It's hard for me to believe that it has been 4 months since I have last posted. We have had the busiest spring of our lives (yes, I know it is now summer but I need to recap spring first) Let me try to recap. *We have celebrated 5 birthdays and half birthdays: Jesse (15), Madison (13 1/2), Jay (18!), Jody (46), and Jamae (5 1/2) Jay celebrating his 18th birthday with his friends
*All 5 oldest kids were involved in sports. Jay and Jesse were on the high school tennis team, Madison was on track, and Ming and Mitchell played baseball. I went to more baseball games this spring than I thought was possible. Baseball is not my favorite sport, but I sure enjoyed watching MIng and Mitchell play. Ming had never played baseball before and it was a joy to watch him improve on the game. When you add Jesse's marching band rehearsal to that schedule and mission trip training, we were never home. I believe that we only had family dinner together on Sundays when we usually have dinner together 5 - 7 times a week. Needless to say, I did not like the schedule but I loved watching the kids play. *Jamae graduated from Happy Hearts Preschool. To say that Jamae loved preschool this year was an understatement. She couldn't wait to get there everyday to see her teachers and friends. She was very sad to see the year end but is excited about attending kindergarten in the fall. She will be attending, along with Mitchell, Sage Point Elementary, which is the brand new elementary school in our town. Our neighborhood was chosen to attend this beautiful new school. Jamae also learned how to ride her bike. She loves this new independence and Jody and I find ourselves often on a bike ride with her. * I had the wonderful privilege of attending my niece, Christie's wedding in May. It was in North Carolina and Jody gave me the gift of flying out for 6 days. It was a wonderful time of connecting with Christie and meeting Brian, and spending time with all of my family. Their wedding was the most beautiful God honoring time I have ever been privileged to be a part of. Another time I will have to expound and show more pictures. The pictures were breathtaking. I just got a disc with over 800 pictures so I will have to pick just a few to share. Here is just a picture I took of the beautiful bride and groom. *And then there is graduation. We had been anticipating this since September (or 18 years depending on how you look at it) and we were still not prepared. But amidst the tears, there was a lot of fun. I know Jay had a great time living out his last days of high school. Now he anticipates college - he will be leaving for Cedarville University in 3 weeks! Our favorite of Jay's graduation pictures
Jay presenting his Senior Project. He did it on his mission trip to Burkino Faso last summer
Senior Prom - Jay in his tux brought tears to my eyes especially when my sister reminded me, 1st for prom then for his wedding. Time goes too fast!
Graduation was a wonderful weekend. My sister Carol and my dad both flew out and that made it extra special. The night of graduation called for thunderstorms (very unusual for Moses Lake) but they were all around us but never on us. That was a good thing because this year the school moved graduation to the football field. The ceremony was wonderful. On Saturday we enjoyed having friends over to honor Jay.
Jay's graduation present from us.
Future graduate!
It was great having Grandpa come to visit. Grandpa - you need to come more often!
So, as you can see it has been a whirlwind of a spring. God is good. We are so thankful even among the changes.
March Madness, that is! Once a year, life is turned upside down in our house and everything is scheduled around the college basketball games. Jody also has all of us fill out our brackets before the tournament begins. Some of us do it with a randomness and some of us do it with calculated thought (any guess on who does what?). Jamae has won twice in the past which usually makes us shake our heads. This year I decided to go with all the higher seeds except for Ohio State which I brought to the final game. Not good since Ohio State lost in double overtime tonight. Jay is winning in our family right now. He is the only one who did not pick Ohio State to win tonight. Where is his loyalty? Well, he might not be loyal but he is the only one who won. The other fun today was that we celebrated Ming's 1/2 birthday - today he is 13 1/2! As you probably know by now, here at the Bowser house, we celebrate 1/2 birthdays with a special dinner and 1/2 a cake. When I asked Ming what he wanted for dinner, I was surprised to hear him say that he wanted vegetable pizza. I thought for sure he would pick Chinese food. So we celebrated with pizza and homemade ice cream cake. It was a great day as the kids had the day off from school and Ming spent time on the phone with his friends in China. What a fun way to start Spring.
