Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend we got to celebrate my nieces birthday at the apple orchard/pumpkin patch. All three boys loved it! They each picked out a little pumpkin (getting big pumpkins this weekend) and they all went for a pony ride. Jacob tried to go on one last year, but he didn't want any part of it. This year he threw a fit when it was time to get off of Bullseye (he calls every horse Bullseye-from Toy Story). We even let Isaiah ride the pony. He has been asking if he can ride them every time he sees them but most places have an 80 lb limit, so he has been too big. But this place let him, ha!

Meeting at Isaiah's School

I feel bad that I haven't been blogging much, but I don't feel like much is going on now that we are back in school. We had a meeting with Isaiah's teachers a week ago and we were able to get him some modifications and accommodations for him while he is at school. This has significantly cut back the amount of homework he is doing each night. He was doing about 3-4 hours every night. He was hating it and hated having to go to bed right when he was done. At the meeting it was decided that he shouldn't have to do more than 1 hour each night. He is much happier now that he is getting to ride his bike each night and play with the neighbor boy across the street. We are so thankful for the school working with us and him to find the best ways to reach and teach Isaiah! He is doing excellent in 5th grade! He hasn't missed a spelling word yet this year and is so proud of that!

Favorite Phrases From This Week

Isaiah: “a girl keeps asking me out. Where are we going?”

Kaleb: “Whoooooooaaaaaa ‘Zaiah” when Isaiah walked in the room ready for church

Jacob: “lug you mama” (love you mama)

Isaiah: when asked what the capital of Illinois was he said “the I”

Kaleb: gave me a huge hug on his own and rubbed my shoulder being gentle  saying “niiiiice”

Jacob: first words out of his mouth when he woke up “Brad, Brad, Braaaad, NO” and “watch Wiggles”

A Little Healing at a Time

It brings me to tears to think about how far Kaleb has come the past 8 months. When we took custody of Kaleb he was so disconnected from us, really any people. He would literally run from us any chance he could. He was so happy to be out of his room at the Transition Home, but he didn’t care to have any interactions with people unless you gave him food (which then made his throw up because he was so overfed). We spent many hours at the TH following Kaleb around the building as he walked/ran to get away from us. He didn’t think it was a game, he just didn’t want to be held or played with. He gave no eye contact for several weeks. Slowly over the last 8 months he has changed into this cuddly boy who loves to be held often and can/will make eye contact. Towards the end of May (after 4 months of not leaving him AT ALL) he began to be very clingy and didn’t want me to leave him. He would scream if I walked out of the room or the house. He cried when we left him at the nursery or at the babysitter’s house. We talked with our social worker to see if we were doing the right thing by leaving him for a short time every once and awhile. She assured us it was good for the bonding process to teach him that mommy and daddy always come back. It was after a few times of leaving him and coming back that I really saw a bond form. The sitter also said he calmed down a minute or so after I left. He still didn’t care for the nursery at church, one week he was so mad he stuck his finger down his throat to make himself throw up. I have been praying for his heart to understand I am his mama forever and that he wouldn’t be so scared when I left him. I’m so thankful that God has been working in his little heart and he seems more comfortable when I drop him off. The past 3 days Kaleb hasn’t cried when I drop him off at the sitters (this is AMAZING from the kicking and screaming I would get before). Kaleb has also stayed in the church nursery for the whole service for the past 2 Sundays. These are the first two church services I have been able to sit the whole way through since I became a mom 18 months ago. My eyes were constantly checking the pager screen because I have gotten paged out every other week. But I was in church the whole time. It was so nice and so needed! I know we aren’t “done” with bonding and Kaleb being upset when I leave him (he does it to Brad too, but I am almost always the one who drops him off), but I am so thankful that his little heart isn’t hurting as much or as often now. Praise God!

Isaiah has also been out of the ‘honeymoon’ and ‘wanting to please’ stage for a few months too. He often says what he really thinks about a situation rather than ‘whatever you want me to do mom and dad’. We are experiencing several typical behaviors of an 11 year old also. Our social worker says this is also wonderful! She says that this means he is bonded more with us and is more comfortable to be real with us. Overall he is a great kid and we are so thankful to have him as our son. He continues to be an excellent big brother to both Kaleb and Jacob. He also continues to ask (daily) when we are going back to Africa to adopt more siblings for him J He slips it into about every conversation. Last night he asked if I would take grapes with us on the plane when we go back to Ethiopia to adopt more brothers and sisters. I told him that I will buy more grapes tomorrow, we don’t need to wait until we fly to Ethiopia. It just goes to show it is something that is on his heart daily and it makes us smile!

Last night Jacob slept all night in Isaiah’s bed. Isaiah often asks to sleep with someone (anyone) and Jacob has been sleeping in our bed still. He often still wakes up crying until he knows we are right there. For the first time (since last April) Jacob was comforted by someone other than me and he went back to sleep. He woke up crying at 1am and by the time I got into Isaiah’s room, Isaiah was already patting Jacob’s back and singing to him. I’m so thankful that he isn’t quite as scared at night as he was at first. God has helped heal his little heart too. I don’t know if he will ever sleep in a bed by himself, but he was happy to be with Isaiah last night!

