Time MARCHes On (But Not on Astrid's Bum Toe)

Ok, so we got back from our vacation and immediately were back in the swing of things!  We slept in a little bit on Saturday, but then I was helping out at an event at our church, having organized the first ever Sing-along Sound of Music at UUFF.  I sit on the RE committee at church and we were asked to come up with a family-friendly service item to raise funds for the church, and this was my idea.  Neither Leah nor Astrid had ever seen the movie before, so that was kind of cool that this was their first experience with it.  The idea was that everyone who was coming would show up, bring food for a potluck (on the plus side, I didn't have to cook after our vacation!), we'd enjoy food and then watch the movie and sing along with the songs in the film.  This is a beloved film and apparently they show a singalong version somewhere in the world every single day of the year, so it was cool this was Fredericksburg's offering.  The movie is great, one of my favorites, and the event was well attended.  Both girls enjoyed it very much and were very helpful in the set up and clean up of the event!

On Tuesday were the Winter Sports Awards, and Astrid and two other girls were specially recognized by their coach for helping save the basketball season.  When the season started, there were only 5 or 6 girls playing basketball, and the coach was concerned because they needed a minimum of 5, and then no one could get hurt or foul out.  He had told his daughter to find whoever she could to join the team, and three girls, Astrid included, stepped up to play, even though they knew very little about the game.  It was a proud moment for this mom!!! 

The following Monday, Astrid started up with soccer practice and play practice both.  It was a crazy time, as the play was getting closer and closer, so they were rehearsing longer and later, plus schoolwork, plus soccer.  She managed to juggle it all, though it meant late nights and a lot of fatigue.  I was very proud of her for trying to do it all!  The week of the play, she had two soccer games, and Leah and I decided to drive up to Fairfax to watch her play in one of them, as Leah had a half day off from school and I thought Astrid would like to see us support her team.  It was a rough first half, and the girls were down 2-0 after it.  Leah and I had been sitting in the stands with the families from the other team and feeling out of place, so at the half, Leah asked if we could go surprise Astrid and see her.  I wish I had gotten a picture of her face when she saw us!  She was so surprised and delighted we were there.  She got in some good playing time and she even chose to come home with us afterwards, so we got a little bit of extra time with her before dropping her off for practice at school.

The next day, she wasn't feeling well and was very tired, so she asked if she could stay home from school.  I told her that was fine, and we wound up having some kind of issue with our pipes.  I get VERY stressed out about issues pertaining to my house and car, so it was good having Astrid there to keep me calm while the county came out, the plumbers were in and out.  In the midst of all this, Astrid stubbed her toe, or so we thought.  When the pain didn't go away by the next morning, I took her to the ER, and sure enough, she had broken her toe!  :-(  This put a damper on her soccer season.  We had to go see an orthopedist, so we called up Ross, who was a host father this year for another AFS'er and he got us in to see her.  She was sidelined until April 24, and we thought that was the end of the soccer season for her.  Devastated.  Soccer is her sport and she'd been so looking forward to playing, so to hear that she wouldn't be able to, that was a very bitter pill to swallow.  Happily, we have since found out that the soccer season runs into May and she'll be back on the field after Spring Break!!! YAY! 

Astrid gets instructions from "The Hot Doctor"

The time for the play arrived, and I invited several people to come and see it.  She had the role of Sue Draper, I think was the name, the nosy neighbor of the family in the show.  Many of her friends and teammates were in the show with her, and the kids all did a great job.  In addition to Astrid being in a boot for her toe, another girl from the soccer team had broken her arm and was in a cast!  The play was very well done and very well received by all who attended.  The first night, my friends Jason and Nancy came to see it, and the second night, my sister and her family came.  The kids were fidgety and had a hard time concentrating, so I took them out to the playground for most of the show, but we came back in when it started to get dark and they managed to finish it out.  I'm very grateful to everyone who supports Astrid in her endeavors!

In the midst of the play, Chris FINALLY asked Astrid to the prom.  We had been discussing if Astrid should ask HIM to the prom, as it was taking a while, and I had been busily Googling prom-posals that we could do for him if he didn't ask her.  But after the opening night of the play, her friend came up to her and asked her if he could see her backstage for a minute.  She went with him, and there was Chris, holding up a sign asking her to prom.  She was just about crying she was so happy. It was so sweet!

