Sara

Our second child, Sara, has beautiful eyes.  I see peace in her eyes when I look at her.  She is easy going and goes with the flow.  Yet she has a sensitive spirit.  She gets hurt easily, but forgives easily too.  She is the one that keeps us laughing through life.  She can take a stressful situation and find humor in it and her smile is contagious.  Sara has always been a child who has played independently.  I remember a picture I took of her when she was real little….she would play with Mya’s doll house and the little people for hours by herself.  And to this day she can entertain herself so easily.  Sometimes we will find her sitting with her princess dolls having conversations with them and enjoying her quiet time.  It is fun to listen in on those conversations.  Sara is yet another princess in our family.  She loves wearing dresses and doing ballet for us in the living room. She is truly a “girly girl.” She loves her purses and princess figurines….they go everywhere with us, although we have some work to do with her organizational skills.  She is not one to keep track of her belongings….we often find ourselves asking her on numerous occasions where her things are.  Somehow she loses things in our small apartment all the time.  But again, that keeps us laughing with her.  Sara’s sweet spirit keeps our family balanced and in check with making sure we have fun with our time together.  We are very grateful for her obedience and soft heart.

Chloe

Awhile ago I did a special blog entry on Mya to highlight who she is and how special she is to us.  So now it is Chloe’s turn.  And I will be sure to do one on Sara too.  Once we are home, I plan on having the blog printed into a book…one for each child to keep in their memory boxes.  I hope that someday they can look back on this experience, read about it and remember how amazing God has been through this journey.  I think it is important for them to see the heart of me and Dan as to why this journey happened and what we have learned.  It will be something we will talk about for years to come.

So now on to sweet, little Chloe.  A friend from the MOPS group back home used to call Chloe “Squishy” when she was a baby.  I loved that nickname because it described her very well.  She was a baby who loved being held and she would get all squishy in your arms when you held her.  And to this day, although she isn’t quite as squishy, she still loves to be in someone’s arms.  She asks to be held often and if we are sitting on the couch, she backs herself up to us so she can sit on our laps. She loves to lap sit and read books or watch movies or just sit and listen to us talk.  She loves having Mya carry her around too.  But at the same time, she is very independent and likes to walk places.  She gleams with pride when she can do something herself.  She creates a lot of attention at the swimming pool because she does it all on her own.  She wears a lifejacket and gets in and out of the pools by herself.  She hangs around the stairs in the pool and occasionally drifts into the water to kick a little bit.  Then she finds her way back to the stairs to play again.  Every once in a while she needs our help when she floats on her back and can’t get upright by herself. I suppose having two older sisters has made her act much older than her age.  She is quick to learn, smart and surprisingly very compliant these days.  Without saying intelligible words all the time, she communicates amazingly well.  She has conversations with us and I wish I knew what she was saying.  But somehow, she gets her point across and gets what she wants or needs.  One of her favorite things to do is choose her clothes….oh yes, she tells me which dress she wants to wear sometimes….and then after I put it on she prances around the room, just like her big sisters do in their clothes.  She has already learned that clothes make her feel pretty….oh boy!  We have a princess in the making.  I think I mentioned in a previous blog, there is something about Chloe that is unique and special and so neat.  We are lucky to have her as our third child. She is just beautiful and makes life very fun!

The Countdown Begins

I was looking at the calendar today and realized that we are less than two months away from heading home. We are already starting to think about which direction to drive and what sights to see along the way. We rushed out here, but we are going to take our time getting home. I find myself wondering if the next 7 weeks will go slow or fast. Unfortunately, I think they will go slow because I am homesick for a lot of things. We have more to explore in this area where we are living so that will keep our weekends busy, but as the time gets closer I find myself longing for things at home. Just today I walked the girls to the park and let them run through the sprinklers on the lawn. That prompted Mya to talk about her memory of the blow up swimming pool that we used to put in our front yard at home. This event, of course, always attracted the attention of cars driving by. It seemed like the whole town knew when the Donatini clan was in the front lawn. So I began missing those simple comforts of home. Like my bed.....oh....to have a bedspread again. It will be glorious. In my mind I am already redecorating the bedroom and can't wait to paint the walls something new. And to have two cars again....seems like such a luxury that I will certainly appreciate. And my refrigerator that has filtered water on the door. That means we don't have to buy any more bottled water. And I miss having hangers for our clothes. And then there is the obvious....we miss the people....family and friends...the community. I can't imagine what it will be like to go to the grocery store and actually know someone. Man....that means I have to start doing my hair and putting make-up on more often. Ok...it would be so worth it! It will be very good to return. In the meantime, we will soak up our last months in California where the beach and the mountains are a few miles away. Now that I will miss!

Papa and Nana

On Tuesday, the girls woke up very early because they were super excited for our visitors.  We waited and waited and waited and FINALLY….the afternoon came.  It was a long day for the girls (and their mother).  At one point we even pulled up the chairs to the window and stared out, just hoping it would help the visitors come sooner.  And then we saw the white van pull around the corner and Papa and Nana….who we haven’t seen in almost 1 whole year…ran out of the van and hugged their grandchildren.  It was a wonderful sight!  Our visitors from Ohio had finally arrived.