I was going to title this post "Day Interrupted" after the morning I had, but then I realized that it should really be titled "Life Interrupted" since I haven't posted for 6 weeks. The last 6 weeks can be described in three words - very, very busy! But more on that in a minute... This morning I woke up with renewed vigor to get the many things done on my to-do list. I love Mondays! The house is always relatively quiet (Jamae is rather talkative these days) after our busy weekends and its nice to put some order back in the disorder of what the weekend always brings. So, after getting the kids off to school, I put a load of laundry in and went upstairs to exercise. When I was done and walked out of the bonus room, a pleasant smell hit me - it smelled like Jamae had sprayed a room fragrance spray. After she assured me that she hadn't sprayed anything, I went on with what needed to be done, which included working on the laundry. This is what I found when I opened the laundry room door... No, that's not a decoration for St. Patrick's Day. My very full large jug of laundry detergent must have fallen off of the washer and went everywhere. What a mess, a nice smelling mess might I add. So I had to interrupt my day and clean up a thick, large puddle of laundry detergent. It went all under the washer and the dryer so I had to move both of them. To make matters worse, when I moved the dryer, I ripped the hose. Now I can't use the dryer until Jody can fix the hose. I guess I can look at the bright side - my laundry room floor is clean under the washer and dryer (how many of you can say that) and I freed up a bunch of time today that I would have spent doing many loads of wash.
Here's a small look into what we have been doing the past 6 weeks: *Jody came home from 9 days in Nicaragua. Although we were very thankful to have him home safely, what a blessing it was for him to spend that time ministering to the people of Nicaragua. They were able to build a church, run a medical clinic, and provide VBS to many children. They were also able to be part of services each evening where many people were able to hear about God's love.
* Jesse and Madison participated in solo and ensemble contest with their saxophone and oboe respectively. On the same day, Jay dove at the district diving competition. I had the fun of driving a 4 hour triangle (of course the competitions weren't in the same town) to catch all of the activities. All three of the kids did fantastic!
*Madison tried out for a part in the play Robin Hood and got a fun part in the Merry Band. This was part of the Missoula Children's Theater. They come to your town and pick the cast, rehearse, and put on the play all in one week. It makes for a crazy but fun week.
*Jay and Jesse had the wonderful opportunity to attend DYC (District Youth Conference) in Portland, Oregon with our youth group. They both entered a film festival that the conference was having. The theme for the weekend was Today and had to be included in the video. Check their videos out. Here's Jay's video:
And now Jesse's:
Aren't those great! Jay's won 3rd place.
*Jay had the privilege of diving at the Washington State diving competition in Federal Way. This was his 2nd year to get this opportunity. The pool is used for the Olympic trials. It is quite a place. The competition came to a gut-wrenching end for Jay when he slipped on his 2nd dive. This has never happened to Jay before. Unfortunately, there was no room for error at this level of competition. This was such a heart-break as we saw the divers that he had beat all season long dive in the top ten for the finals. Even though it was a tough way to end his four year diving career, it was so wonderful to watch him dive these past years, especially this year. He improved so much and had an exceptional year diving. Way to go, Jay!
*We made the best of the three day weekend we had planned as a family in Federal Way. After we realized that Jay would not be diving anymore that weekend, we tried to enjoy the rest of the weekend even though our heart was breaking for Jay. We took a ferry ride to the San Juan Islands off the coast of Seattle and had the best fish and chips, enjoyed the fabulous hotel we were staying in and had fun swimming, and shopped at one of the biggest malls I have ever been in.
*We celebrated Valentine's Day in the usual Bowser fashion - with a scavenger hunt. When Jay was 2 years old, I sent him on a scavenger hunt to find a small gift. He enjoyed it so much that we decided to make it a tradition. Now 16 years and 5 kids later, it has become a huge undertaking. It takes me a better part of the day to come up with 6 separate set of clues (that are hard enough to stump the older kids) and to hide them. But what fun they have - especially MIng! He was so excited to go on his hunt and to get a gift. Life is good!
*The last weekend in February I got the fabulous opportunity to attend our church's women's retreat. It is always fun to get away for a friend weekend. But as excited as I was to get away, it did not compare with Ming's excitiment for the weekend. Jody & I let him go with our middle school youth group away on a winter retreat. He had such a great time. It has been so great to see him maturing and we felt confident that he would do great at the retreat. When he returned and I asked the leaders how he did, they said he did great. But more importantly, they commented on how they were able to witness his passion for Christ, especially in his prayers. What a wonderful report to hear.
