NEWS IN SHORT

• Only 4 weeks left of domestic adoption training
• Only 2 weeks left of school
• Nathan and I both got A's in our respective Grad courses
• Nathan is no longer driving a bus to supplement income (hmmm....I wonder why that happened....check older blogs)
• Nathan will be taking a whopping 9 grad hours this summer - bye, bye Nathan...see you in Sept.

And Finally the Best News.....

• Our concurrent Chinese adoption has made a small amount of progress. Our dossier has been approved and our folder moved to a different desk to wait for .....well, we don't know how long...but at least it has moved desks.

Spring Piano Recital

I must say that I am full of pride when I watch Isaac play the piano. He practices and it does show! I wish I had practiced growing up like he does. As I watch him bow on the stage, I imagine the doors that will be open to him because he can play an instrument.

He performed flawlessly and earned his Scale Medal for memorizing all his scales and playing them in a certain amount of time.

Meet Spike and Spaz

About two weeks ago, I checked my email and found, mixed in with the SPAM, a request for a happy home for two guinea pigs: cage and all included. Aaron has been asking for some sort of rodent since before Christmas and I have held out for more than one reason. The biggest being I didn't want to pay for a rodent, especially something like a mouse, that I would lay a trap for and kill under any other circumstance.

So a couple Monday nights ago, Nathan and the boys went to pick up our new family additions. It was a total surprise for the boys and therefore, the boys were ushered into the car knowing nothing about their destination or the purpose behind the trip. Off to another town, they drove and found the owner's house. The boys inquired about the house and who lived there. Are these long lost relatives, are we buying the house, do they have little boys to play with?

The door opened and a lady answered the door. My boys smiled at her and politely said hello. Then the lady said she knew why they had come and asked if the boys were surprised. Now they were thoroughly perplexed. This lady was nice and all, but she didn't rank high on the excitement quotient. As the boys stared around, they finally noticed her pointing to a cage and revelation dawned on them. The boys moved in closer and the excitement grew. Filled with giddiness they brought home Spike and Spaz.

So far, they have been good about cleaning the cage and keeping the guinea pigs happy. We have rearranged Aaron's room to accomodate them and now they live with him. Our only issue seems to be that Harriet, the sweetest of our dogs wants to eat the guineas very badly. She whines and cries to get in the cage. I would think she just wanted to be friends, but a person can't mistake the maniacal look in her eyes as she begs to be closer to them.

This is Spike with Toy Lion.

This is Spaz working construction.

Derailment

Friday afternoon, I had everything worked out. I had picked up Isaac from school, Aaron was temperature free and I had a date with my toes. The first pedicure of the season and I felt giddy about it. Nathan was going to swing by and pick up Isaac to head off to a boy scout camp. So, I was mentally prepared for silence and solace.

My week had been a wild ride of sickness and worry over a continuous high fever with Aaron and trying to get Isaac to remember to do his homework. I was glad it was over.

Then my phone rang. I looked at the picture on the screen and saw my hubby. He usually calls on the way home from work. I picked up the phone with a happy hello and was met with disaster. He spoke two short sentences.

"I've been in a bus accident and the Dr. called - you need to take Aaron to the hospital. He has some sort of bacterial infection that will only respond to IV antibiotics." Then he said he had to go and he hung up.

Shock. Stupor. Panic.

Questions roared in my mind about the accident and the child running around my house. He looked pretty healthy to me, but there was some diabolical bacteria lurking inside him. Go to the hospital! Which hospital and what am I supposed to tell them. And Darn, My toes still look awful!

Usually, I am pretty clear headed under pressure. I have always held a secret ambition to be an Emergency Room Nurse or a Police Dispatcher. But I had no information here and I could do anything to get the ball rolling. So, I called my husband back and hoped he wasn't being throttled by police or on an ambulance himself.

He gave me a little more info and a starting place. In the end I was able to get hold of an actual Urologist who assured me that the antibiotics Aaron was already on seemed to be taking care of the pesky bladder bacteria.

Two hours later, Nathan was not on his way camping (because his mandatory drug test had taken forever), my toes were pedicured properly and we were eating dinner together at a local restaurant. Both boys were at the church being entertained and we were on an impromptu date and not at the hospital. I was thanking God for all the outcomes of the evening.

I was also marveling at how fast change happens. As people we are on a road that we think is set in stone- immoveable. We go about life with a certainty that is not really present. At any moment life can be derailed. I have had experience with this before. Aaron has taught me a lot about derailment, and I have lived through other experiences where I know, that except for a divine plan for my life, I would not be writing this now. (Another car accident years ago comes to mind). God is so good to bless us, though. I am sure he gives us our sense of certainty as to help us not live in fear, but then he allows those derailments so that we can be pruned to His likeness.

