Four Years Later

Today marks the four year mark as a family.  I will never forget the amazing joy of reading these words on an email.  "Congratulations Yared and Nathaniel are your sons.  You passed court."  I was recovering from major surgery yet I still wanted to leap and jump for joy.  Instead I shuffled around the room and called Ben.  What an amazing experience the last four years have been. I feel blessed beyond belief.  Truly my cup runneth over.  Here is a glimpse of the changes in our sweet boys and us over the time we have been a family.

Some of the very first pictures we saw of our sons.

Taken within the first two hours of becoming a family.  

Year one at home they are so chubby cheeked it makes my heart smile. 

 Our first two years together in Norfolk... always best buddies. 

Last year and a half here in California.  Still best friends and growing like weeds.  

One of our last family shots taken in December.  

Taken last week on our adventure to China town.  

While we sure missed having Ben here to celebrate with us we tried to make the most of our special day.  We had chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.  The boys got to go to a trampoline house with friends in the afternoon.  In the evening we had home made Ethiopian food... I am getting better every year....and a cake.  We also got two new games so we played some games and listened to music after dinner.  Before they climbed in bed we watched videos of them from that last few years.  They loved it and went to bed sleepy and smiling.  They truly are little treasures.

I am one blessed Momma that is for sure.  Hopefully by this time next year we are a family of 5 not 4, but  I cannot complain one bit about where I am in life.  God has given me a great life with my wonderful, crazy, fun loving husband and my wonderful. crazy fun loving kids.

Happy 4th Family day from the Leppards.

Viking Family Night

The week before Ben left we had another family night.  We had been promising one for awhile.  I know time is going to fly by and soon these nights will not be cool enough for the boys so I want to do them while we can.  We studied Vikings this year and so Yared and I thought it would be fun to have this as the theme.  We also celebrated Yared a bit as Ben will be gone for his Birthday.  

Starting the night with an afternoon movie of "How to Train Your Dragon"  I love that movie.   

I found a cool web page for making your own Viking helmet out of duct tape.  I added hair to them to make us look more authentic.  Nati declared that they didn't smell good.  I am pretty sure Vikings didn't smell so good either.  

Showing us his warrior face. 

 Killing you with cuteness.

 We then decorated our Viking shields.  I love watching Ben color.  He is so not into art that any time he does this for us it warms my heart

 Our neighbors lent us their fire pit so we could roast our meal.  I even was able to cook some bread on a stick.  It wasn't that bad but the bread baked in the oven was better.

 I made Yared a Viking Birthday cake.  It wasn't that great but the Playmobile set added some authenticity to it and he loved it.

Notice the variety of the shields and our very scary demeanor. 

 We only had two presents.  This one was to replace a Christmas gift that somehow made its way into the dishwasher and was ruined.  As we are pretty sure Ben or I ended up putting it in the dishwasher we felt we should replace the watch:). He was thrilled.

 And as all Vikings like to fish we got a fishing game as the second present.  Nati gave up with the pole and used his fingers.  We are pretty sure that is against the rules.

 It was a simple night but the boys declared it "the best night ever" so that is all that matters.  I do believe if you have a camp fire the night will always be a success.  Nati did try to convince me that Vikings had marshmallows.  I didn't buy it so they only got cake and no S'more.

Number Five is Alive

My little big men taken last month.  

If you watched dumb 80's movies you will recognize the title of this post from Short Circuit.  This has nothing to do with that but it came to mind as I started typing.  Our number five is deployment number five.  Yesterday Ben left for Spain.  He will be there until the summer when we transfer to Hawaii.

Deployments are definitely doable but not enjoyable.  I actually find the worst part is the week before Ben leaves.  I wake up every day with this feeling of dread.  It just clouds over my days.  So in some ways I am glad to have the good bye over and find that the gloom leaves.  I am a generally happy person and wake up positive about life so to wake up in a sad/depressed mood is exhausting.

We were really extra blessed to have lots of family time the week before he left.  The boys just soaked up Daddy wresting, reading biking, jumping, playing and loving.  I loved having him home during the day to talk with and get a few things done around the house.  We had a family night last weekend which I will post about next.  It was a good goodbye week.

The day he left we took him over to his office building and hung out for about 10 minutes.  I could see that Yared was having a hard time so I told Ben we should take off.  Ben is all for quick goodbyes but was trying to let us handle it the way we needed to.  I was SO proud of Yared.  He has never ever been able to hold it together when saying goodbye.  He still cried but he was under control.  Ben got down on one knee, took off his sunglasses and made sure each boy heard how much he loved them and was proud of them.  He too has come a long way in sensitivity.  He really just reassured them and told them he would miss them and be home soon.  Nati didn't shed a tear but hugged tightly.  I shed tears but behind sunglasses:).  We walked around the building and away from strangers eyes and Yared's tears really flowed.  We got in the saftey of the car and Yared started sobbing.  It was hard to hear and I kept trying to reassure him through my own tears.  After a few minutes Nati looked over at his big brother and said, "Yared, take a deep breath."  It nearly undid me to hear him comforting Yared.

