Kalispell Weekend

We went to Kalispell the past two weekends. The first we just stayed one night, but we left Ian there for the week. The second weekend, we stayed the whole weekend. We have lots of packing to do, but we wanted to spend a little more time with the Orts before we left.
The pictures below are the kids eating pizza and popsicles the first weekend, and Simon celebrating his birthday the 2nd weekend.

Updates:
1. Things are going well with our move. We plan to leave on Wed, Aug 6. We will get the truck Tuesday and load it Tuesday and Wednesday. Then we will be doing lots of driving! We will be visiting lots of family and friends as we drive through the Southeast and then up to Quebec.
2. Jamie is doing very well. She is healthy, and gaining weight. They were able to find a foster care placement for her with a family that also has one of her cousins as a foster child. The family came over and met her on Tuesday, then took her to their house for a couple of hours today. They plan to take her home tomorrow evening. If it is OK with them, I will post pictures of the family here.
3. We have been able to keep in contact with Kathleen. I haven't heard anything about the custody hearing yesterday. We think we are going to be able to see her when we are in the Southeast before we head up to Canada.

Caleb and Jamie are both sleeping now, so I need to go pack some boxes!

Jamie

Here are some of our latest pictures of Jamie. She is doing very well. She is getting stronger, and is happy most of the time. She slept through the night twice this week!
She is doing much better in the stroller. We had her out for some very long walks, and she seemed to enjoy them. She also enjoyed Indian Days, with all of the people and noise. When she first came to our house that would have been too overwhelming for her.
The shoes at the bottom are some that I made a craft night about 3 years ago. I remembered them the other day, and tried them on Jamie. They fit her perfectly.

Jamie Collage

On Saturday evening, we walked down to the campgrounds. We walked around for awhile, and then let the kids ride some of the rides.
First, Stephen took Caleb and Isabelle on the Ferris Wheel, while I took Ian over to the big slide.
Then Ian and Stephen went on the "Zipper" while Caleb and Isabelle went on the swings.
Jamie was happy to hang out in the stroller for the most part. She did get fussy one time, and I held her for a little bit. Then she went back in and stayed content the rest of the time.

Collage of Isabelle's Birthday

Isabelle had a good birthday yesterday. It was hard for her, because she missed Kathleen, but we kept her busy all day. Stephen did not have to work, so we were both able to spend a lot of time with Isabelle.
Stephen, Caleb, Ian, and Isabelle spent Monday and Tuesday night in a tent in our yard. Isabelle had Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast, did Pilates, rode her bike, opened presents, crafted, and rode her bike some more. We had friends over for cake and ice cream. I forgot to take pictures when everyone was over (I hate it when that happens.) I did get some pictures of the birthday cake. Mary Jo made the middle, which was a chocolate cake. Then I put icing and chocolate chips, and surrounded it with twinkies and zingers with some icing piped down the center. We also had 2 kinds of ice cream. All of the kids were wired on sugar by the time they finished eating!
She had many people call to wish her a happy birthday, and she was able to talk to Kathleen on the phone for a long time. I think she enjoyed her day.

Isabelle

Today was Isabelle's birthday. It's hard to believe our little girl is five years old. Every year it seems to creep up, but it especially took me by surprise this year. Her main birthday present was a princess bicycle and helmet. Stephen put her bike together for her on Sunday, and these are pictures of her from Sunday. Her princess helmet just came in the mail yesterday, so I will have to get some more pictures of her on her bike with her helmet.
I have tons more birthday pictures that I will try to post tomorrow, but for now I am taking advantage of a quite house to do a quick post (can you tell that I am about to fall asleep and just rambling)... now off to bed!

Parade Collage

I took 55 pictures at the parade on Saturday. The sun was bright, plus I was corralling the three kids. (We saw a nurse and her daughter, and they took turns holding Jamie so that I could take the pictures. The collage maker did cut some off of the photos, but I think you get the overall idea. You can click on the whole image to see it larger.

Kathleen

This is one of my favorite pictures of Kathleen taken last summer (Aug 18.) It's hard to believe that this was less than one year ago. So much has happened since then.

As most of you know, Kathleen's birth mother came and picked her up this past Friday. She will be with her birth mother for now. Both birth parents have a July 30 court date for a custody hearing. I won't put any more about the situation on the blog, but will be happy to answer questions by phone or e-mail.

I have logged on to this blog to write this post several times, but words fail to express our emotions at this time. Of course we miss her, but that seems like such an inadequate phrase. We are just trying to keep busy. Partly, I don't want to do anything, because anything done seems like a betrayal. If I move forward, I am moving forward without her. If I smile or laugh, I wonder if she is happy or sad. Right now everything I do reminds me of her; everything is in some way about her.

We have tried to keep the other kids busy. I took them to the Indian Days parade on Saturday. (Kathleen would have liked that.) After Stephen got off work, we went to the campground and let the kids ride some of the rides. (Kathleen would have not liked the walk to and from, but would have loved the rides and the general excitement.) Yesterday we went to church (which Kathleen always liked) and back to Indian days in the evenings (she would have liked the snow cones and the Indian dancing that we watched.) I could go on, but you get the idea.

Eventually, I will get to the point where I don't see everything in relation to Kathleen's absence from our lives. Yesterday, church was hard, but it was also a reminder that we have such a loving church family, friends, family, neighbors, and an incredible network of support. It is hard to realize that Kathleen does not have that right now.

We are taking comfort in the fact that God is in control of the situation. As much as we love and cherish Kathleen, He loves her even more. His love is perfect and pure, unlike ours. He is never hampered by any selfishness, pettiness, short sighted vision, etc. She belongs to God more than to us, to her birth mother, or her birth father. As we struggle with the limitations of our human abilities, we know that He has no limits. We trust that He will be with her to love and comfort her in any situation she faces. We know that God can use good and bad in her life to shape her into the person that He wants her to be one day. God has a plan for her life, and though we cannot see that plan, we trust in His goodness and care for her.

In summary, please pray. Keep our whole family in your prayers, especially Isabelle. She spent most of her time with Kathleen, and this has been very hard for her. Most importantly, pray for Kathleen as she faces transition and uncertainty. Pray that she will have God's comfort in a very real way, that she will realize how precious and loved she is, and that none of this is her fault. This is a very confusing time for her, and I pray that she will be able to cling to God as the one constant in her life right now.

Artwork

On Monday, we did another outdoor project. I bought a few bags of dried beans. I gave these to the kids, along with 12x12 sheets of cardstock, and glue. They had fun creating their masterpieces. The best part is that there was almost no clean-up!

Jamie- Catching up on sleep

Jamie has been doing very well. We went to Helena this weekend, and she didn't like traveling very much. This picture is from Monday. She was catching up on all of the rest that she missed over Saturday and Sunday.

Shaving Cream

Last Monday, we painted with shaving cream. I put out a table out in the front yard. The kids helped me put shaving cream all over the table, then we mixed in different colors of food coloring and kool-aid. They had a a lot of fun making a huge mess. After they were done, I rinsed them off in the hose. This is definitely an outside activity!