Yep an entire year has passed since I posted. Friend us on FB if you want more regular updates. Photos in no particular order since I still can't figure out how to reorganize in blogger. Xmas annual recap below pix.
Mary and Angel Gabriel
Lian is now up to her orange belt - will take green belt test in January
Evacuating for Sandy
Halloween #2
Halloween loot
First day of school
Visiting the Wilson grands in WI
Only snow of the year
Class presentation
Ah the perils of being a small dog
At the circus
Mr Bobby at home
Lian's birthday
2nd grade Solar Sytem exhibit
Lian's school birthday party. She read a story to the class.
Christmas Letter 2012
I am writing days after the Newtown/Sandy Hook School
tragedy, and seven weeks after Super Storm Sandy. It’s been a tough season for
our area.
We had to evacuate for SS Sandy, being only about 500 feet
from the shoreline, but had no flooding (but carried a lot of stuff up and then
back down stairs just in case.) I spent the day of Sandy’s arrival cooking and washing clothes
based on the theory that it’s easier to keep cooked food cool than raw food
frozen. And we knew power would be out, it was only a question of how
long. I got the freezers cleaned out
doing pre-emptive triage. But our power was only out for 4 days while friends
went over 14-18 days in bitter weather. Chris didn’t get back power for 2
weeks. Our town didn’t suffer the devastation of the Long Island south shore
and Jersey shore where homes, cars, and
accumulations of a lifetime were washed away. There were close calls - an
acquaintance who barely escaped with her life when two trees fell through and
crushed her home. We had long waits to gas up cars and gasbuddy.com became a
favorite site. But the community spirit in the wake of the storm was
heartening. Neighbors helped each other out. A volunteer based emergency center
served thousands of people without power every day, meals, entertainment,
warmth and power. Since Halloween fell during the post storm confusion, a group
of parents and local merchants managed to pull together a “Halloween on Main St.” in two
days so kids could go trick-or-treating safely the following weekend. School
was back in session by the second week, so that made life more normal. Our
church managed to put on our Fall Fair, though we were missing our usual delicious
baked goods, as most of us didn’t have any power for cooking. After three weeks
we were pretty much back to normal, power on, gas stations re-opened, downed
trees and lines removed. Outreach to those who lost much more was a big focus
with clothing and food drives. Sandy
lingers on in the form of giant piles of tree trunks, branches and mulch.
The devastating news coming over the radio of the death of
school children, children the same age as ours, was hard to bear. We did tell
the girls a very abbreviated version of what had happened since we wanted them
to hear it from us, not a school yard version. My heart breaks for the
families. Just to try and imagine what they are experiencing is painful. To try
and explain this to a child is enough to make an intelligent adult want to go
hide in a corner. That evil exists in the world, that for no reason anyone will
ever know, a terribly sick young man would decide to kill children and carry
out that plan, is something hard to fathom
much less explain. That despite this, there is still good in the world,
still wonder, still love, still life. All the acts of kindness and good are not
washed away. While the world seems a little less safe, that is all the more
reason to take a stand on what needs to be done. Above politics, as human
beings, moms, dads, brother, sisters, we can agree; this is too much, things
need to change.
The year in review. We had Christmas at home last year. With
no travel time before the weekend we couldn’t make the trip out to Wisconsin. Lela was cast
as Mary in the church nativity pageant and Lian was Angel Gabriel. We enjoyed visiting with friends and
relaxing. January the girls continued their activities; piano, gymnastics,
Brownies and ice skating for Lela, Tae Kwon Do, Daisies, and ice skating for
Lian. I went to their school classes to do a presentation on the Lunar New
Year, Year of the Dragon, and we marched in the big NYC parade with other
adoptive families. Lela’s birthday is, as always, a long parade of festive
events; family party, school party, Sunday School, and friends party. Her
Family Day is quieter, just a family dinner since it falls five days after her
birthday. Hard to believe that it was seven years ago a tiny baby was placed in
our arms.
