Saturday, April 22, 2006

A Moment in the Midst of the Marathon

Taking a minute to blog today before getting ready to leave again. We’ve been home for 10 minutes so far.

Last night was a pretty fun time. Mike and Kari and 4 of their kids came over for dinner with another couple we had not yet met and their friend (who is half of a couple without her other half). The two families are planning to adopt and wanted to meet others who had done it. We had six kids with us, so there were ten kids. The adults had T.J. Finnegans Pizza while the kids ate Dominos. By the time the night was over we had consumed 4 extra large and 2 large pizzas.

We also had a lot of good conversation. We are pleased to know that as of the end of the night both families were still planning to adopt waiting kids.

The gathering as preceded by Dominyk christening the new home with the F word and Rand and Tony working together to somehow keep Bart’s laptop from starting. We were in peak anger mode when the other families arrived.

Before Kari’s and Mike’s son Ben came over I had a long talk with Dominyk about being a good role model. I explained how he was used to being the oldest, but since Ben was younger than him, he needed to be careful to teach him only fun things. I explained that he needed to think before acting and keep Ben calm.

Well into our conversation after supper and birthday cake for Mike and Dominyk, we realized that everyone else was within eyesight and that Dominyk and Ben had disappeared together alone. We were alarmed and went looking for them. They came up looking mighty happy.

We asked them what they had been doing and Ben simply replied “playing.” But when I asked Dominyk what game they had been playing, he responded matter-of-factly, “A Killing Game.”

So much for role modeling.

Today we reserved the day for people from the church to stop by and meet us and help out if they wanted to. The three families that came were quite helpful -- one bought a wide variety of dessert bars, which totally threw my diet (the Mint Chocolate Brownies were WAY too good) and the other two helped with various projects. We got our bathroom door fixed, a desk built, shelf paper put in, wood carried out of the basement, and towel racks put in the basement.

At this moment I am nervously waiting to hear how John did. I talked to him around 2 and things seemed to be OK, but now I can’t reach the family he is staying with.

Now it’s time to plan out my trip, print my maps, and load my laptop with the things it needs for the trip. Then I’ll pack my clothes and fall into bed to rest up for a long long day tomorrow as I fly to Dallas.

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