Pomp and Circumstances

I was going to wait to make a post about graduation till after Papi developed his film, but considering this shot on his digital, and that it may well be 2010 before we see the other pictures, I'll just go with this. After 13 years of confusion, frustration, trying to pin down the buzzing bee standing on her head and running around while trying to do homework, after pretending to be done with assignments that weren't even started, after approximately 8120 hours spent daydreaming in class, or making googoo eyes at a hottie, after approximately 160 late nights with mom, trying to type up a paper, or finish a book or do an assignment or make a poster, after fights and tears and rolling eyes, and threats and consequences, after 7 million minutes of run downs of "he said, she said so I said," and another 4 million rants about teachers, after 13 IEP's and several e-mails, after thinking up 20o ways to motivate an un motivated student, after failures and triumphs galore, after tryouts and letdowns, and ah-ha! moments and approximately 714 calls to bring me this or that at school, after refusing to go or sleeping in and going to tardy make-up a bazillion times, after staying after school, after parties and dances and games, after finally reading a book all on her own, after sewing and cooking and mountain climbing and water sampling and reading some more, after ten million discussions on a million subjects and after 45 class changes or plan changes, FINALLY, FINALLY, it's over!!!!! No wonder moms cry at graduations! I was so glad we made it out only a little scarred but not destroyed, that it ended at a ceremony with a diploma and not in GED's, that it didn't involve drug rehab or juvenile hall or sitting in classes with her to make sure she'd stay, or suspensions or sneaking out at night or a psych ward or not even making it this far alive, like some of her classmates. I don't care that my daughter wasn't a valedictorian or homecoming queen. She grew and she learned in spite of it all. She stuck up for underdogs and helped people through with her. She hung onto her faith and her dreams and I'm VERY VERY proud of her!


Turns out the ceremony wasn't even that boring or too terribly overly long either. It was a great day.


One down, four to go!

Happy 10th BIrthday, Carino

Apparently, there is no way to get a birthday party ready ahead of time, stress-free like here no matter how hard you try. I spent time and money ahead of time but still ended up devoting my whole entire day to "last minute preparations". In spite of the fact that I don't really want to think about doing this again, I had a lot of fun and it turned out great. Carino chose a Fear Factor theme for his party. There were 15 boys in all. We started out with a release form where they had to agree to be contestants on Carino's Fear Factor Party, with a bunch of fun releases like they wouldn't hold him liable if they barfed, and just in case we gave them a barf bag and that any photos or video taken of them would be released to Carino for use in future birthday party promotions, etc. Most importantly, they had to have fun. Then we had them each make a blob of slime to take with them and get name tags. When everyone was ready, we started in on the challenges. They didn't have to do a challenge if they didn't want to, but each challenge you did you got a ticket for. Then you got tickets for being high scorers too. In the end, you got to pick a prize from a prize box, the highest ticket holders choosing first.
Our first challenge was to be medical examiners for CSI Las Vegas and find the cause of death of the old woman who swallowed some things, namely snakes and lizards. The catch is they had to find the snakes and lizards blindfolded in a vat of guts (spaghetti mixed with gravy and water-slimy and sticky!).
Next, they had to clean up the diapers of a bunch of kids at Daddy's Day Care. They got into a box of chiclets while the Daddys weren't looking and had blowout diapers. The catch here was they had to pick out the pieces of gum with their teeth. The diapers were filled with a few rolos, the gum pieces, and a bunch of chocolate pudding. Mmmm! It didn't bug some kids, but others were a little grossed out at the suggestion.
After that they got to pick a Moai's nose who had a bad case of sinusitis. They were trying to get out the hard boogers. They could use fingers or chopsticks. (More slime and chiclets, yellow and green ones) This one was nearly impossible, but they had fun trying.
Next, they had to save Mr Carebear who was kidnapped and chained to a chair and the key to the lock was thrown into a container with several other keys and a bunch of live crickets. We saved Mr. Carebear 4 times!
Following that, we had a vat full of water and seafood, octopus, squid, mussels, crab. We added a block of ice and said we were in the Antarctic saving the fish. They had to get as many pieces of seafood out of the vat as they could-with their feet.
After this, we had taste testing. I got lots of exotic delicacies from Africa. Namely: Bear's blood (tomato soup) caterpillar guts (pureed peas), roadkill (gummy worms rolled in a bunch of brown sugar), bird poop (thinned out white icing- heavy on the butter to make it kinda lumpy and slimier), dog barf (cooked oatmeat with more brown sugar, cocoa, and craisins stirred into it), and chocolate covered flies (raisinettes). Carino came seriously close to hurling after eating the dog barf! There were some choice expressions (not many liked the caterpillar guts). A few kids opted out on a lot, but a lot of them did them all. A few had to have a drink afterwards.
Next we had a garbage bag pinata. It was filled with all plastic toys and water, so when it started to break, it started leaking all over, then splash! It all came out.
Last we ate. We had hotdogs and string cheese and cow poop cake (smashed brownies with fake bugs on it), and used bandaids (grahams with a marshmallow tip and center and red food coloring on the marshmallow). Our punch was potty punch, sprite colored yellow with ice cubes I had frozen hershey's kisses into ahead of time. It was gross. But it all tasted good. We also had good old mint chocolate chip ice cream to go with the cake. After opening presents, all the kids had watergun fights with the waterguns from the pinata and played basketball. Everyone seemed to have a great time even though we grossed a few of them out a bit too much.
Thanks again to birthdayideas.com for getting us going on ideas. It is a lifesaver!

