A day with Dad

Jeff took Sara to the Aquarium today. Ruth stayed home with me because she was not feeling well. Sara and Jeff had a great time. I think Sara's favorite thing was taking the pictures....got to get this girl a digital camera!

Yesterday Jeff took Ruth to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. They both thought it was good.


The best part of the weekend is that the neighbors are now moved in with their 3 children in close age to the girls so now....I have 5 kids! They are good and the oldest, a boy, likes to play chess with Sara. The youngest, a girl, likes to follow me around the house.

Happy Birthday Son

It was 23 years ago today that I gave birth to the most beautiful child. Bryan Christian had the softest skin I have ever felt. Though born a month early, he was perfect, so we thought. Bryan died the next day due to Group B Strep, something that all pregnant women are not tested for due to so many other babies dying. Thought I do not have a lifetime to hug my son, I do have a lifetime to hold him in my heart until I see him again and we finally get to be together. Both of the girls know of their brother and talk of them a few times. They know about death and heaven and are OK with this. So tonight if you have kids, give them a huge hug and kiss because you never know when it will be you last.

Two "A" graduates

Today both of our girls graduated their respective grades, both on the A honor roll with perfect attendance. They both also got reading awards and won a free ticket to Six Flags for a reading challenge. Next year Ruth will be in 4th grad and Sara will go to Intermediate school...she is a little hesitant but pleased that they have a chess club.

Soccer blast

This evening was the end of the season soccer party. The girls swam and ate, and did some very funny dancing to old rock and roll music. And they also decided to paint their faces with the icing from the cup cakes....those with red ended up with red dyed faces.....thank goodness my girls had white icing! We are now done with soccer until the second indoor season when Ruth and maybe Sara will play....at least it is inside and air conditioned!

Denee Frazer

This morning a very special woman died. She was Denee Frazer. I met Denee online through our orphanage yahoo group right after we got our referral for Sara. She was very helpful and I was looking forward to meeting her after we returned from China. When that time came, I wrote Denee and she told me she had been diagnosed with stage4 ovarian cancer. The treatments began and she fought a hard battle which she lost this morning. Denee is now with God and no longer suffers from the torture of cancer. She leaves a very loving husband and two beautiful daughters. I am sorry the timing was not better so that I could have met her in person, but I will never forget this woman!

Swimming party

Today we let Sara have two friends from school come over for a few hours. They played video games, watched a little of a movie, had snacks-twice in the treehouse, and played in our pool. It is small, but always provides fun. Since the girls are close in age, they can play with each other's friends with no problems.....what a blessing for this. Incase you don't know that is Sara in the front and Ruth is in the back middle.

Colorblindness

Ruth has been in the gifted program since kindergarten. Each year they must do an independent study. First they chose a subject and propose a question, do indepth research, prepare the presentation and present it to the class. Ruth chose "What is Colorblindness". She learned so much about the anatomy of the eye, causes, and actually presented a colorblind test for the class. No surprise she got 100 on the presentation, which was a large part of the gifted program grade. We are very proud of Ruth and the work she is doing.

Happy Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day. According to all theories, it is a day for Moms to be pampered, but what is a mom if she is not fixing breakfast for the family, feeding the dog, washing and putting away the laundry....you know the drill. So, after all of this, we let this mom be the queen for the day and was taken to dinner-dad even drove us there. I got a great book of poetry from Sara and a beautiful glass vase hand painted from Ruth. They are both such talented children. The meal was great, of course as usual I had one child eating off of my plate with me...the salad is always greener if it is mom's! Then we went home and watched the mover Happily Never After-very cute. I actually got to watch it without a child sitting on top of me...JOY! Another special happening was that DAD took the girls swimming and I got to stay home and veg out! Sara suggests that we do this again tomorrow, and I agree. Oh Yea...our puppy Cooper James is wishing me a happy mother's day too...with a wet kiss!

SCHOOL FIELD DAY

Today is field day for the girls. I managed to spend all day there with the girls and enjoyed their fun. Both girls wanted to show me something...always. This is the first year they held field day a little earlier to avoid the 100 temps....thank you school. The day was warm but bearable. Sara looks like she has snakes for hair...she likes for me to make as many little braids as I can in her hair. The girls were so fast it was hard to get a good photo and they were not willing to slow down for a photo op.

