"What shall we name that?"

Several months ago, John Harrison started asking, "What's that?" when he pointed to just about anything (even things he already knew what they were). I imagine he entered this stage a bit late, though, since Elise recently started pointing at things and saying "that" and even asked "What that?" last Friday night when John Harrison was intently watching Thomas the Tank Engine on David's Kindle (television is quite a novelty to our kids....John Harrison gets to watch Thomas on Friday nights and doesn't watch anything else throughout the week...Elise's only exposure to shows or movies is if she happens to be in her chair while brother is watching Thomas on Friday night). We've started some weekly traditions recently --- Friday night is pizza night and Thomas night and Sunday night is popcorn night. 

Recently, John Harrison started asking the names of people in books, magazines, etc. and would ask, "What's his name. I don't know his name." I would respond that I didn't know what his name was. John Harrison would then say, "What shall we name him?" In a very serious voice, he has asked "what shall we name" the kids on the front of the sprinkler package, the fire truck in a Richard Scarry book, and the list goes on.... I always help him come up with names since that seems to be very important to him.

Elise turned 15 months old recently. She is talking more and more. She says "that" constantly and also has said several sentences including, "me get" and "that dog." She has really shown an interest in reading books at a much earlier age than John Harrison did. He was close to two before he would sit still long enough to show interest in a book. She will get a board book, turn the pages slowly, and look intently at the pictures. She is really starting to enjoy me reading to her. Elise definitely takes cues from big brother--last week at small group, I went to check on my kids and John Harrison and his friends were sitting around a little table having a tea party/picnic. Elise crawled over and pulled herself up and sat in an empty chair to join everyone.

John Harrison's nap time routine is to have me read him several books and then have me sing songs to recount the stories we read before he takes his nap. Even at night, David tells him song-type stories about his day and also about some of his favorite books -- most recently, a modern-day cute Humpty Dumpty story in which the egg is repaired after his fall. The kids are lots of work, but both are so precious and fun! We can't wait to add a third child to our family. I am diligently working on compiling all the documents we have to submit to Russia before our court date is scheduled. Some documents, such as our FBI criminal background checks, can easily take months to come back, so please pray for  quick returns on those documents! We are chipping away at completing the required documents we have to provide in order to get our court case scheduled---everything from income verification from our accountant to certified copy of our property deed to complex psychological evaluations and required reports, the list goes on. Even after documents are completed, every single document (there are many!) has to be notarized, county certified, state apostilled, sent to our agency, sent to Russia, translated, sent to the court judge, reviewed and approved by the judge, judge has the right to ask for anything else she wants, judge can ask for documents to be redone, judge then schedules court hearing, then we will travel for our court date. God has called us to this journey and He will continue to guide us. That is what I must rest in as I go to sleep at night thinking about our precious daughter who doesn't have anyone who rocks her to sleep and prays for her and sings to her as she drinks her warm milk before going to bed in a quiet room.