March 5, 2005 10:20 AM
Saturday Morning Round Up
Just announcing my new domain name: www.mommylife.net. That's a little easier to pass on. I still need help figuring out how to do links. But slowly and surely I'm crawling along to having a fully tricked-out blog like Proverbial Wife.
(btw, I have made an executive decision that I will delete comments that sound like a teacher's red pen term paper comments. That's not what blogging is about.)
Will be going to Kansas City to share my story with the wonderful people at Beacon Hill Press who have published one of my books and have two more in the wings. Also a MOMS group at College Church of the Nazarene in Olathe.
Ironically, I was born in Kansas City but my mom and dad, needing to outrun the bill collectors, packed us up before I was a year old and moved to Fort Smith, Arkansas; then Rockford, Illinois; then Atlanta, Georgia; then Fairbanks, Alaska (where public schools call off recess when it hits 20 degrees below); then Long Beach, California. By that time I was six with two little brothers. That's when my dad left and my mother took us cross country by train to get a job in Washington, DC while farming us out to a foster home.
But I digress. Oh, I guess the point was that when Beacon Hill flew me out for a focus group of teens to kick off Dirty Dancing at the Prom and Other Challenges Your Teen Faces: How Parents Can Help (out in May), it felt strange to see my birthplace -- which I'd only been attached to by virtue of my birth certificate and security questions -- on highway signs. I learned that Kansas City is the City of Fountains -- 160 in all --and has some beautiful homes and fabulous steaks.
The following week I will be going to teach and critique at Mount Hermon Writers' Conference near Santa Cruz, California. That's a long trip -- six days -- and I'm grateful my family supports my doing this each year. I love encouraging new writers and helping them get their bearings.
Family update:
Zachary did not pass his physical for the Naval Academy. Everything else was in place -- even his nomination, so it is disappointing. However, he just turned 17 last month. Plan B is he will go to Patrick Henry College next year (only 7 miles away from us), get himself in good physical shape, and reapply.
Ben sang in a music competition held at George Mason yesterday and was passed to the next level in South Carolina next month. It's exciting because he loves singing so much and is very happy to be doing so much of it (he's majoring in voice at Liberty).
Madeleine is rehearsing as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz at her middle school (I wish you could hear her sing -- maybe I'll figure out how to put an audio clip in). Sophia is rehearsing as a padded, funny cook for a play at her school. Jonny is having his final performances of Twelve Dancing Princesses -- in which he plays Water, waving a long stream of blue fabric up and down with another guy at the other end (he loves it!) -- tonight and tomorrow.
Jonny, btw, has been taking expensive items like a camera and two MP3 players to school. I just figured it out last week after the third item went missing. When I asked him about it, I got an unitelligible answer (Jonny has Down syndrome) about a "big guy," so I thought he was giving stuff to somebody. When I explained that these things cost money, he went running up to his room and brought me a dollar bill, which I think was the only one in his wallet. Money remains too abstract for him right now, except that he knows it is good to have. I think they've tracked down the items at school, but haven't heard whether they were in his locker or what. I'm glad because it was an older digital camera and I was going to give it to him and Madeleine to use because they love to take pictures and no money is wasted when it's digital.
Justin is recovering well from having his tonsils and adenoids removed. Jesse and Daniel have been remarkably healthy and are off all the preventitive meds they took before they had their own removed.
Okay, and as for the Guerilla Parenting blogs -- if they seemed overwhelming, it's just that Americans really never hear the other side. We get the articles like Mommy Madness, but never the upside of having kids. I would never presume to dictate what everyone else SHOULD do, just offering some food for thought. By and large, I think most Christians are way too comfortable and timid about taking risks and stretching themselves sacrificially.
Me, I wish I could be Mary breaking that alabaster jar. I really thought Justin would be the caboose, but Tripp and I are beginning to feel nudged to adopt another boy with Down syndrome. The hesitation is that we are getting older (Tripp's 50 and I'm 56 -- trendsetters when we got married in 1983). but then we realized it doesn't have to be a baby. We could adopt somone in the age range of our other Downzers. And there's this cute eight-year-old in Korea . . . . .
Posted in Big families, Down syndrome, Family, Mothering, Pro-Life Issues | Permalink
Comments
I'll pray for you as you consider adopting that little 8 year old. My husband (who is Korean) and I live in Korea and may adopt someday. Keep voicing your opinion. It is good to hear a different perspective on mothering and large families. People shouldn't think that your opinion is a judgment on them or their choices. At least, I don't feel that way. You make me think.
Posted by: Dogwood Blue | March 5, 2005 11:10 PM
Thank you! That's really how I intend it to be -- just food for thought. I'm really one to assume the best about people -- that they hear from the Holy Spirit for themselves and don't need someone else to tell them what to do. When I was homeschooling, I never judged people who didn't -- which is good since my kids are now in public school (though I'm contemplating bringing Maddy and Sophia next year -- that's how I believe the decision should be made, year by year). I just think the best decisions are made -- or the Holy Spirit has the most enhanced ability to get through to us -- when we have lots of information.
Posted by: barbara | March 6, 2005 8:09 AM
Barbara - I NEVER feel judged by you. I always appreciate your thoughts. :) And, you're right, most people are indoctrinated to believe that they have to have 1.7 children to have the "perfect family." How misguided that thinking is!
Posted by: Amy | March 8, 2005 4:52 PM