February is quieter, with Jamie’s birthday requiring only
one event. School break gave us the chance to visit friends. In March we took
the girls to see the Ringling Brothers Circus for the first time. They loved
it, so we’re going again this year (bought the tickets already). Lela had been begging for a dog - it was on her Xmas
list. We said, “When you are 9.” But I figured I’d better start registering
with rescue groups as portable but not ridiculously tiny, social, cat and kid
loving, not too old dogs, don’t come up that often. When they do they get
snapped up right away. So I’m cruising the online listings of dogs at rescue
groups and there is a cute mini-pin/Chihuahua/???? Mix, and it says, “likes
cats.” I show him to Lela and ask, “Should we call?” Like there was any
doubt about the answer, but at least I can pin it on her, not MY choice, oh no. We called and it turned out that Bobby’s family has a hard luck story, mom
and 2 daughters, mom lost her job and they have to move in with relatives and can’t
take the dog. Bobby has an even harder story, they were not his first owners,
he had been rescued from an abusive situation. They come out from the city to
meet us and for Bobby to meet the kids and cats. All went well and Bobby stayed
on. Bobby adjusted pretty fast; the second day we had him, he slipped out of
the too loose harness we hadn’t had a chance to replace and raced away -
straight to our front porch. He was a real city dog and is having to learn
things like: nosing around in the backyard by himself, preferring to walk on
grass vs. concrete. He still doesn’t really know how to play but we’re working
on it. Welcome to your last home, Mr. Bobs. And it’s all Lela’s fault, heh,
heh. Additionally, Lian took a
cooking class at our great library. The entire second grade, Lela’s class, gave
a presentation to their families on the solar system; they made moon rocks,
lunar excursion vehicle, solar system models and wrote essays. Lots of tin foil
was used. Jamie taught his annual spring
badminton class for continuing education. He’s got a following of dedicated
badminton players that sign up every year. Lian’s birthday was also an
extravaganza of parties. And we’re through the winter with minimal snowfall,
whoo hoo.
April is the cruelest month, featuring the never ending
School Talent Show. Lela and friends did gymnastics (Lela) and Hula-hooping
(friends) routine. They were the 39th act and got on about 10pm.
There were 62 acts. We did not stay for the rest. Lian’s Daisy troop visited a
Fire Medic company to learn about what they do.
May brought school Field Day, but without the scorching
temperature of previous years. Lela added softball to her lineup. She can
actually hit the ball, but her pitching skills need work. We had fun at Math
Night, where future geeks and their parents tried out math games. Memorial Day
weekend we marched in the local parade (me with Community Chest, girls with
Girl Scouts, Jamie and Chris cheering us on) attended the annual picnic at
church, visited friends and watched an amazing sunset over the Sound, while
battling swarms of gnats. We had the grand re-opening of Stannards Brook Park,
a project I’ve been working on since 2004 in my role as Co-chair of the Port
Washington Parks Conservancy. We were able to help the County secure an 840K
grant to restore the park. http://portwashington.patch.com/articles/celebrating-stannards-brook-park-reopening#photo-10005028
(there’s even a picture of me)
In June we were invited to attend a Children’s Day
celebration at the Chinese Consulate in NYC. There were several other adoptive
families there and we enjoyed performances and a buffet lunch. Softball wrapped
up with the Mother/Daughter game. Even with ringers (2 teen brothers) the girls
whupped us. Donna, Lian’s Godmother, took her to the Terra-cotta Warrior
exhibit, which she does not recall seeing when we were in China. Our friend, Dessie, who had
worked with me for many years, lost his battle with cancer. He had a touching
and packed funeral service, filled with music and remembrances. I had been working with a group to create a
Green Infrastructure Conference, and after many, many meetings, it happened.
Brookhaven National Labs hosted the event, we had a good turn-out despite a
blistering heat wave that pulled away many municipal employees to help set up
cooling centers, and we are now working on the second conference. http://www.ligiconference.org/ I also was the guest lecturer on 6 tours of Manhasset Bay, sponsored by the Library Nautical
Advisory Council. And we had to get a new dryer. I just love being an adult.
School's out for summer - tennis lessons began. Lela and Lian
again attended Culture Camp for Asian adoptees and had fun doing brush
painting, cooking, Chinese culture and crafts. Their best buds, Meiling and
Ian, arrived from Shanghai
to spend the summer with their grandparents. After that, swimming lessons,
since the scheduling nitwits have made it impossible to have both swimming and
tennis. Lots of swimming at “Grandma” Barbara’s pool though.
