Tidbits

Well, I've been writing down little tidbits the last week or so about what the kids have been doing.  It seems like we've gotten busier and busier and when I sit down to write a journal entry, I don't remember very much.  So here we go:

 Sophie heard Chris put his keys in the door when he got home from work. I asked Sophie, "Who is that?"  She said, "Daddeee!"  When he walked in the door, I asked, "Is that Daddy?"  and she said, "Yesss!"  I felt like we had our first conversation. --January 26th

So I told Josiah to go get one of his Valentine's Day books off the bookshelf, and he told me he didn't want to read a book.  He then said, " I go upstairs and read the Bible."  --February 3rd

Sophie crawled over to my diaper bag, took out my wallet, opened it up and pulled out my debit card... I think she is a bit young for this! :) --February 3rd

Today, I was backing out of our parking spot and bumped into the snow pile behind me.  From the backseat, I heard Josiah say, "Try again, Mommy, try again." It was all I could do not to split a gut! --February 5th

Tonight, I asked Sophie if she wanted juice for dinner.  She said, "Yes." and then crawled over to the fridge.  --February 6th

Today was our first time in a long time that we had our Family Worship Time.  We climb into our bed with the kids, sing a couple of songs, read a Bible story and then have a prayer time. When we all climbed into bed and told the kids what we were doing again, Josiah said, "This is a fun place."  He snuggled right in and we had our worship time.  I guess he missed our routine more than I realized. --February 7th

Today, Josiah informed me that if I knocked his train off the track that he would have to tickle me! --February 7th

 Josiah "read" his Moses book "Up and Down" today. I say "read" because he pretty much has it memorized, but hey we gotta start some where, right? --February 7th

Josiah got out of his bed this morning--this is only the 3rd time he has gotten out of his bed since he started sleeping in a toddler bed--can't complain too much.  After explaining to him that he could only get out of bed when Mommy or Daddy came to get him, he told me that he just wanted to come to a safe place.  How could I be mad at him after a comment like that?  I didn't show any weakness though--I told him he could get into bed this time, but next time he needed to wait for someone to get him.
 --February 8th

Sophie is now wanting to eat using a fork.  The cutest thing is when she is ready to have more food, she politely hands the empty for to us so we can put more food on it for her. --February 9th

Sophie took a nap today without sucking her thumb!!  I won't mention that she was probably too tired to try to get the socks off of her hands or that she passed out because she didn't get a morning nap, but hey we gotta start somewhere, right?
--February 9th

 Josiah was playing with his trains today, and like always, Sophie heads towards them.  Josiah yells, "OH NO!!  Mommy stop Destruct-o!" --February 9th


Josiah goes and grabs my Bible and inform me he is going to a Bible study today.  He brings the Bible to the ottoman and starts "reading" the Baby Moses story.
--February 11th

 The other day Chris was reading Sophie her favorite book.  Chris likes to make sounds for the different vehicles.  Josiah asked Chris to make a sound for the tricycle.  Chris told him that the trike doesn't make a sound.  Josiah said, "Yes it does.  It goes Ding-Ding."  Don't you just love being corrected by a 2.5 year old!?!?! :)--February 11th

 Well, I feel like this was a much more successful journal writing--it was TONS easier on this ol' brain of mine--I didn't have to strain as much.  So as you can see, you got a little glimpse of how we live our life--with a lot of laughter!

