Snowballs and Broken Windows

Sunday was another day of firsts. The first funeral, the first time my whole family has met the kids, the first family dinner, the first big accident, the first snow, the first campout/in.

The children had never been to a funeral. The 1 year old, N, wouldn't be quiet so we went outside of the chapel and played. The 6 month old, F, dirtied her diaper and had to have all her clothes changed. The 2 year old, K, the 4 year old, T, and the 7 year old, B, sat quietly. However T had tears rolling down her face through most of the service. At the end during the closing hymn she began to wail and sob uncontrollably. She has such a tender heart.

The kids captured the hearts of my family. Any fears I had about them being accepted vanished. N held his hands up for everyone to take him. His fat cheeks and thighs were squeezed dozens of times. At the end of the day everyone was exhausted from passing him around. F smiled and cooed. A little baby can win even the hardest hearts. K, T, and B played with my nieces and nephews all day.

The children had never seen so much food, and they tried to consumed as much of it as possible. I finally had to put limits on how much of certain things they could eat. I honestly believe they would still be eatting if I hadn't stopped them.

B won the prize for the most surprising thing of the day. She has only been in the family for 3 weeks, and she managed to do something none of the other kids has done. She broke a window. She sat in my brother-in-law's electric chair and played with the lever. The back of the chair reclined right through the window. She was upset, mainly because she had been told the kids weren't allowed to bother the chair, and she sat in it anyway. Noone knew that the chair would recline if it wasn't on. Now we know! The men rushed to replace the pane. Within a few hours everything was back to normal. No big deal. But, I bet B won't forget it any time soon.

It rained all day Saturday and most of Sunday. Sunday had a mix of rain, sleet and snow. Early afternoon it changed over to snow, giant flakes. It snowed so heavy that before dark the kids could have snowball fights and build a snowman. It was very slushy, but they had fun. Our kids along with some of the adults had never seen snow. We had all ages playing in the first yard. Around 6:00, we decided to go home. It was a treacherous ride. My suburban slipped and slid the entire way; about 15 miles and most of it in the country. There was a few times I was afraid we wouldn't make it. I prayed us home. I just couldn't imagine having to walk with 5 small children in the mega storm after dark.

Not long after getting home we lost power. Everyone camped in the floor in front the fireplace, the only warm place in the house. Our campout/in lasted for 48 hours! Bummer!