Saturday Night Ramblings

We have really been enjoying Saturdays lately. I’m sure it’s an exaggeration, but it seems like for years, we’ve been…out of town, or doing projects, or working every Saturday. It is so wonderful to have an average, ordinary, middle class Saturday!

Today we…took AnnaMaria to her first Easter Egg Hunt, cheered Ollie on at basketball, ate at Dairyette (great local burger spot), shopped for Easter dresses and shoes and finally came home to dinner and a movie.

AnnaMaria was walking all over at the Easter Egg hunt, which ended up being indoors for the little ones. It occurred to me that there would be no mistaking who she belonged to if she got too far away. EVERYBODY knows AnnaMaria. (Yes, good place for photos, but we got there without the camera…hoping a friend emails some)

I ran into two friends from high school today, which is strange since my high school is 100 miles away and also strange that they both have twin girls!

AnnaMaria was fun while we were shopping. She always manages to find a grandparent to visit with. The sweetest little black girl came up to her today and said, “her hair looks like mine”. Her hair wasn’t as straight as AnnaMaria’s, but it was just as dark. You know, as it turns out, her 3rd grade teacher is someone else I went to high school with!

This little girl’s sister and brother both visited with us too and they were very nice. They asked me several questions about how we knew where to “go get” AnnaMaria and questions about her “real” mom and dad. It was the first time I had the “real” question. They were sweet, innocent kids, but it made me wonder about questions in the future…

I know we are her “real” family now, but I love AnnaMaria’s birth family and they will always be real to us. We got some documents back from Immigration last week and there was a photo we had not seen of Rosario, AnnaMaria’s birth mom. We don’t have much, but I’m grateful for what we have to share with AnnaMaria when she is older. I’m also so thankful for spending nearly a ¼ of 2007 in Guatemala, but I will never know what it is like to BE Guatemalan.

Back to a lighter note…Gee Wiz, that whole high school thing is strange today. Maybe I’m paranoid after watching Nancy Drew tonight. The movie was Lily’s pick and I do think she was pretty excited about the romance between Nancy and Ned. I thought the movie was cute, but the others thought it was rather cheesy.

Ollie had to get new cleats for baseball today. Size 12! Wow. He also got some new shorts, size 29 waist. He just can’t eat fast enough! Tonight during the movie he thought banana pudding sounded good. I told him he could make some and where the “from scratch” recipe was located. In no time, he whipped it up. He’s quite the chef. Of course he left the dishes for someone else.

When we were shopping, we saw a friend, who is just a year ahead of Claire in school buying her prom dress. It’s fun, yet frightening (and a host of other emotions) to watch ALL our kids grow up!

It’s so hard to believe that Claire and Ollie will be in high school next year. They turned in their schedules last week. They both hope to take Spanish as their fall and spring electives. They have “block” scheduling, which means they have long classes each day, but they finish a years worth of work in one semester. I think they will like it, because they only have four classes each semester.

Back to dinner and a movie. We had Italian beef sandwiches for dinner. They were actually pretty good, if I do say so myself! The interesting thing is that it reminded both Jeff and me of a little sandwich shop on the wrong side of the tracks in our hometown. It went out of business long before we knew each other, but it’s kinda fun to have those moments of common heritage. It reminded me of a sage comment from a divorced friend…..he said that the saddest thing about divorce and then new marriage is that you have no history with the new spouse. It eventually comes, but it takes time. Boy, there’s a lot you can learn from others without going through their pain!

I’ve rambled on too long, but I have to leave you with this….go read this blog…. http://girlsadoptionjourney.blogspot.com/2008/03/adoption-story-shortened-version.html

Debbie and her family are one of the many God-incidences in our adoption journey. Debbie’s husband works with one of my best friends from high school, Debbie was my “up-line” when I sold Creative Memories close to 10 years ago, and we're-connected because we had the same adoption agency for our Guatemalan daughters. If this story doesn’t touch your heart, you don’t have a heart!

Have a Blessed Palm Sunday!