3rd grade park day

Today Ruth's third graders from her school went to the local park for the day. They ate about 50+ pizzas, but the best thing was the huge volleyball court which became a sand castle competition. I took Ruth and two of her friends down the linear trail to explore a little.



This is Ruth with her friend Nikki(white shirt) and Aeriel (pink shirt)

CHESS WINNER

Today was the final day of the school's chess tournament. Of course Sara, being the competitive person that she was, would only be happy with #1-as usual. I am trying to teach her that is she is not #1, she still had fun and this was important....this morning we went to check the standings and ......she came in first place for the 4th grade. REMEMBER--this girl learned to play chess 2 months ago and loves playing. Of course Jeff beats her every time, but each time she learns more moves. Sara is finally beating Ruth too, who is a good player. Mrs Rike is the school librarian and she runs the chess club and organized the tournament.

ANNA HAS A FAMILY

This morning we looked on the Fuzhou site to check Sara's friend Anna....because very early this morning (yesterday in China) Anna got her new Mama and Baba. We are so very happy for Anna and can not wait for her to come home so her friends that have already come home in the last 6 months can reconnect! Welcome Anna!



Here are the girls that have come home that attended camp Bring Me Hope last summer...Ling, Sara, Anna and Dani.....now all have mamas and babas!!!

soccer and flowers

Today we had soccer practice as usual. Ruth is such an amazing player, now specializing in defensive. Ruth is the one in the pink shirt with the pink ball.

As we waited for the practice to be over, we found some bluebonets and I of course had my camera with me, so I got some great photos of both the girls.

HOWARD

It is with so very much sadness that we lost our dear dog Howard today.

We knew he was sick, but the vet could not find out what it was. It was a very aggressive tumor in the back of his tongue and in his throat. I pulled the girls from school to say their goodbyes and hugs. Howard was a 3rd time rescue. He used to belong to a woman that lives next to my parents. She often forgot to feed Howard, never groomed his long knotted fur, and kept him outside all of the time. My mom and dad snuck food when she was not home to make sure Howard did not starve, and Howard quickly learned that a little bit of Heaven was next doors. After losing another dog Lucy, we decided to take Howard home with us. Howard was about 8 at the time and his favorite thing was finding another comfortable place to sleep. Howard hated thunder and in the storms, Ruth, Sara and Howard all headed to our room to sleep, Howard being the fastest by far. Once we got the girls settled on the floor, Howard would go lay ON Ruth and settle in for the night. Howard always slept upstairs with the girls. He is go greatly missed, especially when we come home and he is not there waiting with his wagging tail and bright brown eyes......

skating party

Today the fourth graders went for a skating party followed by a day at the local park. Sara and Ruth have both learned to skate recently, and Sara has a very unique method, holding her feet about 3 feet apart from each other....it looks like she is constantly about to fall. This is a picture of Sara with Crystal who is a Sr. in High School. Crystal comes twice a week and works with Sara. Since Crystal plays basketball, Sara has decided that this is her goal too and we have signed her up for basketball camp.

They also had a great time at the park, having to avoid the puddles from last night's rain.

Chess/Swim lessons/new school

Today was very busy! After school Sara was in a chess tournament at school. She won all of her games, no surprise!

Then off to her first swimming lesson. She was so excited. She did well and blended in with the other much younger kids. She is putting her head under water and trying to swim to her instructor. Her Nana and Papa(aka Jeff's parents) worked with her while in Florida last month. Ruth is interested in furthering her swimming skills now.

After swim lessons we ran to pick up one of Sara's friends and we were off to the school that they will attend next year-5th grade. Sara had to ask the director two questions:

1) what time is lunch
2) do you have a chess club and can we play chess every day.

Lunch is at 11:30, yes there is a chess club, but it meets only once a week.
We are working out what type of class Sara will be in. She is too advanced for Newcomer's classes and too behind for mainstream, so I am waiting for a call back from the ESL coordinator at her new school.