Uncle Mark

Flying Kites

Kentucky Spring

Stories, Memories, and a Thank You

As far as I can remember, it all started a couple of years ago when one of my grandmother's sisters, Bess,  sat down and told Katelyn a story about herself when she was a little girl.  It was a cute story about a favorite dress of hers, I will have to be reminded of the details, and I should really write it down at that point.  Katelyn was just spell-bound and hung on her every word.  Around the same time, my mom and my aunt started to tell Kate stories about themselves as children and our family growing up.  

Katelyn would then start to request stories from us at her bedtime, so we would always have to try to think of a story about ourselves during the day that we could tell her that night.  The stories would often prompt forgotten memories or details that we couldn't remember.  This would sometimes end up with a phone call to a parent to try to recall why or how an even happened.  

Meanwhile, this past winter, my dear friend Kim (the creator of the name "Cilgamore") decided to do a project to cheer me up while I am receiving treatments.  A friend of hers suggested that she have different friends and family of mine to write some stories down of their memories of me, and put their memories in a journal that we could keep.  This way we would have a record of them, and I could share them with my girls.  At first, I wasn't sure about it all, as I didn't want people to get the wrong idea about it, but once I read the letter that she wrote to send out, I knew it was perfect.  I whipped out a list of about 4 friends and a few family members for her to send the letter to.   My mom, my aunt Jackie, Kim, and a couple of friends that my mom personally asked to do it submitted their entries.  We received it about a month or so ago.  It is just beautiful and I loved it!!!  It was sooo super fun to read those funny memories, some of which I had completely forgotten about. There was one story about me and a friend in a Corvette when we were juniors in high school.  I am still working on all the details on that one--its a little fuzzy!!!  Thank you so much, Kim, for doing this for me.  I don't know if you knew that you were further continuing our tradition of telling stories to our girls.  Now we have lots of new ones to tell!  Kim, you have only come back into my life since December after a long absence of contact, and I don't know what I would do without you!  God knew that I needed you, and we have picked right back up where we left off.   You always make me laugh when I need it most, and aren't afraid to tell me how it is.  I love you, girlfriend!   

Now, if you received a letter and didn't get your entries in:  I STILL WANT THEM!!!  I am being shameless, and I am going to beg you to do it!!  I know you love me, so send them on!!!  You can just e-mail it to me personally, and I will print it and put it in the book.  I love reading these moments, and I want to remember them all.  I also love sharing the fun times we had when we were younger with my girls, and it is a precious keepsake that they will always have when they are grown.  If anyone else would like to participate, I would love to get an entry from you as well.  So now it is a free for all!  

The whole project prompted my mom to do an simple photo album for me with some of my pictures from growing up.  I love it, and it has been soo fun to re-connect with some of those lost childhood moments.   My dad scanned some of these pictures for me too, so I will share some on my blogs.  Thank you, Mom, for continuing the project and the tradition of telling stories.  It is perfect!  

Some pictures for you:

For National "Take a Wild Guess Day"

Guesses as to what we've been up to?  I must say she is a girl after her daddy's own heart reading the Taylor guitar magazine.  

She has totally been the one to launch this project.  She loves it.  The main thing is getting her in the habit of telling us when she needs to go.  Right now, we are trying to remember to take her every half hour or so.  It is really nice when we don't have to change poopy diapers though!

It has been so easy so far, that I am wondering what the hang up is going to be.    

A Project for Yixing

I am, after finally getting all of my ducks in a row, in the process of raising money for an incubator for the orphanage our Emma Mei Yi Shan is from. They are the ones who gave her the name Yi Shan, which means beautiful coral. We think it fits our girl pretty well!

While we were there in China to adopt her, we had asked the vice-director of the orphanage if there was anything that the orphanage specifically needed. The answer was that they need an incubator for when they have the little babies come to them. She knew that it was a big request, but it was really the only thing that they needed right now. I told her that our family could not provide the incubator on our own, but I promised that I would do my best to see if we could raise the money to get them one.

This project struck really close to my heart as Katelyn was a 28-week preemie, and the incubator is what kept her alive and warm until she was able to keep her own body heat.  It also struck me as there was a pretty small baby who had just come to the orphanage the day or the day before we visited.  I wonder if they could have benefited in some way.  

The cost is about $1,400. I believe if we all donate what little we can, that the money can be raised fairly quickly.  I have already posted to our orphanage Yahoo group about the incubator, and so far two other families have donated.  

I am working with Ming, the China coordinator at our agency to communicate with the orphanage and to have the incubator bought in China and delivered to them once the funds have been raised.  We will then receive pictures of the incubator once the orphanage has received it.  Ming has also made contact with the orphanage and confirmed for us that they still need it and the cost.  

My desire in doing this project is twofold:  to give back to help the children who are still there in the Yixing SWI, and to show our gratitude to them for their care of our daughter until we were able to bring her home. The children that we met while we were there are very special to us, and I know that I would find a home for every one of them if I could. They are still a huge part of our lives and our Emma Mei Yi Shan's life. 

If you would like to donate to this, there is a link which you may have already noticed in the side bar to donate via ChipIn which is a free service to assist in raising funds for things such as this.  It will send you to Paypal and the money will come directly to my account.  I will send the money to Ming as soon as we raise the entire amount.  The deadline is for May 30th, but I believe we can raise it much quicker than that!