Bobbi's "baby"

So, I'd been wondering lately if it was time to modify the title of the blog, but then just this week realized that it's still plenty appropriate. First of all, we're still building that new bath"room." (Believe it or not - because I'm still not sure I believe it! - Matt got the last few spots that needed a last layer of sheetrock mud completed last week, then he sanded those few spots, and this evening he and I got to 1) work together (yay!) at 2) painting the walls and ceiling with primer!!! That whole thing deserves a post in itself, but it's not likely going to happen. There has been SO MUCH going on to fill the available hours in each day, which is why having a coat of paint seems like such a miracle.)

And secondly, we've just added one more to our household!

Meet Tsvetani Brianna Potter*! We had told Bobbi that she would be able to pick out a cat when one of ours died (city ordinance allows three cats at any given time, so we needed to lose one before we could get one.) Last summer Bridget, the cat I got a year before Matt and I were married, died after nineteen good years, and we'd been waiting since then for the right time to get a new one. Obviously, much of the fall was Not. A. Good. Time. But a little over a week ago we met new neighbors who just happened to be fostering kittens, and one of them turned out to be just right for Bobbi.

Bobbi's sisters are pretty excited about a new kitten, too!

One of the neatest things so far has been hearing Bobbi talk about adoption in a whole new light. I have always personally disliked using the same term for adding a child to a family and getting a new pet, but there are so many parallels. Just like becoming a parent broadens one's understanding of God's love for his children, I think "adopting" a cat has in just a few short days opened Bobbi's eyes to some things about our adoption of her that she has not been able to really understand up to this point. She talks regularly every day about how much she loves her kitten, and I've pointed out to her that it has nothing to do with DNA! She may not be genetically related to me and Matt and her siblings, but we're at least the same species!!! I think it's been difficult at times for Bobbi to have come into a family with both adopted and biological children, and to every day see the faces of those who do look like us and know that she doesn't, and God is using this tiny kitten to fight against the lies that "adopted" means "second rate."

This kitten is surely not second rate in Bobbi's book!

*'Tsvetani' (Цветани) is in honor of someone special from Bobbi's years in Bulgaria. 'Brianna' is Bobbi's middle name, in keeping with Bulgarian naming practices of having your mother or father's name as your middle name. 'Potter' is because Tsvetani has a little spot of white fur on her forehead, just like the scar that Harry Potter has.

Fifteen years

Happy Golden Birthday, Krassimir! Fifteen years old on June 15th!!!

While I didn't take any photos on the actual day, I was outside with him this afternoon with my camera with me.

Just look at him!!! I'm so proud of that boy!! Bit of back story: Krassi really loves to spend time outside. It's been great having Rose here to spend hours out there with him and Reuben every afternoon. Today we were flitting around with all sorts of little projects and back and forth (we met "new" neighbors behind us who moved in last fall...and they're fostering kittens! and I have some girls who are pretty into that...more on that on another day!) and on one of my passes through the house where Krassi was playing, he was asking in his own cryptic way to go outside. So I thought, why not? I had to run back to the neighbors' to check on the girls and Daddy was down on the hillside cutting down dead trees with Reuben, but Krassi's got both an independent spirit AND little ability to move far or fast enough to get himself in trouble that I found him a nice grassy place where I had to walk on my back and forth through the back yard which is also the place where Daddy and Reuben were dumping their loads of brush and logs, and I plopped him down. Gave him two cardboard boxes waiting to be flattened for the recycling and he was one happy boy.

You know what I love most about this photo, though?

HE CLIMBED UP THERE ONTO THAT BENCH ALL BY HIMSELF!!!

One walk through the yard and he was on the grass. The next time, up on the bench. He'd spent some time sitting there while we had a bonfire a few weeks ago, and apparently decided he like it. I love his initiative! It's hard work for him:

(This is what it looks like to adjust position - an incredible effort!) But the sense of satisfaction and accomplishment is so totally there. "Oh yeah. I can do this all by myself!"

So we chatted a bit, and I grabbed his boxes for him because they were just out of his reach, and he was good to go again as I continued on my way.

Yep. I'm fifteen years old, and life is good!

So, this happened!!

One down, nine to go! Our first child to graduate from high school!! Bobbi's road has looked different from the "normal" in many ways, but we're so proud of how she's plugged through and made the best of a jumbled up last three years of education. She moved in the middle of one school year, spent the second half of the year learning a new language, did the first half of her junior year at home, second half part-time at the high school, then took two rounds of summer courses before her senior year which she started as a full time public school student...and then had surgery a month in, so finished the rest of the first half of her senior year with in-home teacher visits twice a week while she was recovering at home and daily half hour sessions while she was inpatient for that month before Christmas. The second half of her senior year was all the way through at the high school (minus a whole range of therapy appointments), and so ends one wild ride of a high school education!

Next year (and for one or two more years after that) Bobbi will be attending a transitional program through the district that helps roughly 25 students build life skills (laundry, cooking, bank account management), explore careers both internally and through college courses and work opportunities, and is designed to meet each student where they're at and help them work toward their individual goals. We're excited for this next step for her.

Thanks to my friend and her daughter who joined us at the ceremony, and took some great photos!!