"Can't we all just get along?"

I know you will probably be shocked when I say this... are you ready? OK, here it comes... all of our kids don't get along all the time. Wow. I know it's very unusual that our kids don't always get along 24hrs a day! Because all kids are suppose to get along all the time, right? I know that my little brother and I 'always' got along (don't say anything, Dwayne) when we were growing up. Maybe it's something in the water here in Brazil? Maybe we're not spiritual enough? Or, maybe we need to read more books on parenting? Yeah right! Our kids (adoptive and biological) are truly acting like brothers and sisters. They tease each other, provoke each other, stick their tongues out at each other, yell at each other, make fun of each other and my father-in-law just informed me that they even spit on each other (It's seems as though Gabriel thought it was OK to spit at Marlon in retaliation for something that Marlon did). But on the flip side... they laugh alot together, they have alot of fun together and most of all they truly care about each other. It's weird... I had to get on to Matthew and Marlon today because they were just picking on each other and I had reached the end of my rope with all of the constant bickering. Being stuck in a small room with 2 adults and 7 kids... I was like a ticking time bomb, just waiting to go off anyway. But, after I had gotten on to them... they banded together and worked some things out. I could see compassion in Marlon's eyes for Matthew becuase he got punished. And they were just at each other 10 minutes earlier. I'm not saying that they will never get into it again... I'm saying that they worked through some things in spite of their differences. They even ganged up together on PaPa tonight in a game of ping pong. It's all coming together, praise God.

We have returned to Betania tonight. It was nice to get a change of scenery for 2 days. The pics I posted were from our 7th floor balcony. We were right in the middle of downtown. It was pretty. Now we are back in the suburbs. But the nice thing is that we actually have grass for he kids to play in now. Tomorrow the lady who did our psychological evaluations will be returning to visit us. She wanted to bring the 4 children that I told you about on Thursday by to meet us. So, pray for us. Well, it's time for bed now so I guess we'll talk tomorrow.

Love ya,

The Referee