April Showers...

I remember at the end of March looking ahead to April and thinking it would be a busy month and be gone before I knew it, but of course, I had no idea just how fast it could go!  I've already blogged about Spring Break, which you can read about here, so this will be a much shorter entry than previous monthly wrap ups.  This may not be entirely chronologically correct, because some of these things happened and I don't know when, so I'm going to do my best.

Astrid survived the prom and then we had another big event upcoming:  Leah's birthday.  She was turning 8 and after the success of the tea party we had in September for a church fundraiser, announced she also wanted a tea party with her friends to come as princesses.  My father was coming for a visit as well.  Leah was excited to have Friday off school so she could have a PopPop Day, so Astrid announced she was taking Thursday off school to have a PopPop Day.  It was settled.  PopPop Day for Astrid involved lunch at Wegman's and then a trip to Ulta, the make up store, her mecca.  Neither my sister nor I was ever into make up, so my father had been spared this indignity when we were kids, but as both Astrid and Leah are big time into it, he gamely played along for about ten minutes.  When he saw there was such a thing as beard cream and wardrobe tape, he had more than he could bear, so he handed me a $20 bill and told me to get Astrid something before slinking out to his car to hide.  She got herself a NYX tame-and-frame brow pomade.  She was so happy.  Later that evening, we went to have cheeseburgers at Cheeburger Cheeburger, and it was a very nice day indeed. 

On Friday evening, it was all hands on deck as we prepared for Leah's birthday party.  Our main goal for the evening was to watch a movie, eat pizza, and blow up literally hundreds of balloons.  I had seen some ideas on Pinterest for princess party decor with balloons, and was planning to make towers, but somehow it turned into a giant couple of arches.  We were blowing up balloons for a couple of hours, watched The Producers, and had a great time.

We were very proud of our handiwork.

The next day, at the princess tea, Astrid was pressed into service as a waitress again, and wore her St. Jude's gown.  PopPop brought a fancy outfit from his English country dancing to be the butler, and I was dressed in all black as the kitchen wench.  Leah had 5 friends come and they had a ball.  We hired a princess actress (The Bup's Aunt Mary Anne) to come as Sleeping Beauty and she did makeovers and games and party fun.  The girls had a marvelous time and what a beautiful day Leah had to celebrate her "champagne birthday". 

We also found out that our current Lieutenant Governor, Ralph Northam, was coming into town for a campaign event the following week.  I wanted to meet him, look him in the eye, talk to him about some of the concerns I had read about him online, and some of my concerns as a citizen.  I also thought it'd be really great for the girls to meet another official of the government, as they had already met the Speaker of the House of the state. Astrid and I offered Leah a quarter if she would ask Lt. Gov. Northam if he was going to win, and she happily obliged and was rewarded with money for the gumball machine. 

He was a very interesting man, well spoken, good listener, and I got a lot out of meeting him.  He was happy to pose for pictures with both girls, which was great.  I think they enjoyed it as well.

We also had the opportunity to attend a Passover Seder at the UU that week. There are a lot of Jewish people we know who attend UU and last year, they decided to have their first seder as a celebration of their faith.  Leah and I weren't able to attend, but we were excited to go this year and I thought it would be interesting and educational for all of us.  It was totally jam packed and the ceremony part of it wound up being quite long, so it was a bit hard for Leah to sit through, but it was really interesting and we all learned a lot.  We ate a lot of matzoh and we all absolutely loved the matzoh ball soup!  It was delicious.  The traditional readings and music were very moving and Leah and Astrid won a contest where something was hidden in the sanctuary and if you found it, you won $1. 

Afterwards there was a nice potluck meal and the food was just great.

Also at the UU after Spring Break, they had a celebration of Pagan and Earth-centered religions, which I know even less about than I do the Jewish traditions.  There was a woman who came and taught us dances of universal peace.  As part of this, we danced in a couple of big circles and did some chants.  It was really like nothing I've ever done before, but it was fun and interesting to learn about and create music and movement with the whole community.  If you click on the photo below, you can see an enlarged version of the photo and we are on the right hand side.

We were still a little tired from Spring Break, but I'm glad we went.

We've also resumed our spring cook outs with my sister and her family and Astrid came along to Locust Shade Park to a couple of these.  We've been trying to get fancy with the food and do some experimental cooking beyond hot dogs and hamburgers, which has been fun.  A few flops, of course, but ultimately we've learned and tried some interesting things.  We especially enjoyed our foil dinners, and a stir fry I was able to make.  When we get our usual grill site, the kids have woods to play in and the playground to run around on, which is good fun for them, and the grown ups can keep an eye on them and still cook and hang out.  We've been talking about a little camping trip since the kids like being outdoors and Leah is asking about it, but for now we will stick with the park. 