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The Things Turn 7

Last Friday we had a party for the Things. It was a lot of fun, but it took me forever to come up with what I wanted to do for the party. There are really no ideas for a Transformers vs. Bionicles party on birthdaypartyideas.com. Can you imagine that? It took a long while to get the creative juices in gear and have a plan. Then I had to get the supplies and get everything ready at the last minute. There are Transformers favors and such, but since the Bionicles movie is not close to release yet, there was NOTHING on that front. It was a stressful 5 days or so. I vowed not to do any parties after this year several times. I threatened to cancel it anytime I didn't get due submission from the natives. I had to give up on my cool idea to make Bionicle swords for everyone because there is no instrument known to man or at least to my house that will cut foam board with any precision. It would have been so cool. It's just as well because making 20 of them would have meant NO sleep the night before. Enigma made the invites, thus locking in my commitment, and she spray painted 2 square boxes to make 2 Allspark pinatas- one for each boy. My mom thought good thoughts for me the day before the party, because I didn't even have things ready enough to get her to help with anything before her bedtime that day, I think. It's a good thing she thought good thoughts because as it was, everyone was a wreck. I went straight from a cousin's funeral to pick up the boys from school and within the hour they'd all had a complete meltdown. One was an emotional wreck all day, finishing off the evening by threatening another brother with a scout pocketknife, then curling up in a ball in an empty dresser. (He's not supposed to have the pocketknife at all, by the way. Anyone need a pocket knife? And yes, I'm concerned about this behavior.)

The day of the party dawned with everyone in a better mood and me almost ready for the party. Then as I got ready after working all morning, Papi shows up with new sofas. Luckily I was there to approve or disapprove because the last time he suddenly brought in used sofas, he almost got kicked out of the house over it. This time he was careful and asked first before unloading them and carting away my old sofas. He made a trade for them with an apartment complex who needed some work done. They are converting from Singles/furnished to Married/unfurnished. They are nice sofas, and now we have 4 matching sofas, 2 upstairs, 2 downstairs.
Wanna see them? This is upstairs This is downstairs:
Umm, not sure why the colors don't look the same, they are more like a sage green in person.
The old sofas were total ghetto sofas, i.e. no leg on one side, frame coming loose and cracking, snagged dirty upholstery, and futon sofa with slashed futon and springs sticking out all over. They got dumped in the front yard, the cushions lying all over exposing just how dirty it was under them. Meanwhile the new, very nice and clean sofas were put in place, just in time for a bunch of party goers to smear gunk all over them. Other than the sofas all over my front yard, (Why yes, I have dirty rotten sofas as yard ornaments all the time, for all you who have never been to my house, especially a co-worker to see, come on in and make yourselves comfortable!) by the time the party started, I was ready. Good thing, counting siblings and birthday boys there were 19 kids in attendance. Enigma was busy getting ready for her performance but Gigio was a great assistant and my sister arrived with the cousins and stayed to help too, thank goodness. We had Papi man the pinatas and since he was doing a bunch of things at once, that was his contribution.

