I just returned from a trip to Canada with my daughter, her best friend, and her friend’s mother. The girls have been besties since they were toddlers. (The mothers are close as well. Lol) This was a trip to celebrate their high school graduations and the beginning of their college careers. Before that, my husband and I had gone to …
Learning to Let Go
The last few weeks have been quite busy at our house. My two youngest turned sixteen and are driving (with a permit). Johnny was asked to escort a pretty young classmate to the Navy Ball for NJROTC, and John took him to buy a new suit since he’s grown so much over the last year. Dara signed up to go …
The Perfect Gift
November and December are my kitty’s favorite months. Our tree goes up November 1. It might take a week or two to get all the ornaments up, but that red velvet skirt goes around the base right away, and she loves to lie on it. It’s also about nine feet tall, which means the base is about six feet wide, …
Bringing Up … Daughters
Life with three very daughters is, to say the least, interesting. When the kids came home from school yesterday Dara was wearing her volleyball jersey because they had a game last night. I mentioned that I thought it looked a little tight across the chest, even though it seemed to fit everywhere else. She said it was because she was wearing a regular …
Memorable Day #5: No Crying Allowed
Memorable Day #5 Mira has always been a tough cookie. She can play though pain that would put me in a coma. In September 2003, Hurricane Isabel hit the East coast. North of DC, hurricanes aren’t usually deadly. They mean lots of wind, rain and power outages. The electricity went out that afternoon. Not quite 5-year-old Mira and almost 10-year-old …
Memorable Day #4: Tears in Sarajevo
In the summer of 1997, John and I went to Bosnia with a group called Hoops for Hope. The war had been over for only a year and a half, and the city was still heavily scarred. Running water was turned on for only a couple hours a day, so the residents collected it in 2-liter bottles and stashed it …
Defending Catelynn
I cannot believe I am going to do this. I am going to defend a Teen Mom. You know, not a normal teen mom, an MTV Teen Mom. I don’t follow this show, although I’ve watched a few episodes. But this story has blown up all over the internet, and I heard about it. So here it is: In 2009, Catelynn …
Why Would You Want to Do That?
A case in Qatar this week made international headlines. An American couple of Asian descent has just been released after being trapped in the tiny middle-eastern country of Qatar for almost two years. In 2012, the Huangs were relocated to Doha, the capital of Qatar, by his employer to work on a major infrastructure project for the 2022 World Cup. …
Memorable Day #3: Bringing Them Home
Thirteen years ago yesterday we brought home Dara and Johnny. While we spent three weeks in Kazakhstan adopting Mira, we were gone only ten days start to finish with these two. We arrived home around 6pm the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. John’s dad brought Emma and Mira to the airport, and several of our friends were waiting at our house to greet …
Memorable Day 2: New Beginnings, Great Extremes
On December 22, 1998, we signed the closing papers for the house we now live in. We’d built what we thought would be the house we’d grow old in down in Atlanta. But then John accepted a transfer to the DC bureau of CNN, so we left everything we’d grow accustomed to, all our friends, the church we’d been part …