We also had a wonderful opportunity to all go up to Washington DC on April 27th to attend WAMU's 10 Year Volunteers Awards Gala at NPR headquarters.Both my sister and I have been volunteers at WAMU for 10+ years and were among the honorees.  I had asked the woman in charge if I could bring both girls and happily she said yes!  It was an absolutely wonderful night, and I was so glad the girls could see me being rewarded for some of my hard work over the years.  They got to meet other people we have become friendly with through our work, they got to meet the volunteer coordinator, and one of the show hosts.  It was awesome.  And it was nice that we all got dressed up fancy and went out together.  It really was a super special night for me.

The girls and I with my sister and BIL with Joshua Johnson, host of 1A

Astrid was also cleared to return to soccer at the end of the month and has gotten some playing time in.  We have enjoyed going to her games and were thrilled she got to play for two weeks before the championships started.  The team has had a rough season, but they've persevered and worked hard together. 

FA Women's Soccer Team

No matter when I take her picture, she has her back to me!  Go #25!

The last game we got to see, the girls won 5-2, which was a BIG lift to their spirits, and Astrid even got an assist, which she was crazy proud of!  (As were we!) 

Leah and Astrid at the mall

We've had some fun nights as a family too, just quiet times at the mall, going to dinner, attending the FA band concert, church services, that kind of thing.  Leah attended Camp Rainbow, a camp for kids who have lost a loved one, and Astrid went with me to the final ceremonies and supported Leah there.  We went back to the We Are For America protest after the disastrous US healthcare vote.  Astrid is certainly getting an education in politics this year--as am I, because I have never in my life been so inclined to be politically active.  The latest protest was a bit smaller than the last one, but we had some supporters drop off Sugar Shack donuts and donations to Planned Parenthood while we were there, so that was pretty exciting!  Everyone generally considers this area a  pretty red stronghold, so it's nice to see progressive support!

"My feet hurt, Astrid"

Sisters

Letting the community know we are here!

Finally this past weekend was a busy one!  Astrid had her pre-return orientation with AFS this weekend.  She went up to Alexandria on Saturday and spent the day with the other AFS kids, and they had a great time doing a scavenger hunt and learning about how to prepare themselves to return home in fewer than 50 days (say it ain't so!).  Astrid's team won the Scavenger Hunt!  Way to go, team!  My sister Judy brought Astrid home Saturday evening, as I was hosting a dinner for the UU at our house, and there were a bunch of young kids running around.  Astrid immediately started playing with them, chasing them around the yard, toasting marshmallows, finding lost shoes and toys.  She just loves kids! :)

Astrid and Leah both ran in the 2017 Great Train Race.  Leah runs every year with her school, which hosts a running club and she loves it!  We went to packet pick up on Thursday to get her bib and running swag and I could sort of kind of tell that Astrid was keen to run it as well, so I asked the lady in charge if Astrid could also run, and she said they had plenty of room for teens!!  So we signed her up and Sunday morning, off we went.  Astrid's friend and Leah's favorite victim Chris was also running, so we got to see him and his family, plus two families from the UU and even a family from Camp Rainbow/Leah's toddler days!  It was pretty awesome.  The run is 1 mile long, and Astrid's goal was to complete it in under 9 minutes.  She did it in under 8!!!  Leah did it in under 9, down from her run of 11 minutes last year.  I was so proud of them both!  Chris also did very well and earned a trophy, which he proudly flashed around in Astrid's face. Hahaha  He was sweet enough to come with us to cheer for Leah through to the bitter end and pose for Leah's carefully arranged pictures and even hold her hand for the walk back to the car.  What a nice kid!

Astrid preparing on the Start Line

Leah on the Start Line

Astrid and Chris and The Trophy

Three Champion Finishers!

So that brings us to today.  Today is, as I say, 49 days till she leaves us, as she determined this morning.  I have a full array of activities planned and our weekends are jam packed between now and D Day.  She has of course the soccer post-season to finish up, sports awards to go to, we have a painting party for the UU planned, she has a birthday party to attend, we've got trips to Kings Dominion and Natural Bridge upcoming, as well as celebrating Memorial Day at Wolf Trap and the F'burg Illumination.  SO I know that May will be gone before we know it.  It is a bittersweet time of year, knowing we have a lot of fun left, but knowing it is closing in on the end.  As the Buddha may or may not have said, in one of the great controversies of the Internet:

We'll keep being grateful for every day and saying our "I love you"s every night :)  See ya in a few weeks!

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!