Middle School, Volleyball, Baptism

 Well...

Here we are in December already.  My last post was in October, but trying to catch up from August.  We've been here in the states for five-ish months.  I do think we are feeling more settled.  I still think the best word to describe us is neutral.  Everyone is doing well.  There are no major issues with anyone.  We are busy and slowly making friends and our house is getting more and more put together and we are mentally letting go of our time in Japan more so that we can live here in a more present manner.  I wouldn't say we are thriving though.  Maybe Piper.  Maybe Felicity. 

I expected middle school to be a drama fest daily for Piper but somehow the girl acts like she owns the place.  She doesn't really love school, she never has, but the social aspects of middle school are a delight for her.  She appears to have made great friends and there seems to be very little drama.  I think she has a core group of friends and I have no idea of the popularity of the group, and honestly, don't care about that, but she talks about a different person daily so I guess she is friends with many different people.  She's been given a few different leadership opportunities which has given her confidence. 

This confidence does not extend to her chosen extra-curricular activity of volleyball.  Only one of my children seems to have any aggression in them. The others are all way to nice when it comes to sports.  Piper asked to play volleyball.  She loves the game.  She is not good at it. I think she has potential--she definitely has the height--but her fear of the ball hinders her ability to be very good.  She would much rather let a teammate go for the ball than herself.  I think this spring and summer we will throw the ball at her a thousand times until she is no longer afraid of the ball and hopefully that will open her up more.  She did get hit in the face once during a game and she started crying.  I am not sure if her tears were more from pain or embarrassment but it was a little hard to watch as a parent and hearing her cries of, "I don't contribute to this team" was really sad.  She went back out and hasn't quit and still enjoys the game so I'm really hopeful that with time, patience, courage, and more practice, she will get better.  I do think she could benefit from a better coach.  Her current coach is really nice but is 16 and isn't that great.  

Piper just had her 12th birthday.  She is taller than me now and very proud of that.  She loves to try out makeup, worships Eli, loves having her own room and being able to decorate it, and is scared for her period to start. She is beginning to try and see the world through the eyes of humor.  It's always an awkward but delightful stage for my kids.  Their jokes are so dumb and we all pretend to find them funny and eventually they mature enough to see how to use humor successfully.  Eli says, "she has a lot of funny potential."  Right now it's at the potential stage but I love it.  I need her and Felicity to hurry up and figure out how to be funny before Eli leaves because my boys kept/keep me laughing daily and I don't have much time left with Eli.  I am not a funny person, nor is Mike, so I depend on my children to bring the laughter into our home.  hahaha.

Piper sang at Felicity's baptism and it was so sweet and beautiful and I was so proud of her.  It's only been within the last few years that she has allowed anyone to hear her voice.  She has always kept it to herself but as her confidence grows she opens up more and I was so proud of her as she bravely sang on her own.  Oh, I want to squeeze her!   

Felicity also seems to be happy in this stage of life.  I think a huge blessing for her with this move has been how much her social life has expanded.  I think she was a little lonely in Japan.  She didn't really have many friends her age at church and while she did have really good buddies at school, they didn't all live very close to us (one lived an hour away).  She missed having the opportunity to walk down the street to a friend's house and planning a playdate in Tokyo was always a little complicated.  In our neighborhood we have a set of twins right down the street and they get along so well and play as much as they can together.  Felicity has always been really social so she loves this part of her life in the states.  She also loves her teacher and has some cute friends at church.  Actually, most of her church class is in her school class.  She rides to school with three or four of the boys from her class but for some reason she is on a different bus than them going home.  One day I got a message from one of the mom's asking if Felicity got home okay.  The boys noticed Felicity was not on the bus with them and saw her get on a different bus.  They all were very worried that she was not going to get home safely so all three of them said a prayer for her on the bus!  It was so sweet.  I love that she has people looking out for her and such good friends.  

She is still the most soft tender-hearted girl.  She melts my heart.  She wants to learn the piano so I need to get on that.  She is also loving having a room to decorate and is so excited about her new bike.  Of all of my children, she most resembles Will.  They have so many of the same personality traits.  

Her baptism was on Saturday and it was my very favorite baptism that I've ever attended.  My favorite of all of my children.  Can I say that?  It was so simple with no fluff.  She shared her baptism with one of the boys in her class that prayed for her.  We split the program and his sister gave the baptism talk.  It was excellent and engaging. She prepared an experiment that taught about repentance and how the Savior will clean us over and over during the sacrament when we repent and it had the kids and audience giggling but was still reverent.  Eli gave the talk on the Holy Ghost.  I was concerned.  He forgot about the talk and had a three day wrestling tournament.  We actually had to pick him up from the tournament, rush him home so he could dress, run to the baptism, and then get him back to the tournament.  I didn't think he would have time to prepare a thoughtful talk but it was exceptional, probably my favorite talk at a baptism--better than talks given by adults.  He also had people laughing but he bore a powerful testimony and the talk was so relatable and appropriate.  I actually felt really proud of his ability to deliver such a good talk.  I'm giving the credit to the Spirit for helping him, and also to ASIJ for preparing him so well to give speeches.  They required a lot of presentations over his time at the school.  

I didn't mean to highjack the paragraph and make it about Eli.  So, moving on.  

Felicity asked Grandpa Richards to baptize her.  She's always had a special spot in her heart for him.  He was surprised and a little worried that he was stepping on Mike's toes but Mike was fully in support of Felicity making her decisions for her baptism and it didn't hurt his feelings.  He confirmed her and Grandma and I were the witnesses.  Felicity was actually very nervous and scared about it all and Grandpa jokingly confided that he was worried that he would fall over on top of her when he dunked her in.  He did not fall over and all was well.  

After the baptism we were able to take Felicity to get her ears pierced.  She has been wanting her ears pierced for a long time but she was also pretty nervous about it.  She cried when they did the first ear but she is pleased with her earings and happy to move to this stage of maturity.  

This is all taking a long time to write.  I'll have to post again another day with updates on all the boys.