GREAT Aunt & Uncle

Today Jeff's Sister Laura's daughter Elisha gave birth to a boy....something very rare on both sides of the family......and Kyle and mom are doing well. We understand that Kyle had a lot to say upon birth and quite some time there after....should fit in well with my two daughters who ALWAYS have something to say. We are waiting photos but are confident that he is a cutie. Not sure how Jeff's sister is taking becoming a grandmother.....

Happy Father's Day!

This morning I fixed a special breakfast for Jeff and the girls made some very cute father's day cards. My parents were still in town so I got to spend father's day with my father too. In the evening the family went to our favorite restaurant China King and stuffed ourselves crazy.

Finally home!

We have had a successful trip to St. Louis area and visited family from both sides of my family, aunts, uncles, Great Aunt Teresa, cousins, second cousins, third cousins, and some that we are not sure how we are related, but we are. Ruth was reintroduced to the family and Sara met them for the first time. The weather was good, but got a little hotter towards the end. The Holiday Inn Select in St. Peter's was terrible! The driving was smooth and visited the old camping grounds where we spent a lot of our childhood, and stopped off at my parent's acreage in Arkansas. We got to ride the train in St. Louis to IL, visit the Arch, the zoo and Grant's farm. Jeff was greatly missed and we called him every other night.

Sara's Bball

Sara began basketball camp at our high school on Monday. NO, she was not the shortest 5th grader, but tied with 3 other girls, and some of those girls were HUGE! Sara wanted to do basketball because the HS girl who helped her during school played on the HS team. Sara did great!!!! She is so small that she is a great defensive player, she just sneaks in there and sticks her hands out and stands her ground. Shooting is a little touch, but she did make some baskets. She had a great time and we will be looking for more bball camps soon. One thing of interest, Sara can dribble equally well with her right or left hand. Coach thinks that she may actually be left handed....or was at one time.

ROADTRIP

We are leaving tomorrow morning EARLY for a trip north for Sara to meet my extended family, and for them to see Ruth again. It has been 3 years since we have been back home, and the last time was for my cousin's funeral. My parents are coming with us and dh Jeff is manning the house and killer dog and cat. We will check back when we get back on Father's day and back track some of the entries....we have been VERY VERY busy....how much longer until school?

Cooper got a haircut!

Our cute fluffy dog got his summer cut. Afterwards, two people strongly suggested obedience training for him.....duh! The first thing he did when we took him to the groomer was pee on a woman's foot. She said that she will always remember this because it was her birthday! I am sure I turned a thousand shaded of red. He then marked the room 5 more times. The groomer had to hold him the entire time because he kept wanting to escape. Yes, it was his first trip and we did not recognize him!

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.

Artist Ruth

Today was the showing of Ruth's artwork at school. She chose to take photos of her Grandmother's garden (my mother). My mother and father have green thumbs-my mother for flowers and my father for vegetables. Ruth took all the photos, mounted and framed them for the presentation. This is Ruth's art teacher with her.

Trip to Austin

Sara and her 4th grade class made a trip to Austin to tour the capital and the Bob Bullock museum. It was a long day. We had to be at school at 6:30 am to leave and they returned at 8:30 pm. On the way back they stopped at a host school and had pizza for dinner. Sara loved the chartered buses, complete with bathrooms. Ruth can not wait to get to 4th grade now.

Renaissance Festival

This weekend we went to the local Renaissance Festival. We spent all day and had so much fun. The girls even got to ride an elephant. This is our third year of going.

Easter

We drove to my parents for the Easter holiday to spend it with family. We took our new black puppy Cooper who will be allowed to return. My niece also took her dog Malory who also won an invitation to return, hopefully when there is not so much rain and mud outside to run around in before coming inside to mom's lt blue carpet....yikes!!!


It was a cold and wet weekend. We missed the snow at our house in N. TX. We ended up hiding the Easter eggs in the house and the kids had fun, especially since we hide MONEY inside the eggs...all college kids except ours and they always need money, and an incentive and what better than money.

9 years ago we got Ruth

Here is the first picture of our new family 9 years ago today when we adopted our daughter Ruth. She was all of 10 days old at the time. We flew two days with a lay over in Hawaii (lucky us) and landed the second day in Majuro, Republic of the Marshall Islands. We were greeted by Lena, the woman who ran the birthing house, and both given beautiful hand made lays, then taken to the birth house. We walked in and there was a tiny baby in a carrier on the table. That was our daughter and I cried like a baby. We were handed Ruth and then taken to the hotel. We had a few hours together as a family and then Ruth's birth mother came for a visit--it is an open adoption. We talked as much as we could and cried a little and just watched Ruth be cute. That night, being first time parents, we had heard how babies keep parents up all night, we were up all night waiting for her to cry and to make sure she was still breathing, but she slept all night long. this was the first and last all nighter for MANY months to come. That was on Monday, and on Wednesday, we went to court to finalize the adoption and run around and finish the paperwork. We were with another couple who adopted a little boy and we still keep in touch with them--hello Jonathan! On Friday, after a VERY tearful farewell, we were on the plane again for our 2 day trip home.

Ruth rides into the sunset

Today Ruth learned to ride a two wheeler bicycle. She tried a number of times unsuccessfully and we finally got her a scooter. With the she got the feel of balance and steering, without the fear of falling. Before school the girls get ready and then we have time to spare. We usually play Uno Attack, but this morning the girls wanted to ride in the driveway, so I move my van and open all the garage doors and off they go. Ruth thought she would try her bicycle one more time, and she was off. Now she loves it and wants to ride all the time. I am thrilled for her.

Mask it

For theatre Arts class Sara had to create and make a mask. With a little help from dear old mom and the Paper Mache recipe from my sister Chris, we got the mask done. Sara painted it, arranged the yellow feathers, and chose the diamonds to adorn it. Here is a picture of Sara with her teacher.

12 yr wedding anniv

Today is Jeff and my 12th wedding anniversary. We had met on a blind date 10 months earlier. We have faced many things together, some good and some bad. We now have survived two international adoptions and have 2 beautiful daughters, lost many pets and family members, survived one move. We now know all about coordinating carpools and birthday parties, and are learning how to deal with two kids who do not always love each other...LOL! I love you Jeff!!!