Sunday, July 31, 2005
Joe, Kristen and Grace
One of Carmi’s work associates threw a birthday bash in Charlotte today and Carmi wanted to go so we drove down around lunchtime.
After eating and shmoozing for an hour or better, I noticed a man sitting at a table with a very young Chinese girl. I pointed him out to Carmi before making my way over to introduce myself and inquire about the child. His name is Joe and his wife’s name is Kristen. They live in a smaller town that is only about 5 miles from where we live and returned from China just 2 months ago with their little daughter, Grace, who is now 1 year old. They used an agency called China Adoption With Love, Inc. based in Massachusetts which I had never heard of before.
We haven’t kept count of the couples we’ve met or at least heard about in our area who have adopted from China but there are now quite a few. This meeting has prompted us to seriously consider forming a fellowship group.
{extended}Thursday, July 28, 2005
Dual-Purpose Bread
We have had some more hot weather this week. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday the temperature reached 100 degrees. Eliana really struggled with her breathing due to the heat and I think the heat affected her silly bone tonight. We were finishing dinner when she decided to use the remaining portion of her garlic bread as a cellphone. She conversed quite extensively with Nanny-Coe and Gran'mommy!
{extended}
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Good To Be Home
We were on a mission trip To St Johns, Antigua the week of July 16 - 23 which is why there hasn't been any journal entries in a while. All three of us are still trying to recover from the heat and humidity. You can look at our personal pictures from the trip here. {extended}Friday, July 15, 2005
The Fat Lady Sang
VBS is over for another year and Carmi is thanking the good Lord tonight. We had a hot dog supper after the worship rally this evening and Eliana latched on to this baby girl. I think she must be practicing up for her little sister.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Miss America
During bath time tonight, Eliana was practicing to be Miss America as she models the latest in bubble tiara-ware. Click here to listen to the talent portion of her program.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Concentration
We are having Vacation Bible School at our church this week. Eliana loves doing crafts and is concentrating very hard on her activity in class.
Monday, July 11, 2005
A Coincidence?
I just now realized that both of my posts on Friday, July 8 had to do with gas. That was totally unplanned. No...really... {extended}Do Unto Others
There's not much about the evil in this world that surprises or shocks me anymore but this article from The Charlotte Observer literally makes me feel nauseous when I read it. I truly feel that thisPeggy Sue Hilt, 33, of Wake Forest, was arrested and charged last week with second-degree murder in her daughter Nina's death in Manassas, Va., where she was visiting relatives.
Hilt told investigators she had become "enraged and angered" at her adoptive daughter, The Washington Post reported in Friday's editions.
According to a criminal complaint, Hilt told police she "shook (Nina), dropped her on the floor, kicked her stomach, picked her up, put her in her bed, and continued to strike her with a closed right fist on her back and stomach."
Hilt is being held without bond in the Prince William County jail. A court hearing is scheduled for Aug. 2.
Hilt's arrest comes just weeks after Russian authorities stripped three U.S. adoption agencies of their accreditation, saying they failed to monitor the children.
In Moscow, prosecutors said they would investigate the legality of Nina's adoption from her home region of Irkutsk in Siberia to see whether the U.S. follow-up complied with Russian law.
Tropical Depression Five
We plan to leave for the Caribbean island of Antigua on Saturday with 17 team members for a week-long mission trip. This satellite photo makes me think we might have a rather interesting weekend.
Sunday, July 10, 2005
That’s cool
We just got back from having lunch at Mom’s when Eliana walks up and says, “I want to watch a movie.”
“What would you like to watch, sweetie?”
“Mmm…something cool.”
Something cool?!? Now I do consider myself to be on the fringe of hipness but I haven’t been hanging out lately with a bunch of 3-year-olds so I’m really not sure what their generation would consider “cool”.
Toy Story must rank right up there because that’s what I popped into the VCR and she is “in the zone”.
Friday, July 08, 2005
Everybody does it
We chose to go eat tonight at Lotus which is our local Chinese restaurant of choice. It was fairly busy when we arrived but the crowd began to thin after a short while.
As our dinner is winding down, it’s only the three of us and a handful of people at two other tables.
All evening long there has been a steady drone of conversation but at the precise instant that those remaining pause for a breath, Eliana blurts out, “I pooted!” and then bursts into laughter.
Sometimes her English is incomprehensible.
Most of the time she talks like your typical 3-year-old.
But in the short span of time it took to utter those two words, her speech was perfectly clear.
She did say “Excuse me” but that wasn’t nearly as interesting.
{extended}Up, Up and Away
The price for gas has already increased 11 cents per gallon since word came yesterday of the attacks in London. It's a shame that the price doesn't fall as quickly as it goes up. {extended}Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Tough job
As soon as I got home after work with Eliana, I started nuking ravioli to feed her before rushing off to church.
She tugged on my pants leg and said, “Dad I want to help. What can I do?”
“Sweetheart, just stand there and look pretty.”
“OK”, she said without skipping a beat.
It’s a tough job but somebody has to do it.
{extended}Did I Do That?
OK...confession time before somebody else can tell on me...Over the weekend, I reformatted Mom's hard drive and reinstalled necessary software including a new email client called Thunderbird. Mom emails the family - about 10 of us - every night during the workweek before going to bed but she manually enters every address because she has never quite grasped the concept of an "address book". Since she had new software, I added our email addresses to an address book and showed her again how to use it. Well, I came into work this morning and there was no email. My first thought was, "Must give her a hard time". So at lunch, I walk into her house and our conversation proceeds thusly:
Me: You're going to be in trouble.
Mom: Me?
Me: Yes.
Mom: Why?
Me: I didn't get an email this morning.
Mom: You didn't?
Me: Nope! Did you send one?
Mom: Yes I did!
Me: Did you use your address book?
Mom: Yes I did.
I'm sure I muttered something like, "She couldn't have used the address book" as her computer fired up and I looked in the "Sent" folder. Sho 'nuff...there was the email. Only problem was, my own email address wasn't in the address book...and she snickered. My Momma snickered at me! I'd like to blame it on the gremlins that she swears inhabits her computer but I'm afraid I must chalk it up to my very own senior moment. {extended}