More Blessings

When we were at the Academy, JR made the wise choice of becoming a sponsor for an International Student. He picked Malaysia because we had never been there. So our student was Musa Haron. What a wonderful man. Of course, when you get one you get many so our house was blessed with an International flair that year. That was the best!

Musa just wrote and informed us of his new position. He is now the Malaysian SMA! It's not a job he really wanted but when the service calls a patriot responds. Here are his promotion pictures. We are so proud to know him.

Blessings

JR and I have been blessed many times over with dear and close friends. Even though the miles keep us apart we manage to stay in contact.

Last week I was fortunate to go to Lawton Oklahoma for a day and a half. And what a 36 hours that was!! Getting in on July 1 evening, I spent time with our dear friends Willie and Jayne Mattice. We have known them almost forever. Ryan used to babysit their kids when they were little. Not so little anymore. In fact, "Aunt Mary", yes - me - got to hold Lauren's little love bundle. Makaila Marie Grace was born on May 4. This was my first opportunity to see her. She has a head full of hair and is just beautiful. She fell asleep in my arms then later woke up smiling and excited. For those of you who know me, babies usually run screaming from the room. And even though I totally enjoyed holding her and talking to her -- I AM NOT ready to be a grandmother yet.
















The second blessing came the next morning when I attended Rich Longo's promotion ceremony to Bridadier General. What an awesome ceremony and what an honor to a wonderful family. All of Rich and Dianne's kids came in for this celebration. Although it was long, it certainly was exciting. Rich joins the 1/10th of 1% of the General Officer's Corps that makes up the Army. JR was unable to make it but we are so proud and glad to know them and to know that our leadership is in such good hands.














Jennifer, Angie, Nick, Rich, Kevin, Dianne


The third blessing for that day was the arrival of a unit back from Iraq. A very dear and old friend brought his brigade back to Ft. Sill and it was his welcome home ceremony. Col Pete Baker was JR's Platoon Leader back in 1984 when we were stationed in Germany those many years ago. So it was an honor to see him safely return all his men under his command.

Pete, two of their boys, wife - Annie

The missing cat

Last night Smoky was brought downstairs against his will and kind of socialized. So here is a picture of Bethany's 800 lb cat. (not really 800 lb but close!)

The Zoo

When I was a kid, moving around with my Air Force dad, we always had to get rid of any animal we happened to latch onto at that duty station. As a kid, I thought that sucked. We would get attached only to have them ripped away from us. The emotional toll!! Didn't matter that it was really mom and dad that had to take care of them, or the expense of the vet... let alone moving with them and finding a new rental that would take pets. All we knew was the anguish of saying goodbye.

JR and I have had our share of pets and we too had to give them away to homes that were more stable or not moving. That is until 1994 when an 18 month old pug wandered into our yard and our lives. Butch had escaped from a family where the twin 8 year olds were a little ornery. In 1999 we adopted another pug who was the runt of a litter, only survivor out of seven and not really expected to live. Thus came Sundance. (Can you tell JR's favorite movie?) Technically, Sundance is Ryan's dog. But only technically. Butch is on the left and is now 16!! and Sundance is still cute and almost 9.

We moved to Germany and paid for the dogs to go with us. I never thought I would pay to have dogs shipped. While in Germany, we acquired Romeo, a loving 6 month old stray cat which was Bethany's. Though he slept on MY pillow. After 5 years in Germany, we once again paid to have the dogs shipped home. And the cat was to be Bethany's carry on and they still charged us an arm and a leg to carry him aboard. (I am still trying to figure out what I paid for... he didn't eat anything or have his own seat)

Romeo and Sundance loved sharing that pillow. Romeo alas passed away last year. We think mole poison. Six months go by and when mice started showing up in the house, JR relented into letting us get another cat. Only because they serve a purpose, mind you. So then came MoJo. Another 6 month old rescued cat. But a good mouser!! I had new gifts!! And he can catch bats too.

So now we are in a house, that completely belongs to us. And we are thinking two dogs and a cat are good! Nope! Were we wrong. This last weekend saw an increase in our four legged family members. First, Alicia begged for an animal. Ryan and Bethany got an animal when they were 15 or 16. She is almost 18! So what does she get? TWO 9 week old kitties! Yes, we have lost our minds!!

So here is Milo and Otis. Litter mates with different personalities.

And to add to the fun of the Ewing household, we took in one of Alicia's friends, Brittany and her dog Boomer. Boomer is a coon/dachsund mix who is twice the size of Butch who thinks he is a lap dog and a bed dog.

And we babysit Bethany's new cat, Smoky, who is a 100 lb 8 year old cat. Oh and it gets better!! Bethany also decided to adopt a new 6 week old kitty, Harley, to keep Smoky company. But!! She is staying at her bosses house for a week taking care of his animals while on vacation so her two cats are now with us. We don't have a picture of Smoky, because he is the most anti social cat we have ever met!

I think I have lost my mind!!

Claudia's Farewell

When we enrolled Alicia in Manhattan High in August 2005, we were amazed at how many international students were also enrolled. Alicia and I talked about it for awhile and we thought it would be a cool idea to host a student. Of course, it was too late then. So in the spring of 2006 when a fellow parishioner at church asked me if I would be interested in hosting, of course, I jumped on that bandwagon. Alicia and I looked through the various girls who were looking to be placed.

What an odd experience to pick a host daughter from bio's! It was like catalog shopping. Pictures look pretty but you don't know what you really are going to get. After making a list of what we were looking for in a student, and throwing out those who obviously weren't good candidates for our home (like non animal lovers), we had it narrowed down to two girls. One from Germany, one from Paraguay. I let Alicia decide and she chose Claudia from Paraguay.

It's kind of a messed up system in the fact that we get to pick but the international students have no veto power. So they get stuck with us!!

Claudia joined the family in August 2006. It has been a great year!! She has done everything we have, plus lots of other things. She joined CYO, Cross Country, Track and the AFS Club. She went to Arkansas for Christmas (with us) to meet Ryan and Kathy: Columbus OH with Alicia to NCYC; New York and Washington DC for Spring Break; Oklahoma to visit JR; and all over Kansas. She also experienced all sorts of weather! Her first snow storm, ice storm, no electicity! What fun

Having an AFS student requires us to participate in AFS projects, like the annual Garage Sale; a monthly get together so the students can make presentations on their countries and other gatherings. This is great because we get to know the other kids also and develop a bond with them. Quite a fun bunch!!!

But yesterday we had to say goodbye. We had a party for her on Saturday evening. Lots of kids, food, and fun. They played frisbee, sat and talked and hit on a pinata! What a blast. Then Sunday she spent the afternoon packing. She had a lot of stuff. We have already sent home six boxes of clothes and stuff. She packed two full suitcases and we have another box to send.

We left the house at 5:20 am Monday morning and headed to Wichita. We made a side stop at JR's mom and continued down. We were supposed to be there between 8:00-9:00, we got there at 9:03! But we weren't the last ones, so I don't care. We weighed her luggage in. She was under the 50 lb limit per bag. Another girl was unloading stuff because her bags were too heavy.

Then we hung out in a building as they did last minute instructions. Then came the goodbyes. How tough! Not only did we say goodbye to Claudia but the other international students that we got to know. After a tearful goodbye we left.

That was hard leaving Claudia. I know she is going home to her mom and dad, grandparents and family. I know that we will keep in touch often. But it's like sending a child off to college but knowing that it will be a very long time before you see them again. I miss her. And I always will but she knows she always has a home with us, and she will always be our daughter