Of course she said yes, and the date was set! <3  Leah loves Chris, and finds it hilarious to yell at him, so he's understandably a little anxious around her, but he bravely stood with her for a post-promposal picture.  One of my favorites of the year!

Leah loved big sister snuggle time most of all!

Along the way, we also had my friend Andy down for a movie day.  I have a list of movies I think Astrid needs to see before she goes home, movies that really talk about all aspects of American culture and it was clear that without serious action taken, we weren't going to get to them all.  We saw 5 movies on March 11--As Good As It Gets, Wayne's World, The Breakfast Club, The Sandlot, The Burbs, and we watched an episode of Bosom Buddies so Astrid could see Tom Hanks in his breakout role.  It was a blast to watch all these films.  We had lots of snacks, I made a nice dinner, it was a really great time and so relaxing in the midst of the whirlwind of everything going on.  Leah got nervous during The Burbs, which is a Tom Hanks comedy horror movie, so she snuggled up with Astrid for protection.  They've had a rough patch--Leah had some trouble having a sibling for a while, so it was nice that it was Astrid she turned to for protection from her fears!

So the play was over, Astrid kept going to soccer practice to stay a part of the team, which is important to her, and things settled down a bit. We were able to get back to being a family a little more regularly with meals together and seeing each other a bit more, which had been a little bit hard on me having her out of the house so much.  I was glad for a return to some normalcy.  And glad she has kept up with soccer.  I know it will make a big difference to her when she gets back on the field in another week and Leah and I will be able to attend her games again!

Family hilarity at the Jefferson Memorial

We spent the first Monday after the play up in DC.  It was Cherry Blossom time and I wanted to take the girls to see the flowers.  Most everyone I knew had gone up during the weekend, so I picked the girls up right after school and we drove up Monday.  It was crowded, but not nearly as crazy as it was on the weekend, and in fact, we had no trouble getting a parking spot.  I had stopped off at Wegmans to buy us all a picnic dinner, and we started walking from the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial and made our way over to the Jefferson Memorial.  I was worried about Astrid's toe, so we went by way of the FDR Memorial, instead of making the full loop around the Tidal Basin, although she did fairly well.  The flowers were absolutely gorgeous and it rained the next day, so it was good we went when we did, as a lot were washed away the next day.  The weather was great, we enjoyed a nice meal, went up in the Jefferson Memorial and paid our respects to Tom, and just had a nice time reconnecting! 

On the way home, we stopped off at Ikea to get supplies for Astrid's speech (see below).  I snapped a sweet picture of the girls in front of a sign I thought was hilarious.

This last week in March was also a whirlwind of activity!  Prom was on Saturday, and it was foreign language week at school.  Astrid had been asked to give a presentation about Denmark to the school and asked me and Leah to come hear her.  She hadn't practiced beforehand and hadn't shown me her slideshow, so I had no idea what to expect.  She did an amazing job!  Leah decided she would stand up in front with Astrid, which I attempted to dissuade, but Astrid said she was fine and actually wanted her up there.  The kids learned a lot about Denmark and Astrid's slide and interactive quiz were big hits!  Afterwards, she had brought her favorite salty licorice candies for everyone to try and many of the kids bravely tried a piece.  We had a trash can handy as Astrid said "Every American I've given this to has spit it out, so don't worry if you can't finish it".  Many kids did spit it out, but a few bravely finished it.  One kid hilariously remarked "Congratulations, Denmark, you've taken something awful and made it even worse."  I was cracking up.

What Astrid thought America would be like before coming here

Mr. Durso, the head of the upper school, tries salty licorice

Friday was the foreign language potluck.  I spent the morning making traditional open faced sandwiches with salmon, shrimp, and cheese toppings.  The salmon in particular were a big hit!  I volunteered to help at the luncheon and there was so much food, we got to bring some home and I again didn't have to cook much for the weekend.  It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed seeing Astrid with her peeps.  I sat at a table with some of the other moms, and it turned out to be the charging table the senior class of 2015 donated to the school--Ine's name was on there.  It made me happy to see it and made me miss her and feel close to her all over again!  So sweet! :)

On Saturday was prom, and Astrid had borrowed a dress from a friend.  She did her own hair and make up and went over to her friend Hannah's house around 5:30 or so.  Everyone was gathering at 6:30 at Kenmore, a local historic site, for pictures, so Leah and I went over there to take pictures.  The kids looked absolutely amazing.  Seeing Astrid and Chris together was very sweet, and Chris's parents and I were angling for pictures like everyone else! :)  It was a great night and you just felt looking at the kids that anything was possible for their bright, beautiful futures. 