Meltdown City

Well, we have experienced our first real sickness this week.  When I say real sickness, it means Josiah actually has had to take an antibiotic.   He started running a fever on Wednesday, so we did the normal Tylenol and ibuprofen.  By Thursday night, he had a HORRIBLE cough and didn't get much sleep.  Thursday night, he was coughing so bad that he threw up.  After throwing up, he asked if he could go see Ms. Leah so she could make him better.  How pitiful is that!?!   Instead of waiting for Monday to come around, we went ahead and made an appointment to see Ms. Stacy on Friday.  He didn't get to see Ms. Leah, but we told him that he was going to see Ms. Leah's friend, and he was totally fine with that.  Ms. Stacy said he has a lot of junk in his chest and wrote us a prescription, but said we could wait to give it to him if we wanted.  Friday night was a ROUGH night--from 7:00pm to 10:00pm he woke up three times.  After the third time, I brought him to our room and propped him up on some pillows which didn't help.  So finally, I sat up against the pillows and held him in my arms.  He slept much better, but lets just say I didn't get much sleep.  Chris and I decided that if he didn't nap well on Saturday, then we were going to go ahead and start the prescription.  Well, he didn't sleep very well by himself so back in my arms he went.  So we went ahead and gave him his first dose of antibiotics.  Well, I have heard horror stories about kids being on antibiotics, but I thought that it was made up.  I have heard about how aggressive kids are. Well, I can now say that I am living these horror stories.  In the last 12 hours, Josiah has pushed Sophie over, talked nasty to me, had multiple meltdowns, repeatedly pushed his rocker ottoman into me, and put his hands over Sophie's mouth and nose. So I am praying that tomorrow is a better day--that he catches up on his sleep and is a little less aggressive to all.

Sophie did start running a fever, and I thought we were going through round two of what Josiah has, but last night I found a tooth that has come through. She has been having some meltdowns, too.  At one point, they were both having a meltdown.  I was so exhausted by this point that I wanted to throw myself on the floor and scream and cry like they were, but I decided that it probably wouldn't get us very far.  We are praying Sophie's fever was because of her tooth.  Please be praying that Josiah will get over this soon and that we all stay safe.

Birthday Weekend

Well, we've had a very busy, but fun weekend.  Friday was Chris' 33rd birthday, so I tried to surprise him by having some of our friends over.  I ended up telling him how many were coming because I could tell he was having a stressful week, and I didn't want him to be miserable the whole time.  So we had our little family, the two Korean girls, two of our youth, the McLeods and the Corsos.  I made Chris one of his favorite meals, lasagna with beef and pepperoni and bread from Wegman's.   For dessert, I made him Lemon Icebox Pie.  There is a lot of pressure to make this pie because he is used to having his Granny make it...and let's be honest it is hard to compete with any recipe a granny makes.   After the kiddos went to bed, Chris and I headed over to the church to decorate for Sophie's birthday party.  It was so nice for John and Jen to stay while we went to the church--it made our Saturday that more relaxing.

We got up Saturday morning and completed some last minute food items for Sophie's party.  Sophie was able to take a little nap before we headed to the church which was nice.  There are LOTS of pictures in her birthday album, so please take a minute to look at them.  Even though we didn't have our immediate family here to celebrate, Sophie sure was loved on by all of our VA family.  She had her adopted grandparents (the Stilwells) and LOTS of adopted aunts, uncles and cousins (the Dages, the Corsos, the McLeods, the Byrum-Bouttes, the Pintos,  and the Manettis).

Today is going to be another busy day, but more with church stuff.  We won't see much of Chris today because he is going to a HFG to share some new changes coming to our church plus he has youth.  So I will head home with all four kids and get them fed and hopefully, we will all have a quiet rest time. 

A New Adventure

Well, today we are starting a new adventure.  In a little over an hour, I will be heading to the airport to pick up two Korean girls who will be staying with us for a month.  One of the girls is in third grade and the other is in fourth grade.  Chris and I seriously prayed and discussed about having an exchange student for the whole year, but never got a green light.  One thing that was really holding us back is the fact that our family days are Mondays and Tuesdays and if we had a student living with us, we wouldn't be able to do any traveling since they would need to be in school.  When we heard about a month long stay, we figured we could do that.  So needless to say, we are EXTREMELY excited about having these two girls staying with us.  Some of our friends who live a couple of blocks from us are getting two boys, so we will be carpooling with them to get the kids to and from school each day.  I'm sure as the days go on, I will post another journal entry and some pictures.

