Almost Time to Say Goodbye

I can't believe a week has gone by since my last post.  We have done a lot in a week!  On the 4th we let the kids light sparklers and smoke bombs which they loved.  Fatima had no fears of fire or loud noises!

Cole was helping to light the fireworks.

Fire breathing tricks!

In fact, she was a little too comfortable with the fire and we had to tone her down a bit!  Put her and Cole together with fire and you've got trouble! LOL!  Unfortunately it took all six weeks for Cole to finally warm up to Fatima.  But now they are so funny together.  She "pretend" beats him up!







After our own little fireworks display, we walked down to the river and watched the city's fireworks. I think she enjoyed the action.








On Tuesday, Hikmat, an Afghan friend, came over for a play date.  I took the girls to get their nails painted, flower design and all!  They turned out beautiful!

The next day we went to a Solace event at Doing Dishes Pottery.  All of the kids got to paint a tile.  Fatima colored hers with three different colored stripes and labeled them M,D and F for Mom, Dad and Fatima.

In between outings this week, Fatima has been trying to learn how to ride a bike, thanks to Dad!  Poor Greg runs up and down the street beside her, sweating and catching her when she almost falls.  She almost has it!  I am hoping she can master this before she leaves so she can go home and tell all her friends that she learned how to ride a bike!  She loves it!  She gets so excited when we mention the bike.

Yesterday Fatima had the last of her dental work and everything went great.  She had no pain after...thank you, Dr. Mullens!  She had her retainer adjusted by Dr. Liz and she is set to go with that.  She says if she can wear it for 3 months then it will have done its job of trying to correct her cross bite.  On Monday she will go back to Dr. Mullens office briefly so that they can clean her teeth and go over oral hygiene with her.  Talk about down to the last minute!

So, she goes home on Tuesday.  Yes, I have been crying already.  We got her a large duffel for all of the things that we want to send home with her.  This bag will contain her clothes that she wore when she was here, as well as a lot of winter clothes.  We packed them into a space bag and sucked them down to a little brick!  We are using a duffel because we don't want a lot of weight.  Her suitcase can weigh no more that 42 pounds.  The duffel that we are packing tomorrow at church will be filled with all of the humanitarian items that have been so graciously donated by our community.  Thank you to all of my friends who have been so generous!

We will have a farewell Solace church service tomorrow at our church, South Jacksonville Presbyterian Church.  It is at 10am if you want to come!  All of the Solace families and kids will be there, and there will be testimonies given by Dr. Rick Mullens and a couple of host families.

I hope to update you again before Fatima leaves.