OUR CHILDREN CAN FLY

ROSA SAT

SO

MARTIN COULD WALK

MARTIN WALKED

SO

OBAMA COULD RUN

OBAMA RUNS

SO

OUR CHILDREN CAN FLY

Camping at Fort Desoto

CLOUDY
HOT &
RAINY










ELLIE"S
FIRST
CAMPING
TRIP


NEW
TENT












TOO
ROUGH
TO
SWIM

But hey, who said camping was supposed to be fun? Not that Ft. Desoto doesn't have a lot to offer, but camping north of the state line would have been more enjoyable. Thank goodness for the day-room at the campground. We had somewhere to go when the wind blew so hard it pushed the tent over on top of us.

Oh, and did I mention the racoon that got inside our tent and knocked over a grape soda that Ellie had left in there - all over the new air mattresses and sleeping bag and Harry Potter, Prisioner of Askaban. And no swimming due to the rough surf.

So, Ellie's first camping experience didn't go well. But she's not disheartened - yet. But we all agree that the next time we go camping - it will be during cooler and dryer weather - or in the mountains of North Carolina or Maine. Who's crazy idea was it to camping in Florida in August anyway?

A morning at the museum

The first place we go after school is The Ringling Museum of Art. Unfortunately we aren't allowed to take pictures inside....oh, well. It fun to ride the tram and visit the gift shop. And sometimes the traveling exhibits are even fun for Ellie.

Ellie gives Presentation on China

Recently, one night at Ellie's school, Ellie gave a presentation on China in front of all the parents of her class. Our camera wasn't working, so we had her recreate the scene at home.

Ellie had a lot to do; research, writing the information, selecting, and tracing then coloring the pictures. Then she practiced until she knew what she was going to say by heart. This is what she said:

"Hi. My name is Ellie Lowe and I studied China for my end-of-the-year project. China is the largest country in Asia. The capital of China is Bejing. China has the largest population of any country in the world. This is a picture of the Great Wall of China. It was built over 2,000 years ago. China's flag is red with five golden-yellow stars. It was adopted in September 1949. This is a picture of a panda bear. Thank you and I hope you enjoyed my presentation".

She did a fantastic job; standing on a small stage, speaking into a microphone, using a pointer and remembering her lines at the same time - she was very strong in her delivery - very confident. Later, she told Dave that she felt "powerful" when she was on stage. Wonder what that means for her/our future?

Ellie's Collections

Ellie has greatly enjoyed collecting the Statehood Commemorative Quarters. With a little help from her friends and family she has come close to having a complete set.

As you may be able to see from this picture, she is only lacking four quarters from this year (2008) and one from 2003. The missing quarters are: New Mexico, Arizona, Alaska and Hawaii, all 2008 (Hawaii is not due out until late August); and Maine, 2003. So keep an eye out and send any quarters you may find. Ellie will be so appreciative and very happy when she has them all.

She has already decided that she will be collecting stamps next. First, she wants to collect Chinese stamps. She has one sheet of the commemorative Chinese New Years Stamps that PauPau gave her. But other stamps from China and foreign countries will also fit into her collection.

Thanks to everyone that helped (and will help) Ellie in her collections.

Some more photos - for fun

Bryn, Libby, Ellie and Anna - Summer 2007, Portland, Maine

Bryn, Libby, Anna and Ellie - Summer 2007, Portland, Maine

Ellie on a beach near Portland Maine, Fall, 2003

And Now Bo is Gone

Bo would have been 11 years old in a few weeks, but the cancer that has waged war on his body for the past year finally reached his brain and took our Bogus from us today.

What can you say about such a sweet, happy soul? He brought joy into our every day. No one who met Bogus forgot him. And he came into our lives when we needed him most. He thought us patience and tolerance. He was our buddy; our companion; and often the one soul who would lend an ear when no one else could.

He was ever-present; always by my knee; watching us make dinner hoping for a tidbit to hit the floor; never far off taking his naps. Yeah, Bo could sit-stay all day long if he thought food was involved. But he did it other times too. He really was very bright and full of heart. He loved being loved on and he didn't mind asking for attention. He loved car rides, fishing, running, sunning himself, and swimming at the lake. And he loved people watching from the front door or the car or the dock at the lake; it was all good stuff.

Bo's greatest ability was enjoying life to it's fullest and if there's any one lesson I can learn from him it is that. To love and live life to it's fullest, just like my Bo.

Bob Marrys Mel

It was January 12th. As the tower chimes ended, soft violin music plays.
Freddie brings Mel down the isle at Bok Tower Gardens.

