The Richardsons

I bet you never thought you'd see that as a blog title, but I can't get over how obese the seagulls are in New Jersey. They are so fat they can barely walk. They look like they need hip replacements. You might be interested to know it's not just me who noticed this, it's been studied by a University (I do think it was the same university who found that if you don't get enough sleep you'll be tired, but still). In all seriousness, Abegail and I took a quick trip to New Jersey Thursday to see her best friend from Liberia, Tarry and her sister Maima . Tarry and Maima have been home a year and a half but living in Minnesota we didn't have a chance to catch up with them. We are now just four hours from their home in Bradley Beach, NJ. Not including Abegail and Emmanuel we've seen 13 out of the 24 children who were at the AFAA house when we went two years ago. It amazes me. When we left Liberia I thought I'd see their cousins (Martu and Mackie)...

Annie did it! She jumped off the diving board and swam to the side without a life jacket and then she did it about 25 more times. "Mom, you can stop clapping now," she said. I hate not having my camera, but I've been assured it will be fixed in a week E-man discovered earlier this month he can go off the board and doesn't need a life jacket. I love the age of 5. I know I say that at every age that Annie is, but I really think 5 will be my favorite age. Yes, she is a bit sassier, but she is also as sweet as ever and tries to smile at me whenever I am in the middle of my head exploding with another child. Annie can do so many things too and is so excited about everything. I love the age of 5. E-man has also turned a small corner. The ice-cream truck (which always comes right before dinner, who owns that thing?) came by and he pulled out his big jar of money to go buy ice-cream. But he didn't just buy some for himself. He bought for his sisters. Abegail s...

Annie missed the MUAA reunion and one of her good friends, Akins. So in response to his impromptu break dancing she danced for him. Akins even asked about her, "where's E-man's sister?" The Richardson summer party continues, I had a friend and her two boys come visit this week. Her kids are sweet, mine are....energetic? I kept telling her I grade on a curve. In fact that's my motto for the summer, I've told countless people, I'm grading on a curve, don't be alarmed. Scott Says: Don't be mislead by this video. It may look like a video of Annie dancing in a moment of spontaneous emotion at the pool...but really (if you look closely) it's a video of E-Man showing us how much he loves to straddle water cannons!! Mommy...it feels funny....

A Liberian man now living in Minneapolis went home to Africa to see his family. He was talking to someone in Liberia and said, "There are these two Liberian kids in Minneapolis who have been adopted. Their names are Abegail and Emmanuel." The person said, "Oh, those are Alexander's kids." The person the man was talking to happened to be a friend of A&E's birth father, Alexander. The man said, "They are being well cared for." Scott spoke to Alexander while we were in Oklahoma and Alexander repeated this story to him and said, "Thank you so much. I can never repay you. God bless you." That's what I call a small world. So we have been a bit out of touch lately, normally I blog when we are away but our camera broke and I only took our video camera and it seems to be against my nature to blog without pictures. I have stolen some pictures from our reunion to post this and will work on video of our entire trip tonight. W...