Our Flag is Beautiful

Yesterday was Memorial Day. Like many people, we had the BBQ here at home. Later, we got our kids together and I showed a short video that I got online that was patriotic pictures to the music of "I'm Proud to Be An American". I ended up emotional afterwards as I commented to my children.



We are so blessed to have this free country, at the loss of so many who fought for our freedom. Afterwards, we went to the local cemetery, but not because we have family members resting there. It is because on this day every year, they post hundreds of American flags (and two Canadian flags!) with a name on the staff of a serviceman. It is a beautiful sight. I have no trouble walking around, enjoying the flags, flowers and beauty and looking at headstones. It is amazingly beautiful.

Noah Needs Us!!

Noah is 5 years old and currently resides in a SWI in Jiangxi Province in China. Noah has a form of dwarfism. It affects his body, but not his intellect. This little boy was very sad when his "sister" recently left to be adopted. His sister is 7 years old and they were best friends. The sweet little adopted girl also misses him and has been told that her new mama will try and find him a family.

He was very upset during the adoption visit because he knew his friend was going to be leaving again. Though shy, he did accept candy from the mom and even let her put a piece in his mouth. This little man needs a family and could attend school and thrive in a family. Despite his small stature, he walks and plays, goes up and down steps.

His birthday is 12/16/2006, his special need on the shared list is listed as Microplasia. Please contact me if you are interested as I have access to some video of him also. (This little boy is not an LWB child, but I am doing this for a friend).

Suzanne Damstedt

can I post here?

Hi can I still post here/

Christy and Gracie

This blog features my two youngest girls. What a blessing they have been in our lives! They enjoyed wearing the missionaries' coats recently.

Happy Halloween

This year at our house we had two Halloween Newbies! Didi and Gracie. Both enjoyed the activities. We carved pumpkins a few days before Halloween. Didi went to at dance as Raggedy Ann at Mutual. Christy was a grandma, Gracie was a Japanese girl, Carrie a Spanish Dancer and Mark was a Broncos fan. Trick or Treating was fun for them also. I asked Didi if she had ever had that much candy before and she said no. Gracie, who is still on her NON CHEW diet since her surgery couldn't get the full effect of eating everything, but she still enjoyed the chocolate that melts pretty well. She can look forward to eating some of the other candy in about a week.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun

In recent years, our house has gone from having a majority of boys to a majority of girls. It can be fun. Sarah and Carrie have had some fun with fixing hair, and make up. We had a pretty interesting time the other night. Gracie liked the tofu dish that Didi made a couple months ago, so we were trying to replicate this. Didi wanted to know if we had something to give it some spiciness. I found the above hot sauce, but neglected to say something like "THIS is REALLY REALLY hot and you probably only need a drop or two." Well, she put it in and a while later, I started coughing and by dinner time, I was coughing, Sarah was coughing, Darrell started coughing (he thought it was his cold), but I think the spice somehow got airborne and we just couldn't help coughing. It had way too much spice in it. Gracie tried to wash it off and eat a bit of it. We had to open up some doors and windows to try to get some of it out of the kitchen. It was pretty funny. Didi kept apologizing... Also is a picture above of Gracie and Didi with a paper folded thing Gracie made the other night.

Foreign Exchange Students Galore!

This is Luke in Denmark with our first foreign exchange student Lizzie. Luke just spent some time there visiting Lizzie and her mother.
Another picture with Luke . Too bad I don't have stories to go with these pictures!
Luke and Lizzie again.
This is a picture of our current foreign exchange student Didi. She is shown here with Dino Rossi, who is running for governor of the state of Washington. Of course, I am hoping he is the FUTURE Governor of the State of Washington. We went to a rally last Saturday for him. We also did some phone calling to remind people to vote. Didi has to have 8 hours of political involvement for her Government class at school. Do you know what that means? Suzanne has to have 8 hours of political involvement. This week we also went to a Debate party on the evening of the Presidential Debate and went to a debate between one of our Representatives in the US House of Representatives and his opponent. We have about 2 1/2 hours left to do for Didi's homework.