Another night in MIchigan....

The past few months have been super busy, and I have gotten away from blogging. The girls and I were able to settle back into life in Michigan and finish out the school year at Haverhill. It has been hard being back "home" but not "home". We call ourselves the invisible family- we are back in Portage, but not in our house near where all of our friends and neighbors are. The kids do not have a backyard, and we are not staying anywhere near our school, our neighborhood, our friends, our gym. Two months without Scott have been difficult on all of us- we missed him terribly- the girls missed Daddy, and I missed having my husband around to talk and laugh with. Skype is wonderful, but it does not replace having him here with us. I have had many a "poor me" moment, and so have both of the girls. Maya had weekly breakdowns about wanting to be back home in Japan, and Hanna had what I would call one of her worst "phases" yet- screaming, yelling, calling Maya and I names and just down right not listening and misbehaving. It has been a challenge to have to work with her by myself and have no backup or sanity check. :)

During the past two months, the girls have had the chance to do a lot of things. Maya participated in a YMCA Healthy Kids Fun run. It was 1 mile, and, because she had never run a mile straight before, she sprinted the entire time! She ran it in 9:47, which I thought was really good. She was completely dying when it ended- face beet red, breathing hard, but felt so great when it was done. She has taken up running and enjoys it (plus, it tires here out!)

Maya starting the 1 Mile Fun Run

Maya Finishing up!

Maya's class had a music performance, Maya and Hanna's classes had field trips to the Nature center, both girls had end of the year school picnics, and both took twice weekly private swim lessons at the YMCA. They have both come a long way (Maya is actually doing all four strokes, turns, etc., and Hanna is now jumping in, with goggles and going all the way under- huge strides for both kiddos!).

Maya's music performance at Haverhill

Hanna's Haverhill Kindergarten Class picnic

We participated in our neighborhood's Memorial Day Bike Parade (in which after, there was a tornado warning, touch down about 30 miles away), and our friends the Sobell's invited us over for a Pool party on Memorial Day, where we hung out and swam (it was in the 90's) all day long.

After the Ice Cream Fight

Pool Party at the Sobell's

Kids jumping in together!

In many ways it has been great to be back- it is hard to like being in two places, but a great feeling to know that there can be more than one place in the world that we can live and be happy as a family. This situation has taught us all to be more flexible, more understanding and more helpful to each other. It has really been the most difficult two months of my married and family life (I have pretty much told everyone I know that it has been the "suckiest" two months ever!), and many times I think that 2011 so far has been one of the most challenging years ever. That being said, again, we are all safe and healthy, not lacking any basic necessities and are unbelievably lucky and fortunate compared to the 25,000 people who died in the earthquake/tsunami, and the additional hundreds of thousands that are still, 3 months later, living on gym floors with no place to call home. Be grateful- we need to make sure we always stay grateful for what we have and who we have.