JSB 2010 and Greg's birthday

This year it just happened that Greg's birthday and JSB were on the same date. It was also a half day of school for us (which means curriculum work in the afternoon). Needless to say the day's busy-ness kind of overshadowed Greg's special day. He didn't seem to mind much (and he had many students wish him happy birthday was well as "they" had a cake for him and his friend, Karl (who also shares the same birthday) for staff in the afternoon. So although I feel like I failed him on his birthday this year, he said he got enough attention and that I shouldn't worry about it! I guess when you start getting older it's easier to just let the day go by and pretend you aren't a year older! lol!

This was the first year that any of our kids have been able to attend JSB so it was fun to see how much care KB took when it came to getting ready for the evening (he had even asked a girl as a date for the evening. If you have followed my blog you will recognize her as a good friend of his-her family is good friends with ours). She just happens to be the junior class president this year so that meant she was a little busy and preoccupied for the evening, which was kind of a bummer, but to be expected all things considered. The theme for the night was "A Night of Marvel" and the kids came up with a very humorous skit dealing with super heroes that they had filmed in advance. Greg even had a small part in it! Very fun. Here are few pictures of the evening:

The birthday boys:

One of the spouses together...it's tradition :-)
A group of lady friends:
KB and his date for the evening:
Look how big our oldest is getting...and oh so handsome too!
The three of us together...I sure feel short these days! lol!
Just a fun one:

Happy Easter!!

Okay, I am trying this again...now that it's been almost two months since I posted last I wonder if I have anyone at all who is still checking this site... I do know that grandparents will, if I update it, so maybe I am writing only to them, but even if that's the case, then that's okay!!

Easter is almost over for us, while it's just beginning for those of you who are in the U.S. I hope and pray you have a great day reflecting on the resurrection of our Lord and what that means for all of us. We started the day at school with a sunrise service where seven students gave their testimonies and were baptized in the ocean. What a wonderful way to start the day!!

Afterwards there was a complimentary breakfast at the cafeteria then it was back home to get ready for church and take quick (yeah, right!) pictures of the kids dressed in their finest Easter clothes (ha! ha!...at least us girls were dressed up for the occasion!)

Traffic was horrible (and we were already late getting started because of the pictures) due to the fact that this is the time of year the Chinese go to their cemeteries and clean them and offer incense and food to remember their ancestors. In the end we were almost 20 minutes late for church! But we did get there in time to hear a couple of special numbers and sing some worships songs before the message.

We at lunch at Chili's and it seemed that many other families from church had the same idea! Next year we are looking forward to a nice ham for our Easter dinner! lol!

In the afternoon we had a (pathetic) easter egg hunt in the house as it was so hot and sunny outside. For some reason I couldn't find most of my plastic eggs so the boys got to find three eggs (one had money inside) and the girls only got to find two eggs (and were given a small stuff webkinz as a side present). The kids were real troopers though, and didn't complain...maybe they are getting too old to hunt eggs anyway?? At least maybe the boys are???

Then the rest of the afternoon was spent resting and redoing KJ's hair, which took the better part of three hours to do. Hopefully I won't have to do much with it for a couple of weeks now. I threw a batch of healthy muffins into the oven tonight and now it's time for bed! What a full but blessed day! I hope yours in the same!!

Battle of the Books

Mid-March the elementary school is going to be doing a battle of the books. Each student is put into a reading group and then the groups are responsible for reading the books assigned to their grade. They must learn the important facts about each book as well as memorizing the title and author's name. Then the day of the battle the students do their best to answer the questions they are given about the books the have read. In the end one group comes away the winner, although all the students get something for participating. The students really enjoy the contest and it helps get them more excited about reading books. The official start of the contest was this past Monday. Here is KR at school really getting into the book she had chosen.

It's been extremely hot here lately...It's almost 11 p.m. and I'm sitting at my computer with sweat dripping down my back. I think I am going to retire to my air-conditioned bedroom now...goodnight!!!

No visas yet...

Chris and the 56 children they are trying to get visas for ended up sleeping at the U.S. Embassy last night because they were not granted their visas yesterday. Apparently the workers there decided they needed more paperwork which took all day to retrieve. They decided to spend the night instead of going back to the church compound so that they could be in line first thing this morning. We are all praying many visas are granted today...stay tuned and pray with us!