We got home and it was a beautiful day so we sat on the front lawn reading one of Yared's school books and absorbing sunshine.  Finally I felt too weary to continue school so I let the boys play while I cleaned up the house.  Nati took a fall about half an hour later and that is when his tears hit him.  He cried for his fall, cried for his Dad and just sobbed in my arms saying, "I miss my Daddy."  This of course got me going again.  But overall the goodbyes went well.

We truly live in the best area for us to say goodbye to Dad.  We are surrounded not only by friends but by fellow military wives who get what I am going through and fellow military kids who get what the boys are going through.  As it was Valentine's Dad, one friend showed up with flowers, a card and a gift.  Another gave me my favorite bottle of wine.  I was invited to dinner that night which masked the empty seat at our table.  I came home to Valentines chocolates from someone else for the boys and I.  I also had calls from family and friends checking in on me.  Seriously I was rather spoiled.  On top of all that God really answered prayers and gave  us all a lot of peace on this dreaded day.

Now it a few days later and we are still doing well.  We have skyped with Ben and seen where he is.  The boys are doing well over all but have moments where it hits them that he is gone.  I find evenings lonely but I am going to get a lot of projects done while Ben is gone.

ADOPTION NEWS
Not much new to tell and what we have isn't good.  Our sweet baby has been sick for almost six weeks now.  She now has pneumonia and anemia.  We definitely need prayers for her.  She looks so little and weak.  We are STILL waiting on the letter to file for court.  Ethiopia is in more transition time with adoptions so there are a lot of unknowns.  But I have committed to NOT researching anything more about the situation on Ethiopian adoptions, praying constantly for our baby and persistently pushing for something to be done on her behalf over there so she is healthy and happy while she waits for us.  I am going to push next week to have a my mom's friend who lives in Addis and is a nurse to go look at her and see if there is anything else that can be done for her.

No Kids. No kidding

Last weekend, Ben and I went away for the night to Santa Ynez.  This doesn't sound like a big deal but it was.  It was the first time since we became parents that we left the boys with someone overnight.  They have always had either Ben or I there with them at night.  The best part about this was I wan't nervous at all to leave them.  We have some great friends that live about four houses from us.  We home school together and hang out a lot.  I knew the kids would have fun and feel safe and happy.   The kids have done sleep overs there where they go to sleep at their house and when we get back from our date we bring them home.  They were all really excited to have a real sleep over where Yared and Nati stayed all night. (ONE side note here.  In the past Nati's snoring has kept everyone awake on the sleep overs.  Well we did surgery in Jan to remove his adenoids.  It was a big decision for us to make, but I am SO glad we did it.  He is a different boy.  He is a super quiet sleeper and seems more rested and content with life.  I am so glad we chose to go ahead with the procedure.) Nati had absolutely NO issue with us leaving. Yared was teary the day before and the day we left.  As we were dropping him off he was sobbing that he didn't want us to go.  I checked in on him half and hour after we drove off and he was fine.  In his own words, "Mom I forgot all about you after you left.":).  Nati said he was fine the whole time although he did say one of his favorite parts of the sleep over was seeing us again:). 

We drove a little over an hour to Santa Ynez.  We had found a local bed and breakfast.  It was very nice and walking distance to everything in this tiny town.  We set off to see the town and after 5 minutes that was done:).  It was a fun time to just be the two of us and talk uninterrupted for hours.  We went wine tasting, had great Italian food, explored the area, tried to go on a hike that led to a drive that led us to Santa Barbara.  We explored there a bit two, had lunch and drove home.  It wasn't really a big deal but it was.  It has been almost four years since the boys came home to us and we know that with our little girl on the way soon it might be another four years before we take off again.  It was fun to realize we still have a ton of stuff to talk about, still make each other laugh, still love adventures, and still love being married.  When I asked Ben what his favorite part of the time away was he melted my heart by saying, "Just reconnecting with my best friend."  

Some shots of our drive from Santa Ynez to Santa Barbara. 

 A zebroid...half zebra half donkey.  I had never seen one before.

 Santa Barbara's awesome court house door.

 Down town Santa Ynez

 Ben and Ben having a talk.

 From the top of the courthouse.

 The view

 The wine tasting room we tried and loved.

 I am not sure I could function with these library hours.

That is it for our adventure.  Just something small before we say goodbye to Ben.  By the way the kids had a GREAT time too and are ready to do it again.

As promised adoption news will come at the end of every post.  We are still waiting on our letter so we can apply for a court date.  This week makes it week 8 since our referral.  There is hope that it could be coming in the next week but it could also take another month.  Once we get the letter it will be 8-10 weeks for a court date and then 6-7 weeks for the Embassy to clear us.  If you add all the what ifs we are most likely NOT getting our baby girl until July.  This means a bit of a crazy summer for us but with God's help we can do this.  We are just excited to meet her, welcome her and love her into our family.