April 5, 2010, Fort Worth, Texas, 8:01 p.m., D.S.T.~

Dear Journal~

Phoebe Pearson here.  Thought an update was long overdue, so here goes nothing ...

Mike and I are doing well; so are most of the children.  All have grown so much, and some (Sapphire, Brandt, Paul, etc.) have flown from the coop:  they now live on their own, either married or attending college at Texas Christian University (TCU) here in Fort Worth, so it's not like I don't see them just about every Sunday, ya know??  :)  Meanwhile, Linn, Miracle, Malik, Henry, Hayleigh, Jamar, Jourdan, and Adam remain home with us, so our house isn't totally empty just yet: have a few years to go on that.

We have since adopted four new children into our International Family:  Trevor (5), Ethaniel (6), Paloma (7), and Omar (3).  Trevor came to us last month from Ethiopia.  Ethaniel and Omar came to us from Haiti late last year, around Christmas time.  As for Paloma, she came to us six months ago from the Honduras.  All have special needs:  Ethaniel has Down syndrome.  Paloma is blind but is otherwise quite functional on her own.  Omar has a form of autism.  As for Trevor, he has hearing/speech issues, but is otherwise in perfect health.

The older kids have been enjoying getting to know their new little brothers and sister; in fact, I think they are already getting some serious spoilage!  LOL  We have enjoyed having little ones in the house again; the others are either in junior or senior high school, or in college!  And Paul and Brandt have given us grandbabies:  we have three grandsons all under the age of three!  Paul has two sons, Kyle and Robert, ages two and one, and Brandt and his wife recently had their first child, a boy they named Dickson.  They are all precious; we just love being grandparents!!  :)

Yesterday, for Easter, we went to Victory Family Assembly of God church in Burleson; a friend of ours who lives in Burleson invited us.  They had a powerful Easter message complete with special music, video, and a "human video" presntation; it was very moving.  Several people raised their hands when the pastor of the church asked if anyone wanted to accept Christ into their heart, and one young teenage girl actually went up for prayer.  I bet the angels in Heaven are rejoicing!!  Three new souls for the Kingdom! :)

After we went to Victory Family Assembly of God, we went out to eat at Appleby's; we stuffed ourselves until we felt like fat sausages!  LOL  We ate so much we could barely move once we were through; we waddled our way to the van!  LOL  We then went to one of our local parks, where the kids (and us) ran off their dinner and had an Easter egg hunt for the younger children.  We rean into Paul and his boys, and we saw Brandt and  his new little one at Appleby's.  So we got to see the grandchildren. 

Burleson, Texas, is just south of Fort Worth, in the northern part of Johnson county.  Johnson county is directly underneath ours, which is Tarrant.  It's a nice little city, but it's having a growth spurt about now; has been having one for the last several years.

I still keep in touch with some of our friends from other parts of the country:  Louie and Bill Sandusky and Kendra and Michael Kent of Tennessee.  The GreyWolf family of Wisconsin.  Bart Simpson of Ohio.  Fred and Wilma Gardner of Oklahoma.  The King family of Alaska.  The Goertje family of New York.  That's just some of them.  Speaking of family, Kendra and her husband have adopted a beautiful little preteen girl from Russia; her name is Nadia, and she has cerebral palsy, but can walk with the help of crutches.  She's been with them for the past few months and is already adjusting to her new life in America.

All my friends in the adoption community are thrilled about our additions; I have already e-mailed them or sent them pictures of our boys and girl; they have already fallen in love with them as much as we have!  LOL

We had a hard winter here:  even had snow!!  Not once, but on five different occasions!  The kids will have to make up the snow days at school; they've already gone past the allotted number of five snow days.  They aren't happy about it, but what can one do??

Well, Miracle is cooing, so I'd best see what she needs.  Think it's time to feed her and give her her evening meds.  I will write in here again soon; until then, this is Phoebe saying so long and God bless!  I will try to write more often; I know it's been too long since you last heard from me.

~Pheobe.  :)

The picture of the kitty?  That is our kitten, "Callie"; she is a eight week old Maine Coon.  Isn't she cute??  :)