Christmas in VA

We celebrated our Christmas early this year with the kids since Mayra was going to be in Mexico and Crystal back in northern Virginia on Christmas day. Travis, Rob and I will be in FL celebrating with Ama, Gram Moore, Uncle Brian, Caitlin and Siena.

Rob's Birthday 12-16

We celebrated Rob's 43rd Birthday with all 3 kids here. Crystal went to Lynchburg and picked up Travis and Mayra from school and they arrived on Friday night with much laundry and very tired eyes. Saturday we made Rob breakfast and then had cake and ice cream. He relaxed most of the day and then we went to Season's for Dinner and then to a Christmas concert that evening.

Christmas is coming

Rob and I went with our friends, the Cooks, to see hear the Community Choir at the Methodist church perform "The Messiah". THey do it every year and are just fantastic. The voices were spectacular and the orchestra very professional. It is comprised of people from all over the community who come together for 4 practices and this concert. You come away from it filled with a wonderful christmas spirit.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent Thanksgiving in PA with Rob's parents. As is the custom, we had ravioli along with all the other traditional Thanksgiving goodies. Jane made apple and pumpkin pie too! Mayra came with us and we did A LOT of shopping out with all the crazies trying to get some good bargains. (which we did!) We also got to shoot the pistol out in the woods. I was a pretty good shot and almost took down a tree branch with the 357magnum shells. Mayra hit the target a few times and Rob and Bob are old hands at it. We all enjoyed some nice rest and relaxation (and some good card playing) and then were back on the road to take Mayra back to school and us back home. We certainly had/have many things to be thankful for this year.

Here is an updated picture of Cadet Passanita! Travis sent us this one recently and we both had to take a second look. He looks so grown up! He won't be with us for Thanksgiving but he will be here for Christmas so we will get to see him in person. He's having a great time at Liberty and has made some good friends. We should be getting some grades at some point in the near future. I guess that will show us just how much fun he is REALLY having.

Just a quick (OK, maybe not so quick)update about a few things we have been doing. We went to Parent's Weekend at Liberty in late October and got to see Travis and Mayra and spend some time with them. We also attended the wedding of the daughter of a friend of ours. (I know, very comlicated to figure out)
Laura finished up her teaching stint at WCA this week and is now free to get back to fixing things up and cleaning things out at the house. Our game room has been repainted and we are in the process of adding a wetbar as well as setting up our 50gal fish tank again.
Crystal came for the weekend last week and we had a good time getting to spend some time with her and hearing about what was going on in her life up in Northern VA.
We are looking forward to a few goings on coming up. Laura will be going to a baby shower for her friend Carol who has just adopted a little boy from Guatamala and at the same time she will get to see her other friend Lisa and her 2 month old twin boys! (fun fun) Laura's grandmother will turn 97 on November 26th (she is truly amazing!)and we will be going to PA for Thanksgiving with Rob's parents. Mayra will be with us for the holiday as well. We will look forward to seeing her. Our church has just purchased a facility and we will be helping to get it ready for the first service some time in December.
We still pray daily about and for our new children who are in Ukraine waiting for us. We pray that the Lord will prepare us and them to be a family. Our paperwork is complete and will be sent over in January for approval. We hope that in the late spring or early summer we will be traveling to go pick them out. The Lord is truly in charge of this one! No preplanning for us as we don't know what age and gender we will end up with but we do know that God knows and will supply us with whatever we need at just the right time. We are blessed to have good friends and family to follow along with us on this journey.

Laura started teaching today at Williamsburg Christian Academy (where Travis and Mayra attended). She will be teaching 3rd and 6th period History to the 8th graders for the next month while the school finds a permanent teacher. Should be an exciting time but she will enjoy getting to know the kids. Two of them are from Ukraine so perhaps she will learn a little Russian on the side.

Travis came home for the first time since he left for Liberty University in mid August. We hadn't heard much him from so we knew he was having a great time and getting adjusted to his new independence at college. He brought 2 of his friends with him, David and Julie, and we enjoyed meeting them and making sure they had some good home cooked meals for which they were extremely grateful. We think the visit was actually to do some laundry however we just enjoyed being able to give him a hug and let him know we think about him often. Of course we would love to hear from him a little more often (hint hint, Travis) but understand the fun things at college are much more exciting than calling your parents. They attended church with us this morning and then they were off to see the womens national soccer team play in Richmond. We sent him off with some goodies so he is now stocked up until the next the time.

Fun with the Morrow children

Rob and I have been keeping the 3 youngest Morrow children (they have 9 all together) since Sunday and we have enjoyed the house full of laughter and giggles. They are great children and well behaved most of time. McKenzie is 8 and in the 2nd grade. We have done hair and picked out clothes to wear and read "Little House in the Big Woods" each night with great excitement. Ryland is 6 and in 1st grade. He gets his homework done in a flash and loves to do crafts and build things nad play with his action figures. Alexander is the youngest but will tell he is not"the baby"; He is a big boy. He loves to watch the Land Before Time movies and will talk to whomever he comes across on the playground. He is quite the chatter box but doesn't like to go to bed (what 4 year old does). Laura has enjoyed spoiling them to pieces and will look forward to thier visiting every once in a while after they go home (they live 3 doors down from us). Rob likes to make the boys laugh and talk with McKenzie but its back to a quite house after today. More fun will be on its way when we get our Ukranian kids so in the mean time we just borrow other peoples kids to spoil for a while.

Mayra came home this weekend with 8 of her friends from Liberty. As you can see they slept, ate, and had fun. Rob and I enjoyed hearing the laughter and seeing the wonderful spirit these girls exuded. Rob made a delicious beef brisket that everyone enjoyed. The girls went to Va Beach and Colonial Williamsburg and still had time to watch movies and eat snacks until all hours of the night. They also went with us to church and then we sent them off with some snacks and drinks back to Lynchburg and the daily grind of college life. We hope they will visit again for some more "home" cooking and great fellowship and fun.

Summer 2006

He we are just the two of us. Until mid August we were never just "the 2 of us". Now with Travis and Mayra off to college we get to actually be "just the 2 of us" for a short while. I say short while because we are about to blessed with 2 additional members to our family. We don't know them yet but God does and is preparing them to be part of the Passanita family. So far, with Rob's 2 children and our Mexican daughter and then our 2 new Ukranian children, that makes 5! We are truly blessed. We are going to enjoy our time alone remodeling, eating out, going on drives, and general relaxation while we wait to be invited to get our new children and hopefully hear from our other ones once in a while as well.

September 16, 2006

Here is Travis, currently the youngest, with Mayra, our Mexican daughter, on the day Travis turned 18! We went to an event at Bull Run park in Manasas, VA to see Jeremy Camp in concert with Barlow Girl, Mathew West, and several other Christian groups. It was a fun time and enjoyed by all. At least that what they told us. We stayed overnight and then went to sunday brunch at the Marriott at Dulles Airport with all 3 kids (Crystal, Travis, Mayra). Then we headed back to Lynchburg to drop Travis and Mayra back off at Liberty University where they both attend. Travis is a Freshman this year and Mayra is a junior. Neither one of them get enough sleep, eat enough vegatables, or call as often as we'd like but they are having a lot of fun and we are glad they are enjoying their college experience and hopefully the grades will be in line as well. We are very proud of them and will enjoy any visits home that they make.