*Jody and I got a 30 hour get-away together when I joined him for meetings he had in Seattle last week. He went to his meetings and I got hours and hours of quiet in the hotel room. You have no idea how that revitalized a mom of 6!
*Jay & Jesse are busy with the high school tennis team that they are both on. It sure keeps them both busy.
*Jay has made his decision about school for next year. The drum roll please... Jay will be attending, Lord willing, Cedarville University in the fall, my alma mater. It is the perfect school for him as it has all the opportunities that he is looking for. When he finally made his decision, I asked him what decided it for him. He told me that it came down to the fact that Cedarville offers quality chapel services 5 days a week. He wants to attend chapel each day and the other school he was seriously considering only offered chapel 2 days a week. I am sad that he is going so far away, but I only have myself to blame. Since Jay was little, I have brainwashed him with the idea of attending Cedarville. But of course that was when we lived in Ohio, but I guess it never got out of his system. I couldn't be prouder of him for his priorities in his decision making and now we need to trust that God will honor these decisions with the finances to make it all work. Being the oldest of 6 in a single income home (that had 2 very expensive adoptions in the last 5 years) can be challenging, but I know God will honor our choices we have made. Please pray that God will use Jay as He sees fit. Jay recently told us that he feels that God might be calling him to minister in Asia after his schooling is done. We are looking forward to seeing how his story unfolds.
Wow - a lot happens when life is interrupted. I will never complain of being bored.
We can't believe that we have been home two weeks already. We spent the first week trying to get back on Washington time. That is never fun! It's amazing that the body doesn't always want to sleep when you tell it to and wants to sleep when it shouldn't. Thankfully we had only one night when Jamae and Mitchell decided at 2:00 am that they didn't want to sleep anymore and should be up for the day. We had many nappers that first week, especially Ming. I think he was physically and emotionally exhausted. Thankfully that is all behind us.
This week has been full of summer fun. We have been swimming which is a favorite of MIng. It was fun to watch his face as he experienced our Surf & Slide Water Park for the first time. He loved the water slides, the lazy river, and even tried the flowrider. We told you he was brave. He got in line with Jody and Mitchell, but after watching a few people surf, Jody said that Ming wasn't so sure he wanted to try it. After some urging by Jody, he jumped on and did great! I was really proud of him. He's working very hard on his swimming because he wants to go off the diving board and go on the drop water slide. I'm thinking that will be next summers adventure. Ming was very excited to see that Jay was a lifeguard, although he didn't believe that really was Jay sitting on the chair until Jay raised up his sunglasses.
Yesterday was Jody's day off. Ming grasped quickly the concept that 6 days Father works, but on Thursday no work! Yeah! We went disc golfing. Ming told us that he played frisbee in China, but never disc golf. He was really good. He has a great throw. I'm getting the impression that he is a natural athlete. He can also ride a bike. Our first day home he jumped on a bike and was off. No need to teach him how ride. I'm not sure when he learned or how often he has been able to ride a bike, but he sure knows how to ride. He's full of surprises.
We really enjoyed attending church on Sunday for the first time with Ming - something we had thought about alot the 9 months we were waiting to bring him home. Of course our thoughts always centered around how Ming would react to attending church with us, not knowing if he would even know what a church was. Now we know that Ming attended church in China. Besides saying to me as we walked into the service, "No- English!", he handled the service great. Jody showed a slide show of our time in China and Ming seemed to enjoy seeing himself on screen. I think it was good for him to see the whole trip together like that, hopefully getting a better understanding of how thankful we are that he is now part of our family. Jody and I were also blown away that Ming was singing the songs - we believe in English. We have to believe that he was reading the words to the songs off the screen. We were amazed.
We allowed Ming to call his children's home in China soon after we got home, so he could let them all know that he is safe. This is the third time that he has called them - the first time was the day after he left Living Hope and the second time was the morning we were leaving China for Hong Kong. I think he wanted to say goodbye. This time he was very excited to call. I can imagine that he misses them very much. We could tell that he talked to many different people and used the word for amazing alot. We can only hope that he was telling them over and over how amazing is his new life and family.
