Kathryn is 8!

On Sunday afternoon after Jim returned, we had Kathryn's American Girl 8th Birthday Party Extravaganza! I had a lot of help getting ready for it from GG and Da (who spent the week helping with the girls so I could finish finals before Jim's return), and we had a great time!



















The girls brought their favorite doll, and as soon as they arrived immediately began consulting over their dolls...














We had a granola relay, in honor of Kirstin's Honey making game (if you don't know what I'm talking about, you can become initiated the world of American Girls online!)













A drawing game, in honor of Samantha's Sketchpad















...and made necklaces for our dolls.















The dolls need their beauty rest while the girls are preparing their jewelry...























Then we opened presents...




























Had cake...

































Aunt Julie saved the day at the end when I'd run out of games with 30 minutes left! (Originally it was going to be an outdoor party but had to scrap the outdoor games due to rain...) Each girl introduced their doll. It was a big hit!















What a fine looking groups of gals!














K has many friends back in China she wishes could have joined us that day!! :(

GG, Uncle Jeff, and cousin Emma



















Jim and his dad














K and her doll, matching outfits compliments of Nana!



















some K shots...






































K & her friend Sharli



















That's my big 8 year old! Mommy loves you!

Cinderella!

As a treat right after Daddy left for China, I took the girls to a performance of Roger and Hammerstein's Cinderella. It was the girls' first play! I thought it was a novel idea to tell the girls to pick their favorite dress up dress to wear to the play, but every little girl there was dressed to the hilt!

There was a "pre-party" where they had a story read to them by the fairy godmother...
















...had a waltz lesson given by Cinderella and the prince...




















































...enjoyed cupcakes and lemonade...



















...and got to go on stage and have their programs signed by the main characters!
Here are King Max and Queen Masie:



















The stepmother and stepsisters...



















and Cinderella & the prince!















There was even a real harpist in the lobby!



















We couldn't take pictures of the performance, but it was an excellent play.
From the eyes of hundreds of little girls, it was perfect!

May Day Celebration

Boy do I have some pictures to catch up with!

On May 6, the girls' school had their annual May Day celebration, which is apparently a long time tradition, but of course this was our first! Kids from Jr. High and High School who attended Carman Trails take off from school that day to take part.

And special guest GG came with me to watch!




















K's class performed the Virginia Reel































And Ellie's class did a really cute dance... she will tell me the name of it-- I can't remember!












































































There were 4 May poles-- green, pink, blue and purple











I had some really cute video clips, and they aren't downloading properly. If I get them up, I'll post them here soon!

Almost Done!

Hello, my few remaining readers!
I realize the blog has been neglected this Spring...
I'm in the middle of finals, 2 down, 3 to go, and I'm supposed to be studying right now!

Jim is in China right now, and my awesome in-laws are here helping me survive during the end of my semester until Jim returns.

It's hard to imagine where we were a year ago, just having decided to take the plunge to begin a counseling program and move back to the US... and all the difficult, wonderful, stressful, glorious, discouraging, changes and challenges we have faced this year... and now almost done with all my coursework for this degree. I have learned so much my own heart this year! I'm so grateful for this season, even if it's crazymaking and exhausting, for the ways that Jesus is growing me up... and I still have a lot of growing up to do. And I'm SO grateful to my self-sacrificing husband, who made this year of full-time studies possible for me!

And NEXT year, would you believe they are going to send me REAL people who are seeking counseling?? Let the experiential learning begin!

But I'm not quite there yet... supposed to be studying... have 3 more finals standing in my way.

Looking forward to more reflection time and posts this summer!

Happy Easter Hannah

Today is Hannah's 9th birthday, and the first time that it has fallen on Easter.

This week has been a whirlwind. I had several assignments and tests on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday which were keeping my emotions at bay. But by Thursday, the fountains opened. The heartache of her approaching birthday always emerges like a poorly forecasted storm. You expected a light shower, but now there is flooding in your basement.

What to do, this year, for her birthday? This is always the question that never has a fulfilling answer...

But speaking of flooding, the flowers that the girls and I planted for Hannah last weekend are severely waterlogged... wave after wave of rain with more on its way.

On Saturday, we looked at her scrapbook together. I realized, as the box which holds her book was still taped up from our move, that I hadn’t looked at it since her last birthday. I don't look at it often, but it is precious to me.

But today... Easter... her birthday... we all knew it was going to be a very emotional day. Easter worship this morning was harder, and sweeter. Because He is alive, I know I will see her again. The resurrection really does make all the difference.

Jim's sister's family, the Bishops, joined us for church and lunch today. After our meal we gathered in the back yard and launched 9 balloons. We wrote messages on them, and then released them.

I'd like to think that we sent them up to heaven... I know that's a sentimental, theologically inaccurate idea, but that's ok for today... So I understand why Asians (and other cultures too) "send" items to their deceased family members... and even less belief-driven cultures have ways of "talking" to the dead... because the draw, the pull, the hunger to connect with a lost loved one is unbelievably strong.