My dad and step-mom came to California to visit us for five days.  The day that they arrived we hung out at the apartment for a while and then I cooked dinner for us all once Dan got home.  It was so fun to see family.  The second day we spent the morning in the town of Pleasanton.  Their downtown….or Main Street…is something like scenery out of a storybook.  It is quaint, and has tons of unique shops and restaurants.  It was fun to just walk around and look in some of the stores.  Then after naps, we drove to Hayward and picked up Dan from work….and continued driving to San Francisco.  We ate at a seafood restaurant….double yummy because I got to eat crab. Then we drove the crooked street and the Golden Gate Bridge.  And the kids were SO good that evening.  The third day we drove northeast of San Francisco to the Jelly Belly factory.  We had a tour of the factory and sampled some wonderful flavors of jelly belly candy…..I especially liked the puke flavored one (just kidding on sampling that one, but they really did have that).  That evening Papa and Nana took the kids to dinner while Dan and I went on a date.  We went to the Cheesecake Factory and sat really close beside a couple who were fighting.  It was super fun!  No, actually, it was amazing to have some time together, even in a noisy restaurant.  There is something to be said about just looking in each other’s eyes and knowing what we are thinking….which comes with being married for a while.  And the last day, we went to the mall and then to an Italian restaurant for dinner.  Then we said our goodbyes.  Thank you for visiting us Papa and Nana!  We had a wonderful time together and we will see you again soon!

Minutes after they arrived  

The girls doing Papa’s hair 

Jelly belly factory 

Final goodbye 

The City

We were definitely due for a weekend excursion.  It was time to get away from the apartment for a bit and explore our surroundings.  On Friday night Dan and I were trying to decide what to do.  I had done some research on Santa Cruz so we thought it would be fun to visit the beach…our favorite place to be.  Dan woke us all up on Saturday morning…bright and early….to get ready to leave.  He even packed all the girls’ clothes and packed the beach bag.  Now I know how to motivate Dan to get up and get moving in the morning….send him to the beach (or the mountains).  Typically on family vacations my husband is the last one out of the house (right Donatini family??), so it was fun to see him begging for me and the girls to get moving.  We all lingered in bed while he packed us, and I really enjoyed it.  Anyway, back to our adventure.  The day started off great and we were on the road by 8:30 am.  Santa Cruz is about an hour and a half away.  We arrived there and saw a cute little beach town and a boardwalk with fun rides.  The girls were pretty excited.  The only negative part was the air and water temperature.  It was a beautiful, sunny day, but the air was so cold.  We stayed on the beach and explored for about an hour and decided that was enough.  Dan and I have also decided that we don’t like sand anymore when we are carting around three kids, a stroller, snacks, and all the other things that kids bring along with them.  It is just too much work.  Now if it were a warm day with warm water we might have a better attitude about that.  We still love the beach, but not so much with all the kids.  So we headed back to the boardwalk and let the kids each pick a ride.  Mya chose the swings and rode with Dan and I took Sara on the sky ride.  It is always such a joy to see their faces when they are having fun.  I love to see them laugh and get excited.  So precious! 

The second half of our excursion was driving to “the city.”  San Francisco was our destination and it was an experience.  The drive was beautiful…we drove the coastal highway to the Golden Gate bridge.  The ocean was breathtaking.  Then we spent some time at the lookout points for the bridge.  Once that touristy activity was done, we decided to drive to Lombard Street with the super curvy road…8 curves to be exact.  But en route to this street we came upon the very steep roads of San Francisco.  Our stomachs were a bit (okay…really) nervous climbing these streets in our car and then going down them.  We are not optimistic about our brakes being in very good shape by the time we get home (sorry Marky….that’s our mechanic).  We are afraid he might wonder what we have done to our car this past year due to all the mountain driving and the one curb that I drove over (which knocked some meaningless plastic cover off the bottom of the car).  Now I am getting sidetracked….so after the steep hills, we regrouped and found the curvy road.  I was the navigator, of course, and got us a little lost, but we did find it.  Wow!  What a sight!  There are 8 curves and it is a single lane road…one way.  The road is set on a very steep hill and beautiful townhouses are on both sides of the street.  The turns are narrow and tight and surrounded by gorgeous green landscaping.  The best part was our three girls in the back seat who had their windows down and yelled “hi” to all the tourists taking pictures.  Driving on that street made us feel like we were in a parade.  It was congested with cars and tourists. 

And finally, we parked at Fisherman’s Wharf and took the kids to Joe’s Crab Shack.  Dan and I had seafood and the kids had….pizza.  And we got a free dessert because they took too long to get our meal to us…and we didn’t even complain about it.  Then we headed home and bathed the whole family.  Good times!

Beach pictures....

Amusement park pictures....

Golden Gate Bridge pictures....

Curvy road pictures....

Family

I have had some time to talk with family members about Chloe's stubborn streak and am so thankful for all the suggestions and words of wisdom. I have been reminded how important it is to find the balance between being strict on an issue and being too laid back. We are trying to do just that. Although Dan and I talked about Chloe last night and decided to lay off the issue for now and revisit it later. My sister gave me a good example today. She said sometimes when she is playing a game and feels stuck, she walks away for 15 minutes and comes back only to find a very obvious solution. So maybe if we take a break we can come back to it later and it will make sense to her. Other than this issue she has become a compliant, intelligent and independent toddler. She is really neat! I can't wait for family and friends back home to meet her again. Even after we struggled with her on the first day she was full of hugs and kisses when we held her late that night. She loved on us and we loved on her while I rocked her to sleep. Parenting is such a journey, isn't it? As parents we try things and if they don't work we try other things. We learn what we could have...should have done and we learn what works. We extend grace because we love and adore our children. And they extend grace back and love and adore us. It is the most precious thing to be a parent.

Celebrating

We have reason to celebrate! Today at lunch time, out of nowhere, I saw Sara fold her hands and ask Jesus in her heart. She said the prayer by herself and it was awesome to watch. I helped her say a few more things, but she initiated this without having talked about it lately. This is one of those moments that I feel so proud to be the mommy to these girls. I was chosen to be the mommy and watch these amazing moments. How lucky am I?