Special Day

I can hardly believe it's been four years, but today is the anniversary of the day Merrilee became our daughter. I remember so much about the day she was placed in my arms and the absolute wonder and awe of it. I couldn't imagine someone was allowing us to take this child, not born of our own flesh, and giving us the privilege of raising her, caring for her, keeping her safe, and trusting her life to us. Jay and I have been so blessed by her joyful spirit. She is such a bright spot in our lives. She is so energetic, determined, funny, and thoughtful--we are so proud of who she is and who she is becoming. And yet it is humbling to look at her and know that we cannot take credit for her smiling demeanor or her charm. We know that it is not us, but the Lord, who created her to be her own person. Adoption is neat that way. It makes you step back from your pride and see a child for who she truly is, not how you see yourself reflected in her.

We did things a little different this year on this special occasion. I drove the kids out to the Eastern Shore to visit our friends who also adopted their daughter on the same day with Merrilee. Their daughter was having her fifth birthday party and we celebrated at their house with a big cookout and birthday cake. It was a joy to spend this day together, and we are so thankful that we life close enough to make the trip possible. The kids and I stayed in a hotel, and I let them swim before bed until 9:30 pm. They love staying in hotels, and they giggled, teased each other, and talked in bed despite my threats. Fortunately, the long fun day and the evening swim took its toll on them and they finally zonked out. I was afraid I'd never get to sleep.

Here are a few photos of our original Adoption Day, and the present.

Way to go, Jacob!

After two and a half weeks of taking Tae Kwon Do, Jacob earned his White Belt this evening. We are so proud of him. He got A's on all aspects of his examination, and is now ready to move up into the other classes. Tae Kwon Do is the first sport he has been involved in, and he's been so good about maintaining his excitement and enthusiasm for it. He hasn't complained once about it, even though he's been doing it three times a week. That's quite a bit for a four-year old. Did I already tell you we're so proud of him? We really are!

After Jacob's class, we let him choose his restaurant for dinner. He chose the Teariffic Tea Room, one of our family's new favorites. It's a new place in town and the woman who runs it is from Hong Kong. She has treated us so well since we got to know her. Last week, the week of the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival, she introduced us to some tasty treats called Zong Zi, made of sticky rice wrapped in corn leaves. Inside the rice were peanuts, and all was boiled and steamed to a sticky, sweet perfection. Her mother made them and the kids and I just loved them. She taught us to cut them into pieces and dip them in sugar. Heavenly. And today, in celebration of Jacob getting his white belt, she brought us some little pastries made with red bean paste, my absolute favorite flavor in the whole world. If you've never had a Chinese treat with red bean paste, you don't know what you're missing.

So our family has had great joy today in rejoicing in Jacob's accomplishment, and it's just one of many days that will be a wonderful family memory. Thanks be to God for each member of our family, and the individual gifts with which He blesses each of us. May our children use their gifts for His glory.

Finally, Beach Weather

We've finally gotten to go to the beach a couple times this past week. Our spring went from the 60's and low 70's to the 90's in a matter of two days. I thought the water would be frigid, but it was wonderfully warm, even following the amazing thunderstorms we've had.

Jacob and Merrilee are old enough now to really enjoy the sand and the surf and this was the first time I've really gotten to see their "beach personalities". I was surprised that Jacob is as much of a water monkey as he is. Even though he usually sinks like a rock, he loves to just jump in and splash away. He can swim as long as he can start in water at waist level and land on his feet after a few strokes (if you can call the thrashing "strokes"). He does get from point A to point B, but needs to work on his endurance. It was also interesting that, for being somewhat afraid of water in the tub getting too deep ("It might go into my face") he eagerly pushes the limits of how far out he's allowed to go into the water.

Merrilee, on the other hand, prefers to stay on land. She loves the water as a source of "soup" for her recipes, usually mixed in a bowl dug into the sand just out of reach of the waves. But she just doesn't really warm up to getting her face in the surf. And she's my swimmer. Like my mom, she prefers the pool. I admit to having a case of the heebie-jeebies when I think I might step on a living creature or get touched by a passer-by down where I can't see it. But I really do prefer open ocean to a pool. Merrilee just feels uncomfortable swimming in open water and is happy to stir and mix and dig and toss rocks. She did decide, about 6 minutes before we left the beach yesterday, that she was "ready to swim", but of course once she got the salty water in her face she called it a day.

We'll just stay home today and enjoy the pool in our back yard. Jacob came home with a cleverly hidden collection of rocks and sand in places unseen yesterday, so today we'll just save him some chafing issues.

Blessings to you all!

I'm a Winner!

Got some fun news this morning. I've won a $100 gift certificate to one of my favorite websites, homesciencetools.com. I ordered a set of microscope slides for the kids, and wrote a review of the product. Every month the website has a drawing of the previous month's reviews and picks one person for the gift certificate.

