Sunday FUNday and Church too of Course

Today we took Dzintars to his first church service in America. He told us he does go to church in Latvia and had no problem whatsoever when we told him we were going to church. We decided against putting him with the high schoolers for the first hour of Sunday School and instead opted to just bring him for the service where he can stay with us. He did great! He stood when we stood, clapped when people clapped and was quiet as a mouse! He didn't understand a word of the whole service but we brought along his Bible in Latvian so he could at least follow along when the scripture was read aloud! The first Sunday of the month we always take communion, I was able to explain it to him via Google translate and he said he understood what the bread and the cup were for, I'm guessing he was exposed to it at his church back in Latvia. Yay! Church was a success. Maybe next week we'll try out youth group...

While Brennan and Kaelyn napped today Peter and Dzintars took our bikes out on a local trial for their first ride together! But first they had to fill up the tires with air! Dzintars LOVES to help, so anytime he can step in and learn to do a new skill he's all in! I think he enjoyed doing this "guy" thing with Peter.

Dzintars is such a special kid! He's eager to help, he even asked to help make lunch yesterday! He's also eager to please! He just wants our love and approval! He frequently says "I'm sorry" for very minor things, like tipping over the deck of cards during a card game, or throwing the ball too far from me in the pool. It makes me wonder if someone in his past had gotten mad at him for such minor things:(  He is truly so easy to love and be around, it breaks my heart to think what his past was like. The only "issue" at hand is the language barrier, but we're learning to work around that and it's getting easier each day!

After nap we tried out the new pool at Arcadia County Park. Sadly I got the closing time wrong and we only got to play for 15 minutes. As a consolation prize we let them all have an ice cream even though it was 5pm and we had yet to eat dinner. We're living life on the edge over here and loving every minute of it.

We decided a summer barbeque was in order so the five of us all headed to the grocery store. It's nice having a big strong Latvian to push not only your groceries but also your two kids! He loves pushing the carts! Brennan has a hard time understanding why Dzintars gets to push the carts when we won't let him, but seriously dude, you can't see where you are pushing that thing. It's a hazard!!

When we got home the big boys got to work grilling up some steaks and veggies for everyone! Dzintars got to help Peter, he loved learning how to grill and I hope we can do it again soon! The dinner was delicious:) We even ate outside!

After dinner the kids headed out front to ride plasma cars and scooters and we got a surprise visit from Rafi and Jenny. They came to drop off some baseball related gifts for our baseball loving Latvian! The gifts were a hit and so sweetly timed as we were headed to a Dodger game the next evening!

 

Bren and Micah enjoyed pushing each other up the sidewalk and them riding back down. 

 

He went in his room and tried on one of the shirts Rafi and Jenny bought him, or so we thought. Turns out he slept in that shirt! LOL! He's one well dressed kiddo!