Harris Family June 2008 news Letter

Steve & Chantelle Family,

This couple of months have been busy and fun. Brokton finished his first set of hooked on phonics books. He did it in just under 2 months! He is making a ton of progress with good behavior and respect. He is listening more and I am finally feeling like we are doing it right!

Evelyn has also started reading. She will be kindergarten age this fall (the cut off here is Sept 30) and we plan on home schooling her as well. She is kind sweet and fun to be with.

Jenai is getting bigger all the time. She loves to hear stories and have me read books to her. Her favorite time of day (and ours) has become morning cuddle time. She comes in our bed and cuddles and watches Little Einstein’s or Wonder Pets.



We are all excited that our adoption process has come very far. We had to redo our background checks because of them being time sensitive but the adoption committee has approved us on everything. So once we get them back (any day now) we will be fully approved and able to be presented to birth moms/dads.

Steve has been sooooooooooo busy with work. It seems if he's not working he's sleeping or playing in the garden or trying to hide from Brokton who seems to think the two need to be inseparable and always in a "project". He enjoys his job and is learning a lot. If you haven't gotten to check the blog Steve got to go on a short cruise on the navy ship our neighbor Troy is commissioned on. He left about 5 am and got home around 6 or 7 pm. Troy's wife Katrina wanted to go to so that meant I got to brave 5 kids with varying needs 7 and under for the whole day. It was like having 3 sets of twins. Jenai and Anika (2 1/2 months apart), Evelyn and Collin (7 months apart) and Brokton who counts for 2 himself! :)

The subject of being BRAVE brings me to my adventures. We did a 3 day trip to Richmond, VA in May. We got to see the capital building which was designed by Thomas Jefferson. It was amazing to be there and see the history. Even more amazing though was our trip to the St. John's Church where Patrick Henry met with the other founding fathers in the second Virginia Convention 23 March 1775. There were 120 delegates present from the territory of Virginia. The delegates at the convention seemed as if they were voting against declaring independence when Patrick Henry got up and delivered the final speech for freedom ending with "I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death." Being in that room and hearing those words resonate made the hands of time fly by and you could almost hear the cries of hope and feel the Lords hand on them. It was amazing to be there. One thing I didn't know was that those for independence were 63 and against 58. Imagine what would have happened if Patrick Henry didn't say what God put in his heart. (Sorry I love history and I'm in the richest part of the country just had to share!)

The biggest BRAVE thing I did this last 2 months was take a 13+ hour road trip with the 3 kids by myself to see my brother graduate on June 4 in Dunedin FL. We left Tues am at 9 and by 10:00 had only made it to Jacksonville. I tried to stop for the night but I guess it was not supposed to be. The first hotel that Steve booked on Priceline only had a room with 1 queen bed and I didn't have a good feeling about it. So we drove on and got a room on the side of the highway somewhere to sleep. Well, no sooner had I pulled the little dears from the car to the beds than they were wide awake. So we paid $50 for a room that we used from 11:30 to 2:45. (The kids get to earn $ to pay for that one!) So I would drive for a while then slept then drove again then slept. We finally made it to Josette's house at 10:00 on Wed (the 4th.) The graduation was hot and the drive home was long but I would not have missed it for the world. It was great to see my family (my mom was there) and get to see my sweet little brother triumph the odds and graduate.

That's it for us. Hope you all are well.

Steve, Chantelle, Brokton, Evelyn, and Jenai

Steve & Chantelle Family,



This couple of months have been busy and fun. Brokton finished his first set of hooked on phonics books. He did it in just under 2 months! He is making a ton of progress with good behavior and respect. He is listening more and I am finally feeling like we are doing it right!

Evelyn has also started reading. She will be kindergarten age this fall (the cut off here is Sept 30) and we plan on home schooling her as well. She is kind sweet and fun to be with.

Jenai is getting bigger all the time. She loves to hear stories and have me read books to her. Her favorite time of day (and ours) has become morning cuddle time. She comes in our bed and cuddles and watches Little Einstein’s or Wonder Pets.

We are all excited that our adoption process has come very far. We had to redo our background checks because of them being time sensitive but the adoption committee has approved us on everything. So once we get them back (any day now) we will be fully approved and able to be presented to birth moms/dads.

