Summer/Spring/Summer/Spring??????

The weather in Ohio always keeps us guessing, so here is Audrey prepared for anything. Today was beautiful...lower 70's, no humidity a far cry from earlier last week when it was 95...YUCK

Yes, we have thought about selling Audrey on eBay and this box would be perfect for shipping her. Actually, this is the box that my new steamboy came in..LOVE IT!!!!!!! The Floormate has already been sentenced to life in the basement.
Rita is talking to her best friend from the orphanage....ANNA!!!!!!!! She squealed and screamed for the first 15 minutes (as did Anna). Rita and Anna have an amazing bond. Anna left the orphanage to go home with her mama and papa just 3 months before we brought Rita home. Rita talks about her every single day. When you ask Rita who her sisters are she always replies "Rita three sisters, Natalie and Audrey and Anna!!!!"
WOW....how did Ted and I get so lucky???? Adoption is a leap of faith and the blessings are amazing to those who choose this path.
I had not went strawberry picking since I was a kid. At the fruit farm they weigh your picking buckets and then subtract that weight after your done picking your berries. They probably should have weighed Paul and Rita before and after too. I think the Jutte's lost a little bit of money from us that day???
These pictures are from the first time we went picking. Then we went picking again two days later to get berries for my mom (she keeps us well stocked in strawberry jam). Of course the first time around everyone was all smiles...but the second trip was WORK!!! So there was lots of grumbling but we still got the job done.

This week is off to a good start. The girls are going to VBS at our neighboring church. Tonight was the second night. Natalie and Rita's teacher came up to me when I was picking them up saying that tonight went much better than last night. Not that Rita was bad she was just a bit over whelming (as she tends to be in any new situation). She loves the singing, which I knew she would. When I got there she had to sing me the theme song right away. "Jews Jesus, Jews Jesus"..I was a bit confused because this is a Lutheran church until her teacher said.."Rita remember ~choose Jesus~"...ahhhh, that makes more sense. I am enjoying spending more time with just Paul and Andrew, the boys have definitely been taking a back seat to all of the drama that goes on with the girls. Paul is about 75% potty trained.....HALLELUJAH!!! I totally forget life without diapers.....but I'm sure I'll manage to get use to it again ;o)

Rita is communicating in 3-4 word sentences already. It was kind of cute, yesterday Natalie got out on the opposite side of the van from Rita at the store. Rita said "who is Natalie?" instead of where is Natalie? Throughout the day she say words that aren't English and I don't think are Armenian. I'll ask "hyedan??" (Armenian), she'll say "NO English"... then once if figure out what she is trying to say, I understand that she was actually very close to the real English word she just got a sound mixed up. She has been watching a 30 minute LeapFrog DVD on ABC's almost everyday. It has helped her out so much with recognizing and being able to 'retrieve' letters and their sounds. Just before bed tonight she was saying window over and over. Then her little light bulb came on and she said "W----every letter makes a sound the W says "wugh"...then she always looks at me for approval..."Mom, good job Rita??" and of course my response it "yes, Rita's English is very, very good" and then she just beams. So even though she might drive me batty at times all of these "lightbulb moments" totally make up for it. We did have a slightly embarrassing moment at Wal-Mart today. For those of you that live in our area and go to Celina's Wal-Mart, I'm sure you know Mike in electronics. He has worked at Wal-Mart for years and is a little person. I'm not sure how old he is but I would guess he's mid 20's, very nice and KNOWS everything about cell phones. So, I was making some changes with our plan and I just had Rita in my cart (my life saver, Dave, had 3 kids in his cart and was entertaining them, while Andrew was playing video games). Anyways, Mike, was typing away in the computer and Rita announces in perfect English "Mama, that is a baby??" You can imagine I felt a bit awkward. I looked at Rita and said "no, he is a little man" then I apologized. He was so sweet and said "that's okay" Of course Rita couldn't let it go at that..... "Mama baby computer?, Mama baby, very little fingers?" I explained to Mike that we just adopted her and she had only been speaking English for 4 weeks. He was so gracious. Kids.............. Nothing new to report on Rita's future needs with her chest/arm/back. Children's Orthopedic office finally called to schedule a consult. She asked about Rita's concerns and as soon as I said anything about her chest, the lady said "we don't work on the chest at all"....I asked "who does?"...she said "I don't know?" I replied "well, this is where our family doctor referred us, so I guess we better come to see the doctor and let him or her tell us what we need." Of course we didn't get an appointment until July 15th...so who knows who or where we'll end up at. Thankfully, Rita hasn't had any major bouts of pain. She still gets winded easily and will say "Mom, heart lav chem" (my heart isn't well). Nothing that ever makes her cry though and she moves on fairly quickly.