We had them put together a little transformer figure and make transformer hats, then we did a treasure hunt to look for the Allspark and did a Transformers vs. Bionicles bingo and did a carnival type knock over the bionicles game. Then we let them hit balloons into the air with those foam things you get for pools and did the pinatas, then had hotdogs, pizza dip with pita chips, and had cake and ice cream. Then everyone played and opened presents. It was an extremely loud and wild party but everyone was good and everyone seemed to have a blast! Seeing as how Thing 2 didn't want to invite anyone before hand but his little girlfriends because everyone else in the universe had all done something before like push someone once, I'd say it was a success. I had to promise to put anyone who needed controlling in time out but no one had to go :). And, no one slimed the sofas! Can you believe that? Here's an album of our festivities.

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Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Hugs

When the twins were littler, they loved this book called "Hug" by Jez Alborough. We still have it but it is about to disintegrate. The funny thing is, they didn't like to hug much. Especially Thing 2. When I would carry him from one place to another, he would pat my back, but he preferred to sit in my lap rather than hug me head-on. Most kids, when they get hurt want their moms to hold them and kiss them. Not this kid. When he would get hurt, he would go hide, and I wouldn't even know unless "someone" snitched on him that he was hurt. Used to freak me out that he would get hurt bad and I would never know in time. Even if he was crying, he wouldn't let me near him with a ten foot pole. It was very difficult to ascertain if he needed any medical assistance from that distance, but we did the best we could. Gradually we'd work our way in close enough to help if he needed something. Otherwise, it was best to just leave him alone. As he's gotten older, little by little he's warmed up to us more and even gives hugs now. About a week ago I realized he had finally arrived at a new milestone. Gigio knocked him over in the kitchen and he hit his head and arm. He cried hard and I went in to see what was going on. After I got the story and hung big bro out to dry I went to see if I could calm down little bro. He got up off the floor and still crying threw himself into my arms and hugged me and hung on as if I were a life preserver and cried for a while. I hugged him back and tried not to cry myself. That was one of the best hugs I ever got.

October 4

Two score and five years ago today was a very good day for me. I was born! The people of Chile were so excited, they named a street after that day, see? 4 de Octubre!

Pretty cool, huh? I just loooove google earth! Someday I will have to bore you with more google earth pictures. Today I'll just bore you by telling you that we went out to eat yesterday at Tucanos; the whole family! No one barfed or anything. Amazing, huh? That food is so yummy! The Things loved the whole having the guys cut the meat off for you to grab with the tongs thing. Thing 1 loved the roasted pineapple, too just like me. I love the fried bananas and cheese bread and I always have a salad that includes the palmitas and quail eggs and then I have to have the collard greens, the rice with stroganoff and the mashed potatoes with the black beans. MMMMMM! The trick is to take small portions only and then you have room for some meat, too. They sang to me and gave me a yummy sundae too. The kids gave me a perfume that Enigma wanted for herself and she is so annoyed Papi would make her get it for me. I promised I'd share...
So, today I gave the kids a history lesson on what happened 45 years ago today. It went something like this. My parents had just recently moved to San Jose, California. They had 3 little boys. My paternal grandma came to help out. My dad worked about an hour to an hour and a half away. ( I can't remember exactly.) As soon as he got to work, my mom called to tell him he'd better come back. I'm just inconvenient like that and all. So, once he got back my little grandma was out front anxiously jumping up and down, telling him to hurry. He got my mom in the car and off they went.
But, the OB was also their new Stake President, and seeing as the next day was General Conference, he was in Salt Lake City. (If that doesn't make any sense to you, check out my Big Fat Mormon Terminology Guide on the sidebar and scroll down till you find those words.) So, they had to go see his associate. In Los Gatos, CA. Another fun drive ensued. They got to the hospital in time. The associate was a jovial guy. (Actually, I think maybe my mom described him as a nut-case, but we'll go with jovial.) He asked them if they wanted a girl or a boy. Their preference was a girl. He offered to castrate the baby if it turned out to be a boy. So, I always wondered.... I'm SURE I'm a girl, Mom, and I'm really not even all that messed up after growing up with that creeping doubt.
So, then he thought that if it was a girl they should name it Shannon, or was it Shirley? One of those, but my mom had already picked out Shellie, because once she read a book called Laddie and one of the sisters in the story was named Shelley, but since she read it a long time before, she thought it was spelled Shellie, so here I am! Luckily, I was a girl. (Either that, or that guy did a bang-up sex change job and all, seeing as how I even bore children, as in had them, I usually entertain them.) The Dr. didn't talk them out of my name, not that I minded the other names, but since that's how it all played out, I'm Shellie. Life has been just about as crazy as that day turned out to be, and I'm loving it. Today, I got to see General Conference once again, just like all the other weekend birthdays I've had my whole life long. It was good! Hope I stick around for quite a few more.