Steve has been sooooooooooo busy with work. It seems if he's not working he's sleeping or playing in the garden or trying to hide from Brokton who seems to think the two need to be inseparable and always in a "project". He enjoys his job and is learning a lot. If you haven't gotten to check the blog Steve got to go on a short cruise on the navy ship our neighbor Troy is commissioned on. He left about 5 am and got home around 6 or 7 pm. Troy's wife Katrina wanted to go to so that meant I got to brave 5 kids with varying needs 7 and under for the whole day. It was like having 3 sets of twins. Jenai and Anika (2 1/2 months apart), Evelyn and Collin (7 months apart) and Brokton who counts for 2 himself! :)

The subject of being BRAVE brings me to my adventures. We did a 3 day trip to Richmond, VA in May. We got to see the capital building which was designed by Thomas Jefferson. It was amazing to be there and see the history. Even more amazing though was our trip to the St. John's Church where Patrick Henry met with the other founding fathers in the second Virginia Convention 23 March 1775. There were 120 delegates present from the territory of Virginia. The delegates at the convention seemed as if they were voting against declaring independence when Patrick Henry got up and delivered the final speech for freedom ending with "I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death." Being in that room and hearing those words resonate made the hands of time fly by and you could almost hear the cries of hope and feel the Lords hand on them. It was amazing to be there. One thing I didn't know was that those for independence were 63 and against 58. Imagine what would have happened if Patrick Henry didn't say what God put in his heart. (Sorry I love history and I'm in the richest part of the country just had to share!)

The biggest BRAVE thing I did this last 2 months was take a 13+ hour road trip with the 3 kids by myself to see my brother graduate on June 4 in Dunedin FL. We left Tues am at 9 and by 10:00 had only made it to Jacksonville. I tried to stop for the night but I guess it was not supposed to be. The first hotel that Steve booked on Priceline only had a room with 1 queen bed and I didn't have a good feeling about it. So we drove on and got a room on the side of the highway somewhere to sleep. Well, no sooner had I pulled the little dears from the car to the beds than they were wide awake. So we paid $50 for a room that we used from 11:30 to 2:45. (The kids get to earn $ to pay for that one!) So I would drive for a while then slept then drove again then slept. We finally made it to Josette's house at 10:00 on Wed (the 4th.) The graduation was hot and the drive home was long but I would not have missed it for the world. It was great to see my family (my mom was there) and get to see my sweet little brother triumph the odds and graduate.

That's it for us. Hope you all are well.

Steve, Chantelle, Brokton, Evelyn, and Jenai

Uune 2008 Family News letter

Steve & Chantelle Family,



This couple of months have been busy and fun. Brokton finished his first set of hooked on phonics books. He did it in just under 2 months! He is making a ton of progress with good behavior and respect. He is listening more and I am finally feeling like we are doing it right!

Evelyn has also started reading. She will be kindergarten age this fall (the cut off here is Sept 30) and we plan on home schooling her as well. She is kind sweet and fun to be with.

Jenai is getting bigger all the time. She loves to hear stories and have me read books to her. Her favorite time of day (and ours) has become morning cuddle time. She comes in our bed and cuddles and watches Little Einstein’s or Wonder Pets.

We are all excited that our adoption process has come very far. We had to redo our background checks because of them being time sensitive but the adoption committee has approved us on everything. So once we get them back (any day now) we will be fully approved and able to be presented to birth moms/dads.

Steve has been sooooooooooo busy with work. It seems if he's not working he's sleeping or playing in the garden or trying to hide from Brokton who seems to think the two need to be inseparable and always in a "project". He enjoys his job and is learning a lot. If you haven't gotten to check the blog Steve got to go on a short cruise on the navy ship our neighbor Troy is commissioned on. He left about 5 am and got home around 6 or 7 pm. Troy's wife Katrina wanted to go to so that meant I got to brave 5 kids with varying needs 7 and under for the whole day. It was like having 3 sets of twins. Jenai and Anika (2 1/2 months apart), Evelyn and Collin (7 months apart) and Brokton who counts for 2 himself! :)