This week is going to be pretty crazy as we adjust to having a school schedule to follow, get ready for Sophie's 1st Birthday and celebrate Chris' 33rd Birthday.  Come back to see some pictures of all that is going on.

CHRISTmas 2010

Well, this is one of my favorite things to do each year—writing the Greenwood Christmas Letter.  I guess I enjoy it so much because it gives me the chance to reflect on what God has been doing in our lives. 

We started off 2010 by welcoming our newest addition, Sophie Sugai.  She arrived on January 15^th weighing in at 7lbs 3oz and measuring 20 ¾ inches long.  Labor was about 4 ½ hours and after 5 minutes—yes, 5 minutes—of pushing, she made her entrance into the world.  Let me tell you, ever since that day, she lets us know that she is a part of our family.  The first three months were VERY rough.  All she did was cry, cry and cry some more.  Chris and I were working off the definition of colic that we had gotten when Josiah was a baby, so we didn’t think she had colic.  It was amazing because when she turned three months, she just stopped crying —let me tell you the next day I was trying to remember everything I did the day before so we could have another cry free day.  Shortly after she turned three months, I was reading an article about colic.  In the article, it re-defined colic.  Well, according to this definition, Sophie had colic.  I think when a definition on colic changes, a world-wide memo should be sent out letting parents know—this is kind of important information.  Sophie is almost 11 months old and continues to bring much joy to our life.  She definitely has a fiery personality and is very vocal in the process.  When this little girl wants something, you better watch out!  I’ve decided that I need to go ahead and read “The Strong-Willed Child” by Dr. Dobson.  Usually, disciplining Sophie starts with me telling her no and ends with her smiling and laughing at me.  The disciplining makes her even more determined to get or do what she wants.  We are praying that she is getting this all out of her system before the teenage years, but I have a feeling this is just the beginning!!  Sophie continues to amaze us on how quickly she is learning things.  I think she is learning things so quickly because she has Josiah to watch and learn from.  She is already crawling and pulling herself up to her knees.  She tolerates the baby food we give her and lets us know when she is ready for some table food.   We really look forward to seeing how God is going to shape Sophie and how He is going to use her.  We know her fiery personality is a gift from Him and can be used in a positive way—let’s just hope we remember that as she gets older!!

Josiah is now two.  He continues to be a WONDERFUL big brother to Sophie.  He is so gentle with her.  We don’t worry about leaving Josiah and Sophie in the same room, and we are so thankful for that.  This year, I have started school with Josiah.  About a year ago, we started the “Your Baby Can Read” videos.  Josiah has done really well with them and has started to recognize quite a few of the words.  I didn’t work too much with him on letters and sounds, but he has picked them up along the way.  I could tell towards the end of the summer, he was starting to get bored with our routine, so I decided that we would go ahead and try school.  So in September, we started school two days a week.  We track our weather every day and talk about what the date is.  On the two days of school, we do a Bible lesson.  We have learned about Creation, Noah’s Ark and when Jesus feeds the 5,000.  We were amazed the first time Josiah told us what happened on each day of Creation.  After Bible, Sophie usually goes down for her morning nap, and then Josiah and I do a lesson on the letter he is learning.  We usually go over the sound the letter makes and then we make a craft of something that begins with that letter to put in his ABC’s book.  In the afternoon, we do a math lesson and then we do some kind of Science or Social Studies lesson.  So far he really enjoys school.  There are some days when he doesn’t want to do anything, so I just go along with it—I mean who doesn’t have a day when all they want to do is stay in their pajamas and play.  When we do play, the big hit at our house is Thomas the Tank Engine or Dinosaur Trains.  In September, we went on our first family vacation.  Yes, we have been on trips before, but it usually was with family members or going to see family.  For our trip, we headed to Strasburg, PA, outside of Lancaster and spent two nights in Amish Country.  The Greenwood Family thoroughly enjoyed our vacation for different reasons.  The parents enjoyed getting away from the hustle and bustle of DC.  Josiah enjoyed seeing Thomas in person and riding in the “boose.”  I don’t know why he says we rode in the caboose because we didn’t, but we just let him go along with it.  Sophie pretty much went along for the ride and enjoyed having new territory to explore.  Another big achievement for Josiah is he is now day-time potty trained.  I think we were totally spoiled with him because he pretty much initiated wanting to use the potty at the beginning of the summer.