THE Big Bad Birthday Party

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After threatening to not have the party and/or never have a party again at our house, because people didn't jump on my plan to do this together, we ended up having a great time. Thanks to birthdaypartyideas.com or something like that... I was trying to come up with a good way to make costumes without having to sew or use something hot like fleece and I found a roll of brown table covering! Perfect!! And at the dollar store I found these play hair extensions for girls. Enigma braided them in little braids, cut them off the head band and wrapped the end around a bobby pin then we hit it with the hot gun you use to melt embossing powders with. So, the costumes were cool and cheap, and I have half a roll of table covering next time I need it. Of course, by the end half of the costumes were off the boys, but they were fun while they lasted. We had everything set up like it was a Jedi Training School and they got certificates of completion at the end. We went out to eat happy meals the night before and got Star Wars bobble heads that we set up on the stairs and had the boys try to knock off with a ball on an elastic band- the kind that has a strap that goes around your wrist. We played some other games and made light sabers out of plumbing insulation and colored duct tape. Everyone at my house had a blast. Now I have to do parties for the other 3 boys or they will think I'm not fair. Then we'll swear off parties. Till we forget. Party on, dudes! (Sorry, wrong movie!)


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Burning Birthday

Our Christmas letter in 1998 started out something like this: Last December ended with surprises. First, Papi brought home a puppy for Christmas, half black lab, half collie and very cute. We named him Mittens. Unfortunately, as he got bigger he ate everything in sight, even bit a hole in the swamp cooler tube and would pounce on Enigma and chew the clothes right off her back. He also knocked us all over all the time. So Papi had to chain him and we couldn't get near him, so since that was a pitiful existence, we gave him to a friend who was going to visit some family with a ranch in Mexico. Now mittens lives there and he's bilingual! The second surprise was even bigger and way better. The day before Christmas we found out we were having a baby! And we're keeping him, even if he knocks us down or chews everything in sight.

Guess what? I kept my word. He did indeed knock a lot of people and things down, and ate a lot of strange things. He was a CHAMPION biter. And we kept him anyways. So Gigio turned 10 this week. He wanted a Star Wars cake, so I said I thought I could make an R2D2. As the day drew near and I was going to work till about 3, reality set in, and I quick-like came up with a faster idea. I made light saber cupcakes! I got glow sticks at the dollar store and found a crazy cake pan accessory that turns a cake into a bundt kinda, that was perfect for the handles. I dipped the cupcakes in candy melts, then froze them so they wouldn't be melty, and stuck the glow sticks in the top. I felt like a little Bakerella.

I started making them during lunch and left Enigma to cook the last half of them. Then later, I got a call from Enigma saying she'd burnt herself. I called her on a break and she had bumped herself and freaked out and started to drop the big pan the little pan was resting in, then decided she better not let it fall and caught it. She got 2nd degree burns on her hand. She went brain dead and didn't know what to do , so she called her aunt since I was not available and got advice. She ended up making an appointment to have it looked at. I gave her some advice what to do in the meantime. Papi took the boys to the movies that afternoon so a friend drove her to the doctor. Of course this would be one of those days where I didn't get out of court till 5 instead. I felt like the crummiest mom in the world.

Meanwhile, the Dr. put some film on her skin that is similar to a graft and slathered it with this frosting looking stuff and wrapped it all up. The next day I was supposed to take her in to change the dressing and see how it was coming along. Guess what? It looked really good! It was still sore so she had a smaller wrap, but got done with that today and she's good to go! The cupcakes were a big hit with the boys, more so for playing than for eating, which was a source of frustration for the girl who sacrificed her hand to make them. Here they are!

Oh, and Gigio doesn't usually bite or push anymore either! Happy Birthday, buddy!

2 Teach is 2 Touch Lives 4 Ever-2

Dear Misdavie (Miss Davies),

We are so glad you were our teacher this year. We loved our class, even if we had to learn not to tattle on Connor when he was "bugging us" You and your aids (specially Miss Audrey) were very patient with all of us when you wouldn't do what we wanted you to do; lots more patient than we were with you. Maybe someday we will be big like that. We had a lot of fun! We know we didn't like to write our names at first but you helped us and now we can! We are so proud!

