But for my friends who don't have Facebook (AMBER!), go over and check our Adoption Blog for the latest news!
That is where we will be updating for the next 4 weeks or so:
http://burstingwithgod-news.blogspot.se/
An American and a Swede, living in Sweden, with daughters from South Africa and Zimbabwe!
Posted by Mr and Mrs Lorentzon at 8:59 em 0 comments
So, my precious girl turned 5 today. I am not usually one to become particularly sentimental, but sometimes when it comes to my kids something sentimental kicks in. Esther is charming but challenging, exhilirating but exasperating, silly but sly, intelligent but intense, funny but frustrating, and she can make me both laugh and steam. Now that she is five it kind of feels like maybe a new chapter is starting. She isn't a toddler anymore, or a little kid. She is five. She can read a little bit, she can spell a little bit, she can use a laptop and a desktop, an iPad and an iPhone, and she now gets a weekly allowance (which she has learned to split 5 ways).
This weekend she had a Princess Party with her female classmates, who all came dressed up as princesses. They did Princess Crafts, had Princess Cupcakes, and took Princess Pictures. These are all things that I never would have done as a little girl, but I am learning pretty much every day that Esther and I are very very different from each other and that is not necessarily a bad thing! It sure is teaching me a lot. Sometimes I don't deal with it very well, but other times I am thankful for it.
Who knew parenting would be such a challenge! Sure, it depends on the kid to some extent, but I think in general it just is one of those things that God uses to slowly mold you more closely to His image!
Posted by Mr and Mrs Lorentzon at 9:30 em 3 comments
Posted by Mr and Mrs Lorentzon at 9:58 em 0 comments
We spent one month in the USA. It was wonderful. We missed one entire month of nearly non-stop chilly rain in Sweden. Meanwhile in the USA we had mostly hot temperatures (some days set records), my dad got evacuated from wildfires while at a conference in Colorado Springs, something called a derecho struck while we were driving home from a restaurant (nearly hurricane force winds - knocked down trees everywhere and electricity almost everywhere). So, weather is crazy! You never know what you are going to get. But we are all glad that we missed the non-summer weather of Sweden.
But that's not all that was good about the US! We spent lots of time together as a family, went to the pool almost every single day. We spent lots of time with my parents. My mom did all kinds of craft-y things with the kids. And she made them all kinds of fancy stuff, like a Victorian dollhouse, princess dresses, quilts, and all kinds of stuff. My dad did all kinds of cool Grandpa stuff with them, like swimming in a water hole in the woods, finding crabs on the beach, teaching Esther to surf. Esther took 4 swimming lessons as soon as we got to the US, and between that and then being in the pool nearly every day for a month, by the final week she had gotten quite good in the water. If she had even more practice she would be a mermaid.
We spent one week at the beach in NC, in a wonderful beach house right on the shore. It had a pool, too. It was amazing to be able to stay in a place like that. Esther loved the ocean and the waves and didn't even mind getting knocked around a bit when trying to learn to ride the waves with a raft. On a rainy day we went to an aquarium and Esther liked the little alligator.
Niklas said it was the best vacation ever and that we should do it every summer! :-)
Posted by Mr and Mrs Lorentzon at 8:31 em 2 comments