The subject of being BRAVE brings me to my adventures. We did a 3 day trip to Richmond, VA in May. We got to see the capital building which was designed by Thomas Jefferson. It was amazing to be there and see the history. Even more amazing though was our trip to the St. John's Church where Patrick Henry met with the other founding fathers in the second Virginia Convention 23 March 1775. There were 120 delegates present from the territory of Virginia. The delegates at the convention seemed as if they were voting against declaring independence when Patrick Henry got up and delivered the final speech for freedom ending with "I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death." Being in that room and hearing those words resonate made the hands of time fly by and you could almost hear the cries of hope and feel the Lords hand on them. It was amazing to be there. One thing I didn't know was that those for independence were 63 and against 58. Imagine what would have happened if Patrick Henry didn't say what God put in his heart. (Sorry I love history and I'm in the richest part of the country just had to share!)

The biggest BRAVE thing I did this last 2 months was take a 13+ hour road trip with the 3 kids by myself to see my brother graduate on June 4 in Dunedin FL. We left Tues am at 9 and by 10:00 had only made it to Jacksonville. I tried to stop for the night but I guess it was not supposed to be. The first hotel that Steve booked on Priceline only had a room with 1 queen bed and I didn't have a good feeling about it. So we drove on and got a room on the side of the highway somewhere to sleep. Well, no sooner had I pulled the little dears from the car to the beds than they were wide awake. So we paid $50 for a room that we used from 11:30 to 2:45. (The kids get to earn $ to pay for that one!) So I would drive for a while then slept then drove again then slept. We finally made it to Josette's house at 10:00 on Wed (the 4th.) The graduation was hot and the drive home was long but I would not have missed it for the world. It was great to see my family (my mom was there) and get to see my sweet little brother triumph the odds and graduate.

That's it for us. Hope you all are well.

Steve, Chantelle, Brokton, Evelyn, and Jenai

Graduation Trip

Well, my kid brother Phillip just graduated from high school. I am thoroughly amazed for several reasons. First at how he pulled through and made it to graduation despite the odds. Second at how time flies. It seems only yesterday he was Brokton's age and being "Sound effect man" as I called him. (I guess all the noises are just part of being a boy.) The last reason I am amazed is that I actually took my 3 kids and made the 13 1/2 hour drive to Dunedin FL. Okay so that was the DRIVING time. That doesn't account for the kid delay. Let's just say it was a LONG trip there and back.

On the way there I decided to stop at a hotel. I was going to stay in Jacksonville but the hotel we booked on priceline only had a room with 1 queen bed and no roll-away anything! So I continued on and stopped at the Budget Inn on the side of the highway. They had a room that would accommodate us so we paid for a SECOND hotel room. No sooner did I pull my sleeping children from the car and put them in the bed than their eyes popped wide open, and they were ready to run. Surely this can't be happening to me I'm exhausted every part of my body hurts. I'm so tired my finger nails and hair hurt and they want to talk and play. No sooner had they laid down than I hear dear little well intentioned Evelyn say "Mama I don't feel safe here. The spirit is telling me not to stay here." I assured her it was safe. We prayed and thought it was taken care of. Everyone lays back down, we close our eyes and along comes the train which apparently runs about 200 feet from the room! Then I hear the others join in "It's not safe we need to leave." Every noise the heard their chorus started again. This was of course in between kids bouncing up and down, changing sleeping arrangements, and Brokton accidentally giving Evelyn a bloody nose when flopping on the bed.

So

USS James E Williams

On May 30th 2008, I had the wonderful opportunity of riding on the USS James E Williams; from York town VA to Norfolk VA. I was invited to go by my neighbor Troy Loyd, Troy is an officer aboard this ship. I had an amazing time, I got a full tour of the ship. While aboard the ship we tried on some of the fire fighting gear that is used in an emergency. While on our cruise we saw a demonstration of the big 5 inch deck gun. Taking this trip really made me want to go on a cruise. While we were out we came across a submarine & a Naval cruiser out there was out to sea.





Below are Some of the other things we saw & did while on our way. We got a chance to see how they play electronic war Games with other ships, as well as how they would handle things if they fell under attack. It was very windy out on the deck, they took the ship up to full speed @ 35 knots. We got the chance to meet some of the teams that work anti pirating & drug trafficking. This group boards ship to check cargo & make sure that everyone on board is supposed to be there.