It has been 16 years since Jeremy died

Mushroom sharing an ice cream cone with Jeremy on the Long Beach City College campus before Mushroom went to Viet NamJeremy & Orlando at the University of New Mexico at Halloween time

This is one of my favorite photos of Jeremy and Orlando together

Jeremy and Orlando together as we were building the greenhouse in our Albuquerque home.

October, changes its green sequined dress for a multishade coat of oranges, ocres, browns and yellows. But she hides her salted swords and just when I am caught in her beauty she slices a deep cut into my heart and I cry, deep, deep inside for a long, long time.

It was a charmingly sunny October morning when we received the call that Jeremy was in intensive care and the hospital needed our permission to provide medical care. Jeremy had been hit while riding his motorcycle, which he loved to do. Our son died 23 October 1992.

But that very week later, four families were saying prayers of thankgsgiving for Jeremy's life saving organs. I miss our son, very, very , very much, especially when October dresses in gold and rubies.

Bonnie & Jiho Returned to the USA

Happy family home in the US, at last.
The Original Starbucks is a good place to visit as we showed Mirae and Yeoungho the sites and sounds of Seattle.
Mirae buys a bracelet as Bonnie and Roger look on.



Denise is so happy to have them home.
The Celestial Being is glad that her sister is home, along with her brother-in-law and niece and nephew.

It is a mixture of joy and sadness whenever loved ones leave. Bonnie, Isis, Tigerboy and Jiho came to America and left Jiho's parent's behind.
Goodbye Korea, we will miss you

Front Yard Summer Garden

The yard is beautiful with bright orange lilies and purple lavender and purple wildflowers. I paid a young neighbor to remove the lawn, thus giving Denise a pallet with which to paint her garden. It is beautiful. And no one has to mow it.

Celeste's 20th Birthday Party

Celeste’s 20^th birthday party

Elli watches Celeste light the candles

Celeste cuts the cake

Celeste is JUBULANT ! !

Krystal enjoying the party

party participants

Party Dog

Suppressing the party girl

CELESTE is HAPPY

Debi throws a birthday party for Denise

Happy 58th
birthday
DENISE ! ! ! !

Debi created the best birthday party for DENISE. Way to go Debi !





Orlando is Teaching
Dallin to have fun Playing Croquet.





Orlando is Goofing around to the delight of Celeste, Tara and Dallin

Orlando is Goofing around AGAIN!

Why not gravel angels

Why not make gravel angels

when snow is not available

and gravel is.

Joy and fun should not be suppressed just

because the ideal situation has not presented itself.

Make Joy, be Joy ful.

Play is the highest form of Prayer.
Why, because you are Playing with the Creator

And that is sooooooo cooooool!!!!!!!

Doggy Silliness

Sugar is being silly

He slithered under his mattress and poked his head out.

Ethnicity can flow in both directions

Adoption is a blessing for both child and parents. It is also a lot of work. My spouse and I are a mixed couple. I am Hispanic, she is Irish and German. We have two biological sons and two adopted daughters. One from South Korea and one from Siberia (Russia).
When parents have children biologically, they may impart their ethnicity and culture to their children. When parents adopt transracially, an opportunity arises for ethnicity to flow the other direction.
My spouse and I have learned so much about Russian and Koran culture. The whole family is richer for it. We all learned a little Korean and a little Russian. We eat Rice and kimchee, borscht and pelmeni. We go to local Korean and Russian events. During the Olympics we cheer for the US, South Korea and Russia. We do that because that is who we are, as a family. We are a global family.
America is not so much a melting pot as a tapestry. People from all over the world have come here to make America a beautiful tapestry of world cultures.
It is the responsibility of all parents to help their children maneuver through those identity questioning times. Racism is still pervasive in America. When parents adopt children who are from a different ethnic group or race, it is their responsibility to learn what they can, enlist help, and to celebrate their children’s unique attributes.
As for sending your children to language school, be careful that you are not isolating them. Don’t send them to Chinese language school, for example, unless you take Chinese classes also. That way, you are being inclusive rather than pointing out their “differentness”.
I could not understand why our older daughter did not want to go to Korean language school? I did not understand, then, that she wanted to be like us, a “real” part of the family. Thus, our sending her, by herself, to Korean language school, only accentuated the fact that she was “not like us”.
Children need loving parents. Parents, who adopt transracially, have the added opportunity to enhance their own lives by creating a loving “tapestry” of family cultures.
Children look in the mirror. They look at family photographs. When their differences are celebrated as enhancements to the family, they grow up with a healthy tolerance of everyone else’s unique attributes, especially their own.

Sidney Kidney

Sidney Kidney took advantage of a photo opportunity with Chef Graham Kerr at the Breakfast of Hope for the Northwest Kidney Foundation. Graham was the keynote speaker. He is shown here with his wife, Trina and Sidney Kidney.

