Well, school, for one thing. Esther is plugging along in reading and math, in between me changing Joel's diapers and lying down with him for his afternoon nap. Her favorite class is U.S. history. I am mostly reading historical fiction aloud to her (while Joel nurses and naps), with an occasional non-fiction book thrown in to cement her learning. We love our library! Daniel is in a computer systems networking and repair class at the vocational school next to the high school (but it is a high school class and he gets a high school credit for it), and he is loving it! He gets some extra assistance, but at the end of the day he is expected to know and do all the same things as the other students--and he is getting an A! We are very proud of him.
Daniel decided not to join Key Club again this year. He loves volunteering, but he did not like being accountable to anyone for his hours. So he does not have any regular extracurricular activities. Sometimes that means he hangs out at home for days on end, doing projects, or, when he runs out of projects, watching long hours of Youtube, finding things he wants to own, buying them on Amazon, trying them out with great anticipation only to find out that they don't work as well as advertised, trouble-shooting on the phone with customer service, and ultimately (usually) sending them back. In the course of many conversations with customer support he has learned how to spell things out over the phone, but he sometimes does so with a Daniel twist. My two favorites that I have overheard are "I as in instagram" and "Q as in cute." Other times he'll find some project outside the house which he throws himself into 100% for a time. For example, he spent several weeks practically living at his best friend's house while he helped her father do home improvements and prepare for a yard sale. Then he stopped and didn't go over for weeks. One weekend he spent many hours over at church helping with a fundraising bazaar.
Then in November he was the keynote speaker for an adoption celebration event! He did a fabulous job sharing some of his story and how his life experiences have influenced the person he is turning out to be. He had the audience touched, entertained, and thinking. Then he capped it off by performing one of the songs that had been written for him to sing when he was in his orphanage. The title roughly translates to "Star, bring me home," and it portrays a child longing to be united with a family. Several of us agreed afterwards that he has career potential as a motivational speaker! If you are interested in watching his speech, here is the link to the video. It is 24 minutes long. He omitted some of the grittier details of his life, but I think the tone was very appropriate for the occasion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggbsqa167Nk&list=UUtNFoANZyRvWcwmnt2WN84g
Esther has been thinking about how being adopted into a family is different from being born into it. One day she remarked to me thoughtfully, "You're not my real mother." And more than once she has told me (but with a sneaky little grin) that she feels like a kid who was born into a family can't be sent away but a child who was adopted into it could be. I suspect she just wants to hear my answer again: "Nope, once you're adopted you're legally part of the family the same as if you were born into it. You and Joel are both stuck with us for the rest of your lives." To which she responds, grinning bigger, "Aw, poopy butt!"
One day Daniel asked me where something was. I had no idea, so I answered, "Somewhere." He responded by singing "Somewheeeeeeere over the rainbow...". How American!
Esther continues to work hard at gymnastics. She is now attending class five hours a week and is competing as part of the rhythmic gymnastics team at Level 3 (the lowest competitive level). Here is the link to her rope routine:
Daniel has a girlfriend! He told me initially that she was his "school girlfriend," and in fact they rarely do anything together outside of school. But at his choir concert I overheard another student refer to her as his girlfriend, so it must be at least somewhat official. He has been over to her house a couple of times. This was the result the first time:
And as for the second time...let's just say that the rosy glow on his head in this picture is not just a reflection from the Christmas lights. Nope, his hair is currently pale pink!
And those are some highlights of the last six months for the big kids.
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