Back to School

Today was our first day of school! Isaiah has been counting down the days for a while now. He is so excited to go back and see his friends. He wants to walk to school this year (it’s less than a mile away). This morning it started pouring and hailing right before he was going to leave so I drove him today, we wanted to make sure this was only for today, ha! I’m thinking he is going to change his mind once the cold weather gets here, but for now we will get to enjoy walking to school.
Jacob and Kaleb weren’t so excited to be back to daycare for the second day in a row. We took them a few times this summer to keep them used to the sitter. Jacob does really good, but Kaleb doesn’t like for me to leave. The sitter always sends me a text message before I am down the street saying that he settled down and he is always in a great mood when I pick him up. I have been so lucky to have had 12 out of the last 17 months off with my boys, I am so thankful to have had so much time off work and so much time with my boys. I am excited about the school year, but I am a sad that I won’t get as much time with the boys. I’m so thankful Brad and I both work in the school system and that we are able to have so much family time. We had a wonderful summer full of trips out of town, camping, swimming, and tons of fun with family and friends!
Here are the many faces of Isaiah as I tried to get a picture of him on his first day of junior high:

Re-Adoption

Today we went to court to "re-adopt" Isaiah and Kaleb and have their names legally changed. The judge confirmed his recognition of our foreign adoption and legally changed their names. The Ethiopian courts gave the boys the name Kirubel Bradley Mowen and Surafel Bradley Mowen, so that's what their Ethiopian birth certificates say. But now they will have Illinois birth certificates that say Isaiah Kirubel Mowen and Kaleb Surafel Mowen.
Isaiah wanted to talk the whole time the judge was talking, but he was excited to know that his name was legally changed. He doesn't like when we go to the doctor that his legal name is Kirubel. Kaleb wanted to run around the courtroom and yell at the flags (bags) and play with the swinging doors. Jacob skipped his afternoon nap so he slept the whole time. Overall it was quick and easy! So happy to have another step done!

A Visit With Our Roommates from Ethiopia

One of the unexpected blessings in our adoption journeys is the amazing friendships we have now with other adoptive families. While we were in Ethiopia this last time there were two other families that were staying until cleared by the Embassy and we rented a house with two other families. All three of us mama's spent about 6 weeks with our kids while our husbands were at home working. It was so nice to have friends in the same situation and people to spend time with! Nichole and Bonnie both live in Louisville and we got to stop and see them on our way to South Carolina. So thankful for great friends and continued friendships!!

Here's some pictures from the last week in January in Ethiopia

It's amazing how much the kids have changed and grown since these pictures

4th of July

I am a little late posting this, but I thought I would share a few pictures from the 4th of July! We spend the 4th out at Lake Warren with all the Mowens. This year my mom and my sister joined us too. The lake offers fun activities for the kids in the morning and Brad plays in the a volleyball tournament (for like 9 hours). I was looking forward to watching the kids watch fireworks. They all enjoyed sparklers but they didn't care much for the big fireworks. They weren't scared, but it didn't catch their attention like I thought it would, maybe next year!
Here's our day in pictures!We all had a great time!

Cooking Ethiopian Food

When we first came home I asked Isaiah several times if he wanted me to try to cook any Ethiopian food. He always said no. One day recently he was skyping with a friend from the TH who now lives in NC and his friend told him that his mom makes Ethiopian food sometimes. So now Isaiah has been asking if I could make some too. When we were in Omaha we bought some injera from the Ethiopian restaurant so I figured now was the time to try. I sure had one happy Ethiopian son! I made Dinitch Wat the first time and Tibs firfir the second. He LOVED it!!!  And I'm happy to say it wasn't too hard to make! Our house smelled like Ethiopia (onions and garlic and berbere) for days!

Nana and Kylie Visit

My mom and my niece Kylie came to spend a few days with us. I love that family is close enough that we can spend a few days together when we have the chance. The kids had a blast! Nana was trying to get Kylie to use the potty. Jacob and Kaleb thought they needed to enjoy the books in the bathroom too. I bet my mom read over 50 books in the bathroom, ha!

And we had fun swimming. I love how Jacob is learning to smile at mama when I have the camera out!

And the big boys were goofing off in the bigger pool!

Great weekend

Last weekend we had the best weekend!! We got together with three other families who we met in Ethiopia last year when we were adopting Jacob. There were 20 of us that spent the weekend together in Omaha (12 kids total, 7 adopted from Ethiopia in the last year). We spent the weekend swimming, visited the zoo, and hung out at the Buckingham's house. It was a wonderful weekend! We have been so blessed by the amazing friends we have met through adoption. So thankful for all of these friends that made time to spend a weekend together!!!
Here are some of the pictures from our three days in Omaha: