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.
10. The weather was beautiful with no snow or ice. 9. There was such joy in Bible study this week. I am so thankful that I have the privilege of leading this wonderful group of moms. 8. Ming had his first full week of his new classes and he seemed to enjoy them. 7. Madison and Jay's "flu bug" was short lived and no one else got sick, especially me. 6. Jesse and Madison's band songs for solo and ensemble contest are sounding great and they should be ready for the competition next Saturday. 5. Adeline Shaw's surgery went without problems and she is recovering well. 4. Jay's 4 dive meets went great and Jay didn't have any injuries. 3. Nothing tragic happened while Jody was gone and he was able to call me 2 times - totally unexpected. 2. Jamae had Mickey Mouse day to celebrate 'M week' at preschool - How fun! And the number 1 blessing of this week... JODY CAME HOME SAFELY AFTER SPENDING 9 DAYS IN NICARAGUA!
**UPDATE: Addie is out of surgery. The surgery went well without any glitches. She is without a breathing tube but is breathing hard due to swelling. Please continue to pray for her recovery. Please pray for Addie Shaw this morning as she is having throat surgery (epiglottoplasty) this morning at Sacred Heart Medical Center. She will then be in the NICU for about 3 days. Please pray that the surgery goes well and her recovery is smooth.
20 years ago today, I came home from work planning on spending the evening at dinner and a movie with some friends from work. It was a Friday. Shortly after I got home, I received a completely unexpected phone call from Jody Bowser. Jody was the new youth pastor at the church I was attending. I had spent some time talking with Jody during previous months after my sister had introduced us in September. At the time he was finishing up seminary in Pasadena, but moved to Visalia in January to be the youth pastor. So, I answered the phone and Jody was on the other end. He asked," Would you like to go out with me tonight, tomorrow night or both? Tonight I am going to a high school basketball game and tomorrow night I am going to a high school play." Of course I had instant amnesia about my plans with my friends (I knew they would understand) and said, "I would love to go with you both nights". Two high school events - who could pass that up? I certainly couldn't if it meant being with Jody! Jody came by a few hours later wearing white pants and a white and yellow striped sweater. He looked fabulous in an 80's sort-of way. We spent the evening at the basketball game and then we went to see the movie Beaches. I don't remember anything about that movie! :) I was just so excited to be sitting next to Jody. By our date the next night, I knew that I had met the man I was going to marry. This was completely confirmed after Jody asked me on our date that night if I had ever thought of being a pastor's wife. How fun it was to tell him that I had felt that God had been preparing me since I was a teenager to be a pastor's wife.
So 1989 was the beginning of all that life is today. Our first date was on January 27, Jody asked my father for permission to marry me on March 11, we were engaged on May 25, and married on December 23. What a year!
Jody, thanks for calling me 20 years ago this afternoon so we could begin this incredible journey together! I love you!
Today starts the second semester at school. How could it possibly already be the second semester? A lot of changes start today. Ming is being integrated into 2 regular classes. Whippee! I can't believe that after only 5 months in American school, he is already ready to join the regular 6th grade classes. He will be going to Math and English. English is with our family favorite teacher, Mr. Krogh. Madison is a tiny bit jealous. Please pray for him that it will not be too overwhelming and that he will do well.
Today starts Jay's last semester of high school! This has been a year of grieving for me as this will be Jay's last year at home and our last year as a family as we know it. So I started this morning a little emotional - Jay on the other hand is excited. He is very ready to be done with high school. Please pray for him as he has 3 dive meets this week and he is feeling a little under the weather.
Our high school is on block scheduling, so today starts new classes for Jay and Jesse. The high school is also implementing a new lunch schedule, breaking the one lunch time into two. A bummer for Jess - the friends he usually eats with have the other lunch time. I offered to come eat lunch with him, but he declined my offer. What's up with that? :)
The other three kids continue life as normal, counting the days until summer. And on a 10 degree day, summer sounds great to me!