They just looked amazing, all of them.

Astrid and Chris looked like fashion models, in my opinion!!

Astrid of course also had plenty of time with young kids this month...

I got a desperate plea from a friend to help with babysitting in the nursery at her moms group.  I asked Astrid if she'd be interested in doing it, and she was, so she spent two hours one morning in the two year olds room at the Methodist Church.  She is wonderful with young children and even though we were hopelessly outnumbered 7-3, she did a good job entertaining the kids and keeping things moving smoothly with another babysitter. 

We also attended a dance at Leah's school somewhere around St. Patrick's Day, and our friend Toni was there with her baby, little 3 month old Addie.  Astrid hadn't had a chance to see her and hold her yet, but as soon as we arrived, Astrid scooped Addie up and that was the end of that! 

My nephew William also spent the night with us one weekend, and followed Astrid around like a lost puppy.  Getting them all ready for bed was hilarious.

William wasn't getting ready unless Astrid was getting ready, and Astrid and I usually watch our favorite TV program, Forensics Files, together after Leah goes to bed, so she had to pretend to get ready so we could get William to bed.

And finally, since Astrid was now home on Wednesday nights, the first thing she asked was "Is Bup coming over!?"  Bup far prefers Leah's company, but Leah would far rather that Bup was Astrid's problem, so it makes for an interesting dynamic.  This past week, I told Astrid to adopt Leah's tactics of totally ignoring Bup and sure enough, he was far more interested in Astrid when she pretended not to be interested in him.  New plan! :D

So that pretty much brings us up to date.  April has been quiet--we've had a few things going on that I will blog about, but mainly it's been soccer practice and getting ready for Spring Break. Our plans changed when Leah got a stomach flu, so we have modified our travel plans, as we were supposed to leave for New England today and then New York on Wednesday, but now we are leaving for New York Monday and will head to New England in June.    So stay tuned for that, as well as a report on Astrid being the "serving wench" at Leah's birthday party, etc!  Bye for now!

February

My word!  How is it April and I haven't blogged since January!?  The other night I logged on to see what I needed to catch up on and I was shocked to see it had been 2+ months since I've blogged.  I thought I would sit down and just take a few minutes to get my pictures in order, but that wound up taking nearly 2 hours, so blogging is a real labor of love!  We are drawing to the end of our year together.  Astrid has been here 234 days and has only 84 days left.  Those numbers are surprising to me.  It feels like she's been part of our family for years and years, and I can't quite bring myself to believe that the time which has flown by so quickly has added up to that number.  Nor do I want to contemplate how quickly everything is going to go now with so few days left!  But enough about that...

So much has happened, and so much to talk about :)  For this entry, I'll cover the end of January and all of February with the exception of our trip to Georgia and Florida.

When I left off, we'd spent an exciting day in Richmond at Lobbying Day.  Astrid continued playing basketball through the end of February.  Her team was in a rebuilding year, so they only had 8 players and they played so hard and with such heart, it was a joy to watch.  Bigger teams with noisier coaches and more aggressive players came and went, but the girls never gave up.  The blur in the center of this picture is Astrid, who got some good playing time.  She learned a lot about the American sport, but also got to continue being part of a team and making friends, which was important to her.  I so enjoyed the games myself, as I think I mentioned in previous entries  Leah learned a lot and has enjoyed learning about basketball, and we had a great time at each game, getting dinner at the Wawa down the street from the school, eating, cheering, then watching the boys team play after the girls.  Leah was a big fan of one player she dubbed "Mr. Muscles", so we had fun keeping an eye out for him as well.  I started to get to know the kids and faces and some of the parents got to know our faces as well, which was cool.  I recently helped out at Astrid's school's Foreign Language Week luncheon and one of the moms I met said, "My sister and I were very impressed by the patience you had at the basketball games!" referring to wrangling Leah, The Bup, and the occasional extra teenager. It was nice to hear such a compliment!

Astrid is #14, right in the middle, above the ref

Leah and Dipthi enjoy Wawa victuals

We were also super lucky in early February to have Dipthi come and stay the night with us before the AFS mid-stay orientation.  She also came to watch Astrid in one of the home games, and we had a blast with her.  Even if Leah's face says otherwise.  Dipthi is an important part of the family!

