A Message about Beauty in the Media

Tink

A few months ago, Phillip tried out for a role in the school musical, Peter Pan. He came home later and Jeannette asked him which part he'd gotten. "Tinkerbell," he told her. Tinkerbell? Tinkerbell??

Fortunately, he didn't actually have to appear on stage as a fairy in little green tights. No, as would be appropriate for a techie, it was his job to run a fancy little laser light, making it dance around the stage whenever Tinkerbell was part of the script.

I didn't get any photos of the play Saturday night but here are a couple from afterwards. Phil enjoyed wearing a set of MelodyJoy's fairy wings during intermission and after the play, just to make sure everyone knew who was responsible for the world's most famous fairy that night.
MelodyJoy also had to say hi to Hillary, who played one of the Indians. All the kids did a great job putting the production of Peter Pan together.

Happy Gotcha Day

Four years ago, Jeannette, Jameson and I were in Guangzhou, China, along with my sister, Laura, to meet MelodyJoy for the very first time. There's some confusion on our part as to when "Gotcha Day," as many call it, was for us, because China is so far away that it's a half day different on the calendar. We've decided just to celebrate March 27th. Here's a photo of us just a few minutes after receiving Melody . . .
And a picture that Phillip took yesterday on the fourth anniversary of Gotcha Day . . .

Phillip and Jameson were feeling under the weather yesterday so just Jeannette and I took Melody out for lunch at one of our favorite Chinese restaurants. We had a little gift for her . . .

It was a little Mulan doll set that she picked out during our trip to Disney World last summer.

MelodyJoy brought up the idea a few weeks ago of adopting a sister to join our family and, honestly, we're open to that thought. Unfortunately, our lives are just too unstable to allow us to pursue an adoption. Until we're actually all living under one roof, there's no way we could pass a home study. The fact that we're not getting any younger is a factor, too. For instance, under normal circumstances, we would be considered to be too old to adopt from India. If God opens the doors, we're willing to walk through them, but for now, I think Melody will just have to be content with being the center of attention.

Gymnastics with a Short Attention Span

A few minutes ago, Melody told me she was going to do a gymnastics show for me so I got the camera out and started filming. As you'll see, she got a bit distracted, even giving a weather report in the middle of it all. As I type this, she's now preparing a magic show for me. The entertainment never ends. Never.

By the way, she's wearing one of my t-shirts. She always uses "a Daddy's shirt" as a blanket at night or when she's feeling tired.

Eating Well

I was very proud of myself tonight. Look at what a well balanced meal I made for myself! In case you can't tell, that's chicken, toast with garlic salt and butter, Kroger brand alfredo and noodles, corn and Diet Coke with Lime. See how independent I've become, Jeannette? And the chicken was a little bland so I added some spice. Which, of course, just means salt.
I had three Girl Scout cookies for dessert. I also washed the sheets and made my bed and ironed eight shirts. I'm so domesticated.

Dad's Night at Blackhawk Christian Preschool

Last night, I delayed my return to Lincoln in order to attend Dad's Night at MelodyJoy's preschool. We dined on pizza and grapes and tangerines and cookies and milk and Capri Sun. We sat at little tiny tables in little tiny chairs.

It was fun to walk into the classroom and hear all of the children clamor "Melody! Melody! Hi, Melody!" We sat with her good friend Bianca and her dad. At each place at the table had a place mat that included a description of what each child would do if he or she could do anything at all.

Melody's said, "If I could go anywhere in the world with you, I would like to go to the park. I would take Jasper and Sparky. Mom says I can bring Sparky 'cuz he's a pretend dog. I would like to swing high but not too high. Dad would give me a tickle kiss."

I loved reading the place mat from one of her buddies, Aubrey:

"If I could go anywhere in the world with you, I would like to go to Indiana at MelodyJoy's house. I would take some hair things and clips and babies and my baby bed and my baby car seat. You would talk to her mom, and I would play with MelodyJoy."

If there's a camera, Melody has to take some pictures, of course . . .

At the end of the evening, Miss Laurie read us all from a book that the children had written and we sang the tootie tah song.

I didn't get back to Lincoln until about 2:00 AM Eastern (1:00 Central) but it was worth it.

I Had a Dream

Last night, I had a dream that I was working the security detail for President George W. Bush. He was at a reception of sorts, meeting and greeting guests. My job appeared to consist primarily of putting antibacterial hand sanitizer on the President's hands before he shook hands with anyone. I'm not sure why I was giving him the hand sanitizer before rather than after.

I Had a Dream

I had a dream Friday night. In it, I had lots of hair, even a little more than you see in this photo. I remember thinking, "Why did I start shaving my head? This isn't that bad of a comb over. I should have grown my hair back out long ago."

Four Eyes

For Christmas, we gave Jameson the promise of contacts, since he had been interested in trying them for several months now. Well, he made a valiant attempt at wearing them but just could not get used to sticking his finger in his eye, so we ended up going back to glasses. This time, though, we were able to order him adult frames. Sam's Club has a good selection to choose from (I kind of wish I had gone there for my glasses, too). So, anyway, here's the new and improved Jameson and his four eyes:

Descending a Staircase

MelodyJoy wore a new outfit to church this morning so I thought I'd snap a photo of her on our stairs . . .

Flying Ivy

Today's field trip was to the aviation mechanics program at Ivy Tech Community College in Fort Wayne. We had a great meeting with Bill Terhune and he gave Jordan some good advice on how to evaluate some of his options for preparing for a career in aviation, especially related to missions aviation. We were pretty impressed with what he showed us in the program, enough so that we cancelled our appointment at IPFW afterwards, because Jordan is pretty sure that an aviation mechanics program is the direction he wants to try.

The Ivy Tech program is less expensive than the other two schools we're looking at but takes longer to finish. Nothing's ever simple, is it?

Get SMAT

Early this morning, Jordan and I drove about two and a half hours north to Ionia, Michigan, to visit the School of Missionary Aviation Technology (SMAT). It's a tiny little school with a primary purpose of training students to repair, build and fly planes on the mission field, though graduates can work for a variety of aeronautics employers.

Jordan's been interested in possibly going into missionary work for a few years and in flying. What we're exploring right now is the idea of Jordan getting licensed to do airframe and powerplant mechanical work, knowing he might be able to later get a pilot's license.
Jordan enjoyed talking with one of the instructors for almost an hour. Below, they're looking at a wing that students can work on to learn how to reconstruct wings. I'll admit that most of their conversation didn't interest me a whole lot, but it was fun to see Jordan talk mechanics and engines and fabrication.

Tomorrow at noon, we have an appointment to check out the aviation mechanics program at Ivy Tech here in Fort Wayne.