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Easter Weekend

By OneThankfulMom Friday April 2, 2010

Honeybee with her friend Jubilee

Our science class field trip to Seattle was great. We got home late Wednesday night after three full days of educational fun. On Monday we drove to Seattle and went directly to the Seattle Aquarium where we got a behind the scenes tour and enjoyed the exhibits. Tuesday was spent at the Woodland Park Zoo, which was probably my favorite, although it was very cold, so it was a little bit harder to enjoy than usual. Wednesday we hit the Seattle Science Center; which was Ladybug’s favorite.

The kids were all happy, well-behaved, and fun to be with. I grew up near Seattle, so I was able to experience these places as a child, but many of the girls were seeing it all for the first time. They took it all in and enjoyed every minute of it…except perhaps the long drive to Seattle and back.

Thursday our future son-in-law’s family arrived from Texas for a visit. We had spoken on the phone but not met in person. They are just as wonderful as we hoped and we look forward to many years of sweet friendship with them. I was struck by the knowledge that we will share grandchildren with them and it will be wonderful for our children and grandchildren to have us be a happy extended family.

Now I am catching my breath and making a big list of all that needs to be accomplished for this special Easter weekend. We have a Good Friday service at 6:00 followed by dinner that I need to have cooking before we leave. Saturday we are celebrating Andrew and Mimi’s 21st birthdays – Andrew’s is the 8th. Sunday we are hosting a potluck after our Easter service.

I’m feeling behind and not quite organized. Remember those special Easter dresses…definitely not happening. My goals are small:  color Easter eggs with the kids, put together baskets, plan a simple birthday for Andrew and Mimi, get lots of groceries, and cook lots of good meals.  I’m praying for health in the midst of it all.

I hope you have a wonderful, glorious Easter and I’ll see you next week!

Ladybug

~Lisa

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Just A Spoonful of Sugar…

By OneThankfulMom Friday March 12, 2010

Today I am blogging over at Grown in My Heart, about “What if Jesus Has HIV.” Go on over and take a look.

I have a little family tidbit to share.  Eby came home from Ethiopia with a good case of a scalp fungal infection.  We tried to treat it a few times, but it kept creeping back.  Then last winter, we noticed that Little Man had some bald spots on his head…as we looked closely, we could see the familiar fungus we knew and did not love.

Our doctor prescribed another medication for the boys which they would take for four to six weeks.  I talked with the pharmacist who was going to order it and she told me that the cash price for four weeks of meds for one of the boys was $1400; with our insurance, it was still several hundred.  When she asked

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Happy Birthday Samuel!

By OneThankfulMom Thursday March 11, 2010

Today I nearly could have said, “Happy Birthday Peter!”

When Samuel was born, Russ and I were houseparents at Alpha Phi sorority at Cornell University.  Russ was doing his graduate work and we had all kinds of crazy jobs to support ourselves.  We remember our time at Alpha Phi with fondness, including the crazy memories of Samuel’s birth.  Samuel was born the day before a blizzard

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Happy Birthday to Our Sweet Pea

By OneThankfulMom Sunday March 7, 2010

Sweet Pea and Mimi

Today is Sweet Pea’s birthday!  Sweet Pea lives in Seattle where she is a second year medical student at the University of Washington.  She loves  Jesus, her family (that’s us!), medicine, ministering to the sick, P.G. Wodehouse, literature of all kinds, cooking, baking pies, singing, playing the piano, gardening, arranging flowers, knitting, and so many other things.

We are excited that she will spend her third year of medical school in Spokane, which is much closer to home.  Fortunately, with all of the trips we make to Seattle for therapy, we get to see her quite regularly.

Sweet Pea is spending her birthday with my Mom and her childhood best friend – the friend who opened all of Sweet Pea’s presents on her first birthday.  They are going to the opera and out for a special dinner.  It sounds lovely!

Interestingly, after living in New York, Colorado, and Idaho, she will also spend her birthday only blocks away from where she was born.  When Russ was an undergraduate at the University of Washington, we managed an apartment building on 4th and Virginia.  Hannah was born at home in our sixth floor apartment, with the help of a wonderful midwife.  She was my urban baby.

We’ll celebrate her 23rd birthday when she is home over Spring Break.

Happy Birthday Sweet Pea!

~Lisa

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Happy Birthday Rusty!

By OneThankfulMom Wednesday January 13, 2010


Today is Rusty’s 15th birthday. He is an awesome son and I’m so glad God blessed me with him. I want to publicly thank him for the extraordinary amount of tech-support he has given me these last few years. He taught me how to use Blogger, built the AHOPE Store (with help), edited dozens of photos, and now (along with our friend, Nathan) he is building me a new website. He has also answered countless calls of, “Rusty, can you help me with something?” and most often he is cheerful about it.

A bright and ambitious son, he is exceedingly self-directed. He is nearly ready to graduate from high school, although we plan to have him study at home for another year or so.

He is very passionate for the Lord and I have no doubt that Rusty will do great things as he serves God with his talents.

~Lisa

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Mimi is 19!

By OneThankfulMom Thursday April 3, 2008


I’ve missed posting a few birthdays, but in a moment of efficiency, I am posting about Mimi on her actual birthday! She had a ballroom dance rehearsal tonight so we aren’t officially celebrating until tomorrow, but that didn’t stop us from having her birthday cereal for breakfast and a favorite dinner with brownies for dessert. Tomorrow we’ll have her real birthday dinner including grilled Cornell chicken and homemade German Chocolate Cake.

In honor of Mimi, I would like to share a poem that she wrote last year:

Burial Caves

-Sulawesi, Indonesia, 1975

The wooden caskets,

built to rock like cradles,

lay scattered around the dim tunnel,

too small for anyone but a child.

Some of them were broken open—

tiny femur, humerus, skulls

lying on the rocks inside the cave

near empty copper boxes

the size of a baby’s rattle,

spilled by centuries

of the earth’s plates shifting.

My father, eleven years old,

turned a burnished bronze

by the tropical sun,

scrubbed at the goose bumps

on his arms and picked up

one of the boxes, twirling

it between his fingers

like an empty film canister,

its dull sheen reflecting

civilizations in his eyes.

He will grow up, move back

to the States when his father’s bones

become too stiff for the rigors

of overseas construction.

The faraway, tropical homes

of my father’s childhood

will fade as he packs

all of his memories

into an iron-bound sea chest,

forgotten.

Perhaps he will remember

the chest, scoop out his stories,

pressed down, shaken together

and running over,

pouring them into my hands.

MK 2007

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Now She is Five

By OneThankfulMom Monday December 31, 2007

Yesterday we celebrated C.’s fifth birthday. We shared it with cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and even a new puppy. She loved every minute of it, especially when her uncle played Happy Birthday to her on his trombone.

~Lisa

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