We are also happy that you taught us to use the computer and took us to PE and OT and the library, even if we hate being quiet in that place. Thanks for helping us learn to sit and listen and do what the class is doing, that will help us a lot. Thanks for all the snacks, too!

Thanks for letting us show and tell our toys a lot and for reading bug books to us. We can tell you really love us and you're not nice just cuz it's your job, cuz you like to tell our mom about all the things we say and do in your class! You are a nice teacher. Our mom says you have to work real hard to be such a good teacher. We hope you have some great kids in your next class that are just as fun as us! Have a fun summer and we hope you learn to play with worms. We love you a whole bunch!

Love,

Thing 1 and Thing 2

(that's our secret spy names) oh, and thanks for the bubble swords!

2 Teach is 2 Touch Lives 4 Ever-1

Many teachers have to work under less than adequate circumstances, and my hat goes off to them, but today I want to give a great big public thank you from the uttermost bottomless pit of my heart to a team of four great educators: Mr. Bills, Mr. Preece, Mr. Robinson and Ms. Coombs. This team combined forces this year to integrate English, US History, Science and EMT/Life Sports to a group of close to 100 students all day long, every other day. Not only were these subjects taught together, they were taught hands on: going places and doing things like visiting a Japanese interment camp or biking to the river to scoop out water specimens and looking at the variety of life hidden there under a microscope, or learning from a movie or making presentations or living through a day of getting a taste of discrimination. I could go on, but hopefully you get the idea.
I know this year has been stressful, to say the least for these teachers. I'm sure they have second guessed themselves many times or may have felt frustrated that things haven't turned out exactly as they had envisioned. This program was put together rather quickly and there were plenty of kinks to work out, not the least of which were dealing with those who opposed this new approach and wanted to see it fail. I told the administration recently how I felt about these teachers, and on top of it all, I found out that they not only put their reputations on the line and their job security, they took a pay cut. As the administrator put it, they are now on equal ground with the Special Ed teachers who do the same. (Excuse me, I need to interrupt this tribute to complain about why it is that those that are doing the biggest jobs are getting paid the least? I just don't get it. Feel free to send them cash awards!)
So, I just wanted to say to you four teachers that you all are amazing. You are inspiring. Your dedication is incredible. All the praise I am about to heap on you is deserving. (You really deserve a raise, too!). I want to thank you for your patience. Yes, I know you didn't feel patient, for dealing with a big group of teens is a daunting task, but you used a lot of patience because you survived to the end. I know this, because I am a mom and know that dealing with even one can be overwhelming at times. You kept your head above water. Pat yourself on the back. I want to thank you for caring enough to make the sacrifices you made to make this year happen. Thank you for the time and thought and effort and planning that went into setting up a new curriculum. Your enthusiasm was contagious. I appreciate your care in bringing your subjects to life. I'm grateful for your efforts to form a more united group of students and help them appreciate and learn from one another. Thank you for taking the time to teach them more than subjects. Thank you for really caring about these kids as individuals and helping them find themselves and motivating them to do better, for giving them a better vision of what they can be.
As a mom, I am so appreciative of the love and friendship you have offered my daughter, and for having faith in her and truly wanting to help her learn. As you know, she is a wonderful and intelligent (not to mention complex) girl, but with very few exceptions, her educational experience has been disappointing. Few teachers have cared if she learns or not. Let's just crank her down the assembly line and spit her out the other side and who cares if anything productive happened along the way. I watched an enthusiastic child tale a nose dive and not even let me try to help her learn. They made her feel dumb and she gave up. I know most of her feedback has been about her feelings and the bonding with everyone, but this year was the best year she has ever had in school. She came home on a regular basis, excited to tell me about what she had done in school and what she had learned that day (something that rarely went on before) and the conversations she had, and the friendships she had formed, and the difficulties that arose and the fun she was having. I'm sure this was a year she will always remember and many of her friendships will continue.
Maybe some students didn't like the setup or get much out of it, but if that's the case, most likely they were expecting something different and didn't want to adjust or let you reach them. Maybe it wasn't the best style of learning for some, but for a big set of brilliant underachievers, it was spot on. My girl accepted the chance to make a change for the better and there couldn't have been a better set up for her. She never had science in elementary school, was confused and bored in Jr. High and struggled and was utterly ignored by the "teacher" despite requests for help until she failed in her first high school experience with science. She came into this year with a very negative attitude towards the subject, which mom took the brunt of while she repeated biology online. Now, she actually likes many areas of science and finds it interesting even though she told me that secretly and she won't admit it openly to the world. She wasn't always as enthusiastic as the teacher, mind you but she noted that enthusiasm and occasionally it was catching!
My daughter is also a walking accident and the PE teacher was very helpful and patient teacher and friend with all her little injuries. She learned to love so many new things, and is more likely to try more things after hiking, biking, cross country skiing and the like. I'm glad she learned some of these activities that can get her out into the fresh air and help her get some exercise throughout her life. She often shares with pride that she knows how to take care of different injuries and what to do in different emergencies as well.
Thanks for bringing history alive with trips and movies and discussions. My daughter learned interesting and relevant lessons about our past while she was in this class. Her awareness and sense of how things ought to be increased through the experiences shared in the class.
Thank you for your patience and care in bringing great reading material to her, for believing in her abilities and encouraging her. This year, for the first time, she read a book all on her own, cover to cover. No one had taken the time to find the kind of book that would motivate her to do this. She learned, quite by accident through a recommended book that the format it was printed in was easier for her to follow. This discovery has been invaluable. She also wrote out projects and papers and started typing some of them all on her own as well. Thanks for the thought provoking activities and discussions that inspired her to come home talking about what she learned.
Most of all, thank you for the life lessons and the examples you gave to these kids. You might not have realized it, but you taught the students important lessons about not giving up, working through difficulties, facing and accepting responsibility for mistakes and making things better. You might not realize how much of that was observed, and while I know she didn't articulate it to you, my child noticed and respects each one of you for your character. My hat goes off to you and I wish there were more like you out there. Good luck in the future and carry on!

