week 3 in Latvia

Another week has come and gone, and we are very happy about that.  We are closer to going home!  We really miss America and appreciate our country and miss our friends and family.  
It has been a blessing though to be here in Latvia for this time.  It is good for us to get to know Latvia and where he has lived for 15 years.  and for us to experience what it feels like to not be able to communicate with anybody because that is what he is about to live in, and that is not fun.  

This week we have gone back to the beach, which we all in enjoy. it is only a 20 minute train ride.  so wish I lived that close to the beach.  We enjoy the beach because it is a place all of the children enjoy spending the day.  we took lots of snacks and bottled waters this time and stayed a little longer.  playing in the water, riding the paddle boats, and digging in the sand doesn't require talking and that is really nice.  Mitchell also likes to jump on the trampoline that is on the beach.  how cool is that, I love the beach here.  
at the end of our day at the beach Mitchell sat on my towel with me and scoops up a little sand and tosses it on my leg, well those of you that know me well know that is just the beginning of a war.  so I threw some back on him and then he threw more and then it is on...huge sand war.  I was covered in sand and so was he, and then we are running all over the beach throwing sand.  fun at the time and then 2 seconds after the war is over, its ok I'm ready to go:) I hate to be covered in sand.  It was a lot of fun and lots of family bonding at the beach.  Him and Matthew love to splash everyone and team up with each other to annoy me and the girls. 

We also visited the Riga Zoo this week, lots of fun.  I hadn't put that on our things to do list, because I thought they wouldn't want to go...you know being teenagers.  but we got bored enough to head to the zoo for the day.  and you know I always say this and the day at the zoo proves it...teenagers are just toddlers in bigger bodies.  they had a lot of fun.  I heard "mom come here and look" all day from all 4 of them.  Matthew sticks his map through a slit in the door of the monkey cage and a little monkey grabs it and runs with it.  it was so funny because then the daddy monkey charges Matthew and slams into the glass right in front of Matthew, I got it all on video.  we all stood there and laughed forever.  not a dull moment.

The days do seem to drag, I miss things like my car, Costco, we walk a block to the grocery store and everything here is sold in very small amounts.  We are a big family and we have to be able to carry what we buy.  So we all carry a bag home, which is not a lot of groceries for a family this big.  Then we carry them up 4 flights of very steep spiral stair way to our apartment.  Then put them away in a tiny refrigerator.  The cost of food over here is killing us.  Tony finally found a bottle of mustard this week, and it was about  3 Lats which is about 6 Dollars, and the bottle was tiny.  So of course he has not had mustard on his sandwiches.  Every thing is packaged small and  cost at least twice as much here.  We have run out of all the supplies that I had packed, and now are having to purchase even more at the store.  So the funds are running out fast.  

Mitchell and I work on an English lesson everyday, and he does very good with it.  He doesn't think so and gets very discouraged.  But he learns it very fast.  He is always the one that ask to do our lesson, I wait until he is ready because it just goes well that way.  So somewhere in our day he will say mom you teach me english now. and we sit at the kitchen table and go over at least 3 lessons and review games each day.  I know it has to be very difficult and scary to know you have to learn a whole new language to be able to talk to your family.  

Mitchell is very ready to be an American.  He wants to learn English and told me he doesn't want to speak Latvian anymore.  Which I don't agree with I want him to keep his Latvian and Russian language.  He is very through with this country, breaks my heart that he wants to bury everything about it.  We visited a Latvian museum this week about this countries' history and it was amazing what all happened here during WWII.  to actually see a yellow star that the Jews wore, was unreal.  What a chance for the kids to see first hand things from this war that we can't see in America.  But he was not a happy guy that day and didn't want to walk around and see Latvian History.  I hope one day he can with God's help overcome these feelings he has for his past and his country.  

This week I ask him if  he was going to miss Latvia when he gets to America and he said "no miss Latvia".  He said he has only lived here 15 years.  I said that is a long time, he said no, I will live in America longer.  He said he will be an American forever.  He said that people in America know God and people that know God are happier people.  My fellow American Christian people, do you hear that...I think this is another lesson for us all from Mitchell.  People that know God are happier people...let's not forget that.  because what I see in America is that is changing.  hold on to the God we serve and the JOY He brings into our life because it reaches the world and changes lives.  

Mitchell is a very loving child.  He hugs and puts his arm around us all day.  He is so very happy to finally have a family and he tells me everyday.  He is starving for love and affection.  Our Social worker also visited the last time this week, and Mitchell had the idea to show her all of our pictures in my computer so he could tell her how things were going.  he sat with my computer and the poor lady had to look at over 300 pictures.  I looked at him as he clicked through the pictures with the biggest smile on his face you have ever seen.  He so enjoyed showing her his family and all we have been doing.  after the pictures Tony and I had to sign a form that stated that after our stay here with him we wanted to pursue the adoption, Mitchell asked the lady what the forms was (of course in Latvian) and she explained it to him.  We both signed it and passed it back to her and when he looked down at the paper with our signature on it his face turn a little red and his eyes looked like he could cry.  That moment made it a little more real for all of us.  This coming week will be even more real.  Monday Mitchell will go to court and have to write a statement that he wants to be adopted by our family and he will sign. and then on Tuesday we have court that will give us permission to bring him to America while we finalize the adoption.  Those two days will be two days he has waited a long time for, and I can't wait.  

This week for the most part has been the most wonderful experience of my life, but at the same time has been the hardest challenges I have ever been through.  Our family has been challenged physically, mentally, financially, emotionally and spiritually like we have never experienced.  But we always, no matter what the day holds,  say this is where God has us, no doubt in any of our minds that this journey is of God and that is what always brings us through.  We hold on to God and trust Him fully.  

Mitchell is an amazing child. God has a plan and purpose for all of this.  I can't tell you how much I love this child.  Saturday night he and I sat down to discuss his middle name.  We need to finish a paper that has his new name on it before we leave.  He grabbed my computer and wrote, today I am born and you are my mom, and I want you to name me.  That right there is worth it all.  It just melted my heart.  He is precious, and all of the challenges on this journey are nothing compared to the blessing of having him be our son.