Our winter started off with a great visit from some sweet friends. We meet the Lots family 9.5 years ago in China when we were adopting Abram. We became quick friends and have stayed in touch over the years but haven't seen them since then. We had a wonderful visit with them.
In January, on the Sanctity of Life Day, D.C. is the site for the National March for Life. What a joy it is to live in a country where we can freely march, to be able to talk about defending life with our boys and have dear friends to march with. We missed it last year and we are so glad we were able to march this year. Such an important day!
This was the first year since we've been here that Chinatown had a Chinese New Year parade! First, we ate in a sushi go round in China Town... so fun and delicious! Then we watched the parade. Jack and Luke wore Chinese silks that our friends gave us. There weren't any fireworks, but the boys enjoyed feeding dollars to the dragon and seeing the dragons dance.
A highlight to our winter was seeing the play, A Horse and His Boy at the Museum of the Bible. It was an amazing production but more importantly, our piano and violin instructor, Lewis, was in it. The life size puppets were stunning. We were even allowed to go backstage after the play to meet the cast members and learn how the puppets were made.
Abram went to a birthday party at a fun place called "Climb Zone." He came home and told me we have to take Luke and Jack! Surprisingly, they have homeschool days on Wednesdays, so we took the day off and went climbing. All three had a blast.
To wrap up our quarter studying 6 famous artists, we took a field trip with our CC community to the National Art Gallery. We were matched with an amazing docent who took us to see works of art from the artists that we studied. It was incredible to watch it all come to life for these kids. To be able to see original works of art from famous artists- we are so blessed to live in this amazing place. We saw works by Degas, Monet, Van Gogh, Rembrant and Gainsborough.
Another highlight of our winter was our boys' first concert. Our family's favorite Christian artist is Toby Mac. We always have his music on at home and in the car. We loved taking them to his concert. They had a blast watching him perform their favorite songs live. He not only performed, but he worshipped. It was amazing!
Our CC community had our Faces of History event in March. These students never cease to amaze me. They select a person from a certain time period, research them, write a paper, and give a presentation while in character. This year Abram chose to do God's Smuggler, Brother Andrew. We learned so much about him and truly came to see that God uses our situations for our good and His glory.
And we wrapped up our winter with surgery #10 for Abram. He had his bone graft surgery for the fourth time. They take bone marrow from his hip and put it into his gum line. After the surgery he has 6 weeks of liquid diet and limited physical activity. He is so very brave and he never worries or complains. He just knows this is apart of his story.
Those six weeks are pretty tough for our family- but one night something pretty exciting happened! We heard a knock on our door and I realized it was my best friend's niece, Nykol. She goes to school in D.C. and Stephanie had her go get ice cream and root beer for Abram and deliver it to us. I feel like I think sometimes simple gestures aren't important, but after this night I realized it's the simple gestures that mean the most. To see the huge smile on Abram's face just brought me to tears. When he realized that someone in Houston had ice cream delivered to him, he felt so very special.
