The Richardsons

1/27/09 Excerpt from the President of Liberia's State of the Union Address delivered last night. The gross mismanagement of the adoption program (which aims primarily at placing orphans in homes in the United States ), by both Liberian and U.S. personnel in the concerned NGO is the subject of a report by a Special Committee which I appointed for this purpose. Essentially, we have discovered that many of the children in these orphanages are not in fact orphans but children taken from their living parents on the promise of support and a good life in America . Moreover, we found that young children were being sexually abused at some of these orphanages, while others including officials of government, have used the program to extort money from potential adoptors. We have thus suspended the adoption program until laws, policies and proper guidelines have been established and we have asked our concerned friends and partners in the United States to be patient as we try...

We've always said, there's "Emmanuel," there's "Emmanuel without his medication" and then there's "Grocery Store Emmanuel." Emmanuel's favorite thing to do besides play soccer is go to the grocery store. We really have improved at this over the last year and a half although it is always an adventure. From the beginning, Emmanuel has always insisted on pushing the cart. My best efforts to detour him from this were highly unsuccessful. The first few times he constantly ran into old people. The older and the more disabled the better. I remember one time he ran right into the back of a 90 year old man with a walker. The man was so surprised, the hip Emmanuel had broken was of little concern compared to the heart attack I thought he might have. Emmanuel looked up at him with a smile and yelled SORRY in a very thick Liberian accent at the time. The man went from startled to more surprised and got out, "uh, that's OK." In the nex...

This is Scott's life. He has to be in this contraption six hours a day to rebuild cartilage in his knee. We got tired of calling it the contraption so we named it Bessie. He is constantly counting to six trying to figure out how many more hours he has to ride Bessie. He is not hard to find. I, on the other hand, have never been harder to find. I am not even trying to pretend to anyone that I am "on my game." In fact I have no intention of being back in the game until the middle or end of February when Scott gets off the crutches. I think I might be back on my game in the summer of 2022. By then I suspect I won't even know what a game is. The kids on the other hand have sympathy pains. They hop around on one foot imitating Daddy. You ask them to do something and they act like their legs are broken. Then you ask them again and they appear to have gone deaf. They leave things smack in the middle of where Scott will need to hop and act as if they are blind t...

You might remember reading on the blog that the son of one of Scott's best friends (who was the best man in our wedding) had cancer. We are happy to report he beat it! A benefit was held last weekend in Des Moines and the local news did a story. http://www.kcci.com/video/18510717/index.html

Abegail had a nice birthday last Saturday. She had a few friends sleep over. The first picture is of the next morning with pancakes. The kids had fun playing make-up and games and of course eating cake with twinkies on top. Hard to believe she's already 9! E-man's First Basketball Game Emmanuel is playing basketball this session at the Y. We thought we'd try something new. He really loved it. Basketball seems to be a much harder game for five-year- olds than soccer. The rules are little lax, they don't call traveling, in fact I think its encouraged. I think the ball wouldn't move if they didn't travel! Emmanuel scored two baskets and is excited for the next game. Annie's Field Trip Annie's preschool class went to the Bell Museum Wednesday. That is a museum where they can learn about natural history and animals. The guide was great taking them through how animals hunt for their dinners and protect themselves. They even got to pet a snake...

WCCO put this on their website and titled it, "Put A Reporter Out In The Cold, She'll Get Sassy." CBS stations in Miami and Los Angeles are airing this very clip on their evening shows!! There's very little for me to add. I promise not to forget our anniversary this year. I may even have to fork out a little extra for a trip to Florida this year! Sue deserves it. It's winter in Minnesota And the gentle breezes blow Seventy miles an hour At twenty-five below Oh, how I love Minnesota When the snow's up to your butt You take a breath of winter And your nose gets frozen shut Yes, the weather here is wonderful So I'll guess I'll hang around I could never leave Minnesota 'Cause I'm frozen to the ground

Abegail's birthday is tomorrow and she's having a couple friends sleep over.  So I attempted a sleep over cake.  Before I started, Scott said, "that's ambitious,"  knowing my artistic ability.  But it worked with the bodies as twinkies and the heads as vanilla wafers.  Hopefuly it will taste good too.   Scott is hanging in there.  He has this contraption he has to be  in six hours a day to get the leg moving to rebuild cartilige.  So far so good.  Grandma Charlene left early this morning.  We already miss her! 

Scott's Microfracture knee surgery went well today. He is doing well so far....on to recovery.

With a child with the initials of ER it was bound to happen. But even I am shocked we went 18 months without a visit to the emergency room or urgent care. That was until yesterday. We attempted to go sledding and ice skating with the Petersons . Janie loaned me and all the kids ice skates. I put Emmanuel's skates on first. But as soon as we got to the outdoor rink he said he wanted the ice skates off and wanted to go sledding. "OK, let's go to the warming house and switch your shoes." But Emmanuel wouldn't hear of it. He wanted his skates off right then and there. I began to change his shoes while he complained his hands were cold. Finally he was ready and off he went. I attempted to get Annie ready. When we finally came out with our skates on, Emmanuel was sitting at the bottom of the hill, with two Dads, crying. I tried to walk over to him in my ice skates and promptly fell on my behind. When I got to him, they told me he had fallen and hit...

One of Emmanuel's goals at his special school is to make friends, to think of how his friends feel, and to call them by their names. Every time his teacher visits we talk about how Emmanuel is doing. And several times I would hear Emmanuel say he likes to play with Reynell . I was wondering who was this boy, and what type of child was he that he and Emmanuel got along so well? Did he really exist? After hearing Reynell's name a few times I asked Miss Laura, what she thought about E-man and Reynell getting together outside of Washburn . She thought it would be a good match as she said. So on Wednesday, we had Reynell , his mom, and his sister over to our house. It turns out Reynell's mom had been thinking the same thing. She told me Reynell , who turned 6 the day after Christmas, would tell her that E-man was his best friend. And as we got to talking, E-man and Reynell have a lot of the same goals at Washburn . Reynell is a beautiful little boy with a smile...