October 25- Adoption Day

Eight years ago today we got to take our son C. from the orphanage he was staying at and start our lives together.
We had just met him 3 days before and these are the
pictures of when we first met. He was (and is) the most charming kid alive. He is so sweet and loving. He
immediately smiled and reached out to us and wouldn't
let me look away from him.
It took us years of wading through bureaucracy to
get permission from the INS and after that, things
really flew! We went through a process
that normally takes 2 years in 5 months. As our attorney affirmed the manupstairs had something to do with this.
We already knew that. We had decided before even
marrying that as long as we didn't have too many
children on our own, we would adopt. After the nine
month stomach flu and emergency c-section
that was my first experience at having children,
we knew we would be adopting.
I knew I was too young to not end up expecting at least
once more but felt it would be masochistic to do it on
purpose.
When our oldest was 2 we started working on it. I had
seen a documentary on orphanages in China and I just
couldn't get it out of my head. I had to do something
for at least one child. My husband was 100% behind
me. After consulting with other adoptive parents we
decided to go to J.'s native land first so we started
working on a Chilean adoption. We got
permission 5 years later, when our second was 6 months
old. The plan was to adopt a 4 year old, since children
under 2 cannot be considered for international adoptions.
However, in July of 1999 we got a call offering us a
2 month old baby boy! Due to a birth defect which left
him without an ear and right side of his jaw, they
were letting him go out of country. During our long
wait for C. there were many times we got really dis-
couraged but we just couldn't give up. Whenever I
would question God about it, I knew He was
supporting us. He made it very clear he had something
in the works on several occasions. I mean, amazing
revelations. Just one of the little amazing things that
came in the end was that my baby son G. just loved the
pictures we received of C. It was really as if he
recognized him, so I had to put the pictures in a photo
cube so he wouldn't love them to death.
In mid October we got a call and headed down to meet
C. in person. We were given the court order on the
23rd and permission to take him with us on the 25th.
When G. met C., we didn't have the camera, which is
a pity, because it was honestly like a reunion of two
long lost friends. It was magic! He just fit right in
immediately. He was the missing link in our family. I
must admit without his sunny and loving, cooperative disposition, I would be an emotional basket case by
now. I can never ever doubt the direct influence of a
loving Heavenly Father in our lives because of this
(and so many other things). There isn't enough time
or space here or words to express how much I love
this kid! Adoption for us was one of the greatest and
most wonderful adventures we ever, ever hope to
have.