Simon

We asked our agency to try to get updated pictures of our boys. This is the picture China sent them of Simon, who lives at a large orphanage in Xian (about 500 kids). Frankly, this picture leaves me without words.
We are now thinking that travel may be in December. I would NEVER have planned it this way, but perhaps eventually we will know the reason.

Not exactly the Vacation we had planned...

but that is what Serendipity means isn't it?
When you plan a vacation during hurricane season, Boston would seem to be one of the safest destinations to choose. Not this year.
We have been studying early American history for a year and I wanted to take the kids to see the Mayflower, Plimoth Plantation, and the Freedom Trail in Boston. I had been waiting to make this trip after Simon and Jed came home, but since China has taken 3 months longer than we had expected to approve us, it seemed like a perfect time to move from Pilgrims to the Revolution. We had a week between Narnia and beginning Wizard of Oz, so we decided to visit my sister, Cher, in Massachusetts, who Dominic and Rosie have not yet met.
Katrina, is living in Winchester Virginia this year doing a pharmacy residency so we planned to spend one night with her while waiting for Hurricane Irene to pass. On our drive North we began to hear of the devastation she was causing and I began to think about Plan B. As each day passed we kept hoping that my sister would get her power and water back on. As each evening came and that hadn't happened we searched the internet for alternate things to do.
Washington is a fun place to visit and if your kids are as familiar with National Treasure as mine are, the first place everyone wanted to visit was the National Archives to see the real Declaration of Independence. While there we also visit the Smithsonian's Natural History and American History Museum.

The next day we hung out with George Washington and his family at Mt Vernon

and took a special tour (with only our family) into the basement and to see the ice tunnel shown the movie National Treasure 2. The museum there is terrific ! I am pretty sure we covered at least as much American history on this trip as the one I had planned. We'll read a couple of biographies and visit Williamsburg and begin Westward Expansion so that we can get to the Civil War while Katrina is still in Virginia.

Winchester is filled with orchards so we spent a day at one, picking peaches and raspberries and eating some of their home baked goods.

On the way home we toured Luray Cavern, which is the largest in the Shenandoah Valley.

Although hot and steamy outside , it is a cool 57 degrees in there, year round.














I am sure we would all agree that the most laughs on this trip were provided by the Virginia Safari Park, just south of Lexington (where we were the only family in the movie theater, watching Spy Kids, in cushy reclining seats the night before). As soon as we bought the animal food and drove through the gates we were sourrounded by animals trying to get in our windows.

Dominic won the award for being able to feed the camels, without them stealing his bucket ( Nellie lost that one, Rosie and Andy abstained.)


I controlled the window switches, so Jerry got and occasional surprise.

The llamas were the sweetest. We were careful to keep our windows up near the zebras, bison, and long horned somethings, as we had been instructed. An ostrich got pretty mad at me as I was closing Andy's widow, but fortunately my window was up when he spit at me (as it was the whole trip, I am Not an animal person).

A giraffe was kind enough to pose with the kids.

Even the petting zoo held some surprising animal encounters.

And just incase we never get around to studying science this year, we stopped at Gray's Fossil museum in Kingsport, TN, which of course was full of preposterous guesses about the ages of the things they found, but it was still fun to try put bone fragments together. We'll head to the Creation Museum sometime this year to hear the truth.

So, it wasn't what we had planned, but we had a blast and now it is Great To Be Back Home !

Ariel's Birthday

Ariel turned twenty and said she wanted a party. She made her own cupcakes - aren't they adorable ? We played pitch a penny (won by Travis , Jay and Rosie) , put the penny in a cup, and of course Everyone's favorite - Sharks and Minnows.

Good, Bad and the name

This is the view from my lawnchair. So what could I possibly have to complain about? Look carefully at the picture and you might notice that two little faces are missing from the picture. We had expected to bring Simon and Jed (full name Jedidiah, meaning beloved by the LORD...also called Jedi by his brothers who are thinking of another meaning entirely) home at the beginning of the summer. We have two dressers full of summer clothes for them that will soon have to be packed away. We have been waiting since May for a piece of paper we expected to arrive in June from China. Still no word of it. So while life here is wonderful, there are two boys at orphanages in China who have waited a very loong time for their forever family to come get them.