August and we once again took a trip to Lancaster County
and Dutch Wonderland with friends. This year Jamie came too, so the adrenalin
junkies, Lela and Holly, were able to get a ride on the big roller coaster that
requires an adult. Then a trek out to the wonders of Wisconsin to visit my folks. Days before we
left on vacation, we rescued a neighborhood feral cat who had been hit by a
car; or rather she came to us for help. Her jaw was broken, she was matted with
feces, and had yellow slime drooling out of her mouth – she was emaciated and
dying. Rain dragged herself to our doorstep and voluntarily walked into a
crate. How a feral cat made the connection that she needed help and humans, us
in particular, could give it, is an amazing cognitive leap. Her will to live
and intelligence to do what she had to is incredible. After 6 weeks of
incarceration at the vets and in our big recovery crate we let her out in the
house, where she has integrated into the pack. Rain has decided to stay for
good. She climbed up the back screen door one day, and the screen pulled and
she fell out onto the back porch - and raced out of the yard. I figured we’d
never see her again. About five minutes
later, she was clinging to the outside of the screen trying to get back in. The
smartest and bravest cat you will ever meet. I can’t pet her yet, but she will
eat from my hand and is snoozing on a chair next to me. All things come in
their own time.
With September, school is back and so is the packed routine;
Tae Kwon Do, violin substituted for piano this year, gymnastics, Brownies. Lian
bridged up to Brownies so they are both in Brownie troops this year. Lian chose
a Japanese restaurant for her Family Day celebration, five years since we met a
feisty little toddler with strong opinions in Xian.
October and we cycle back to where we started. The run up to
Halloween included much angst over “What to wear?” We went to a giant costume
sale that is also a charity benefit. Lian got a golden brown princess dress,
Lela a cat tail to go with her cat suit. Plus a vampire costume, fancy wings,
and several outfits for Bobby the dog. They did get a chance to wear them since
our neighborhood was pretty safe by Halloween and a big bunch of neighbor kids
went together. They changed to a
Rapunzel ala Disney Tangled theme for part 2 of trick or treating on Main St.
We took the girls to another Disney on Ice with friends, though due to closed
roads, gas lines and detours it took us almost 2 hours to get to the arena,
normally a 25 minute ride. Three days after Sandy hit, one of our old cats,
Sneezer, got to his time. He had been fighting liver cancer all summer. I had a long and sad ride full of detours
around closed roads to take him to the vet. He passed away peacefully nibbling
on his favorite snack. We miss you baby boy.
Thanksgiving was just family. My sister,
Carrie, came up to visit for Virginia. Jamie and Lela ran/jogged/walked the 5 mile Turkey Trot while Lian and I volunteered - it benefits a local charity where I am on the board. Lela went across the finish line walking on her hands. There was only 4 eight-year olds that ran. J & L had a respectable 1:27, considering their only training was walking to school a few times. We had dinner at Chris’s house since she
has a dining room and we don’t, but had to take dinner to her, as she had a
fall during the Sandy power outage and is in rehab at a local nursing home. And
our church hosted the annual town interfaith Thanksgiving service and reception.
Guess who pulled together a reception for 150. We also had to get a new
dishwasher, love being an adult part 2. Our Xmas present, thanks to sister
Carrie. I felt very virtuous having gotten the Xmas cards printed before
December, but since I’m just now sending them out now…
With December, Lela started winter basketball, 8:30am on
Sat, argh – trying to get her out of bed a 6th morning- she is NOT a morning
person. One of our young cats, Rajah, who just turned 2 in July, developed a
bladder stone blockage, (on a Friday night, of course) requiring very expensive
emergency veterinary services. He’s now on an all wet food diet. Dry food isn’t
cheaper when it comes with enormous vet bills. The Audubon Xmas bird count was
last weekend, with some great sightings, unfortunately not by me. I birded and
then had to serve dinner to 40 cold and starving birders. Chili is my dish for
the mob - 2 crockpots full. Jamie sang in our church’s annual Messiah Concert
on Sunday. This weekend, weather permitting, we’ll be off to WI for Christmas.
We count our blessing, so much more evident this year; Being
spared while so many suffered nature’s devastation; having our daughters to
hold close while other families have had their hearts torn away by the death of
a child, mother, sister, brother, friend. This season celebrates birth and
renewal, but it’s a little harder this year to set aside the workings of the
world to remember. Hold your loved ones close. Do random acts of kindness, it
may make all the difference to someone else. It can be as simple as admiring
some snazzy shoes, hairdo, a turn of phrase, buying a cup of coffee for the
next person on line, a dinner for the guy nursing a cup in the back of
McDonalds, if you have two coats…..or
bigger. As a dear and wise friend has told me, “you don’t give until it hurts,
you give until it feels good”- like
running past the wall. Make yourself
feel good this season.
