The Test

Today was about as eventful as this:

8:02 - woke up and ate cheerios because mommy didn't want to do dishes.
8:30 - frantically cleaned the apartment because the social workers were coming today
9:16 - everyone dressed, teeth brush, & hair combed (I love this part, I get to braid hair!)
9:19 - sat around organizing little things on the floor into patterns to kill time

10:12 - Adam called us on the Hungarian T-Mobile phone, and we had to go let them in the gate
10:15 - Two social workers that we had met before came to see how we were doing, and asked a lot of questions like what does she eat, what's her daily routine, how is bedtime, how are you getting her to listen to you, how is she getting along with Monkey....it was the first of the two big Tests to get their approval of whether or not we can keep her. We showed them a video we took of a big conversation Princess had with us, because they still can't believe she actually talks. She is a completely different person than they have known all these years, she's really starting to come out of her shell. We also showed them all the schoolwork she has done, and some of the crafts. Adam translated that "we are doing very wonderful with her". Yey!

That test was over, and we passed with flying colors. Next was Monkey's test for mommy.
It finally happened, like I knew it would one of these days. The novelty of Princess wore off for him, and he threw a ginormous fit for about 2 hours...getting mad about every little thing. At one point he yelled "why did we ever have to get her!?"   He had quite a few time outs, and lost everything electronic one by one for the next week. I'm such a bad mommy, and I made him lay on the bed and pray, and tell God about everything he is frustrated about and ask for patience and peace. We had a long talk about why we are doing this as a reminder to him, and talked through why he was frustrated. It was another life lesson that we will always be frustrated about some things in our life (like having to share mom & dad's time and attention, share snacks, and toys), but it's how we respond to it that really matters. And that we give everything over to God. He came out after a while and apologized, and the rest of the day was a breeze...and he had a great time with her.

12:20 - lunch eaten, daddy ran off to the gym
2:10 - we finished with school, snack, games and crafts & daddy got home
3:53 - Monkey and I speed-walked to the bus station, carrying our reusable grocery bags to get the free ride to Tesco
5:30 - with as many groceries as we could carry, caught the bus back home
6:20 - had tacos for dinner. I was so happy the white stuff I bought was actually sour cream! Score!!
6:35 - jumped in the pool before we were kicked out at 7:00, when it "closes". What's up with that?

One more improvement - Princess took a shower ALL by herself. She kept opening the shower doors to one centimeter, just to make sure I wasn't going anywhere...and I had to show her how to adjust the temperature by saying "hideg" (cold) and "forro" (hot) and pointing to the faucet. Then I had to teach her how to dry off. I don't think she's ever had to dry herself off before...and I had to show her by 'drying' my dry self off and walking her through it. She did great, and got herself dressed...giggling the entire time.

Warnings - apparently from 11-3 the UV rays are extremely dangerous, and we are under a 'warning' to stay out of the sun during that time. Really cuts down on the fun activities around here.
Also - the mosquitos are more like mutant poisonous flying rodents. And they only like girls. Princess and I are covered with big red welts that itch like crazy (two on the back of my leg are 1.5 inches in diameter!), and the boys don't have any. We get a new one every day, and are experimenting with 3 different kinds of itch creams and potions.