So, I am very thankful tonight to be at home and not at the hospital. I am thankful Nathan was not hurt in the accident and that no one else was. I am also thankful for the opportunity to live through the derailments. Mostly, I am thankful for a God who care for me through it all.

A Rich Family

A door bell rings and a front door opens. Two little girls run inside an expectant house. Hugs are eagerly sought by the adults and then the girls scatter to find their cousins. They haven't seen them in a while and they are coiled with energy, ready to play.


After a brief hello and getting the visiting dogs settled outside we all traipse off to the local church's Easter Egg hunt. The children are in various age groups and this means the adults also must scatter in order to keep watch over the egg war that ensues. I hear parents coaching children on how to get the most eggs, and on how not to get run over by zealous egg hunters behind them. A whistle blows to start the action and the whole thing is over in less than 5 minutes. From the side lines it reminds someone of a PAC-Man video game but in force. As the children, move over the egg littered grass it is suddenly without color as if the eggs have been beamed up into space. Bags in hands the children bend down on the sidewalk to break open their eggs and sort candy and other small treasures. The parents help and at the same time snitch the good chocolate that we know the kids won't eat anyway- probably.



The eggs, however, are soon forgotten as everyone comes to the house again. A game of chase picks up in the backyard while lunch is prepared. After lunch, an afternoon whittles away with cake decorating, movie watching and in general just visiting.

Mid-afternoon a short adventure ensues as three women stand over a hot oven figuring out how to get a stuck ham out of it. It has plumped up during cooking and is too big slide out the way it went in. Finally, the top is cut off and it can be removed from the oven for its final basting. It is a fairly simple fix but it does give us a laugh.

7 hours after the ham is put in the oven, it comes out again ready to be devoured. The doorbell rings once more and the other side of the family shows up hungry. Eating, eating - more eating. Talking, laughing, and just plain hilarity ensues as the kids eat at their table. The boys showing off for the girls. The girls egging them on with giggles.



After dinner, the adults open facebook and YouTube to share found funnies. Talk moves from jobs, to the economy and politics and then back to Extreme Sheep Herding. (My all time favorite YouTube video.) Chocolate covered Espresso beans are tasted and a divine lemon roll is savored. The egg-shaped cake is also eaten to the delight of the children that methodically pressed M&M's into the frosting earlier that afternoon. Soon, the masterpieces from the kitchen are reduced to crumbs. Stomaches are full.



The above was our Saturday.

I read today about true riches in a person's life, and I thought of Saturday and our family visiting; surrounding us. I thought about the comfortable closeness that comes from knowing people for decades. The gentle teasing that is done in love and jest. It is simply, beautiful.



At the end of our lives, I am sure we look back on what we have done, accomplished and acquired. I want my thoughts to be on what I have experienced and especially on the love I have shared with family and friends. Saturday was a treasure that can not be bought in Saks. It was a treasure of time well spent and fortune found in the relationships that were strengthened.

Scottish Rite Easter Egg Hunt

I am proud of myself for actually getting this video to load. I have had several launch failures and I was beginning to feel a bit inadequate in the technology area. However, I am excited to show everyone a glimpse of one of the best hospitals in the world! Our Spina Bifida Association annual Easter Egg Hunt is always on the Scottish Rite Hospital grounds. Did I mention they are run completely on donations and no patient ever pays anything out of pocket. Amazingly this hospital was created without government intervention!

So, here are the boys enjoying a beautiful Texas day in Spring!

Which came first Knowledge or Intelligence?

Tonight we got a happy visit from Uncle Matt. This always causes revelry and excitement from the boys. Tonight his visit came during homework time and Matt found himself caught up in looking through Isaac's graded papers. Now, Isaac likes to organize his folder for easy scrutiny of 100 percent papers. He puts all 100's on the left of the folder and all other grades on the right.

Isaac, as he should be, is very proud of those 100's and especially proud of his commended performance on the TAKS test. (He only missed one!) There Isaac was standing proud and commenting on all his scholarly achievements when the conversation turned to the right side of the folder where the A's, B's and C's are all lumped together. Matt made the suggestion that if Isaac moved all the A's together it would make that stack of papers really big. Isaac very seriously considered this statement.

Then he turned to Matt and stated in the resigned voice of a boy coming to grips with his limitations that sometimes intelligence just doesn't match his knowledge.