Aunt Rebekah Visits!

Aunt Rebekah was born on November 17 (Yes, the same date as Ellie's birthday!).
Rebekah, aka "Bekah" to Colin, is 12 years old...
And yes, she is Andy's sister...the last of the adopted 3 Glynn children.

This fall, Andy's parents went on an anniversary/missionary trip to Indonesia...for almost 3 weeks and we GOT to have Rebekah stay with us! The excitement level was SO high, there were countdowns until she arrived, and worries that she was leaving too soon, and then on the last day, tears of sadness. We really enjoyed having Rebekah here!

Rebekah took over Colin's room...and Colin slept in the closet in our bedroom! I wish I had taken a picture of it--it was very cute, actually. His toddler bed mattress fit perfectly and he slept quite well--it was very quiet and dark in there!

The day Rebekah arrived, I asked Ava to go make her a door sign--all of the Glynn kids have their names on their bedroom doors. This is what Ava made for her--and she created it 100% by herself!

Our life took on a whole new spin with another family member...Ellie commented "Mom, this is where you try out having 5 kids!" Another friend asked us "What kind of relationship do you have with her--brother/sister or more like a father/daughter relationship since she's so young?"

I learned that 4 kids is plenty loud. ;)
And, each day she was here, it was like Christmas overload. TONS of silliness, tons of giggling...the girls really got into having her! But...she was tons of help too--my favorite was that she took it upon herself to keep the dishwasher empty/reloaded. I miss that!
This was typical breakfast--Rebekah loves being with family and even though she wasn't rushing off to her school, she always wanted to be with the kids as much as she could.

And, there was TONS of fun to be had too....
Rebekah got to meet our neighbor girl the same time we did and all the kids got along well.
Colin got the most time with Rebekah and he just adores her--below, he is wearing a huge "cheese sombrero" at the Cheese Store where Rebekah was buying some Wisconsin gifts. And the bottom 2 photos are from the mall--one day, we had to run an errand to the mall and both Colin and Rebekah took in the fun of sitting on the mall rides!

Rebekah is homeschooled and was very diligent about getting her work done...but she was also very conscious of doing it when Colin and I had to go to an appointment or when Colin was napping--she wanted to take in every opportunity to be with us that she could!

Below was the sight I saw one day as I was working on the girls' school's auction at my computer. I was madly typing in teacher wish list items and as I turned around, I was serenaded by the 2 guitars. As you can guess....Colin LOVED this.
One Saturday afternoon, Andy took all 5 kids to a local park. Rebekah happened to look down on the pavement and saw "Jim & Margie" (Andy and Rebekah's parents' names!) imprinted on a brick! How fitting... :)

Below, you get a glimpse of the bond that these 2 November girls share. They both are on a swim team and Rebekah even got to take in a few practices with Ellie. Here, Andy snapped a series of photos of them trying to "chest bump"....too bad Ellie is many inches shorter than Rebekah... ;)

Rebekah was game for ANYTHING...and I think she really enjoyed her time here; as much as we enjoyed her being here!

And while she visited, she taught us some things about being "older". We learned there are these cool round speakers you can hook your ipod or mp3 player into...and hear your music without headphones! Amazing....we had to order one! She and Jayna LOVED spending alone time together and sadly, I have no photo of it...just memories! Often, though, they'd be up in Rebekah's room listening to music. Again, special bonds being made!

All in all, the almost 3 weeks went very fast....we did some really fun things....and made lots of memories! This photo below was taken the last morning she was at our house...

We miss you, Rebekah!!!