Easter has something to say about that!

Thanks Bishops for sharing our special commemoration of Hannah, and our celebration of Easter, with us today.

I don’t have an articulate essay or poem this year… Today I'm just a mommy, looking to our Risen Lord, holding onto the promise of the resurrection, longing for the day I will hold my little girl again.

Eeyore Parenting

One on my beloved daughters can be excessively...negative. Grumpy. Debbie Downer. Eeyore-ish. The other day she came home from school and I asked her to tell me about her day. At first she said, apparently without thinking, "It was fine." But then she caught herself... and began a litany of complaints equating it with the worst day of her life. I'm not belittling her feelings, but when you hear this often, you begin to think that perhaps there is a little drama... a little over-exaggeration going on.

And then you might start trying to change her perspective. And you respond with sympathy, validation, but also want her to think about what good things she could report. Surely this wallowing in negativity isn't good for her. (Certainly feels strangling to me.) And you might try to start helping her solve her list of problems. Seeing them from a not-so-bad light. Talk about all that we can be thankful for. And then after a while of that, meeting with great resistance and a marked tenacity to hold onto all that was horrible in her day, you might get frustrated. And a certain tone might come out in your voice. And then you might try to redirect her... a positive activity. A yummy after-school snack. An encouraging activity. But alas, the world is not spinning rightly on it's axis today and there is nothing you can say that is helping. And you might begin to see things pretty dimly yourself. And you might feel like giving up.

You just might.

Or, you might do something altogether different. What if you let her have her feelings, and you didn't try to convince her of all the created goodness demonstrated in the world today... And what if you just took her in your arms and hugged her tight, and let her know how much you love her and how great and special you think she is, and held her for a good while...

...and she she might just pop up after awhile, when she's ready, and she might skip off, carefree and lighthearted, ready to run outside and play.

She just might.

Anniversary Getaway...12 years!

A week ago, we were HERE:














Staying at Pere Marquette State Park. It was more lovely than I imagined Illinois could be! (No offense.) The park is just beyond Grafton, IL, and the drive follows a 20 or 30 mile stretch of road that follows the rivers--the 3 rivers--where the Missouri, the Mississippi, and Illinois rivers merge. There were even some hills and mild cliffs above the road, and you could almost close your eyes and imagine yourself driving along the coastal highway in California! :)

First night sunset...













A gorgeous Sat. morning scenic drive...













a wee bit of hiking...
















In the State park visitor's center they have this LIVE bald eagle viewing... I just want to know -- how did they rig the camera up there?


















Saturday afternoon we went in town a found this lovely little winery, with a deck overlooking the river, and a delightful jazz band playing, and I thought to myself... WHY don't we ever do this? I love live music!!









































Down on the riverfront was a lovely little lighthouse...


















And a romantic dinner for two at the Mississippi Half Step













On the way out, we stopped at the Piasa bird caves, a local legend of a dragon-like bird that explorers wrote about when they first crossed into this land...


















Do you think he makes a good Piasa?















THANK YOU, MY HONEY, for planning such a special weekend. So many things I love-- exploring nature, beauty, rest, music, engaging conversation... And THANK YOU AUNT JULIE for keeping the girls for cousins weekend so we could get away!


















Here's to 12 years of living life together, in the joys and the heartaches, and the plain 'ol everyday days... there's no other partner I'd rather walk with on this journey!

The Edge of Your Old Known World

Listen to these words of secular poet David Whyte, and see if you think he hasn't discovered God-ordered truths... about the longing of the heart to find a unique contribution in the world.

Think poetry... creativity... imagination... (not precise theology :)

"The soul is that part of the human attempting to belong to the largest story it can. The soul is not interested in success or failure and doesn't care two cents about your career, your successes, or even the latest medical breakthroughs. It only wants to know if it was your failure, your experience, or were you trying to imitate someone else... The most terrifying discovery of all is to discover at midlife that you are not living your life, but someone else's life."

"More than we'd like to think, we all find or put ourselves in small, limited stories, barley vignettes really, the "plot" pretty much limited to keeping safe and secure,m doing what society's rulebook mandates. Soul doesn't figure largely in these narrow, puny tales... You are heir to an endless, fathomless sea of imagination..."

"Give up your foolish attempt to impose order, predictability, and control on existence! It won't work, and it robs you of what's most precious about life. Don't try to know everything in advance, or act only when you're assured it will all work out all right. You don't have to quit your job (necessarily), abandon your loved ones, change your name... all you have to do is go to the end of your old known world--and then, maybe, take the tiniest step forward into the dark."

A sample of Whyte's poetry:

This is not
the age of information.
This is not
the age of information.
Forget the news,
and the radio,
and the blurred screen.
This is the time
of loaves
and fishes.
People are hungry,
and one good word is bread
for a thousand.