My brother Bob and beauitiful Mel exchange vows.




Bob and Mel and the lovely flower girl Nicole.





The kids all became instant friends.
Mark (closest to camera) was the ring bearer.





The beautiful and delicious cake.




The first dance as husband and wife.



Together forever ......

Some Christmas Photos

Katie, Ellie and Anna


David, Katie, Ellie and Anna



Ellie signing a Christmas song

Ellie as Hannah Montana ....

Happy Holidays from the Lowe Family

As we reflect on this past year we realize it has been exciting, fun and a bit challenging too. We’ve had a lot of “firsts” – first day of first-grade for Ellie; Dave’s first publication of a project (in the June edition of SRQ magazine); and our first summer vacationing on beautiful Hancock Pond in Maine (we hope the first of many, many more).

Thankfully, our challenges have been few: Wendy’s broken arm (back in January) and Bogus’ on-going cancer treatments for lymphoma. We’ve hit a milestone with our wait for Andrianna. In November our paper-work (or “dossier”) has been in China for one year. We expected to wait a least 14 to 18 months, so this is no surprise, but now we are expecting to wait another two to three years (for reason too varied and numerous to explain here). So, a year may seem like a lot, but it’s not – still, we are trying to view it as a positive.

Dave has really been enjoying playing guitar. He gets together about once a week with Jim, Dale and Micah to play rock, jazz and blues. They also get invited to play at parties once in a while. They have great fun together.

Wendy has been substituting at Ellie’s school occasionally. Ellie enjoys having her mom at school very much. Ellie has been taking tumbling and art classes after school this year. Her favorite is doing the backwards roll.

We had a wonderful reunion this summer with some of Ellie’s Chinese Sisters in Portland, Maine. We had a wonderful time; the girls really connected.

And as we gather with family and friends during the holidays, we are thinking of all of you that we can't be with. We wish you all the Joy of the Season and a Happy New Year.

Fall colors in our yard mean reds and oranges, white and green - always green. The gingers are fading and will soon be gone. The frangipani are loosing it's leaves and will be bare sticks until spring; as will the mulberry's.

But most other things will retain their leaves, not that they won't go through a leave drop and leaf-out, it's just that they do it at the same time, like the oaks which do their transition in the spring. It's a huge mess. But until then we have a riot of color, in celebration of the holidays.

After the New Year the trees will flush out in all sorts of colors - fluorescent yellow, scarlet red, purple-blue. And the reds and the oranges of the bushes and flowers continue then too. It's almost too much, but I can't wait.

Presently I am dis-heartened by the citrus in our yard. The trees have bearly made it this year from the lack of rain-fall. The fruit is limited and is quickly turning to rot before it fully ripens. The trees are simply too stressed to produce fruit of any quantity or quality this year. I just hope they don't fail completely.

My favorite plant this year is the curly fern I bought from Selby Gardens this past spring. It has done so well under the litchi tree amongst the orchids and gingers. I split it into two and it has grown double in size. It has "feet" wrapped around the pots half-way down already. You gotta love it.

BEST FRIEND BOBO (Bogus)

"Who's your friend"?, Dave said. I looked down between my legs and I found a mud-caked, soaking-wet brown-black pup who was all feet, tail and tongue. He had this huge grin on his face, he was sooo happy to see me. His tail wagged his entire body in excitement and he flopped over in the mud from the force of it.

"Hey there. What's your name"?, I said. He dashed out, his head acting as a pivot for his entire body, that swung around and began to run backwards into the yard. He never took his eyes off me and he only got more excited and happy. His tail bounced in the air, he lowered his shoulders and bounced up again. "Come play with me, come play with me", he seemed to say. He took my heart right there and then.

We named him Bogus after a character in a movie played by Gerard de Pardeu. In it he was rather silly guy with long brown hair. He wore nothing but brown and was a little boys imaginary-best friend. Our Bogus has long brown fur, can be very silly, but is very real.

Ellie calls him BoBo. Most times we call him Bo. He loves food of any color, shape or cuisine. He loves car rides, boat rides and lakes. He likes to fish and chase cats and other small animals - for a short distance. He loves to sleep and dream. He loves to bark at other dogs. He loves to get tummy rubs and back scratches. He knows at least 50 words or phases. He'll do anything for a treat.

Now Bo has cancer and we've been treating it with chemo for six months. But it's come back. He is ten years old and he is too young to die. He is simply too young to die. I'm not sure what else to say.

