Three Months Home

Just three short months ago, on Christmas Eve morning, we were stepping off an airplane after 21 hours of total flight time.  We had known our kids just nine short days, but we were a family.  A family of four.  We ARE a family of four.  We have had so many milestones with our kids since coming home, so many firsts.  Our kids have been learning and reveling in all that it means to have a daddy and a mommy and we are learning and reveling in all that it means to BE mommy and daddy.

Our kids are a complete and absolute joy, and we cannot imagine life without them.  They are a ton of fun and brighten up our lives in so many ways.

I have heard that adoptive parents celebrate firsts, perhaps even more than parents of biological kids, mainly because we often miss a lot of firsts.  We have loved getting to see so many firsts over the last three months.

I may not have heard my children's first cries, or seen their first steps.  I didn't hear their first words or sing them their first song. I have no idea what their first food was or how old they were when they did any of these firsts, but I know that the firsts from the time they came into our family will be celebrated and remembered.

We had so many firsts before we ever left their country of birth.

We watched them go down a slide at a playground for the first time. Go swimming for the first time. Ride a horse. Eat pizza. Experience the zoo.  See the ocean. A dream of mine come true, to be at the beach with my kids. They rode an airplane for the first time and did amazing for that long flight, I might add.

Since coming home, we have had so many more firsts.  Their first ride in a carseat, that was definitely memorable and a bit of a rough time! Opening their first Christmas present. Seeing snow.  Playing in the snow. They have ridden a bike and a scooter for the first time.  Eaten their first ice-cream cone.  Gone to their first birthday party. Gone to church for the first time. Read the Bible for the first time.

Today, I watched as the things we have been talking about and reading in the Bible for the last three months all came together for my dear son and he experienced the biggest milestone yet.

It all started with a conversation about our "happy easter" sign hanging from the mantle. Which led to a long conversation about how we are all sinners, why Jesus died and how much He loves us. This was one of many similar conversations we have had recently.

Today was different though, as it all seemed to come together and he understood the Gospel story in a very real way. Today is a day of celebration in the Curley household, for not only is it three months home for us, it is the day our son realized and accepted all that good Friday and Easter Sunday mean for him.  Its hard to believe that three short months ago, He had never heard the name of Jesus and now He knows Him personally.

I didn't know that having my kids home could possibly get any sweeter, but today, on a Thai Tuesday no less, it did. And I have a feeling the sweet times are only going to get sweeter!

T is for Thailand

Probably the question I am asked most frequently about our kids is, "How is their English coming?"  It is coming, slowly but surely!  Slowly because we are speaking Thai in our house too so there has not been as much of a need for them to learn English.  Surely because we are being intentional to speak English with dad, read books, and learn new words every day. Their vocabulary is growing daily and I would guess that in a few more months they will be putting sentences together and much of what they now understand in English they will start using to communicate.

One of the ways we are being intentional in learning English is by studying a letter of the alphabet every week.  A great idea I got from my preschool teaching mom.  (Thanks mom!) We are not going in any certain order, rather we are studying the letters that interest the kids most or are the easier letters to write.

For each letter we study, we are enjoying finding pictures in the newspaper or flyers that start with our letter of the week.  The kids enjoy cutting them out and gluing them on a big letter. This week we are studying the letter "T". 

 

A fun letter as there are so many crafts and activities to do for the letter T.   So far this week, we have learned that T is for tiger, turtle, train, tree, telephone, television, toothbrush, toothpaste, and towel.

And traffic light

 

and truck!

 This afternoon, as I tucked the kids in for their nap, I was looking for books with turtles or tigers, trains or trucks in them to read, and I came across a book that reminded me that T is for Thailand. 

T is for Thailand

I know it may seem kind of silly to you, but this brought a big smile to our faces and a wave of emotions washed over me. A few short months ago, I was in Thailand, just getting to know my children, watching them experience the ocean and  many other things for the first time.  Thailand, the country of my children's birth. 

I love this country.  Sometimes it feels so far away, this place I once called home.  Sometimes I feel homesick for this place.  Homesick for the people, the smells, the sounds, the tastes, the smiles.  I know that my kids feel the same way at times.  Though we know they want to be here, we can tell by the way they devour their fried rice, or sit glued to a movie in Thai, or look at pictures from years past, that they too sometimes miss this country they once called home. 

Our son wants to know why people here don't speak Thai and why everyone speaks English.  As I explain to him that we are in America now and most people here only speak English, I realize just how far away we are. 

My kids, they will learn English, but I sure hope they can keep their Thai too, even if it takes them a lot longer to learn English, its one more piece of home that they have. So this week, while we study the letter T, we will most certainly be remembering and talking about the fact that T is for Thailand.