So, in addition to basketball, Astrid had a couple of big events at the end of January.  First, she was invited to go with friends to the St. Jude's Hospital Teen Gala.  St. Jude's is a hospital that treats critically ill children, and several of her friends raised some serious money for them as volunteer work.  Her friend Mackie, with whom Astrid carpools every morning, offered Astrid a complimentary ticket to attend the gala with her.  We did some quick Goodwill shopping and found a gorgeous gown from there for a mere $8.  What a steal!  Astrid looked amazing, and we put in two quick darts and the dress fit like a dream.  She really enjoyed the evening with her peeps, good food, dancing, awards to the highest fundraisers, etc.  There was a photo booth, all kinds of good stuff.

Glamour Girl

Additionally, we had tickets to go to see Lukas Graham in concert at the end of the month.  This meant skipping basketball practice one night, but sacrifices had to be made.  Lukas Graham, for those who don't know, is a Danish pop star who has made it pretty big in the US with his hit Seven Years.  When I found out he was coming to the DC area, I got us tickets to go see him.  The girls didn't seem all that excited, but happily they were.  We drove up to Silver Spring, and got SO lucky with parking--on a meter around the corner from the theater and the meter turned off only 10 minutes after we arrived, so we didn't need to worry about paying more than 25 cents for parking, which was awesome!  We got on line after the girls said they weren't hungry for dinner, but then Leah needed a bathroom break, so we went to the shopping mall across the street.  We hit a beauty supply store and had fun looking at wigs and hair appliances, then departed, only to find a little sushi place across the street the other direction, so we grabbed a quick dinner there!  Everyone was very satisfied--Astrid loves sushi, Leah loves soup, and they even had bao, which I love!  Yum!

Pre-concert Selfie

Afterwards, we got back in line, a lot farther back than we had been, but we all agreed that we wouldn't get into the mosh pit area.  We went through security and went up to the balcony level.  I paid for Leah to have a seat to sit in and Astrid and I just stood behind her.  There was an opening act, although I can't tell you who they were, some little Australian guy, and then Lukas came out and played for quite a while, maybe even 2 hours.  He talked a lot about growing up in Denmark and there were Danish flags flying everywhere.  The ladies in front of us were speaking Danish, so Astrid was able to speak with them a little bit.  The music was great, I was a big fan!  Bright, fun pop music, Lukas was adorable, and he even did the traditional American encore, which if I recall correctly Astrid said doesn't happen in Denmark.  For my Danish readers, this involves the concert being over and the audience screaming and cheering until the performer has to come back on stage.  Lukas also talked about the great language divide of swearing between American and Danish society, and Astrid was like "See?!"  Fair enough!

So that took us into February.  We did some more political activities by way of sending postcards to our representatives and we also joined the WAFA Fredericksburg group to hold signs out in town. WAFA stands for We Are For America.  It was a fun thing to do--we had a lot of honks of support and of course we had our share of detractors, but for the most part it was respectful and we had a good time.  Astrid was later maybe slightly embarrassed because a couple of kids from school saw us out there and remarked about it.  We haven't been back. LOL

I also took some time to take Astrid up to DC for an improv show my cousin Cara was competing in.  Cara is my dad's brother's daughter, and as far as I can remember, I haven't seen her in about 12 years.  She and her husband moved to DC a couple of years ago and she posted that she was on an improv team that was competing and would anyone like to come support them?  I thought it was a great opportunity to see her again, and comedy is always good, so Astrid and I headed up there on a VERY cold night after basketball practice.  Leah hung out with The Bup and had a fine time without us, and we had a fine time ourselves.  Astrid had homework so she brought her books with her, which turned out well since the theater locked everyone out for the improv show.  We had to go in through the backstage area, which was kind of fun, actually, and I got to see Cara for a bit and meet her husband!  It was a  great evening full of laughs.

My nephew William also celebrated his 7th birthday, and wanted a pet turtle as a gift.  Other family members bought the tank and all, and I offered to buy the turtle when it was all set up.  Thus did they come down one February Saturday, and Astrid and I took William to Petsmart to get Sheldon, the African turtle.  Astrid immediately determined we should have a turtle, but no thank you!  She can live vicariously through William.  She sacrificed a dollar store toothbrush to Sheldon for turtle massages, and had fun playing with him while he lived in our kitchen sink for a while. Fun times!


