This and That

So here's what has been happening this week.  I dropped and broke the last dish from my wedding stoneware collection.  Still have the serving components but this was my last bowl from the daily use stuff.  Lovely blue Pfaltzgraff pattern.  Pretty good for 34 years!

 After finding ourselves slowly sliding back into bad eating patterns we watched another Netflix documentary Forks Over Knives, I talked with my friend Karen who hosts my Thursday AM women's group and is a 3 year vegan, cleaned out the fridge & cupboards, hit the library shelves and Tom & I both have committed to a plant based diet for at least May.  No meat, no dairy, no refined sugars or other crap.  Wish us luck!

 Every Thursday morning I drive by the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria on my way to my small group.  Have never been inside but need to put it on the list.  It looked especially pretty and green yesterday after two days of hard rain.

 Met up with Kristin and our international students for a quick visit at Ebeneezer's near Union Station as they are all wrapping up finals.  Alexis and Michel both leave for home next week….Alexis to Singapore until August and Michel to China for just 10 days before coming back for an internship this summer.  We talked and laughed about all kinds of things including the stuff they like best about the US.  A lot of their choices had to do with Georgetown U.  Small classes, professors who seem genuinely interested in them and who have office hours!  They love the openness and friendly people in the US and the freedoms we enjoy.  It has been such a blessing to see our country through their eyes this year!  We also talked about their plans for their lives.  Michel mentioned she'd like to have 3 children while Kristin and Alexis both said they were only interested in possibly adopting 1 child each. Michel said she didn't think someone could possibly love an adopted child as much as one they had given birth to.  I explained that I was sure anyone with adopted children would say they loved that child as much as their natural children and told her about friends with their own children who recently adopted 2 boys from Ethiopia and our gay friends Kirt and Jerry who after much work, money, and jumping through legal hoops, had adopted a darling baby boy and are completely "over the moon" in love with him.  I of course had to explain what "over the moon" meant!
A few minutes later a darling blonde woman sitting at the window you see behind us came over and said "I couldn't help but hear the word adoption about six times in your conversation and I just need to show you something".  She pulled out her phone and showed us the photo of a darling African American baby and said "We adopted this baby a year ago and yes, we love this child as much as our other children!"  She then told us to turn around where a friend of hers was standing with another African American child near a stroller and said he was adopted as well.  She couldn't have been more joyous or charming in her explanation.  After she left Michel said…."And that's another thing I love about Americans.  Never in a million years in China would someone sitting next to you come over, admit they were eavesdropping and show you a photo of their adopted child!"  Ha ha ha!  Good for you outgoing Americans!

Teri, Kristin, Michel and Alexis