Fact:
The girls dress much cuter than the boys. I’m scared I’m going to wash their clothes the wrong way and ruin them. I’m glad the girls’ Mimi packed the shirts with the matching pants or I might not know what is supposed to go together. And apparently there are certain socks and bows that ideally go with each outfit and there’s no way I’m going to get that right, no matter how hard I try.

Fact:
I don’t really know what to do with Brittany’s hair. I think she has a double crown, which further complicates her hair. I don’t know which side it should naturally part on. And her hair is curly in places and straight in others and thin and I just don’t know what to do with it. But I know I’ll figure it out eventually. I think she’s been frustrated the last couple of days with her hair getting in her face.

Fact:
Jade is ridiculously cute, tiny, and sweet and I think Phillip and I both are complete goners as far as she’s concerned. However…if she continues to wake up at 5:30 a.m., we’re going to…continue to think she’s ridiculously cute and sweet, just maybe not as cute and sweet as if she woke up a little later than that.

Fact:
Mikey is having lots of fun playing with the girls. He woke up this morning and asked if his “friends” were still here. He likes them and he wants them to stay. And that, for Mikey, says a lot. He and Brittany have been having a blast playing together and I think those two are going to be thick as thieves. And they’re both rascally, which leads me to the next fact.

Fact:
Brittany is rascally. Perhaps not to the degree that her brother is rascally, but rascally none the less. We’ve seen a bit more of her temper and willfulness the last couple of days. She started to throw a fit today and I said, “Look, kid! I’ve seen fits like you would not believe! So you might as well just cut it out!” or something along those lines. Then I just picked her up and started tickling her and she started laughing. Her dimples are going to take her far in life! And her curls… she melts me already. Sweet, rascally girl.

Fact:
Jackson is an awesome kid! So far he seems to be taking this all in stride. I think he’s trying to retreat to his room and video game systems more. But overall, I think he’s enjoying having the girls around. He still baby talks to both of them. He is going to be a great second set of eyes and a big helper to me.

Fact:
Phillip is amazing! I truly couldn’t ask for a better partner in all of this. I’m so proud of him and his willingness to take on something so unknown and crazy. He is a good man. And an even better daddy. I love seeing him with the girls.

Fact:
Tomorrow afternoon/evening we get the girls permanently. I’m a little scared. Up to this point we’ve only had them for a day or two at a time. I hope we can do this. I hope we all survive. I hope I match their bows to their outfits.

Fact:
We bought a minivan. It holds everybody. We have room for one more. Phillip says I’m crazy for even saying that.

Fact:
God is good.We are in awe of God’s goodness and the generosity of the people who love Him… and us. My cup runneth over.

There’s just so much to tell you all about what’s been going on in our world the last few weeks. I could do separate posts on everything, but I don’t have time. So I’ll just try to give some nuggets of information to answer some of your questions.

Many of you have asked when we’re “getting the girls.” We’re sort of already getting them, but we’re just moving them slowly. Over the next week or two or however many, we’ll be bringing them to our house and spending time with them with and without the foster parents. We’re preparing our home now so that when the girls are ready to stay for good, we’ll be ready for them.

I don’t know if I’m allowed to post their names online publicly or not. I haven’t been told not to yet, so I’ll go ahead and tell you that Brittany is the 2 1/2 year old and Jade is almost one. If I find out I shouldn’t have just written that, I’ll change this post and take it off. I don’t think I’m allowed to post pictures of them online. At least we weren’t with Mikey before his adoption so I’m assuming we can’t with the girls either.

Brittany is hypoglycemic so she has some dietary needs that we’ll have to educate ourselves on.

Jade is a tiny little peanut of a girl who weighs about 17 pounds. The foster parents and the girls came over last night for dinner and Jade was startled many times by Mikey’s yelling, running, and just generally acting a fool.

Which leads into our greatest revelation so far about the girls. And that is that they have nothing on their brother! We were worried about having three kids who are crazy on the same level as Mikey. That is no longer a concern. Mikey still wears the crown! YAY! Mikey, I hope you always wear the crown.

Brittany loves the color pink and Tinkerbell. I decided to do their room with fairy princess bedding, but not Tinkerbell specific. I may get a few Tinkerbell things to put here and there. I ordered this on quote etsy for their wall.

and this…

We’re going to Ikea tonight to buy furniture for their room. We’ve had a set of bunk beds, but they look “boyish” to me and I really have been wanting to get rid of them for a while. The top bunk is such a royal pain the butt to make and the dresser has some drawers that are wonky. Mikey and Jackson will now be sharing Jackson’s room and Jackson’s queen sized bed. Not ideal, but they’re kids. They’ll adjust.

Some awesome friends are going to come over in the morning for a little “work day” to get some much needed things done. I would really like to have the girls’ furniture up by the time they come to hang out on Saturday.

By the way, I’m going to pick the girls up Saturday morning and bring them to our house until the afternoon. I hope Brittany comes willingly with me. Brittany and Jackson hit it off so I think I’ll bring Jack with me to help keep the girls company and read to them in the backseat.

We don’t have a vehicle as of yet that can hold all of the kids. We’re waiting on a part to come in so the mechanic we use can get my truck fixed and ready to sell. I hope that we’ll have time to sell it rather than trade it in. But at the rate things are going with the repair work, we simply might not have the time to wait for it to sell. I will need to have a vehicle that can transport everybody by January when Jack starts back to his co op classes.

Yes, I’m going to continue to homeschool Jackson. Somehow.

Yes, the girls are beautiful!!! But no, they look nothing like Mikey. They are blond with blue eyes. And Mikey looks like a little boy version of Antonio Banderas.

The foster parents are already encouraging Brittany to call us “Mom” and “Dad” which is going to take some getting used to. It is a little strange to try to get a 2 1/2 year old to start calling people Mom and Dad who she barely knows. And it’s a little strange for us too. But she’s warming up to us really well. I carried her around yesterday for a while and she clung to me like a little spider monkey.

I need to try to get Brittany enrolled in a preschool asap. I may have waited too late to do it before the break. There’s just been so many details to work out that that one keeps slipping my mind.

So…there is definitely so much more stuff to say, but that’s all I have time for right now. We are excited, overwhelmed, nervous…our emotions are pretty much all over the place as you can imagine.