Liberian Adoptions Temporarily Stopped

1/27/09 Excerpt from the President of Liberia's State of the Union Address delivered last night. The gross mismanagement of the adoption program (which aims primarily at placing orphans in homes in the United States), by both Liberian and U.S. personnel in the concerned NGO is the subject of a report by a Special Committee which I appointed for this purpose. Essentially, we have

Grocery Store Emmanuel

We've always said, there's "Emmanuel," there's "Emmanuel without his medication" and then there's "Grocery Store Emmanuel."Emmanuel's favorite thing to do besides play soccer is go to the grocery store. We really have improved at this over the last year and a half although it is always an adventure. From the beginning, Emmanuel has always insisted on pushing the cart. My best efforts to detour

Riding Bessie

This is Scott's life. He has to be in this contraption six hours a day to rebuild cartilage in his knee. We got tired of calling it the contraption so we named it Bessie. He is constantly counting to six trying to figure out how many more hours he has to ride Bessie. He is not hard to find. I, on the other hand, have never been harder to find. I am not even trying to pretend to anyone that

Derek Ellerbeck, The Superkid

You might remember reading on the blog that the son of one of Scott's best friends (who was the best man in our wedding) had cancer. We are happy to report he beat it! A benefit was held last weekend in Des Moines and the local news did a story.http://www.kcci.com/video/18510717/index.html

Abegail Turns 9

Abegail had a nice birthday last Saturday. She had a few friends sleep over. The first picture is of the next morning with pancakes. The kids had fun playing make-up and games and of course eating cake with twinkies on top. Hard to believe she's already 9!E-man's First Basketball GameEmmanuel is playing basketball this session at the Y. We thought we'd try something new. He really loved it.

Sue is COOOOLD!!

WCCO put this on their website and titled it, "Put A Reporter Out In The Cold, She'll Get Sassy."CBS stations in Miami and Los Angeles are airing this very clip on their evening shows!!There's very little for me to add. I promise not to forget our anniversary this year. I may even have to fork out a little extra for a trip to Florida this year! Sue deserves it.It's winter in MinnesotaAnd the

The Sleep Over Cake

Abegail's birthday is tomorrow and she's having a couple friends sleep over. So I attempted a sleep over cake. Before I started, Scott said, "that's ambitious," knowing my artistic ability. But it worked with the bodies as twinkies and the heads as vanilla wafers. Hopefuly it will taste good too. Scott is hanging in there. He has this contraption he has to be in six hours a day to get the

In the House & On the Couch

Scott's Microfracture knee surgery went well today. He is doing well so far....on to recovery.

Emmanuel's Head Case

With a child with the initials of ER it was bound to happen. But even I am shocked we went 18 months without a visit to the emergency room or urgent care. That was until yesterday. We attempted to go sledding and ice skating with the Petersons. Janie loaned me and all the kids ice skates. I put Emmanuel's skates on first. But as soon as we got to the outdoor rink he said he wanted the

The Real Reynell

One of Emmanuel's goals at his special school is to make friends, to think of how his friends feel, and to call them by their names. Every time his teacher visits we talk about how Emmanuel is doing. And several times I would hear Emmanuel say he likes to play with Reynell. I was wondering who was this boy, and what type of child was he that he and Emmanuel got along so well? Did he really