Tall ships

The only ship with the sails out. A pretty sight.



For anybody who has ever bought a coffee or 2 from Tim Hortons, you can celebrate this $50 million beauty. The former owner of Tim Hortons showed up with his personal sail boat.



And what are the chances that we would walk past as the little Shelbourne went by? This is the start of my dad's Nova Scotia journey... Shelbourne.

Halifax celebrated the tall ships this past week and we went in to join in the celebrations. I enjoyed it. The place was packed, but we just strolled along and had fun feeling the sun and spending time together. I even managed to snag a beaver tail... cinnamon goodness on deep fried dough. Yummy!

Shae-Lynne sings for GLA

GLA is in desperate need of funds just to continue providing services for the children in their care. This is Shae-Lynne's response to that need.

Adoption news

Well... it's not news for us, but it still gives me hope. Several families from our orphanage were pulled from parquet in November 2008 to get Presidential dispense (special permission) to adopt from Haiti. We joined them in April. To my knowledge, not a single family from that batch in November has gotten their dispense... until this week. Finally, a couple of families from our orphanage have gotten their dispense and moved back to parquet.

We're praying we'll join them soon!!!

A family visit

Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo



Halifax Public Gardens



Emily with her grandmother.

My parents have been visiting this week. Usually they make their annual trek to our house in May and it's often a bit cold. So I was excited to show them around when it's actually warm out. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate. But we still had a good time and they managed to stay busy and see a few sights and visit with some family.

June update

This month's blog again was special because one of the full time staff took the time to write an extra long update. I can't even imagine how much time it must take to write such detailed letters for all of these kids in their care. This time it was Joyce, their teacher, and she made us feel like we were right there looking at Peterson & Gaëlle's every move. I'll just include a few paragraphs.

Last week we had a spelling list of common food in Canada and the U.S. The kids loved bragging about all the macaroni and cheese, hamburgers and French fries they would eat once they got home. I picked out a few of the special items from the grocery store for the kids to try on the Friday of their test. Peterson and his class got to try lucky charms cereal with cold vanilla milk first. The cereal was a huge hit. Peterson enjoyed the marshmallows and saved most of them for last. Next was craft dinner. I pulled out the macaroni and cheese and the kids looked excited. They started digging into their bowls and became a little disappointed with it. Most of them only managed to get three or four bites in before putting the rest back in the big bowl. Peterson was one of the kids that didn’t enjoy it and kindly asked if he could put his leftovers back. The last treat was ice cream sandwiches. The kids don’t have ice cream very often so it is a lot of fun to watch their faces as they bite into the cold ice cream. The ice cream was the favorite of most of the children and Peterson was well pleased with the messy treat that he managed to get all over his face and up and down both arms.

Gaëlle’s class received temporary tattoos as the end of class last week. Gaëlle held on to her tattoo tight when she was headed up the stairs while bragging about how Peterson was going to help her. She sure knew what she was talking about. All she had to do was run up to Peterson and show him what was in her hands. He grabbed her arm and headed right for the bathroom. Peterson asked her where she would like him to put it and she chose her arm. Peterson gently placed the piece of paper on her arm and carefully wetted it down. He held the tattoo close to her arm for a few minutes then lifted up just a corner to see if it was ready. Gaëlle could hardly wait and asked him many times if it was finished. Peterson simply told her to wait a little longer. Peterson finally lifted the paper off and there was a tiger on Gaëlle’s little arm. Gaëlle was so excited she sprinted out of the bathroom to show off her tattoo to all the kids and the nannies. Gaëlle was so proud of it and Peterson was really happy about the help he gave to his sister.