Cub Scout Cool

Jamie G and Racer 10

Jamie ran his pinewood derby car with his Cub Scout pack and was excited to win one of his heats and come in third in another. Karl was just as fired up about the whole deal. This is his first year as a boy scout and he really likes it. He especially likes how incredibly cool he looks in his official cub scout shirt with kerchief and lion cub slide... he says, as he dons his cub scout shirt each week... "this uniform makes me look kinda like a cop." To which, I can't help myself from singing"... bad boys, bad boys- whatcha gonna do?"

The terrible impossiblity of adopting from Haiti now.

Haiti 2005

I am very much saddened by the acts of the 10 missionaries who tried to illegally move Haitian children into the Dominican Republic. One month ago, before the earthquake hit- it was just barely possible to adopt a child from Haiti. The process took several years and was full of uncertainties. Although Karl and have been drawn to the kids in Haiti for years, we decided that we didn't have the emotional stamina to go through with the process and decided to adopt from Ethiopia instead. Ethiopia is also a lengthy process, but adoptions receive at least some support from the government. They are very careful with the adoptive parent requirements, but there is a small but likely amount of cooperation between agency and the government. Much less so in Haiti, and now, with all this terrible press, Haiti is unlikely to ever again honor intercountry adoptions.

It is impossible now, even with such a need, to adopt a child from Haiti.

The children who arrived in the US the week or so after the quake were children who were in the process of being adopted. Each child had a family who had been trying to finish the process and bring them home for a very long time...probably years. There are many more who are still in the process who are caught in limbo right now. Maybe they were waiting on a single signature, or maybe their paperwork was destroyed entirely- there is no way to tell if they will ever come home. I know of several adoptive parents who are in Haiti right now trying to speak to whoever they can in the embassy to get permission to bring home their newly adopted children. They are doing this because these are the rules- and they agreed to follow the rules when they asked to adopt a child. At a certain point in the process, (after being matched, but before we can travel to bring our children home), there is little we can do but hope and pray that that our children are safe. As much as we might like to, we know that we can't really just go scoop them up and rescue them from their terrible reality. Which is exactly what the missionaries attempted to do. I don't know what their intentions were, although it's likely that they wanted to help the children- who knows. The sad reality is that by ignoring the rules, they will cause so much more suffering and hardship to those few children in Haiti who may have been given the opportunity to have a family and will now do what they can to survive without parents.

Darlene Etienne

I have heard that two weeks is about the longest span of attention that can be offered to those not directly involved in a disaster or tragedy. After 14 days or so interest is lost and people have moved on.
That's human nature.
On the 15th day post earthquake, a French rescue team pulled a 17 year old teenager out of the rubble that was once her school. 3 days is considered the longest a human can survive without water. Miss Etienne survived 15 days. No one can really understand how she managed to survive trapped without food or water for so many days.
I can't begin to wrap my mind around how she managed this but I think that there is significance in the fact that she made it one day longer then the 14 day given attention span.
Darlene Etienne.

books, art supplies and something for Harry

Lillian, looking like a junior pirate with her little bird Harry, flashing 9 fingers on her 9th birthday.

Books, art supplies and something for Harry was Lily's 9th birthday wish list. Harry is her pet bird and the most adored budgerigar ever. Lily is a complete bookworm, and she is an arts and crafty kind of girl, so her wish list is total Lily.

On her birthday, I interviewed her bit on her past, present and future.

me:What is the coolest thing that you have ever done?
Lillian: Probably win the science award in the 3rd grade.
me: What is the coolest thing that you ever hope to do?
Lillian: Be a famous bird breeder.
me:What is you favorite book?
Lillian:The Warriors series
me:favorite song?
Lillian:anything by the Beatles
me:What do you want to be when you grow up?
Lillian:a famous bird breeder
me:What is your favorite thing to do?
Lillian:read
me:If you could spend an afternoon with anyone in the world, living or dead, who would it be?
Lillian:Miss Jessica (her godmother) and Harry
me:If you could pick a superpower between being invisible and the ability to fly, which would you choose?
Lillian:could I pick a little bit of both?
me:no
Lillian:invisibility
me:How do you like being 9?
Lillian:It's hard for me to have a strong opinion since I haven't been 9 for very long, but I like it so far.
So there you have it. Lillian newly age 9, lover of The Beatles and books and future famous bird breeder.

Unimaginable.

During the summer of 2004, the Resurrection Dance Theater of Haiti, a group of about 15 boys and young men who lived in the St. Joseph's Home for Boys in Port-au-Prince visited our home and gave a dance performance.
They were pure energy and dance talent. They all drummed, danced and sang and laughed their buns off all evening.
Quite simply- they were remarkable.
Karl and I were in awe of the boys and what they accomplished. They were a joyous. They were happy. Karl became friends with Michael Geilenfield the founder of the orphanage and the dance troupe and visited Michael and the boys in Port-au-Prince.
He stayed in guests rooms in their home and was impressed by their family. Michael and the kids were thriving.

This is what their home looks like now. The kids survived. They were outside when the quake hit.

Michael Geilenfield- the founder of St. Joesph's.

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Here are the dancers when they visited in 2004- they seldom stopped singing. My daughter Mary is on the far left.

Our backyard has not hosted so much energy since- these guys rocked the neighborhood!


Here is a recent photo of Michael and the boys.

My heart breaks for Haiti. I have been told that the situation in Haiti right now is worse then any hell that can be imagined.
Unimaginable.
Please give what you can to help Haiti.

Hello Snow!

To the thrill of the school age kiddos, we got our first big snow and a snow day.... and then a delay the following day. It's funny, after all that time off, there were so many grumbles that they didn't get the full day off...as in "I can't believe we only got a delay..." Horrors. Because my little darlings are an extremely high maintenance snow gang- I spent the day at home trying to keep up with their snow equipment and accessories and didn't have time to get out myself. So after they finally went back to school, I bundled up Miss Rosie and took her out to say hello to her first snow and a sled pull around the block. I realized quickly that I was missing a key design feature on the purple sled... a seat-back. You know how when you see photos of those stylish Scandinavian parents pushing or pulling their little Scandinavian babies everyone involved looks safe and comfortable? Not so much us. My no seat-back purple sled was giving her a tough time and she kept falling out the back until she figured out that she needed to lean forward to keep her cute little buns in the sled. Even with this extra challenge, she loved her little snow journey and got mad with me when it was time to go home. My little Ethiopian snow bunny!

My husband is the coolest.

My dear husband posing on a dry lake bed with fellow peace corps pals in Tunisa about 20 years ago. Karl would be the middle Bee Gee look alike in this historic photo. He still occasionally wears that blue raincoat.

...and here last spring with two new wingmen and a new raincoat too. He was trying to grow a mustache for fun and sport. It was not the fullest facial hair ever and Lily and Henry were trying their best to locate it.

Happy Birthday dear husband- you are the best.