Hello from Vermont!
It's me, Ravenna Eddiston, writing. My husband, Greg, wrote the first three entries; now it's my turn. We have four children: three lovely, handsome boys (David, 15, Paul, 12, and the baby, two-year-old Canaan), and one beautiful little girl (Mukhtar Grace; she's seven). We adopted Mukhtar just after Christmas; she came to us from India.
She's been nothing but a huge blessing in our lives. She's the little girl we've always dreamed of having. Since God didn't let me have any (not that I am complaining, mind you; it would have been nice to have a little girl instead of three boys! LOL), we decided that we'd adopt a daughter, which is exactly what we did.
Mukhtar is rather slow in development: she is behind other children her age; for this reason she goes to physical and occupational (as well as speech) therapy several days a week. In addition, she has some problems with her balance and walks with two canes to help her. She has a mild case of cerebral palsy; she was just diagnosed with that last week, after months of not knowing what was wrong.
School is just about to let out for the summer (next week, in fact!), so soon the yard will be full of kids. If they won't be swimming in our above-ground pool, they'll be playing noisy games or chasing each other. That's okay; I actually don't mind kids coming here to play with our own kids.
The weather has been nasty for the past few days: round after round of storms, very miserable out. We have a fire roaring in our fireplace, and the kids are dressed up in sweatshirts or sweaters and heavy jeans as well as warm socks. Canaan is in the livingroom, watching "Barney" on PBS; as for Mukhtar, she is at school where she is hopefully having a good day. Her brothers, meanwhile, are at the middle and high school, respectively. I hope they have a good day as well.
Mukhtar's English is coming along, but her speech is still rather garbled. It sounds like she has a bunch of small rocks or marbles in her mouth when she talks. I feel so sorry for her; I wonder if the other kids tease her because of her speech (and other) problems.
For summer vacation, we will probably take the kids to Boston, Massachussetts, to see their grandparents as well as their cousins. I know they will enjoy that. We are also going to go to New York City later on to see some Broadway shows and perhaps take them to the Bronx Zoo or to Central Park or maybe to Rockefeller Center. I know they will probably have a great time at those places as well.
As for us, Greg will keep working (he does have some vacation time coming up; this is why we are planning to go to Massachusetts and New York), and I will continue to stay at home with the kids when we aren't traveling.
Greg keeps asking me if I am going to "Americanize" Mukhtar's name. I told him no; I told him Mukhtar Grace Eddiston sounds like a fine name; it fits and goes together so well. It may be unusual, but that way our daughter can hang onto a small piece of her Indian heritage. If she wants to speak Hindi, we won't stop her, but she now knows if we go out she is to speak English, as many people here in America really don't speak Hindi or any of the other Indian dialects/languages.
Well, I am going to go: Canaan just started crying; have to see wht is bothering him. I will write in here again soon; until later, this is Ravenna Eddiston saying so long! God bless you; talk to you later!
~Love, your friend in Vermont, Ravenna Michelle Eddiston. :)
*to be continued.*
