Rhys's Birthday Party (and bonding)

Last night we celebrated Rhys's 11th birthday with spaghetti and a decadent chocolate mint cake with york peppermint patty frosting. The best part was hearing everyone's favorite thing about Rhys, a new family tradition we've been doing on birthdays. Rhys got big shouts out for being kind, loving, generous and gracious. Hope asked Marlow what we were doing, and then said that she would also like a chance to bless Rhys, so she wished him happiness this year. It was so cute!

 Anyway, back to Rhys-- I can't get enough of his great big smile, so I included my favorite pics of his award winning mug from last night. Love that kid. He thanked me for being "the official awesome cake maker," so Teet, I think you're going to have to buck up and visit during the summer to win back your title.


Hope interacted with her cousins a lot more last night than she has before. She and Marlow "talked" on the iPad for quite a while, and Hope even gave her some gifts (things of mine that were on her bookshelves-- nice). She really is a very sweet girl. Isabel spent the evening annoyed that her sister swooped on her, but I reminded her that she will have plenty of time to spend with Hope come the start of school in six weeks. (Six weeks-- yikes!!)


Hope seems to be warming up to her dad a bit, and she explained to me this morning that the problem was that he was opposite of her. I told her that he and I are quite different also, and introduced her to the saying, "opposites attract" and said she would probably marry someone very different from her. She thought that was hilarious. I will think it's hilarious when it comes true.


She is excited about spending the evening with her small group from church. These girls have been....in a word... amazing. What an answer to prayer! The two leaders are college girls, one of whom speaks Mandarin and they are delightful young women.



Tonight is actually a slumber party, but I'll be picking her up before bed. I'm sure she'd have no problem staying over, but it's too soon for that. We are going to be in the trust-building phase with her for quite some time, and it's tricky for an older kid who doesn't necessarily "need" you. Just as Lily was fine falling asleep by herself until she began to feel herself needing me (at which point she panicked and developed an anxious attachment, aka velcro baby), Hope is still in the stage of not needing me, so I need to be "ever present" until we start to build trust. I do as much as I can for her (make her meals, do her laundry, bring her snacks, etc.), and what she does for herself, I try to do with her (we put away her clothes together, do dishes together, etc.). It is the opposite of what most parents do with their adolescents (which is to try to teach them to take care of themselves) so it's counter-intuitive, but very important in the bonding process. It's also a great way to get to know each other, and it beats the heck out of carrying around a 25 lb baby all day. (God, I know you're listening so I will adopt another baby if you make me ask me to. But please ask someone else.)



In other news, I found out that our insurance added Hope retroactively, and they didn't increase the rate due to her pre-existing conditions. Hooray! Thank you for praying-- it worked! They didn't even make me pay for her first physical, so what we've spent so far will be applied to our deductible. Thank you Jesus! I knew when we said yes that God would provide for Hope's medical care, so I am thrilled at this news but not surprised. He goes before us every time and there is no need to worry. Not ever.