Three teens

It's now official that Andy and I are parenting three teens.  Time flies.  We had a very low key day - no dessert and just one gift for our birthday girl.

We also took very few pictures.  Julia is nursing a nasty sunburn on her face.  It's peeling and messy, so she did not want that saved for posterity.

Julia is very anxious to get involved with social media. I hate that for middle school, but we will be monitoring her.  She knows why I don't like it, and she knows her limits.  These kids are growing up in a very different and often more painful world.  When I was a kid, if you didn't get invited to the party, you might have heard about it and had hurt feelings.  Now you don't just hear about it, you get to see all that you missed played out in pictures and videos.  After going through a tough school year where we lost two students to suicide, these things are on my mind.  

Julia, however, remains her same easy-going self.  She's developing a very strong friend group that I think will make this coming school year one of the best yet.  They exchange 200 texts (easily) per day in their group text, and it's mostly silly, fun stuff.  They've already had an outing together, and I am sure there are more to come.  

What does 13 look like on this girl?  She loves Starbucks (frappes and refreshers), clothes and shoes.  She is not into jewelry except the one necklace she wears everywhere.  Julia still loves cheer and swimming.  She's diving and swimming this summer and ready to head to her last year of church camp.  Julia still entertains us.  She's a blessing!  Happy Birthday, sweet girl!

We remember

A recap of Memorial Day weekend:

Saturday:

Logan graduated high school -the fourth and final of the four original cousins on my side of the family.  They grew up together.

the original four

All the cousins together. I love how Ira looks like a politician ;)

celebrating with a Mexican meal after the ceremony

I love this picture of the first six.

going back a few years -Zach class of 2014

 Austin and Savannah -Class of 2016

It was not lost on us that Logan graduated on the sixth anniversary of losing his dad.

Logan - Class of 2017

Sunday:

We gathered at Tessa's and John's new house.  It's really cute.  They opened their pool, and some of the kids had fun with that.

We all got a kick out of Logan and Julia who spent the entire time sharing this float.  These two are the family comedians of their generation.  Their antics are always fun. It's surprising that I didn't get the smiles on their faces - goofy kids.

In case you are curious, Tiffany and Jonathan are the comedians of my generation.

Gotta love a great smile.

It was too cold for Kallie.  She wasn't alone.  Both Austin and Savannah changed into their suits and then changed their minds about the cold, cold pool.

The older grandkids are so good with the little ones.  I observed Austin pulling Isaac off of a railing with a pretty steep drop before I could even open my mouth to alert the kids to stop him at Logan's graduation.  They watch out for the kids and let the kids climb all over them.

Kinsley could not get enough of it.

Walking "sideways" because it's a "sidewalk" - Ira's idea

As you can see the big kids humored him.

We also took the opportunity to celebrate this girl's birthday since we were all together.  In less than a week, I will be mom to three teenagers.  Her dessert of choice was fudge - of course.

I couldn't help but think of how much Mom and Dad would have loved to sit poolside and enjoy having all of their grandchildren hanging out together.

Monday:

Tessa and I met at the cemetery to visit the gravesite of Mom and Dad. The stone has been corrected. Had we known that there would be a service, we might have opted to attend.  Neither of us was dressed for it, so we snapped a few pictures and then left.

But we all leave the world with our story incomplete, our love and work unfinished.  We can only hope that what we leave behind will give those who come after us a way to perceive or guess, each in their own mind, the shape of the tale that might have been told. ---J.R.R. Tolkien

He's an Overcomer!

10 years ago today, we received an unexpected phone call about a little boy on the other side of the world who needed a family.

More than a year would pass before we would meet him face to face. Wyatt came home in June and started school in August. Thus began a most difficult journey.

The night before he started kindergarten, he spoke with someone from our adoption agency.  Because Wyatt knew no English, this was the only way we could prepare him for the day ahead.

At the end of his kindergarten year, Wyatt was just beginning to understand English. Our district refused to let him repeat the year, and we spent the next few years exasperated as we tried to build on a shaky (at best) foundation while building the foundation. Wyatt persevered but never allowed himself to even dream that he could be a successful student. Even so, I was convinced that God was writing an amazing story with Wyatt.

