Six Plus One.

Thanks to our friend who gave us all the stamps and ink!

And now back to my life in India, rather than all about my personal life:

As mentioned before, Grace Purple (my original girls) and I have now moved into Faith Orange, and hence are no longer known by our former name.

We still think our new apartment is AMAZING.  The kids run around on the balcony from from 6-10 a.m. and 5-8 p.m., stopping only for breakfast, dinner, and the toilet.  Well, sometimes the toilet… The apartment has tons of light, the sleeping situation is much more desirable, and the kids actually roam around instead of mostly sitting on the floor of the living room.a  Since most people are thoroughly confused about who is where, here is a little bit about these 6 girls and how this move has affected them.

Chelsea, my littlest at three years old:  She’s become quite attached to her mama again, just like she was when I let her sleep with me during the transition of being littlest instead of the biggest sister. She’s learned to draw circles and horizontal/vertical lines. She’s almost potty-trained.   We are also a bit stubborn on that—but not too much.  She starts playschool in a couple of weeks, so has been working with a tutor all summer to prepare her, and can now say several nursery rhymes and some of her letters. Speech is Chelsea’s main issue as she has a repaired cleft lip and palate, but she’s improved drastically in the past few weeks.  With everything else, she’s running to catch up to her sisters! (And not too far behind, at that!)

Stephanie, age 13: I’ve realized how little attention I gave her before in a home with 20ish kids I was in charge of.  I’d still try to sing “Jesus Loves Me” with her a couple times a day, but now I am able to sit on the balcony with her at night and sing songs for an hour or so.  It’s basically like a 90’s worship CD with really bad vocals, but whatever J  She shares a tutor with the other girls from 10-5, and even though it’s school and not fun, she’s getting individual attention all during that time, which she needs.  Before or after school, I try to do one special activity with her, especially tactile ones like playdoh.  My favorite was yesterday, when I hooked her up with the Talking Tom app on the tablet.  She’s so soft spoken and typically gives one word answers.  She’s heard the other kids use the app before, but yesterday she finally initiated having a conversation with Tom, talking in complete sentences, so that she could hear Tom squeak them back to her in his helium-level voice. It was precious.

Heidi, age 4 ½:  This little chickadee is a new person, and has also become attached to me for the first time since I started working with them in August. Since her adenoid/tonsillectomy and hearing tubes, this kid has been laughing, smiling, babbling, and sleeping soundly daily. That’s not at all what I remember of Heidi from two months ago! She tells me full sentences about what is happening and might be trying to tell me unintelligible stories sometimes. It’s cute, and I’m so proud of her progress! For the last two or three days, she’s started repeating me.  I’d never even ask her to “say sorry” or “please” or “thank you” before because I knew she’d just put her head down, pout, and usually become antisocial for a minute or two. I still can’t exactly understand these new words she is learning, BUT she’s trying, and that’s what counts.  I praise her each and every time, and she just gives me this massive grin.

Paula, age 12:  My typical teenager and I share a room. This means she gets to sleep in and wake up at her leisure (well, for the most part).  The other kids mostly stay out of the room unless I’m feeling like a zombie and am trying to wish for another 2 minutes of sleep.  Having our own room also lets her stay up a little later than her 3 year old sisters, and get more privileges—like reading books or playing the tablet at night while I shower. She loves the ayah that came with us, and as we have cabinets instead of bureaus, she can access way more things in the house than she could previously. I like that my girl can feel a little more independent.  We also have a baby swing in our living room, and she gets to be my helper and get up on her knees to push the little girls in it. She spends a lot of her time out on the balcony, and even though she doesn’t run around it, I know she likes pulling herself up and looking over the edge, feeling the wind in her face.  She hasn’t had that in a long time.

Naomi, age 8?: Naomi just CHANGED with this move, and I have begun to view her as a “big sister” for the first time instead of a little one.  The windows in our cabinets allow her to see all the toys, and she asks for all the fun activities when she wants them. She’s my “TV helper,” helping me turn the switches on, put the DVD/CD in, etc.  But the thing I love the most is how open she’s become. I have only seen her sit to the side of the room when she’s in trouble here, whereas at the other apartment, 50% of the time she was off to the side, or always playing by herself.  Pretty much when we first walked into our new apartment, she lit up and ran around to see the new environment.  Naomi’s started spending close to 80-90% of her time interacting with the other kids or adults.  She loves pointing to her artwork on the wall. And she’s talking like crazy. Before, she’d occasionally have spurts where she’d talk a lot—but they didn’t last long. Here, she’s like a new kid.  Before, I could get her to repeat maybe 2 or 3 sentences after me.  Today, she repeated me word for word for no less than thirty minutes.  We just lied on the bed next to each other, her lips against my ear, telling me each word I said.  It started out simple with things like “I…. love…. You….so …..much,” but she continued even when the words got hard, “I ….am….gorgeous.” She stopped to laugh hysterically at me a few times, but never gave up on what I said.  Naomi also completed her first 4, 5, and 6 piece puzzles today!

Angel, clinging to mama begging to not
have to go back to tutoring class

Angel, age 4: Angel is also becoming more independent, and is finally getting some of the sensory input that she needs.  She could swing for hours in the baby swing if I let her. She runs up and down the balcony nonstop for ten minutes, about five times a day. She really loathes sitting in tutoring and thinks it’s very unfair when I’m sitting on the bed focusing on one of her sisters. BUT she has learned to draw circles and T’s and X’s.  And today, she wrote the letter ‘a’ for the very first time! (Given, she was just copying and following my step by step directions, but STILL! Haha, she has also not had one accident since moving here—WE ARE FULLY POTTY TRAINED!!! WOOT WOOT! I’m also noticing how ornery she is, and how all this space allows her to sneak off and be a little naughty.  She’s officially becoming the queen of time outs facing the corner! J

Being with just these six has also reminded me how important touch is.  We lie together in the mornings, we cuddle in the afternoons, usually two kids are in my arms during nap time, and as many as possible are touching me/in my lap/holding my hand/supporting themselves on my shoulder when we sit out on the balcony at night. It’s beautiful, and it’s important for them to know they are loved. They are really, truly loved. 

...Haha, and just as I was ready to post this, about how peaceful and wonderful life has been here, we get a new girl, about age 10. As of now, she doesn't have an online name, but I'll tell you a bit about her.  She's sensory seeking and I have a sense that the peace I was going to describe might be gone now :) BUT she's sweet and funny and definitely loveable, and we're going to have loads of fun, I can tell!  The tricky part-she only speaks Hindi.  I am the only person in my home who speaks Hindi. One would think that since I'm dating my former Hindi tutor, I'd be really good by now. But, well, my Hindi ain't so good. (Example A: while saree shopping in Delhi, I mixed Telugu in every sentence. Example B: my most popular Hindi sentence used in Delhi this March was "Sorry, Telugu aati hai, Hindi nahi aati kyunki mai Andhra Pradesh mein rehthi hun." Translation: Telugu is coming, Hindi's not coming because I live in AP.)  Sooooo, you can pray for God-given language intervention, aka the gift of tongues? So far, I have been able to successfully verbally communicate about bathing, eating, and sleeping, but at some point disciplining and you know...other things...will have to be communicated, too. 

Naomi was really excited to share her bed with someone her age tonight. I'm hoping the two of them will be able to hit it off and cause some mischief. Preferably after Carrie comes :)  But now, they look pretty darn precious facing each other while sleeping, positioned exactly the same way. Welcome, meri chhoti bahin.