Saturday

Wednesday was Grandparents' Day at Anna and Josh's school, so I headed over there early in the morning. I love the school atmosphere. I breathe in the smells, delight in the background hum of noises that follow you down the halls...The invitation was to share lunch with the children in the cafeteria and I must admit there was more than a hum there - quite a din, in fact. First, Joshie's class came in and I sat with him while he ate his from-home lunch. Interestingly, the little boy who seems to be his best friend - who sat across from us seems to be - surprise! surprise! -Dutch! During the meal, his cupcake slid onto the floor and under Josh's feet, resulting in mush all through the treads of his brand new sneakers...Uh-oh! Tears! But I took them to the washroom and managed to get most of it out...He kept hinting to me that the most stupendous surprise was waiting for me in his classroom, and wouldn't say any more than it had a handprint on it, and a poem...We went back to the room after lunch and there was indeed a Joshie card, which Mimi loves!

Classes resumed for Josh, and Anna come to the cafeteria about an hour later. She was so delighted to see me there - hugs and kisses, kisses and hugs! It was interesting seeing her classmates - looking so much older than Josh and his friends. We sat beside the boy who wants to marry her, but didn't have a proper chance to vet him. Pat will have to do that when he can.

I stayed the night in Woodstock in order to have a proper visit with the kids, then headed home the next day via Costco. Just before I left, Grace arrived for an overnight visit to alleviate the loneliness of new-motherhood. So glad that can happen...Home again to clean our house and the church, preparing for the weekend...Rick and Susanna are leaving NYC today, hoping to arrive at Maryanne's late this evening, so tomorrow Dad, Andrew and I will also go after church. We can then celebrate Susanna's birthday as an almost complete family...Yet always with a big hole in the middle when Tim, Aileen and their kids are missing...

To backtrack for a minute, spent much of Friday trying to figure out how to renew my Permanent Resident status here...very confusing, ambiguous instructions...Called lawyers, senators, congressmen...Guess I will try to send in everything but the kitchen sink in terms of documentation, hoping the right pieces will be included!

Finally, I have been reading a kids' biography of the Wright brothers - brought up in a Christian family, though unsure whether or not they personally believed - not enough information. The most interesting paragraph in the book came toward the end, when they had begun to fly regularly and consistently around their hometown of Dayton, Ohio. Nobody in the world could do what they were doing. They were FLYING, in public view, around tram lines....What was the response? "Strangely, even though passengers on the interurban trolley occasionally saw their plane in the air, they were not impressed. If those derby-hatted boys are really flying, the newspapers would mention it. But since the papers were silent, they merely shrugged. Indeed, one day as Wilber and Orville were heading toward Simms Station, (where they flew) they heard a burly man exclaim angrily, 'That would be as impossible as for a man to fly.'".. Frightening! People believe what they are told, rather than the plain evidence of their eyes, ears and minds - common sense, in its original meaning...Good grief!