Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Ben eleven




It’s the packout season. Walking around the compound I see embarrassed driveways crowded with wooden crates, man-sized rolls of brown paper, the contents of the household. It often makes me want to go home and start going through my own stuff.

Do you ever find yourself at the brink of a transition of some kind wondering what would happen if you did nothing? Like when the ads say…”if you like the product do nothing.” If I didn’t pack, if I didn’t make all the arrangements, if I didn’t buy treats for travelling would the forces of the universe work together and do it for me?

So surprise, we’re still in China. It seemed like, this time, we were working to make a change…our trip to the U.S. and the forces of the universe were working against us. So there comes a point when you have to just “be still.” We came up with a plan that felt better. We’ll leave together, with Rob, in mid-July.

Thursday was Ben’s 11th birthday and a big day at school. The six school-aged kids all had parties. I went to Mary's preschool picnic, Olivia's "Mission Impossible" obstacle course--complete with movie theme music, Ben's class party with birthday cupcakes, Kyle's poetry reading ("Ode to Cheese"), Olivia's "splish splash day" out on the playground, then in to see what Bethany's class was up to-- not too much, so I went back out to the playground. Of course, parents were not invited to the middle school activity. Sometimes it helps to be shunned.

In the evening, Bethany and Olivia performed in their dance recitals. Ben wanted to go to McDonald’s for dinner and have Oreo pie for dessert. I’ll include a picture (close by, hopefully) of Ben’s 5th grade performance of The Monkey King. That went on a few weeks ago. We are grateful for our whimsical, loving, dramatic, creative, sensitive, intelligent Ben.

Friday was the last day of school. We had a barbecue with the Craig family and roasted marshmallows for desert.

The weekend passed without much to write about. We took Ben over to the plant and pet market buy some new fish and upgrades for his turtle tank. He wanted to buy a fat white pregnant fish. Now the children are quite preoccupied with keeping her safe from them other fish in a special net.

2 comments:

miriam.plass said...

I love reading all your updates. I can't believe how much you are able to do in one day.. Holy cow you are busy!! We love you guys. How long will you be in UT? We will make it out there probably 1 week to 1 1/2 weeks before Donnie's sealing. I keep telling Bryan we should visit you guys sometime. Don't know when it would be though.

Megan Raines said...

Hi Miriam! I'm glad you came to our blog for a visit! We would love to see you in Utah. We will be there until around August 8. Come early! Caitlin wants to play with Addie!