The language continues to be a huge barrier. We so wish we could sit down and have conversations with Ming, but that will come. From what we can tell, he is adjusting great. The last 4 weeks have been amazingly smooth. We are so thankful for the easy adjustment to Ming becoming a Bowser. He is working hard on his english. Here is a picture of Jamae teaching him through one of her computer games.
The patient & adorable teacher
Thanks for your continued prayers. We are so excited to be in this journey!
School is over and summer is here! Today was an exciting morning at the Bowser house. We started the day off with our tradition of breakfast out and then the kids went to school for their 2 1/2 hour day. How fun to realize that when we have our traditional breakfast out to start the next school year, Ming will be at the table.
Our Aquatic Center opened tonight for season pass holders. Our kids have looked forward to this night for a while. You see, our aquatic center opened a whole new section this season that our kids have been looking forward to for 2 years. They even changed the name from Moses Lake Aquatic Center to the Surf & Slide Waterpark. They added a flow rider and a lazy river as well as some little kids fountains and a new snack bar.
So, even though the temperature was more geared towards building a bonfire than swimming, we packed up a picnic dinner and headed over to the waterpark, just as it opened, to be one of the first on the flow rider. Jay was quick to point out that because he is a lifeguard, he has been able to already spend significant time on the flow rider before the park officially opened.
The flow rider is a simulated surfing ride. Check out Madison and Jay in the pictures.
I predicted that they would stay only about 20-30 minutes because it was so cold, but they were having so much fun we ended up staying the full 3 hours the pool was open. This summer will be fun!
3 years ago today, God spared Jody's life after having a heart attack. Words cannot express our gratitude to our Almighty Father for this gift of life for our family. On the first year anniversary, we started the tradition of celebrating life on May 15th each year. This year we all played hooky and ran off to Spokane today for a day of picnicking and disc golf. We had a wonderful day together - the only thing that could have made it better is if Ming had been with us.
Doesn't Jody look great?
We started the day off at a picnic grounds near the disc golf course in Spokane. The pine trees smelled delicious. It sure made me want to go camping. Our picnic table was right next to the Spokane River. The sound of the roaring water was very relaxing. We had fun going over the swinging bridge nearby. The weather was beautiful and this is a park I want us to return to soon.
We had a lot of fun playing disc golf. This was a very difficult course - the hardest course our family ever played. The course was beautiful, set right on the Spokane river. Unfortunately Jody lost one of his favorite discs in the river, but thankfully we didn't lose Jay as he jumped in the rushing water to grab another of Jody's discs.
My thoughts today turned to my wonderful mom who has been with Jesus for 9 1/2 years now. Oh how I miss my mom! My thoughts also can't help but turn to Jamae and Ming's china mamas. How thankful I am that they chose life for their children. How hard days must be as they wonder about their children. How blessed I am to call Jamae and MIng (soon!) as my own. God has also blessed me with 4 outstanding 'home-grown' children and a fantastic husband. I felt so honored today (and everyday) to be their mom.
After the state meet was over, we were able to spend the next day (Saturday) in Seattle before we had to head home. We started the day off at Panera Bread to have coffee and cinnamon crunch bagels (you have to live in Moses Lake to realize what a luxury that is). Yum! Then off to IKEA. This was our first experience at IKEA and I loved it. We shopped, let Mitchell and Jamae play in their kid land, which they had heard all about from friends, shopped some more and than ate in their restaurant. What a fun experience.
We then went to Build-A-Bear for a much anticipated shopping trip for Jamae. She had received a gift card for her birthday from the Shaw's and had been waiting patiently(?) for this weekend so she could have her first trip to Build-A-Bear. It really was fun to watch her pick out her bear (so many choices!) get it stuffed, give it an "air" bath, and dress her. Madison also got into the act by making a bear. Fluffy Bear is now part of our daily life. How fun to be 4.
Happy Valentine's Day! This is a loved holiday by the Bowser Family. We were sad to not have Jay part of the festivities tonight as he left for State in Seattle this morning. I know the day is arriving very soon when he won't be here on Valentine's Day, but I wasn't ready for that to be already. We have a fun tradition of sending the kids on a scavenger hunt for a small gift each Valentine's Day. Jesse made us promise to not give ANY clues so it was really fun to totally stump him. The gift at the end was money to spend on Saturday when we get to shop in Seattle. Enjoy the pictures:
