The One That's Not Really About Any ONE Thing...

Dave sez,

Friday. The end of the five day work week. We'll be entering our second full week on Monday. What is weighing heavily on my mind is Thanksgiving.

Something else that comes to mind is Genesis 11: 1 (NLT) "At one time all the people of the world spoke the same language and used the same words."

It funny how very little talking goes on when Skyping with Justin. You know what Skype is: it is basically video-phone. He makes faces at us, we - and when I say "we" I mean "me" - make faces at him. And neither he or Cathy and I want to hang up. So, we make faces and point and act silly with each other for a half an hour.

We found out why the bus changed its route. The road that is the normal route is under construction. Not that I am paranoid or anything, but I am starting to see orange in my sleep! It is exasperating enough to try to figure out how to get across Rochester through construction, and now it is here too. Oh, and apparently Mother Nature can't make up her mind here either; it rained Monday and Tuesday, was kinda cloudy on Wednesday, really nice yesterday, then back to rain with a cold wind today. I bet there were saints somehow involved in that...

We just realized today that Shani is not just one of the last of the children we got to know last year; he is one of the few boys here anymore. The boys are seriously becoming outnumbered by girls. Shani referred to one of the girls as his sister. Something tells me this journey will not end with just two. Cathy and I have no desire to become "Jon And Kate Plus Eight" - a family with an outrageously large number of children - we do want to provide what is in our children's best interest. We're trying to navigate what Justin needs, what Ethan needs, what they both need, and what Cathy and I need both individually and as a couple. It's nice to think about what happens next. It is important to plan a head and look at the larger picture. I think right now, both boys need our time and attention. Cathy and I will probably be talking about this from time to time over the next few months as we watch our boys' progress. It is interesting to see how he interacts with the other children here.

A rainy day like today was nice to spend quiet time with him working on his English and spelling and watch him play "Angry Birds", bowl and drive a race car. I kept looking out at the empty playground and the soccer field, where Justin, Sasha, Andre, Ruslan, Vlad and Kolia all played last fall. Ethan played with them, too. They're all home now. Ethan will be home soon. I keep telling myself that these are his last few weeks here. The quiet is a big difference this time. Justin has a lot of energy. He was - and is - very active. I may have mentioned this before but as active as Ethan is, he does have his quiet moments. Both boys have a laser focus, where they can shut out the rest of the world when they are concentrating on something. It was nice to see Ethan keep trying until he figured things out, both with his English and spelling and the games.

We are still praying that our court date comes up sometime during the week of November 12th through the 16th.

Don't forget we fall back - in the states - this weekend and get and extra hour of sleep. That's a refund on that hour we lost in the Spring. Don't forget to set all the clocks back, you don't want to go into a time warp walking from room to room in the house.

...So George Lucas REALLY sold Lucasfilm (Star Wars) to Disney? Well, Lucas is a lot like Walt Disney. Both innovative and inventors. Disney's Song of the South will never be seen on DVD or Blu-Ray because it is so politically incorrect, and unless Disney reverses Lucas' passionate hatred for the Star Wars Holiday Special - which was surprisingly a lot like an episode of The Muppet Show! - that will never be seen, except for on YouTube. Carrie Fisher and Natalie Portman can now be considered Disney Princesses. Expect straight-to-DVD films on those concepts. If I remember right, the adoption theme is so heavy in Star Wars, because Lucas himself adopted, and "wrote what he knew".

I remember my brother Tim taking me to see Star Wars when it first came out. We saw it at the theater at the River Oaks shopping mall. I think that was back when a theater was a single theater, and not yet a googleplex. You might wonder why it was my brother, Tim, who took me to the movie, and not my dad or mom. As a dad myself, I am learning that presence is the most important thing.

Watching Ethan play video games today, I can not wait to take both him and Justin to the arcade at the theater back home. If Justin becomes absolutely "twitterpated" by the games, Ethan will need an oxygen mask!

I wonder what great things I will see my boys accomplish...

I wonder how much proof-reading and editing Cathy will do in the morning when she wakes up and reads this - it is 11:49pm here...