Summer has been lovely. Ariel has been teaching the kids to swim. Rosie can now go under water !

My parents stopped by twice - once on their way North and again, for Jay and Lindsay's birthday, on their way back to Naples.

Good thing I was planning to try decorating their cake like one I saw on pinterest, because it crmbled to bits when I tried to get it out of the pan and after dumping a ton of icing on my heap of chocolate crumbs, not finding any twix bars, I surrounded it with twizzlers and poured M+Ms on top. At least my DILs will never have to be intimidated by my great skills in the kitchen!

Narnia

This week Dominic, Rosie, and Nellie were in Narnia. They love the movie and have cast themselves as various main characters in much of their play. In the stage version, they had to be satisfied to play an eagle and water fairies (nyads).

The props and staging were pretty amazing, so they were happy just being a part of the show. Considering that a year ago Rosie and Dominic still lived in a Chinese orphanage, the very fact that they could speak enough English to make it through the audition is impressive !

Andy, everyones favorite audience member, even got to experience the wonder of fog made by dry ice for a few minutes.

Everett played a very sweet Tumnus and a centaur created by to walk like a real horse.

Now that Narnia is over the kids are already excited about the next show. Dominic prayed tonight that it would 'come soon'. Earlier this week, Andy came in to the kitchen and announced "Only nine more days !". I asked, "Nine more days til what ?" "Nine more days until Wizard of Oz auditions!"

So mark your calendars for auditions on Aug 15. Hooray, it's a musical ! And it is going to be huge ! Tickets are on sale at the box office or at greatmountainmusic.com .

On the adoption front - we are still waiting for the next piece of paper from China. We had hoped to get it in June, we are still waiting. So are our sons.

warning- no cute kid pictures

When my wonderful, only sister invited me to join her visiting my parents in Florida (no kids allowed) I barely gave it a second thought. After homeschooling her kids, Cher has now become a Disney princess, booking Disney vacations and exploring the whole D empire, while I have never spent a week without Jerry and the kids. I wasn't sure I really wanted to. Eventually, I began to realize that I shouldn't pass up an opportunity to spend time with my very wonderful parents.
Ariel and Jerry have very graciously managed my responsibilities at home and I have been able to talk to the kids on Skype so I have not worried (too much) about being away. Ariel is one of the most organized people I have ever known and has been able to get the kids to their piano lessons and sports practices, Ric to school, homeschool the kids, grocery shop and basically step into my shoes beautifully.

I am so grateful. The trip has been fabulous - filled with great conversations, eating, swimming, and sun, with a little shopping thrown in ;) . Ariel's car, which has 237,000 miles on it, made it without a glitch ( good thing, because it has a few things to haul back home).

As much as I have enjoyed this, I am so grateful that this is not my life. I love being with Jerry and my kids and I wouldn't trade my life with anyone in the world. That said, we have decided we need to schedule this as a yearly event. Hope that is okay with everyone in NC.

Graduations !

We enjoyed two graduations this month - one expected, the other a surprise. Katrina has been working hard for many years and was rewarded with a Doctorate in Pharmacy. In the first picture she is receiving the hood which is the symbol of a doctor.

Jerry's mom, dad, and sister joined us in Chapel Hill to celebrate. (The last time we met them in Chapel Hill was 8 yrs ago when Camila received her Doctorate of Law.)

We knew that Ryan was working toward his doctorate from LR Seminary, but didn't know that he had reached any milestones until just a few days before his graduation with a Master of Arts. My sons are not great communicators (although 3 of them have chosen wonderful wives who encourage them to do better, thanks Lindsay, Amber and Julia !). Ryan's graduation was at First Baptist Church in Atlanta, which is an amazing facility.

We are very proud of these two (as we are of all our kids) and relieved that our experiment in homeschooling (Katrina all the way through, Ryan except for 1.5 yrs on highschool to play soccer) doesn't seem to have handicapped them too much. It gives us the courage to go on with the ones still at home.