Field trips and birthdays

Sean's last field trip was to the museum of natural history. Don, Alika and Sean had been there but I had never been. It's new and has only been open a couple of years. On every floor they have hands on things the kids can do.

Fossil puzzles.

How water affects the landscape.

When I was driving home from the museum I stopped at a stop light right next to Rose Laundry. So many places downtown give me a little PTSD in regards to Jenny and Ryan, Rose Laundry holds a special place in my heart because it is where Jenny and Ryan signed over custody of Sean when he 23 months old. It was shortly after Ryder was born and they were living in an apartment across the street. Kyle met us at the Laundromat and went over the legal documents. That was a good day. Not as good as when his adoption was final but a really good day.
I've been following quite a few blogs of people who have adopted children from Eastern Europe. Not sure what my fascination is. I think it's because I wish I could be one of those people who could do that but I know I'm not. I am not that patient. This one family adopted a nine year old who weighed ten pounds. they have a picture of her next to there 17 month old and the 17 month old looks like she could eat her. This month they brought home another boy. They have a picture of their teenager holding the boy who looks like a baby but he's actually two weeks older than the boy holding him. My point: Hm. not sure what my point is. I guess that there are lots of kids in the world who suffer more than Kylie, Brie, Sean and Ryder would have if they had stayed with their original family. Not sure how you rate suffering. Though laying in a crib, never loved, hardly fed, never going outside of one room for your entire life certainly scores high marks. These kids look like they are in concentration camps. After they get adopted they gain weight. have surgery, learn to walk. I think the crisis for Kylie, Brie, Sean and Ryder would be that they would have been cheated out of the opportunity to succeed in life. They would have dropped out of school, had teen pregnancies and drugs, alcohol and jail would be a normal part of life for them. I don't even know what role Sean's health would have had in that environment but I'm sure it wouldn't be good. In the U.S. kids aren't being kept in cribs and starved they are just emotionally and academically starved. Everyone should have the opportunity to reach their potential.

Don turned 54 yesterday. Sean had a dyslexic moment when he put the candles on the cake but we thought it was cute and left it. We went out to dinner. Mom didn't want to come. That's a new level of feeling bad. Usually she likes to go out to dinner.

David having a little Khloe time. David is doing really well. He's in school and working. He's really proud of how well he's doing at work. His girlfriend, Erin is back from Korea. They are living together and she's going to start at SLCC too. It's nice to see him looking so good and being happy. He's had a really dark year and I was beginning to wonder if he was going to pull out of it.