Aren't they Adorable?

Saturday, May 24 we went to Chesapeake, Va. My cousin, Danny was getting married. It was a lovely wedding. His bride was beautiful! It was great seeing family I hadn't seen in a long time. No one had met Grace yet. The reception was at the air force base in Hampton. The food was delicious and the company was even better.

This is the picture of the kids before we went in the church for the wedding.

Many Years Ago

A promise is a promise. Here is a picture for old times sake. I am posting it here because I figure most people won't go back and check the old post. Three of my good friends in high school...Renee,Lisa,and Amy.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Eighteen years ago in Richmond, Va we were married. We met and started dating 22 years ago. We started the day at Great Wolf Lodge, stopped by the outlets to pick up the very best kettle korn ever made and headed home. Our anniversary dinner was at McDonalds with all our kids and our niece Maribeth. The original plan was to be home by dinner and the two of us go out but we took our time and just enjoyed the family time.

Happy Birthday, Paige!

Actually Paige's birthday was yesterday but we were having so much fun at Great Wolf Lodge that I didn't even turn on my computer. The best part of it was Paige was there,too. We had lots of fun.

Happy Birthday, Amy!

Ha!Ha! You are now as old as me. As soon as i have time I am going to post a picture of us as kids so don't forget to come back and check. Hope you had a wonderful birthday!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Once again, I don't get to be with my Mom for her birthday. I am very thankful for every minute I have with her and look forward to seeing her soon. Happy Birthday, Mom!

Another Tragedy

My heart breaks for the Steven Curtis Chapman family, tonight. I can't even imagine the pain and suffering his family is experiencing. Click here to read the news story.

Devastation in China

An orphan child with tag indicating his need for special care remains in a stunned state despite the best efforts of volunteers and psychiatrists in the refugee centre in Mianyang, Sichuan southwest China 20 May 2008. With an official death toll over 40,000 more than 200,000 injured, 5 million homeless and continuing strong aftershocks the human toll of the 12 May 8.0 magnitude earthquake is huge and growing, drawing the people of the world's most populous nation together in grief. EPA/QIXING

I am sure everyone has heard about the earthquake in China. The death toll is now over 35,000. Many children are now orphaned and many parents have lost their only child. Below is a letter written by a family living in China. It will give you some insight on how devastating it really is for the people who live there.

The rain stopped, the sun shone (a very rare occurrence), and life, for some, goes on... For too many it has ended.

NPR (National Public Radio) just happens to be broadcasting live from Chengdu
this week. Perhaps some of you heard the phone interview on CNN the day following the 7.9. It was about the human tragedy of the parents' grief as they found out that their child had died at school that day. The story included the weeping and wailing, the burning of incense and money, but missed the real tragedy--that of losing their future.

You might recall that China has instituted a one child per family policy.
Considering that each mother and father have one child, each set of grandparents, one grandchild,the future of the family rests entirely on the one child. 5,000+ years of generations ended in one day, due to one event; ending with no hope.

In this culture the past depends on the future. There is a special holiday set
aside for "grave sweeping." This is more than decorating a grave with flowers, or flags; it is the time set aside annually to burn money, which "sends money to buy food in the afterworld for a person's ancestors. These ancestors depend on these gifts of money to keep them from hunger. The responsibility is passed from one generation to the next. For them, when the family line ends, so does the food--for eternity. Nothing is more important to the Chinese than food.

On a personal note, one of the four main rivers that feed into Sichuan was
contaminated by a toxic ammonia spill from a nearby factory. Today at noon a five day water shut-off was announced due to the spillage contaminants. A panic at the food stores ensued. Think about 11 million+ people living without water for 5 days! Or all running into the market and buying all the water off the shelves! Or even 11 million+ people panicking!! Whoa! Suddenly the govt announced that the water was fine and would not be shut off! Now the dam which is nearby is cracking and threatening to flood!

Good news of the day--the Chinese Premier met personally with our dear friend
Brian who is a doctor based here in Chengdu with Heart to Heart. They appeared on China TV, and he agreed to allow Brian and others with him, to go into the heavily affected areas and give medical assistance!! They have been able to send up seven small teams into the neighboring area of Beichuan. Please remember them. They are working with those recovered from the rubble, near the epicenter, and we continue to feel afterschocks.

A Trip to Florida

The girls and I headed to Florida last Wednesday night and returned very early Monday morning(12:15 a.m.). Our flight was due back at 9:00 but was very delayed. Better late than never.

The reason I couldn't post about this trip earlier was it was a surprise. My good friend Alexa is having a baby and we were throwing her a surprise shower on Saturday. It was people that work(and used to work) at the preschool. It was so nice to see everybody again. I miss them all. I wish I would have had more time to talk to everyone.

My friend, Susan, even flew in from Rhode Island. I hadn't seen her in a few years. She spent Saturday with me. It was great seeing her again. She was one of our references when we adopted Julia. She is a lot of fun to be around.

I was also able to spend more time with Alexa than usual. She is doing well and all is good with the baby. Her due date is July 18. Not long now. She got some great gifts and was really surprised.

The other 3 days I spent at my parents' house. I was able to visit with Mom, Dad, Debi, and Maribeth. Maribeth even spent a couple of nights at the condo with me. She helped me with some of the shower projects.

So now we are back to everyday life... School, baseball, doctors' appointments, and mom's taxi service.

The Atlanta Braves

You can't go to Atlanta without going to a Braves game.

We got Slobbered

Dallas had to work in Atlanta last Friday. The kids were out of school so we decided to tag along. Saturday we headed to our favorite Animal Park in Pine Mountain. A fun time was had by all except Kristopher. He prefered to stay in the snack bar and play his gameboy. He didn't particularly want to be slobbered on. I am sure you think we are kidding about the slobber but you have never seen so much of it. You can even buy a t-shirt that says I have been slobbered.

Correction

If you go to enough doctors one of them will eventually say that you need to have surgery. In the last 10 days Grace has had 5 doctors appointments. This morning Dallas took her to the pediatric dentist at UNC hospital. They will be calling us within 2 weeks to set up surgery for Grace. She has 4 or 5 rotten teeth. They will try and fix them but if they can't they will be pulled out, xrays will be taken, and sealants put on her remaining teeth. This is very common with cleft lip/palate kids and kids adopted from China. Our guide, also, had lots of rotten teeth. Unfortunately, it may be a continous process. Not pulling rotten teeth but pulling teeth that come in where they don't belong. The dentists said cleft mouths are set up the way ours are and the teeth don't know where to come in. Greace will be out for about two hours while they perform these tasks. The ENT also said if Grace had surgery to give her a call because she wants to clean out the gobs of wax in her ears. This will only take about 15 minutes so it won't add much time to the process.

Dallas took Grace this morning because he was hoping to see Rich(see below post) before he went in to surgery. Fortunately, he was able to talk to him a few minutes. We should hear something later this afternoon.

Pray for Rich Today

At 10:00 this morning Dallas' old boss entered surgery to have half of his liver removed. About 6 months ago, he was diagnosed with cancer. Their hope was that chemo would get rid of enough of it that they could perform surgery and take out the bad side. In order to do this the other side had to be clear of cancer. To the doctors' surprise the xrays first showed cancer then a few days later they saw something different. We believe God was definitely at work here. You see, Rich had no faith in God. He was surrounded by people who believed but he refused to beleive himself. His job was his first priority. Over the course of chemo and especially in the last 7 weeks Rich's thinking has changed. He has begun going to church and reading his bible. Dallas and I have been praying for him since he became Dallas' boss many years ago. He would ask Dallas questions but just wasn't that interested. God really does work miracles.