Sunday, February 21, 2010

Another Teenager!

Yesterday was Peter's 13th birthday. On each child's 13th birthday, Eric has taken him/her to do something special. Eric took Peter up to North Carolina to go snow tubing. It was a perfect day to do so - the weather was sunny and there was snow for tubing. Peter enjoyed his day.


They stopped by Tallulah Gorge on the way home and saw some beautiful scenery.


Happy Birthday Peter!

Friday, February 19, 2010

Happy 19th Birthday Amy

You have been a joy of a child (well except for those early years....). We love you!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

God's Providence and Friends

God's hand is everywhere. I seem to notice it most acutely when it steps in and saves my children from certain death or injury. Like when Scott hydroplaned off the highway and totaled his car. Or when he fell off a moving car and was run over. Or when Emily jumped off a floating pontoon in a very deep lake with a T-shirt tied around neck and tried to swim to shore and she is not a strong swimmer (I still have nightmares about that). Or when we almost had our own luge accident yesterday in the snow. All the kids were sledding and Amy was taking Grace on the sled. Before making a run down she had to move some dog stuff out of the path and while she was shoveling it away, Grace decides to get onto the sled herself and go down the hill - it was quite a big hill. Well she went shooting down like a bullet. I happened to look up and my brain put together the danger and I ran and tackled her as she sped across the icy cul-de-sac heading toward the neighbor's brick tower of a mailbox. I am thankful for God's daily providence.

In a different way though before Christmas God providentially brought together several things to answer prayer in a dramatic way for us. Scott has worked at a Christian camp for the past two summers - this is a camp that the kids have grown up going to. Actually it is a camp I grew up going to, then worked at and then was on the board of for many years. So it is dear to our family. However, in desiring to go to med school, Scott knew that he needed to move on from camp and do something closer to his occupational goals. However, his heart desired to work at camp for one more summer. Eric, Scott and I met for lunch on a Friday to discuss this issue as Scott needed to give an answer to the camp by that Monday. He had no options in sight for any kind of internship in the medical field, but was willing to give up camp and look. We had prayed about this and did not know how to make a decision by Monday. Well that Sunday, Scott and a friend came to our church. This was not a normal occurrence. Scott plays piano for our church but the weeks he does not play he attends a church closer to campus. This was not a week he was playing so it was odd for him to show up (our church is quite some distance from campus). On that Sunday a couple was visiting the church. We found out that the husband loves football and so he and Scott started talking football. Then he asked Scott what his major was. Scott said "biochemistry". The man, Andres, said that he worked at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and if Scott ever wanted an internship there to contact him. I was standing close enough to hear this and almost fell over. One thing led to another and Scott found himself with a much coveted internship at the CDC. Not only that, but the internship was set up for spring so not only did Scott land a wonderful experience, but he also gets to work at his beloved camp again in the summer. We soon found out that not only did Andres work at the CDC, but he is in charge of a lab there and is internationally know for his work in rabies. (I found that out when I put my foot in my mouth and asked how he came to leave Mexico and work for the CDC - his wife proudly told me that Andres was invited to come and work at the CDC!) So Scott has found himself in a fascinating lab situation with a really great guy. (Andres' wife, Nadia, also works at the CDC.) And then the wonderful part for us is that we have become friends with this neat couple. In fact we spent this afternoon at their house eating an authentic Mexican dinner (great food!) and having wonderful fellowship. Nadia told me that Valentines Day in Mexico was to celebrate friendship rather than couples -so that is what we did today. We celebrated friendship and God's wonderful working in our family. Happy Valentines Day to all of our friends!

Snow Again!

I know the rest of the country has had their fair share of snow, but it occurs so infrequently here that it is cause for excitement. Our day started out with a home school trip to the Cyclorama.

Then we headed to the Varsity for lunch. That infamous place that all the kids love and the adults hate. It started snowing while we were there, so the kids were anxious to get home.


Driving home it was coming down hard, so that by the time we got home we had a nice Winter Wonderland.



The snow is beautiful, but every time it snows I am reminded of why I don't want to live any further north. Putting snow clothes on kids, taking them off, repeating that several times, wet boots, clothes, hats, gloves, jackets dripping everywhere. Nope a couple of days a year is good enough for me.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Father and Son

Eric teaches a graduate student class every spring down at Georgia Tech as part of a cooperative program between Emory and Georgia Tech. Scott decided to make an appearance in Eric's class this past Tuesday. See video:



Unfortunately the video did not zoom in on Eric's unamused face or the fact that when Scott left he had to announce to the class "That dog is my son"!

It makes me laugh every time I think about it!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Adoption Update

Our little girl received her first care package from us a few days ago. (Another family traveling to Ethiopia to pick up their child took it for us and one of the Gladney in-country representatives delivered it). In her package we sent a little photo album with family pictures, pictures of each individual child, and some pictures of our house. We sent her a tie-dye T-shirt (one of the family pictures in the album was the one on the beach in all of our tie-dye shirts), a beanie baby, some crayons and a drawing pad.

The representative sent an update of the delivery. He said:

“What a delightful girl! "N" was so excited to get her care package. She proudly showed off her family in the little photo album she received to those of us who went to see her and wanted to immediately put on her family t-shirt. The crayons were next. She started drawing. When I pointed at the picture of her dad and mom and said “ababa” (“daddy”) and “mama”, she replied with “Ow,” or “yes,” and she either kissed or blew kisses at all the members of her family in the photo album. What a sweetheart!”

He also sent a picture. In the one he sent she was looking at a pictures of Amy, Katie, Scott and Matthew - it was a little strange to see a pictures of our kids here being shown to a child way over in Ethiopia! We are excited that she knows about us now. It is hard just to sit and wait, but we look forward to the day we can meet her in person.