On My Mind

First of all, I am sitting here at my parents' house watching the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The Chinese men are playing some drums that originated in China years and years ago. The chant and dance they are doing is amazing. It looks so cool with 2,008 men out there playing drums and all synchronized. Awesome! I am looking forward to the coming days when the events start. My favorite events of the summer olympics are swimming, diving, and gymnastics. I'm also kind of looking forward to the beach volleyball. It would be so great to attend an olympic event. A friend of mine from middle school is there. He's an ESL teacher in China and has a bunch of tickets to several events. I am so jealous. I just get chills seeing so many different nationalities come together. And I just pray for protection over everything. I hate to say it but this would be the perfect opportunity for a terrorist attack, so I pray against that.

Secondly, speaking of China, I watched the Chapmans on Larry King Live this afternoon. They were interviewed last night about the death of their beautiful Chinese adopted daughter. I recorded it on DVR. It was very difficult to watch. The family was so broken, yet so brave and honest. There were several moments that made me tear up. The SEE story that SCC told was beautiful. I will have to give more detail on that in another post. Larry King also asked if they were ever angry at Will Franklin and of course they weren't. I feel terrible for Will. He will live with this all his life. I grieve for him, too.

Emily's story of "new mercies every morning" was compelling. She explained that just the day before, they had all gone shopping and bought her wedding dress. They were talking about people who have lost loved ones and how they testified of God's goodness and mercies and she said she doesn't know what she would do if something like that happened to her. She hadn't walked that road before. But not 24 hours later, she received the news about Maria and she said that she didn't know how to explain it but His mercies are new. I am her before this accident. I have never walked a road such as this. And I pray that if I ever do, God's strength will carry me and I will have the faith to keep on just has the Chapmans have done.

Will's honesty about having 3 counselors and the fact that he wanted to run. And Caleb chasing him down and holding him. Then Caleb said even his crying out, "Why?!" just proved his belief in God.

And they all, except Emily, got a tattoo to remember Maria Sue. What a sweet memory.

Then Mary Beth at the end said, "When we went all the way down, when we hit bottom, the foundation was strong." I can only pray that if I were to go through a tragedy like this and hit the bottom, the foundation will be strong."

Amazing.

Thirdly, I am having a great time with Erin and loving on her babies. The baby is the most precious and laid back thing and I am so thankful. Erin's first baby was very fussy and had terrible acid reflux. He's still pretty high maintenance, but thank goodness she has a laid back one now. And she is also much more relaxed with the second one. The big brother went to Target with me today while my kids were asleep. We had some special time together. He is just so precious. Chaz, her husband, got here last night. They will stay through the weekend and go home on Sunday. I am already dreading saying goodbye. We probably won't see them until Christmas. : ( It is so hard not having her here to go with me on this motherhood journey.

We have done absolutely nothing this week but hang around at my parents' house. I haven't even worked out all week. I figured this is just a week out of my life. It's not going to hurt me. I didn't want to waste my time at the Health Club while they were here. I wanted to spend every moment I could with them. The only outing that we all went on was to get a Sno-Cone yesterday afternoon. And I didn't even get one (you know, the low-carb thing and sno-cones aren't really low-carb). Ugh! My sisters and I went to the mall on Wednesday afternoon while all the kids were asleep. We didn't buy much. And we were so tired when we got home. Does that mean we are getting old?

It has been fun being together and pictures are coming soon. Also watch for some videos of the kids.