Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful to have finally caught the mysterious Fruit Loop thief in the house.  Our pantry and kitchen floor have been terrorized for so long and now the mystery is solved.  I couldn't turn her in though because of those big blue eyes.  Instead I took a picture and let her finish cleaning the floor.

I am also thankful for the little moments where I feel so blessed as a mom.  My son read me a book last night.  Nearly all by himself.  Several times I was ready to jump in and help him with a word that I thought would be hard and he would take a second longer and read it perfectly.  He is so smart!  I love to hear him read and I am amazed every time I do.  It seems like only days ago he was in the beginning reading phases.  And although he is still grasping it - he is sooooo good already.  I am so blessed to have children who are fully functioning, bright little kids.

I am also thankful for this experience with our exchange student.  Chantal comes from a different home and culture than us so it has taken some time to adjust with her.  She is adapting and learning about our family and culture and doing marvelously.  I feel the same pride and love for her whenever she accomplishes something that was hard for her before as I do when Lyman or Corilynn or Ruby does.  She has learned to be a hard worker.  With the many hiccups and difficulties she has had adjusting over the past weeks to us and America she has had to stand up and work hard at being here and learning things.  Every time she makes the decision to keep trying and not quit I see more growth in her.  I feel sorry her parents are not here to experience every moment of this.  She is going to go home such a beautiful, dynamic and mature woman.  I am seeing this development process in her and find myself figuratively sitting on the edge of my seat in anticipation of what a smart, capable and confident women she will come home to Germany as.  She still has her same lively, funny personality that she came with and so it all just goes so well together. 

She has taken up card making as a hobby like me.  In just a few short days she has created some of the prettiest cards I have ever seen.  I'm going to copy them, they are so cute.  She is so talented and lovely to be around and its fun to spend time doing projects together.  I remember when she first got here and struggled a bit with the language.  Now she jokes and dreams in English and really loves the kids.  I am really loving this and beginning to think the time is going super fast.  I cant even describe how it feels to have her in our home.  She is our daughter and I'm just happy.

Oh a funny story with her.  She and I were writing down words to use for a game of Pictionary with the kids for family night.  She said to me "how about beer" - I of course was like "um no " (looking at Lyman who was working with us) " we don't want to draw beer."  "Why not?" she said.  "Cause we don't drink beer and so we don't want to draw it" (I'm thinking- really for a game with kids???) and then she was like, "Oh no, BEER" making clawing hand movements.  "ohh you mean BEAR?" She said "Yes, the animal!" - we all laughed because she meant to say bear and was pronouncing it wrong.