We also took advantage of some really beautiful spring-like weather to go up and hike Government Island.  GI is a local park that used to be a stone quarry--the stone for the White House came from Gov't Island.  There is a VERY easy walking path/boardwalk type thing over the marshland, and then a hike up some easy hills and cliffs and quarried rock faces to climb on.  Astrid and Leah had a blast chasing each other around, climbing rocks with other kids, petting dogs, etc.  It was VERY busy there--we luckily got the last parking spot--since the weather was so nice, but it was a real lift to the spirits.

As I said above, Dipthi stayed with us for one night and then she and Astrid attended the AFS mid-stay orientation.  The orientation occurs at roughly the halfway point of the exchange year, and the point is to give the kids a chance to reflect on what they've accomplished and learned and what they want to accomplish and learn before departure day.  The mid-stay orientation here always takes place in Virginia Beach and the kids do a polar bear plunge into the cooooooold Atlantic Ocean!!  They had an absolute blast, as they always do, and the pictures and videos are so fun.  There was dancing, lots of food, beach time, and of course the orientation itself.

They're a great group of kids this year.  Astrid came home really energized and had a great time!

Astrid also got a paid babysitting gig, watching my BFF Amber's little guy so we could go out to celebrate Amber's birthday.  Leah doesn't pay any of the little boys we take care of a whole lot of mind until they quit doing her bidding, then she entertains them just enough to get them going again.  But Michael was thrilled to have Astrid around to pay attention to him and let Leah know he has other options :-)

We also celebrated Valentine's Day a tiny bit.  Each day I would put a heart on each girl's door with something I loved about them.  Astrid enjoyed getting a new message every day with some silly little thing and it was nice for me to reflect upon the things that make her special and important in my life!  On Valentine's Day itself, I gave the girls candy and flowers and cards.  It was fun to give them tangible reminders of why they're special, which I probably don't do enough of.

So that's most, much, or all of our February.  I can't think of too much else that we did.  I think we might have seen the movie Hidden Figures at some point, but I can't swear to it!  The days were a blur of play practices, basketball, kids, and all that good stuff.  We had a great month! 

January

While I'm busy blogging, I might as well try to wrap up as much about January as I possibly can.  My gosh, people!  We've been busy!

So, Astrid headed back to school on January 2nd, and she had decided over the break that she was going to see if she could join the basketball team.  Happily the coach agreed and I got a text asking me to pick her up after practice.  She has enjoyed getting to know the girls on the team, as they are some different people than she has gotten to know in cross country and in school in general.  I can't keep all her friends and acquaintances straight, which she finds frustrating. She'll be going on and on about Jane, and if I ask "Who's Jane?" she rolls her eyes and sighs deeply and says "JANE!  THE ONE IN THE PLAY!" or whatever.  But she's got far too many people she is friendly with.  It's not my fault, Astrid! :-D

So basketball has become a consuming sport in our lives. She asked if she could watch the boys play one night, so I took Leah to see the game after vision therapy.  I grew up in a VERY small town and in the winter, the only thing you could count on for entertainment was going to watch high school basketball.  I had forgotten how much I totally loved it, so I spent the time teaching Leah some of the finer points of the game.  Astrid was impressed.  Well, this touched off in me a wave of nostalgia, and now all I need to hear is the word "basketball" and I'm all in!  The boys played at the local university during the Martin Luther King holiday weekend, so we went to that, and we've also been to see Astrid's team play a home game.  It was a close game and unfortunately she didn't get to play, but we had fun watching her teammates come back from an 11 point deficient to win by 9 points.

We also went this past weekend to see the Fredericksburg Grizzlies play basketball at the college.  A former host family owns this American Basketball Association team, and we have been invited to many games.  This was the first one we could go to and it was a great time.  The Grizzlies lost by one point in a game whose scores went into triple digits.  It was pretty incredible.  There was lots of music and dancing and fun.  So I'm looking forward to lots of basketball this winter.  It will make the time go by much more quickly.

Astrid also auditioned for her school's spring production, a play called something like In-Laws, Outlaws, and Other People You Wish You Could Shoot.  She started rehearsals this week.  It's going to take up a TON of time, and I am a bit nervous about that, but I am looking ahead to the end of the road when I get to see her on stage and how proud I will feel of her and I know it will be great.  If you are free the weekend of March 25th and would like to see Astrid's American stage debut, contact me and I'll give you the information!