Now I have to decide how to spend $100. What a dilemma to be in, huh?

In Memory

For any of you who might be led to contribute to Shaohanna's Hope in memory of Maria Sue, the link is in the post below. This cross post is from our adoption agency's program "An Orphan's Ticket Home", http://adoptedbydesign.typepad.com/orphanstickethome/ .

May 22, 2008
In Remembrance of Maria Sue Chapman

Dear America World Families,

Our agency grieves with you as we mourn the loss of Steven Curtis Chapman's daughter, Maria Sue. It was an honor for our agency to have assisted the Chapman family as they brought such a precious life home. I use the word precious because this tragic event has reminded us all of how precious life truly is. We join you in prayer that the Lord of this Universe, who holds the whole world in His hands would be as close as possible to the Chapman family during this time of mourning.

We would like to give the Chapman family something formally in rememberance of Maria on behalf of America World and our families. What better way than to give to the agency the Chapmans created to bring more precious lives home like Maria? So, at this time, we encourage all of you to give to Shaohannah's Hope. They have created a special fund in memory of her called the Maria's Miracle Fund.

Christ as our Comforter,

America World

Thankful Thursday

And we're ready for summer! School is out, Jacob has finished his first year of preschool, and we're done with all the pomp and circumstance. Hurray! Today was such a busy day because we had to get ready for school, get Jacob to his pre-commencement practice, go to the ceremony, eat lunch and then scramble to get Merrilee to gymnastics. And it was accomplished with no short tempers or loss of self control on anyone's part. I am so relieved and very thankful.

Jacob and the other kids did a great job singing their songs and standing in line to receive their diplomas. His teacher even gave each kid a bucket of goodies to take home: candy, bubbles, and sidewalk chalk. It was really nice of her...she's a very thoughful teacher. I hope he gets her next year, because she really is good for him. Lots of patience and praise.

Merrilee enjoyed her first gymnastics class and was so excited to tell me all about it after it was over, even though I stood and watched for the entire hour. She was especially excited that she learned new stuff already. I hope she finds it satisfying enough to stick with it.

Here are a few photos of Jacob's past year in preschool. Just looking through the CD of photos the teacher gave us, it makes my head spin that preschool could be so full of activity. I could never be a preschool teacher!

One Down, One To Go

Merrilee has officially finished up her first year of homeschooling, and I'm breathing a sigh of relief. It worked...it really worked! We did it!

This year was kind of an experiment, and I knew I could homeschool her, but wasn't sure if I would really do a good job. Well, after many wonderful days of accomplishments and learning, and only a few days of breakdowns on both our parts, we have graduated! I'm quite thrilled with the way things worked out. In fact, I have a hard time believing we really did a whole year of school. It went by so quickly.

Merrilee has become a fantastic reader and is even reading for pleasure now. She's also amazingly interested in science to the point that we recently invested in a good binocular dissecting microscope. Both kids enjoy it, but Merrilee is absolutely fascinated with all things biology. She's got me rather excited about her future, since she seems to follow right along the lines of things I love. I have to refrain from planning her future career too far in advance...I so wish I had gone the biology route instead of chemsitry.

She has also put forth lots of effort in math, and completed the Saxon Math 1 course. I'm really proud of her for that, since math is not one of her favorite subjects. She doesn't dislike it, but tends to get tired of it easily. Saxon math is not for the faint of heart, and the daily work involves review, the new lesson, a practice sheet of math facts, and a worksheet. But she's a trooper and toughed it out; she has done an excellent job in grasping all the concepts we covered and does have good mathematical ability.

Overall, I would consider this year of my homeschool experiment a success. We accomplished even more than I set out to do. On the down side, I wish I had been able to put a little more time into her music and art interests. She hasn't done much on the piano since Christmas, and we'll probably work on that more this summer. She enjoys playing, but at her age, I didn't want to strictly enforce the daily practice. She opens up the piano now and again on her own, and plays what she likes, but we really need to settle into a routine to help her progress. On the creative front, I found the art/craft stuff to be a bit overwhelming, simply because I'm not that great at coming up with ideas. I tried to let the kids do something crafty whenever the seasons changed or holidays rolled around, but I just plain old do not enjoy the planning, setting up and cleaning up of art class. I'm going to have to put a bit more effort into it next year.

Jacob graduates from preschool in two more days, so I'll post some photos of his big day later in the week. For now, enjoy a brief review of Merrilee's school year in pictures.

Science experiment with magnets

Practice printing letters

Colonial studies: dipping candles

Using her new OLPC XO Laptop (http://www.laptopgiving.org/)

Doing her daily math worksheet

Viewing a feather with the new microscope