Update: Visas for kids... Please pray!

The orphanage director has a appointment today with 56 children who are in the process of adoption by U.S. families. She is hoping to obtain visas for them so that they may fly out of Haiti in the next few days to their adoptive families. Please pray that these visas are granted. After the strong aftershock, which occurred early yesterday morning, it shows that things are still very unstable there in Haiti (as far as the condition of buildings, not to mention every other aspect of life at the moment) and these children need to be in safe places. They are also going to be trying to work with other country's governments to get out those kids who are being adopted to parents in other countries. After the kids with pending adoptions are out safely, they are going to try to get some kind of humanitarian parole for kids who do not yet have adoptive families. My heart just aches for these kids in Haiti, especially the older ones who understand what is going on. This has to be so traumatic for them. Please pray for their emotional safety as well as their physical safety. Some of the kids are extremely afraid to go back into any kind of building at this point for fear of it collapsing on them. Thanks! Will keep you posted on how things go...

Please help Haiti!

My heart is so sad and grieving for the people of Haiti right now. I haven't posted about this before, but I am going to start trying to have updates on here as much as I can for those who might want to keep up with how the O that KJ came from is doing.. I have been too busy reading any any and all information I can get a hold of about the situation down there that I haven't taken the time to post for myself.

Currently the directors and the children from the O are all safe and "camping out" on the secure grounds of a nearby church. They had to evacuate both homes because they became unstable due to aftershocks. The children are receiving food and clean water. Praise the Lord for those provisions! ...that is more than many in Haiti, (even in other O's) are getting. The situation there is dire, however, and they are working to try to get out all of their children who have pending adoptions. I think we may hear positive news on kids being allowed to travel to their adoptive families within a couple of days, especially those who had received Haitian approval but were waiting on passports and U.S. visas to travel home. There are kids being granted visas from other O's and a few have actually made their way to the U.S. already. I will keep everyone posted on how it goes over the next few days.

I have not been able to find out any information on KJ's birth family. I did have a friend, who is a nurse and has a daughter also from Haiti, tell me she is planning to go down to help when she is called, and she will try to ask around about the birth family for me. I am thankful for any help I can get. I am becoming more and more concerned about them because of lack of clean water, food and medical care (if they are injured). I try not to worry and give it over to God in prayer, but it's hard sometimes. If I hear anything I will also post it here.

KJ does not entirely understand what is going on, as you can imagine, since she is only five. However she does know about the "earth shake" in Haiti and that many buildings fell down and people have died. Her first question when she heard was "is my chocolate mom dead?" and since then some of her comments have been (in a sad voice), "now I can never go back to Haiti." and "now I will never see my friends again." Then she goes off playing and being her normal self.

I know that many of you may have already donated to an organization but if not, would you consider giving, even a small amount. I read somewhere recently that around $1 billion was raised for victims of the Asian tsunami of 2004, half of it was by internet and much of that was just small amounts. It all adds up if everyone gives just a little (ie: 1 million Americans give $5 that's FIVE million dollars!!)... Here is the link for our O:

www.hishomeforchildren.com -click on donations (this is tax deductible)

Another great organization in Haiti is Heartline ministries at:

http://heartlineministries.org/

If you are more comfortable giving to a more well-known NGO doing work in Haiti please consider Food for the Hungry at:

http://www.fhi.org

We have a couple of good friends who work for this organization and know they are doing great work.

And last, but not least, it's my grandma's 87th birthday today! I am pretty sure she won't be reading this, as last I knew she is without internet connection, but nonetheless I wanted to take the time to say how much I love my grandma and miss her...and hope she has a great day!! Here she is holding my nephew after he was born last June.

love and hugs from us all!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone!! It's hard to believe it's already 2010! It doesn't seem that long ago that we wondered what the new millennium would bring and now we are already ten years in! Time sure does fly by! We didn't have a New Year's Eve party this year as a number of our friends were out of town. Since I don't have any pictures of that event to share with you, I am going to back up a little to the beginning of our Christmas break. Here are the pics of the kids with Santa at the Staff Christmas party on December 19th. I was pleased to get one pic of each of them this year as sometimes KB thinks he is too old to sit on Santa's lap;-)