age 94 and 93) join us as well.
There have been so many more great moments, but these are just a few of the highlights from Christmas 2014.

Happy Birthday Naomi

Since she first saw a birthday celebrated here in America, Naomi has been counting down to her own special day. (First we had to master the calendar and how it works, followed by learning that everyone has their own birthday, then learning when hers was, they learning that waiting is hard and requires patience!)   There has been a lot to learn to get her to this special day, but she has endured and was well rewarded today with a family-style birthday party in the Frozen Theme.  There were certain requirements:  a very colorful cake, games, Olaf, as much Frozen paraphernalia as possible, and of course, presents.  (She was even so bold as to tell some of her relatives what they should bring for her!)


These Olaf socks friends seemed like a must for our craft-loving Naomi so we enjoyed creating a small army of these guys.  Who wouldn't want to build this snowman??

Pin the parts on Olaf was great fun but not nearly as entertaining as watching the children battle the grownups in a game of "Sing the next line of this song from the movie."  The kids had that one hands down!

 Happy Birthday joyful Naomi!  We loved celebrating your first American birthday with you today!  You are growing in grace and maturity everyday and it is a great privilege to be your parents.   We look forward to watching how God helps you grown even more in the next year!!!