One Year Ago. That's when our dossier to adopt Andrianna was logged-in at the CCAA in China. November 14th, 2006. We were told at the time to expect to wait 12 to 14 months for a referral. Isn't that a joke? The people who are currently receiving a referral have waited over two years. The referrals are coming at such a slow rate that the projection for us is to receive a referral sometime in late 2010 or 2011.

Will we really have a four to five year wait? Can we wait that long? Hard to imagine, right? It's hard for us to consider, believe me.

The fact is that we truly don't know when China might send us our referral. They might start sending more referrals per month, or they might shut down completely. No one knows. These are their children and they get to decide what is best for them. It doesn't matter if we agree or not.

For now we are in a state of limbo, unsure of what to do; of how to proceed. Should we stick this wait out, switch to another country or stop this adoption altogether? We have invested a lot of time, money and emotions in this adoption. We don't want to turn our backs on China. We want another child. Ellie wants a sister. And we want her soon, not in three or four years.

A lot can happen in three or four years, and we will be different people then. In four years we will be 51, 52 and Ellie will be 10. I can certainly imagine that our hearts would still be open to loving another child at that point in our lives, but I know that we would not be prepared to raise an infant from that point. And finding and older child to adopt from China if very difficult, for too many reasons to go into here.

So the question is: Do we put our lives on hold for another three to four years? Does that make sense for us? I'm not sure what the answer is yet.

HALLOWEEN WASHING MACHINE

HALLOWEEN 2007

Nothing like a holiday centered on lights and candy - at least in "Ellie's World".

First Ellie wanted to be a robot, then an airplane and finally a washing machine. Whew! We'll be glad when she can create her wonderful visions all by herself. She wore her washing machine to a party Saturday night (where her daddy played in his band), and where there was supposed to be prize for the best costume. But none was awarded. She was very, very, very disappointed, not to be able to compete. She was sure she would win. And she was sure the prise would involve candy. She's a trooper. No tears. She just decided she had enough of that silly old party once she had her fill of cupcakes and juice.

She quickly has set her sites on Halloween Night!

And Ellie was a great help with the pumpkin, after she woke Dad up from his Sunday afternoon nap to remind him that he promised he would help her carve it TODAY. She helped me with decorating the front of the house and runs out every night to light the house up. Tomorrow morning is the Halloween Parade at school - and hence the madness begins. Unless candy rush from now until Easter. UGH!

These Moments Never Last Long Enough

A little Someone for Ellie

This little guy was based on a drawing that Ellie made - so I can take no credit for the creative design - it's all Ellie. I just gave him three dimensions.

The "Wet"

The rains have begun in earnest and our yard has responded in kind. Over the last few weeks my orchid bench has been in bloom with the most prolific bloomers. And now, it shows signs of the flowers that bloom less often, to come soon.

The balance of the yard, on whole, is rebounding well from this awful drought we've had in small, but meaningful ways. The yard, once a dust-bowl, is now covered with a clover-like weed. The leeche tree is flushing out with new leaves that are twice the size as it's old ones. The ferns, lantana, wandering jew, and other such plants are doubling in size in the last few weeks, like they know this is their one and only chance to grow and spread.

The rains have been non-stop in the last two weeks, only a day or two have passed without a sizable accumulation. There are snails on my front window - a big one yesterday. Things are very damp. The "wet" is as it should be for this time of year. Perhaps we can actually make our way out of the official drought conditions and things will return to a normal rainy pattern. Perhaps not. But I can hope, can't I?

Hancock Loons

On Hancock Pond, the loons came to the end of the pond next to our "camp", singing in groups of two, three and even four. They fished in the mornings and early evening. And in the afternoons they would swim by the dock as we were swimming and relaxing, and then dive deep, disappearing for several minutes, only to pop back up several hundred feet away.

We didn't, for some reason, get any photos of them, and only caught a few seconds of video. It's not digital, so these borrowed photos will have to do - wish we had our own to share. They are amazing to watch.

What was so striking about the loons was how low they sit in the water and of course, their loud, beautiful, soulful calls. For more on Loons, check out - www.mainebirding.net/birds/Loons

Latest Addition to the Family

Here she is.

She's a Vose and Brothers, Boston, MA, Baby Grande, Style B, Serial Number 98961. Built in 1927. She's got a cracked sound board, but that's common for a piano of this vintage and doesn't affect it - to our ears anyway.

She's showing it's age, but we got her for about 1/3 less than what they are being sold on the internet, and for the same as a used upright. The sound is what sold us - SOLD!

It's hard to sit here and not in front of it...so I'm off now. Ellie won't let me play after she's home.