Also as part of the school's activities, Astrid joined up with some of her fellow upperclassmen to participate in Canstruction, a local event to collect canned goods to donate to the food pantry.  Local teams assemble, collect as many canned goods as they can, and then use those canned goods to create a display at the mall.  Astrid's school collected cans for weeks, and then she joined the group of kids building a Nascar stadium out of cans (they called it Nascan).  She was amazing at letting Leah hang around her and her friends, and they had a great time doing the building.  There were a lot of great displays there, but I'll selfishly say that FA's was the best!

Also where school was concerned, Astrid had to make a video for her biology class.  It had to show the beginnings of the universe, the creation of Earth after the Big Bang, and then from the dinosaurs to humans in 2 1/2 minutes.  She decided to cast Leah as a dinosaur, and Leah had been practicing for weeks as to the proper dinosaur stance, growling, and more.  On the day we shot the video, I spent some hours creating a dinosaur tail, we researched what colors dinosaurs were (interestingly enough, many were purple), and serving as assistant to the director, the star, props mistress, meteorologist, costumer, and more.  It was a lot of work for a 2 1/2 minute video, but Astrid got a great grade on it and we had fun doing it together.

A rare siting for the Leahsaurus in the wild

We also took some time on Martin Luther King weekend to go up to Baltimore to visit Leah's birth family.  We try to see them once a year but it has been a while since we've seen them, so it was past due.  We drove up Sunday afternoon after church and had a great time.  Astrid fell in love with Leah's little half-brother, Baby Za, who is just 2 years old.  Baby Za did not mind the attention whatsoever.  While we were there, Tasha, Leah's birthmom, had to run out to pick up some furniture she had purchased on line and Astrid asked if she could ride along with her.  It turned out to be a good thing she did, as apparently there were a lot of stairs and the furniture was quite heavy!  Tasha said she would never have survived if it hadn't been for Astrid's help.  I think they had a lot of fun together.  Leah was happy to see her birth family and we had a nice day.

Afterwards, we had dinner with Bill and Linda, our friends from the cruise who we had seen briefly when we went to Philadelphia in the fall.  Bill brought his motorcycle, as a while ago, Leah developed a fascinating with motorcycles and black leather jackets (which thank you God seems to have faded into the background).  He let both girls sit on it after dinner, and Astrid looked entirely too happy to be perched up on there.  It was too cold for the girls to go for a ride, but perhaps another time!

The next day, we decided to take a little road trip down to Bowling Green, VA, where the movie Loving takes place. You might remember that in December when Claudia was here, we went to see the film.  I had wanted thereafter to go visit the Lovings' grave sites and "thank" them for their courage and integrity and faith and love.  I think they really helped pave the way for my little family's transracial adoption.  And it was good for Leah to see that the Lovings were real people.

It took us about an hour to get down there.  I thought maybe with it being MLK Day, there would be a lot of people around, but it was totally quiet and we were the only ones there.  There was a small path on which to drive into the cemetery, which Astrid was totally opposed to, having never driven into a cemetery before, but we went in despite her objections.  We had stopped to get flowers for the graves, and Leah charitably split them in half.  It worked out that Leah gave her half to Richard Loving and Astrid gave hers to Mildred Loving.  It was very sweet indeed. 

Almost as soon as she placed the flowers, Leah fled to the car, saying she was too cold.  Astrid asked me if we could say a prayer, so I said that would be nice.  First she had to school me on the proper stance for saying Danish prayers, and then said an empassioned and lovely prayer of some sort in Danish.  I have no idea what she said other than "Mildred and Richard", but it did feel like the right thing to do.  The graves are very peaceful and I was glad we went.  That evening, we went to see the movie Hidden Figures, which I don't mind telling you was absolutely incredible.  It was so affirming to see those ladies in action and I hope Leah got a lot out of seeing smart, strong black women doing incredible things. I think I only cried about 6 times.  It is an absolute must-see movie, we all agreed.

Now, you may have heard that there was a hotly contested presidential election here in the US in November, and many people are very unhappy about the results.  I am one of those many people.  This past weekend, we had a chance to get very politically active.  AFS had warned host families that it advised against the students participating in demonstrations due to safety concerns and we were to take that under advisement in making plans for how we would witness history. 

