And Then There Were 8

I had a great Mother's Day. The message at church was on something we are passionate about-church planting - so that was awesome. The kids all made cards for me at Grandma's house and bought me a shirt. We had a yummy brunch (thanks mom) with my parents and sister's family. The kids all enjoyed playing in the spa and playing in the slip and slide. We had so many laughs watching the kids. I also got some good laughs out of watching Javier try to teach Jordan how to slide. You can see pictures on my sister's blog. Jordan sang me a sweet song and the girls gave me a massage with smelly lotions :).

Sunday night we got a call from Javier's family telling us that they bought tickets for his 17 yr old niece in Dominican to come live with us. We had discussed it before and were praying about it and trying to make some decisions, but we had not committed to it. Well, we were both a little shocked but are happy to welcome her into our family. She arrived here, 3 days later, on Wednesday night. Charina actually came to live with us for several months when she was 8. She has lived back and forth between Dominican and New York, so she speaks pretty good English.

So far she has been a big help with the little ones during school time, listening to Julia practice her reading, helping with some housework and swimming with the kids. She says her favorite chore is ironing and I never cease to have a mountain of ironing :). Mostly she is just enjoying loving on our kids, receiving and giving tons of hugs, holding kids on her lap and entertaining giggles each morning as the kids sneak into her room. As I have been pondering what she can do for fun besides read, we came across our scrapbooks/pictures. I asked her if she would like to work on finishing up our last 3 kids' scrapbooks. She was excited to do that, so we cleared a space in the den/school room so that we could set up a small table to work on. This will be a huge blessing if she can help the kids/myself with this project. I don't even care how "cute" they turn out, I would just love for each of our kids to have a complete scrapbook that at least goes past 3 or 4 months old :).

I know this is not going to be easy. We need to decide where she should go for school, address modesty issues and find her different clothes and direct her in the ways of the Lord etc. Please pray for us. We are praying that the Lord would bless this crucial time as she is a young lady and will be choosing what path she will take. May the Lord use our family to direct her in the path of righteousness for His name sake.