who'da thunk it? babies from the tropics love snow!

Garak was a little slow on the draw and missed his ride

looks pretty cute in his snow outfit though

such a biggie boy "Mama, Hayden do it myself"

Garak o-nee wanta dis Mommy

we are slowly but surely working on a photo scrapbook of the long and storied 2 trips to Uganda and back. I have finished that page that shows our last goodbye to the boys' families. the story they tell when they flip to that page is "Garak is crying becuz Garak don't wanta Mama Benny. Garak o-nee [only] wanta dis Mommy (patting me when they say it)" Then we look at the page with Hayden enjoying his time w/his family and sad to leave his auntie "Mama Johnny." Then pictures of them both crying when she said goodbye.  With his limited (but rapidly expanding) vocabulary, Hayden is able to clearly express himself around this somewhat emotionally complicated memory.  "Hayden isa very chad [sad] becuz Hayden wanta Mama Johnny, but lika come Mommy an Dah-ddy's ouche [house]."  This morning at breakfast Hayden spontaneously brought up the topic of wanting to go to Mama's Johnny's house and I thought to myself "okay here it comes. let's see how we can navigate this conversation."  However; he brought it up in reference to the photo book. I understood this after a bit of listening on my part. He was actually saying that he wanted to go back to her house and that's why he was sad in the pictures but he ended by saying "but Hayden loves a dis Mommy, 'Mama Mommy'[gesturing towards me]" Sweet stuff. Heartwarming stuff. Nice way to start the day.

Garak's name is Garak

Today at church a man introduced himself to Garak and asked him "what's your name?" Garak shook the man's hand and responded "Garak's name is Garak."  There you have it.  Just to be clear about it.  This response is "classic Garak" in that it also demonstrates Garak's tendency to be quite verbose.  If you ask him a yes or no question, 9.5 times out of 10 he will reply with a paragraph --not much of which you can decipher but-- most of it is trying rephrase what you just asked him and give reasons for and against and explanations for why he does or does not agree with what ever you just said.  If you ask him to clarify and give you a yes or no answer he looks up at you bewildered and replies "yes or no."  Good times...
incidentally when asked his name by the same man Hayden replied "John, Johnny, Johnny-Hayden" so he is a bit less sure of quite who he is.  more on that later

It wul be for veddy veddy fun!

That what the boys say when they are excited in anticipation of doing something. It wul be for veddy veddy fun!  ie "Today Mommy is no going a werk an it wul be for veddy veddy fun an Hayden wul be cho happy!"

it's claws for celebration!

matching hockey shirts w/more presidents to open!

Hayden is so proud of the airplane he made w/Daddy

milk guzzler!

casual milk drinker/non-milk-drinker

going shopping

stickers on paper is overrated!

we are in the habit of taking tea together. they love it (these 2 shots are at Gramma Brimer's)

such sophisticated children we have. we have tea almost every day after lunch.

F-A-M-I-L-Y...*sniff*

There is a song that my boys have on a kids' video that basically goes.

"F-A-M-I-L-Y (sung letter by letter spelled out)

FAMILY!!

When you're in my heart, you're in my family.

When I'm in your heart, I'm in your family."

Garak LOVES this song and asks for it quite often.  He shout sings along
"EH-E-AH-I-EHL-WY FAMILY!"

So last night for the first time Garak and I sang this song together without the video on. He was just cuddling me sitting on my lap and singing along with me right into my face.  He was just so delighted to be singing along with me.  Imagine the scene.  Singing with my son; I could have missed this moment.  So thankful for it.  After singing it a few times, I could not continue without crying.  How precious.

3yr olds' 1st Christmas!

 We are settled in. We feel like a family.  Uganda is fading.  It's hold on us is lessening.  The snowy views from our windows keep us in the present.  No matter how many times a day we feel like a normal family and we are just us and this is just how our family looks and this is just the ways normal looks for us, our family is NOTHING SHORT OF A MIRACLE.

  It can not be taken for granted. There is nothing ordinary about this 1st Christmas Day. Neither in what it means to the world or what it means to our family. We are loved. All of us are.  My family, though, The Brimer Party of 4 that we are...We Are Loved! God loves us so much that He gave away His Son for all of us and that's why we celebrate this day.

  Our first Christmas with the boys at home was magical. Like a dream or something you'd see in a movie. The intervention is so clear and so complete. Plucked up from one life and dropped into another. The past is being erased one lonely and fearful memory at a time.

 Sometimes the symbolism really hits my heart: Spiritually we have all been offered a family to belong to and be adopted into which is so beautifully portrayed by our boys.

  It's like the scene in The Little Princess where the 2 girls who are locked in the attic wake up and they are beautifully dressed and sleeping in warm beds with good food laid out for them to eat.   If I could take you to Uganda with me in my heart or better yet if the boys could, they would show you such poverty.  They would tell you of such cruelty and the hard living they have done in their little boy bodies.  It breaks my heart when I look at all the scars that they already have on their skin and I know in their hearts as well. 

To wake up this morning in new beds with toys waiting in packages under the tree and more good food than they could eat ready to serve for a hearty breakfast is more than they could have dreamed of in their old life.

 When you hear something in your heart like I did to go and bring these boys home I had to choose to trust without knowing if it would work. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Childlike faith means believing what you are told is true and living like you believe it.  We have been showered with such love and provision for our children.  We are humbled and very thankful.  Our faith has grown and we hope that those of you on this journey with us have had your faith in God's goodness and planning for each life stretched as well! 

Today Hayden woke up saying he wants to go see Jesus and he's been asking to go all day because he wants to sing him Happy Birthday. Sweet little munchkin, that boy of mine!

Hayden was happy to receive so many new presidents as well today! [he used the term presidents in stead of presents several times today!]

As "Glampa" Proch says, Life is Good. [btw: every time they see a "life is good" mug or tee shirt they say "this one is for Glampa"]

You would have thrilled to see such thankful children.  After just a few toys were pulled from their stockings, they were completely content to just play with those and had to be encouraged to keep digging into the stockings to find more.  They didn't need more. As Hayden put it this morning "Mama, Hayden isa scho HA-ppy!"

ah-ppy buushday tooo dooo!

Hayden's birthday celebration was today. His favorite gift was a guitar. He insisted on playing with daddy for quite a while afterwards.