Spring in the air

I think it is safe to say Spring has arrived in Minnesota.  Eventhough our tempertures are still below normal, it so nice to be outside without bundles of clothes on.  Erin has been enjoying her spring break, she also been cleaning the kitchen and livingroom everyday, so I come home to a nice clean house.  Praise the Lord. 

Spring often means awakening, a new or fresh start. Earth comes alive and for those of us that have the cold winter with all the snow, Spring gives us the urge to clean whether in the house or outside.  I am currently sitting in the gathering space at Crossroads Church.  Erin is attending her first teen hangout time.  She was nervous, especially when she found out her friend Logan from school wasn't here tonight, along with the deaf youth pastor.  But she wanted to try it still, there are some adults and kids that knows a little bit of sign.  I was told I could go in and be with her, I declined, I feel this is an important thing for her to do on her own.  She knows I am outside of her room if she needs anything.  I said a quick prayer that she will enjoy herself and in the process learn more about our wonderful, amazing Lord and about relationships, and friendships.

With the beautiful 50's degree weather, I have been outside the last two days after work doing things outside.  It amazes me how excited I was to be outside even if I was working.  Erin came out and joined me and helped a little bit.  When her sisters and cousins came home, they were eager to get all there things out like:

Scooters.
 Here is Katie with all her protective gear on.....after she wiped out and skinned her palm.  She is amazing girl, she gets hurt, will cry for a little bit, get a hug and hop right back on.  She is so strong.

Chalk
Monika got first claims on the chalk and started coloring the driveway, didn't take long before all the other kids did some drawing, I didn't get a picture of it before they started riding over it and the van too.  Erin wrote "I love Sun".

Bikes
Jenny hopped right on and off she went.  Erin practiced today on her bike, she still needs me to hold on, but she did a lot better then what she did last fall.  She kept saying they are so good at it, I kept reminding her that she is improving and that keep practicing.  I'm  letting the girls bike a little further down the street now, can't wait utnil we can take bike rides again, I better start getting into shape.

Climbing trees
Erin attempted to climb the tree and couldn't do it.  Jenny learned how to do it independently after I showed her how.  Erin dared me to climb, little did she know that I climbed trees in my backyard when I was growing up.  As I posted before, Erin isn't very cooperative with smiles, but I have  a couple that I am saving for another post.

Now for the advice I am looking for,  I am also planning to post this on one of the yahoo group
I have been thinking about having an exchange student again.  We had such a great experience the first time we did it.  I had decided I wanted to see if we could get a deaf  female Chinese exchange student.  Erin's school was on board and I had a person that was really excited about the chance of sending a deaf student to us if they could find one.  I had decided an deaf student because I thought Erin would really enjoy it, plus it would improve signing in the the house and would be a neat experience all around.  Metro (Erin's school), worked hard and researched into what it takes to have an exchange student attend there.  They and myself were very disappointed that it wouldn't work out, there is a lot of things they would have to do and I not sure but believe there was money involved in order to do it and with them being a small school (around 100 kids from preschool to 12th grade), it just didn't work out.  As disappointed as I was, I thought I would still get a exchange student from China.  Recently on one of the yahoo groups I belong to, there was talk about adopting teenagers.  The scernios were adopting two teenagers at the same time, from the same orphanage, different orphanages, adopting a teenager that is very close in age to a teenager in the home already wheather it was biological child or adoptive child.  Peoples experiences were all over the place as I can relate a little bit on how it was for me adopting Erin and we have had our ups and downs (mostly ups now Praise the Lord).  I know that we still have a very long ways to go with Erin, that she is still learning about relationships, about being nice (She has told me many times about people being mean in China and that it is ok to act that way towards another person, that people did it to her and she does it to others), and just all the dynamics.  She has grown up being "left out" in conversations and doesn't always care to be in the conversations that we have at home if it doesn't interest her (for example when her younger sisters are talking, she will ask me what they are talking about, when I tell her what it is that is being talk, she will sometimes say I don't care and walk away).  People have written on this yahoo group about jealousy, acting out and so forth when there are two teens close to age.  As much as Erin wants another sister and wants here to be her age, if I get a exchange student from China, is Erin going to struggle because she can't commuciate very well with this exchange student (Erin's Chinese writing isn't very good and is hard to understand it).  I know the younger girls will do great with another person in the house, Jade is down in college and doesn't make it home much.  My biggest fear is bringing in another teenager that would be anywhere from 1 to 3 years older then Erin, would that cause a regression in our relationship?  I have been praying and talking a lot to God, I haven't gotten a sense of peace yet, so I know I can't make the decision yet.  Please give me your input.