[Again!]

LOL, just back from our first visit, myself (single working female), daughter age 13 and son age 12 adopted in 2001, with our new sibling set age 6, 4 and 3. We went to a restaurant for breakfast this morning, and the hostess asks, "How old are they?" It was like rattling off some complex mathematical formula, Uhhh, 6, 13, 3, 4, let's see, is that all? No, that one is 12. Then she asks "How many total?" We did a quick head count and came up with 6! Good news! Little kids get a great discount, and the total bill for a buffet was only $23.

Hard to believe I could find two sets of awesome, relatively normal kids, in our state, that fit together so well. The social worker for the new group is super, and has prepared them so well. Three and four were way under the ages I was looking for, but I'm sure glad I listened to my social worker because they are fun! (The telephone call started with the question, "Are you sitting down?") And when they throw a tantrum it's a LOT easier to move away than it was with my 10 year old, who would simply follow me about tantruming when he arrived :> I was pretty worried after I read their file, and was expecting possible RAD at very least, but these guys are clearly attached to their foster parents, and also clearly willing to attach to us. And they were able to keep up with our high energy approach to life, which isn't all that easy. Amazing! We're no doubt going to have a rough year, but it's going to be worthwhile in the long run.

[riley6]

Congratulations. You sound very happy!

What are the genders of your younger children? Our kids are almost the same age as yours are. One thing that I've noticed is that most of the time one of the older kids will pair up with one of the younger kids when they do things. We have six kids, so it comes out even in our household. I hope you don't have an odd man standing.

Let us know how things go!

[louise]

where I am rainbownine!