Chris continues to stay busy with all that he does at the church.  He preached a great sermon series on discipleship this summer.  I will include the church’s webpage at the end, so you can go listen to his sermons if you have time.  He is going to start preaching the first Sunday of each month, so he is pretty excited about that.  We both feel like we have really started connecting with the youth and enjoy having them around.  We have three youth that live within walking distance from us, and two of them were over at our house quite a bit this summer.  Chris and I were a little sad when school started and they weren’t around as much. We get to see one every week because she comes over to watch the kids while I teach ESOL.  The other one comes over every Friday evening, so we can study the Bible together.  There are moments (when we stay up way past our bed time) that we feel really old, but we are so thankful for the ministry God has given us here.

Well, where do I begin with me?  Well, I guess the biggest thing going on in my life started back on July 1^st when I took the kids to an animal farm when my mom and niece were in town visiting.  While we were there, Josiah asked if he could ride the pony.  My gut feeling was this was a bad idea, but for him to initiate something like this was big for him.  So, we got in line and waited our turn.  I asked him a couple of times if he really wanted to do this, and he assured me that he did.  I asked one last time as we were walking over to the pony, and he told me that he wanted to.  So up on the pony—small horse—he went.  Since this was his first time, the handler thought it would be a good idea for me to walk on the other side of the pony.  Now, the light weight that Josiah is, as soon as the horse took off, Josiah started to get off balance on the saddle.  The horse stopped, so the handler could get Josiah centered back on the horse.  When she did, the horse side stepped right on my flip flop wearing foot and stood there for a good 10 seconds.  I didn’t make a big deal about it because I didn’t want Josiah to be frightened, so we continued on the pony ride.  By the time the ride was over, the top of my foot was the size of a tennis ball.  At that point, I decided I needed to go the ER.  So here it is in December, five months since the accident, and I’m almost fully recovered.  I’ve had a soft cast, a boot, a hard cast and a boot—again.  After being under the care of an orthopedic doctor for about three months, he wanted me to go see a pain management doctor.  He couldn’t find anything on the x-rays and felt that 3 months was plenty of time for muscles and tendons to heal.   So off we went to the pain specialist, and I was diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS).  CRPS pretty much means when I had my accident, my nerves were telling my brain that I was hurt and had been injured, but they never stopped telling my brain any differently.  The treatment for CRPS is to have injections of steroids into the nerve heads in my back that go to my foot to reset the nerves.  Now, for those of you who know me, I never had an epidural during labor because I wanted NOTHING near my spine, so this was a BIG deal for me.  This was a moment that I needed to trust God.  I needed to trust the fact that He is the One who gives skills to certain individuals—especially, the pain specialist I was seeing.  I have learned a lot about my relationship with God over the last five months.  Sure there were times, when I was down because I just wanted to be done with the whole ordeal, but I am truly thankful for all the lessons I have learned and for my deeper relationship with God.

Well, I guess that is all for this year.  We hope you all have a very Merry CHRISTmas and a Happy Blessed New Year!   

 Blessed by Him,

Chris, Sara, Josiah and Sophie

First Snow of 2010

Yesterday, we had our first snow of the season!!!  It started snowing while I was teaching ESOL and the kids were home with the "World's Bestest Babysitter," Darian.  On my way home, I stopped at Chic-Fil-A to pick up some chicken noodle soup--I couldn't think of a better meal for on the go.  While we were eating our lunch, Darian's two younger brother's came over because they were out playing in the snow.  Then another one of the youth came over once she got off from school.  Darian made a special treat that I had never had before--snow ice cream.  It was very good treat.  Then one of our friends brought her three kids over to hang out with us.  While everyone was here, we made some CHRISTmas ornaments out of applesauce and cinnamon. If you look in the December Album, you will see some pictures from our first snow day.  As you will see, we had quite a bit of fun.  Today, Josiah and I went outside for a little bit to play in the snow while Sophie took a nap...of course, I got some pictures. 