Friday here in Fredericksburg, some people organized a silent inauguration.  The idea was for us to assemble in the local park and at the moment when the president took the oath of office, we would observe a 15 minute silence.  I took both girls out of school early and took them down to the protest, as I felt that it was important that they witness history.  As we all feel generally the same way, it was good they used their presence to voice their opposition to the regime.  The event was very moving.  It was attended by many friends of ours.  It was pouring rain, so there were lots of umbrellas, but everyone was happy to be together to support each other in our nation's darkest hours.  Rev. Doug from our church was the keynote speaker and there were lots of reporters and press there to cover the event.  You can read about it here. If you click through the pictures, you'll see one of Leah standing by herself, and you can see Astrid's scarf in the background. :)

On Saturday was the Women's March on Washington.  I decided I would use an abundance of caution but that we were not sitting out the march at home.  I had no doubt it would be historic and I wanted to go and I wanted my girls to go.  We spent Friday evening making signs and Astrid came up with her own lovely sentiments.  On Saturday morning, we drove up to my sister's, met up with her family, and caravaned up to the Metro, which we rode into DC.  Spirits were high and we met amazing women from all over the place, just on the train ride.    We got to the march site and unfortunately, Leah immediately had to go to the bathroom.  I took her and we were thus separated from our group.  I spent much of the day in a panic of what was going on with Astrid, but it turned out she had a great day with my sister and her family.  You'll have to ask her about it, I wasn't there. :)

We were all reunited later in the day at the cars and everything was fine.  As you all know there were no reports of violence, it was peaceful, and it was a truly incredible day full of spirit and resistance.  I would not want to be the current administration right now, to be sure.

The one picture I got of us all on Independence Ave. before we were separated.

On Monday, we had the opportunity to express our opinions in Richmond at the state government level.  In the late summer/early fall (Astrid was here, so I know it wasn't too early in the year), the UU hosted a speaker from One Virginia 2021 to speak about the situation in Virginia with gerrymandering.  Gerrymandering is a situation in which the politicans carve up the maps of the state to make it so that they are more likely to win elections.  Thus, the politicians choose us, we don't choose them.  They decide where to draw the voting lines and determine who votes in which areas.  Virginia is the fifth most gerrymandered state in the US, and we had the opportunity on Monday to go to Lobbying Day at the State Capitol to speak with our lawmakers about the situation and encourage them to support two bills that would allow for non-partisan redistricting of the state.  I decided to take both girls to Lobbying Day.  It was a unique opportunity for them to meet our elected officials and to get to observe the state Senate in action as we had been invited into the gallery.  We drove down to Richmond at 6:30AM Monday morning, far earlier than the girls even have to get out of bed for school, and attended a training on redistricting before heading out to see our lawmakers with others from our area.  Our first meeting was with Delegate Bill Howell, who is our representative in the Virginia House and is also the Speaker of the House for the state of Virginia.  It didn't go well, as he had no interest in non-partisan redistricting.  He likes the system as it is, largely because he can count on his own job security.  But it was good to meet him and we got an education on lobbying.  Our second appointment for the day was with Senator Richard Stuart, who was unfortunately unavailable.  We were able to meet with his legislative aide, O. T. Crowther, however, and have a conversation with him about the importance of redistricting along non-partisan lines, and he was actually quite open to the idea.  The girls got a picture with Mr. Crowther afterwards and he was very good to speak with and a good listener.  He didn't realize Astrid wasn't American, so he encouraged her to register to vote and he also encouraged Leah to be a voter, which I thought was extremely moving.

Afterwards, we went up into the Senate chamber at the Virginia State House and witnessed the Senate in action for a short time.  The members of our group were welcomed and publicly acknowledged, and that was pretty neat.  They even introduced "Susan Kosior and her two daughters".  :)

Afterwards, we went to the Marshall building for lunch and a debriefing and then on home.  It was a fascinating day--I was absolutely terrified as I don't know anything about lobbying and talking with politicans, but I learned a great deal and I think the girls did as well.  I was very pleased we went.

So now they are back in school and things are hopefully settling down a bit.  As we head into February, we will have play practice and basketball, and thankfully winter break when we are heading south to see Savannah GA where Forrest Gump was filmed.  Mama needs some sunlight and warm weather--the girls can tell you I've been a bit grumpy lately!  Other things on the horizon for this busy family include a benefit for St. Jude's Hospital, more political action/organizing, Lukas Graham in concert, a chili cook off, upcoming AFS mid-winter orientaton weekend and a ski trip, movies, birthdays, and more.  Stay tuned!