"Dances with Death"

As I was driving back from the Breakfast of Hope in Seattle yesterday, I had to pull over to take some nitroglycerin. I got hot, had chest pain and started to get light headed. Denise drove me to the Group Health clinic in Kent. They looked me over and called an ambulance to take me to the emergency room at the local hospital. Then I was transported to Group Health emergency care in Redmond. I spent the night under observation. Denise brought me back from the hospital just before lunch today. They had me do a cardiac treadmill stress test before I left. I passed with flying colors. That is good.
They do not know why I was suffering with chest pain, light headedness, and sweating while I was driving. Nor why I had chest pain all day yesterday. This happened when I had my first heart attack. For the time being, I have to assume that my heart does not like the new stent. I will journey for more clarification.

A part of me is disappointed that they were not able to definitively say what the problem is. And a part of me is relieved to know that I did very well on the stress test. I know very well that life is a multitude of shades of gray. But when it comes to my own life and death issues, I can whine and wish it was more black and white.

I can look at this as a metaphor. There are no guarantees that I will have a pain free life. Life is a mystery and that is what helps remind me of the preciousness of the ever present present moment. In some ways, I am luckier than some, because I know that Death dances with me. He dances to remind me to live each moment to the fullest. Perhaps, if I can remind myself, Death won't need to dance with me so often.

Cheating Death

I wrote the following for my own and your amusement, since I am still very much alive, following a heart attack 23 April.
Sometimes one just has to laugh at death.
I cheated Death yet again. He came for me, slinking through the water, biting my arm while wrapping a rope around my chest. I eluded it when I pulled my body out of the pool. Death was not amused. Death would bide his time at the train station. While I looked out the window at the remnants of by gone forests, he sneaked up, stabbed me with his blade, right into the chest. I was dazed and bewildered. I gasped for air and fought on. I pulled my saber from its sheath and the battle began. Denise brought reinforcements, who came in their red chariot to escort me to safety. Tuba, Tuba Tubular kept ringing in my ear. I had been stabbed in the groin. I fought on, and I fell into oblivion. When I came to, I discovered that I was still very much alive and a third metal tubular armor was placed into my heart.
Death will just have to wait.

They inserted a stent into my right coronary artery. The Tuba, Tuba, Tubular refers to the stents. The right coronary artery was 90% blocked. It feeds the electrical impulse that tells the heart to beat. If it gets 100% blocked, I die. Lucky me, we caught it in time. I am recovering nicely at home.

Ah Hail

Thunder and lightning were creating a cymbolic cacophony as they collaborated in their creation of miniature snowballs, packed tightly enough to inflict pin prick bites upon any tender maiden's face.

Watch as Celeste gleefully enjoys the banter and challenge of catching the ice bullets in her mouth.

Emma Shapplin is my favorite saprano

Springtime Snow

It snowed today in Kent on the 7th day of Spring 2008.

Thus Senor Sol, continues his journey forward, once again cajoling the light to paint a little longer, coloring a larger canvas. All the while, he eases his beloved, La Luna's task of casting shadows over Winter's arduously long and frigid nights. Winter, choosing to leave a reminder that he'll return in due time, giggles as he adds his own white brush to the canvas of life and graces the Earth cake with frosting.

A part of us dies from life's little torments while our soul awakens to the new gifts, left behind, as an apology, not doubt. Life seeks a balance and when she burns our ass with trials and tribulations, she tries to make up for it by giving us gifts of strength and wisdom. We can only accept those gifts, if we can slither out of our pity pool for a respite and slink our way up to get a larger view beyond just ourselves. As we do, we see that no chest can contain a heart filled with love, compassion, wisdom and laughter. That pump, beating to the rhythm of our souls, sings its own song of love to remind us to breath. To breath joy into what we do. We must listen. Then, we must act. For joy without action is no more than a pencil sketch of a cherry pie; no color and no flavor. Hope is the paint brush. Throw away the pencil and grab the fragrantly sopping brush and stroke to your heart's content.

Flat Stanley in Yeonmu South Korea

Isis & Bonnie hold flat Stanley at the Yeonmu soccer field.

Bonnie, Isis and Tigerboy hold Flat Stanely in front of a Bhuddist temple.

Bonnie in the Breeze holding Flat Stanely and Isis

Tigerboy and his Abuelito hold Flat Stanley

Flat Stanley in Yeonmu, South Korea with Bonnie, Tigerboy and Isis

March 2008Abuelito teaches Tigerboy to play soccer

Of course, Abuelito has to take time out to play with Tigerboy

South Korean Independence Hall

South Korean Flags at Independence Hall
Mushroom Playing with the Boys at Independence Hall













Statue at Independance Hall South Korea

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