We really hit a wall in seventh grade and enlisted the help of a math tutor. 

Thanks to all of the teachers who went the extra mile and an especially big thanks to Mr. H who not only taught Wyatt math but encouraged him to believe in himself, Wyatt spent his entire 8th grade year on the honor roll.  He even finished the year with straight "A"s for the last quarter.

Wyatt and Mrs. J - she's taught all three of the Page kids who have completed 8th grade, and she's an excellent math teacher.

During Wyatt's crossover ceremony, Wyatt's teachers recognized him with the Caleb award for perseverance and diligence to an assigned task.

We celebrated with sushi.

Today happens to be Ira's fifth birthday.  We celebrated on Sunday.  His only gift request was a drum set.

We happened to run into the birthday boy when we went out to celebrate with sushi.

I am so very proud of Wyatt!

posted with Wyatt's permission

She likes it! She likes it!

Savannah returned home last night after attending a party.  We have a local holiday happening here, and it's kind of a big deal.  Stores close at 5:00 and everything.  Lots of parties happen, so Savannah went straight to a party last night and then to another tonight.  When she finally arrived at home, we all followed her to her first trip to her room.

Savannah walked into her room and stated, "Oh I forgot that my room was this pretty color."

After a slight hesitation, she then said,"Wait. I'm thinking of Julia's room.  My room was not this color."  She then thanked us and oohed and ahhhed over it.

From their first meeting as roomies ...

...until the day they moved out, they developed a great friendship.

They plan to room together next year.

We gave Savannah's best friend a ride home, so we had to get this picture of the Emilies sandwiching Savannah.

One year ago today

One year ago today was a local holiday.  It was also the day that Dad landed in the hospital with a heart attack.  I believe that was the day his heart weakened to the point of no return.  I spent that day with him until I had to pick my kids up from school.  It was just before I had to leave that he learned they would be admitting him.

Dad asked everyone who entered his room all about themselves.  He knew the tech who came to read his pacemaker had attended college on a scholarship from Northwestern.  The nurses always liked him.

That local holiday occurred yesterday, and yesterday I moved Savannah out of the dorm.  While in her college town, I also stopped by a congressman's office to retrieve Dad's amended DD214 and his replacement medals.

Tender Moments

A note to myself: I am postdating this post as there is mention of a not yet revealed surprise in it.
Written 4/28/2017

I've been working in Savannah's room.  As we prepare for her return to the nest from her first year of college, I finally finished the long overdue paint job.  Gone are the navy walls we painted for her brother for a softer gray to match her yellow and gray comforter.  We decided on this color almost two years ago when Andy gifted her with her own room.  Life happened.  Paint did not.  It occurred to me several weeks ago that this would be an ideal time to paint as she has so few of her belongings in there, and I decided that I might as well surprise her with the finished product. Savannah has not yet seen nor heard that her room is now a new color (at the time this is being written, it will be another story once this is published).  One week from today will be the day she takes her first glimpse of it.

As I worked on her room, I caught sight of her guest book from her graduation party.  We used Dr. Seuss's Oh the Places You'll Go as her guest book.  It occurred to me that I had good intentions of taking that book to her graduation to have friends and family who were unable to attend the party sign it.  My dad had just been released from the hospital when we had her party.  His invitation arrived while he was in the hospital, and I counted on my siblings who lived with him to let him know and get him to the party.  That was a mistake as they did not let him know until it was too late for him to get ready, so he missed it.  Dad would not have written anything sentimental in her book.  He simply would have signed it, and I regret that I never put it in his hands to do that.  It's kind of cool to have your grandparents' handwriting on something.