On a side note...Sophie is now standing up using anything she can grab on to.  The other day, she was side stepping along the couch to get a book.  Once she got the book, she stood there all by herself.  I have a feeling she will be taking off soon, and I think I should be VERY afraid!!!!   She is also doing well with her signing.  She can do "more", "milk", "all done."  We are still working on "please" and "thank you."  She is starting to recognize some words on her videos and will do our special sign or sound.  The words she knows are "clap," "gorilla," "arms up," "mouth," and sometimes "ears."  We are so very proud of what she is learning already at just 11 months old. 

Thanksgiving 2010

So this year, I decided to have a reflection each night at the dinner table on something or someone we are thankful for.  We did it for all 30 days.  I must admit some days we had to play catch up, but we each found 30 things we are thankful for.  Read below to see what The Greenwood Family is thankful for.

1st: Chris--my kids; Sara--my salvation through Jesus; Josiah--Daddy
2nd: Chris--my wife; Sara--my husband; Josiah--Mommy
3rd: Chris--Jesus; Sara--Josiah and Sophie; Josiah--Harper
4th: Chris--our church family; Sara--all my extended family; Josiah--Mommy & Daddy
5th: Chris--rest of our family; Sara--our church; Josiah--Lindy
6th: Chris--healthy family; Sara--my foot is better; Josiah--Sophie
7th: Chris--our home; Sara--our home; Josiah--dinosaur trains
8th: Chris--good communication; Sara--food to eat; Josiah--Sophie
9th: Chris--Bible; Sara--healthy family; Josiah--Lin-Lin & Pa T
10th: Chris--marriage; Sara--Bible; Josiah--D (Darian)
11th: Chris--friends; Sara--youth ministry; Josiah--Jesus
12th: Chris--youth; Sara--disciples; Josiah--John (McLeod)
13th: Chris--Pastor Tom; Sara--friends; Josiah--Roary (his stuffed animal)
14th: Chris--glasses (help of Josiah); Sara--ministry opportunities;Josiah--Jen (McLeod)
15th: Chris--finances; Sara--7pm every day; Josiah--juice
16th: Chris--music; Sara--waking up to my family; Josiah--Junior (Veggie Tales)
17th: Chris--forgiveness; Sara--mercy-new every day; Josiah-cookies
18th: Chris--clothes to wear; Sara--Corey, Harper & Auden; Josiah--cereal
19th: Chris--new day; Sara--van; Josiah--Lin-Lin's cake
20th: Chris--good listeners; Sara--taking a shower; Josiah--"coffee" (water)
21st: Chris--water for baths/showers; Sara--being able to buy for others; Josiah--pretzels
22nd: Chris--money to buy things for others; Sara--electricity; Josiah--Herndon caboose
23rd: Chris--our cars; Sara--being able to go grocery shopping; Josiah--Thomas the Tank Engine
24th: Chris--Thanksgiving; Sara--warm clothes; Josiah--Baby Auden
25th: Chris--Christmas; Sara--laughter; Josiah--toys
26th: Chris--hairbows; Sara--camera to capture memories; Josiah--train dessert (made with Granny Whoosh)
27th: Chris--happy children; Sara--being able to have fun with kids; Josiah--sparkly juice
28th: Chris--HFG; Sara--HFG; Josiah--waffles
29th: Chris--family day; Sara--Christmas; Josiah--candles
30th: Chris--warm fire; Sara--family day; Josiah--bubbles

Well, this is a portion of what we are thankful for.  God has truly blessed our family in 2010.  We have had some very happy times and even some trying times, but we continued to praise Him through it all.  We look forward to seeing how He is going to use us in 2011