The Richardsons

Abegail had her All Star tournament this weekend. They played a total of 7 games. The above picture is after their first game, a 2-1 win. Then they saw the mascot of the Freedom team This is early Saturday A.M. as the tournament is just beginning. They had a total of 12 players, only ten got in the picture along with their three awesome coaches. From left to right is Laura's brother Alex & main coaches Laura & Stanley who have a daughter on the team. There were a total of four games on Saturday and they made it to all three games on Sunday since they made it to the championship game! That means a lot of time to kill between games. With lots of snacks for all! Everyone is still holding up well before the second game on Sunday They won the second game in a shoot-out which meant they made it to the final game Mom had her traditional moments when she ran down her battery trying to keep E-man out of the mud, watching DVD's in the van. But luckily the soccer Dad next ...

Emmanuel had his eye surgery on Friday and the anesthesia knocked him out for several hours. He is doing pretty well but he has a very sore and swollen eye. We are hoping for the best. Having been through this before, he was a true champ waking up from surgery and was one of the best behaved boys there!

When we were in the process of adopting everyone wanted to talk to us/me about black hair. Black hair is very different from white hair. It doesn't grow fast at all, it is coarse, and for Abegail hard to comb out. But black people worship their hair. To them it is their crown. In Liberia people didn't have food, water, or plumbing but they had perfect hair. Many women spent their days braiding and rebraiding hair. When we looked at the schedule at the AFAA house there was almost as much time allowed for hair braiding as there was for school. I didn't get it. I don't care about hair. I don't care about my own hair. To me fixing a head of hair came in one word: PONYTAIL. I did get the black hair products, it's important to keep the scalp moisturized, and keeping the hair in tight braids will help it grow. Black women would still come up to me and give me advice and tips on Abegail's hair. But what I didn't realize was we got off easy in Minne...

Mommy's minivan mobile, was not doing so well. He made loud noises when you turned him on, he did not like going up hills, his brakes grinded to the floor, the Minnesota winters showed its wear and tear so much that you could actually see the outside through the rust. When E-man or I kicked it, metal came crashing to the ground. Plus it smelled like old soccer cleats. Last Thursday Scott went on the search for a new minivan that would be fitting for a soccer mom. He found one and appropriately after soccer practice all five us headed to the dealership. He let me drive it there but as we got to the dealership he informed me, "I don't think you are allowed to drive it yet so you'll have to take it on a pretend test drive." OK Scott, you might have told me that before I turned all the stations to country music. But this is minor in the whole process. Close your eyes and imagine Emmanuel in a car show room. "Mommy, look at that truck, look at the jeep, lo...