I literally finished painting Savannah's room yesterday.  It was a several week process - long story, but the gist of it is that I started painting on spring break and realized very quickly that I could not move her furniture alone.  Julia and I could not budge it working together.  I had to wait until 11:00p.m. one night for Zach to help me.  We are down to the wire because I believe strongly in letting paint cure for several days or even a week, so we cannot put the room back together until I feel satisfied that the paint won't chip -(I might be a bit OCD about painting a room correctly).  All this to say that seeing the guest book was still not far from my mind when my brother sent this text:

Ira (age 4 years, 11 months) told Jonathan that he wants Jesus to come back now, so Grandpa could come back, and he could go over to his house again.  (tears here)

My response: I'm good with that.

How profound is my little nephew?

It occurred to me that just a few years ago, Andy and I talked about how we long for Christ's return more and more as we get older.  As the losses and hurts pile up, and we start really getting how depraved this world is, we long for all things to be new and for God's peace and protection to reign.  However, that longing does not hit us in our early adult years when we look forward to careers, marriage, childrearing, and all the adventures we see before us in life.

After receiving that text, I prayed that Ira's words would be true, that Christ's return would be soon, but even as I prayed, I remembered that He has good reason to tarry, and my mind wandered to those friends whose salvation is not so sure in my mind.  I live between - wanting His return yet wanting the assurance that the people I love will be caught up in the clouds with Him on that day.

30,000 Steps

Actually 30,138 as I type this - the number of steps my Fitbit recorded today.

How did this happen, you ask? Here's how...

Our town hosts a marathon/mini-marathon every spring.  Andy has participated in both the mini and the marathon a total of four times.  This year he joined a marathon relay team, so he only had to run the last leg of the marathon- a total of 7.5 miles.  Julia always gets up to go and cheer for her dad.  This year proved to bring bigger challenges than previous years even for a shorter run. First there were the training challenges.  Andy's typical work schedule over the last couple of months has been 9-6 followed by cooking and eating dinner and then returning to the computer to work until I don't even know when because I am in bed before he finishes.  That left no time to properly train.  He got a few lunch break runs in, but not what he needed.  Even as he started his vacation to head to D.C. with Wyatt, work called and halted him from getting in a last run Friday evening. Running in D.C. proved to be impossible because his group of three boys had to go everywhere he did, and their days started at 6:a.m. and ended close to 11:00p.m.

As if the training issues were not enough, race day brought it's own challenges.  We awoke to storms and to a race delayed again and again by lightning, so the race started an hour and a half late.  On a day with temps registering in the 80s, you can imagine the heat and humidity especially since Andy's part of the race did not start until after noon.

The start and finish for the race is pretty close together. Because Andy was not starting at the start, he still opted to park close to the finish as he was uncertain about how he would feel after the race.  He had to choose a three mile walk before or after the race.  He chose before.  Since Julia and I were there to see his start and finish, we walked those miles too.  My Fitbit recorded over nine miles before we returned to the car.  We walked to Andy's starting location with him, and I had over 10,000 steps when we arrived.  After he started the race, Julia and I trekked back hoping to see his finish.  We missed the finish for two reasons.  Julia had not had a thing to eat or drink, so we stopped for lunch, and surprisingly, Andy finished better than he expected.  His team fell apart.  They were supposed to pass off a wristband, and that did not happen on the first pass.  As the heat intensified, two of the runners started without seeing those who preceded them. I am sure they were disqualified, but they all ran their part of the course, and they all received medals.

Andy and I made it home barely in time to clean up and go work the church nursery.  Another event our city hosts every spring is a balloon race preceded the night before by a balloon glow.  I love these events and have missed them for several years because they coincide with the marathon or because the crowds were too intense to get to them.  Because the balloon glow could not happen Friday night, they postponed it to tonight.  I know Andy did not want to go.  He wanted a post race steak, but he humored me and went.  Zach and Joshua joined us.  I got to play with my camera, but I am spoiled.  I have quit trying to take manual pictures because the guide on my camera does everything for me.  I need another class.

This balloon was my favorite.  It is sponsored by Folds of Honor.  They provide scholarships for the children of fallen military personnel to attend private schools if they choose.  A dear friend of mine has two children attending school on these scholarships.  The balloon itself is truly amazing as it is decorated with kid art.  So special!!

Zach bought a drink in a coconut.  He's quite proud of it.