11th years of Arrowwood

My previous post I wrote about

more snow we got

along with rain which froze

led to no school on Friday.
I was already off work so that worked out good.

In a way it worked out nice.

Our plans to leave out of town at 4

changed to leaving at noon.

but first we had to do some things.

 Like shovel and chisel the driveway.

got most of the chiseling done except at the bottom

of the driveway.  My arms were to sore to continue.

The four girls, snowblower and an neighbor

got the driveway cleared except where the ice is 3 inches thick 

at the bottom of the driveway.

 We also cleaned the house,

not Monika's thing

 and fold 2 weeks of laundry
(Thankfully I only have to wash and dry

the 3 youngest kids clothes, they do the rest)

We took off at noon,

roads were pure ice.

We stopped got gas, went grocery shopping for the weekend away and stopped at the closed Chiropractor office that was out of our way.

We were on the road to our destination that was 2 1/2 hours away

at 1PM

We drove no faster then 20 mph and at
times completely stopped the first 30 miles.

Then occasionally we got up to 30 mph.

When we got to 45 miles  we stopped on traffic for 15 minutes before

being able to edge up to an exit to get off for a break.

Those 45 miles took 2 1/2 hours to do and we still had another 80-90 miles to go.

About 30 miles to our destination the road finally cleared up and we made it

5 1/2 hours later.

3 other families made it with one more joining us on Saturday.

This was our 11th year at Arrowwood with Monika's adoption group.

We have 6 girls from the same orphanage

and one boy and girl from an different orphanage that was part of our group.

3 families (including us) have gone every year,

the other two families that were here this year

have come almost every time missing 1 or 2.

We look forward to the Friday night All you eat pasta bar.

This is the only meal we eat in the restaurant.

The rest of the meals we eat in our room to save money.

 The girls couldn't eat fast enough so they could go swimming

in the pool after pasta dinner.  I volunteer to chaperone them

which has been kinda a tradition.  

They were the only ones in the pool at that time

 Jenny (green) and Monika (black with strips)

playing chicken  (Anna has Jenny and Katie has Monika)

 Sisters against Sisters.

Monika and Laura Dawn 

against

Katie and Anna

 Next Morning Katie and Monika made the beds.

Katie made Erin's and Monika made her's and I bed.

Jenny and Katie slept on the hideway couch.

Monika was very restless so didn't get a lot of sleep.

 Girls are fed and ready to go swimming

 We started out in the waterpack.

Jenny doing the rope thing

 Monika and others doing the lazy river.

 After awhile they went to the other pool.

Monika trying to pull in Sara as Anna and Laura dawn watch

 Katie showing how strong she is being able to hold her big sister up on her shoulders.

 Monika and her sorority sisters

 (minus the yellow shirt, she is a sibling to one of the sorority sisters)

 Erin and Jamie have made a tradition of playing 

ping pong.

 Another tradition

dipping dots ice cream

 

Lined up.

The last couple of years we have taken pictures to see how the girls 

have grown

 

Saturday night we do a potluck party

in our room.

This year the girls did some rainbow Lo*m 

before they became consumed with 

Minecr*ft.  

I wasn't really happy with them (except 2 of the girls out of 9)

playing it, but I was overruled.

Monika said it bonding time because they talk and share

 things about the game.

They still enjoyed the company.

Us parents talked and had the Olympics on. 

 The gang.

Erin didn't want to be in the pictures.

Girls range from 13 (the white shirt in back)

to 9 (girl on the couch next to the 13 year old)

 The spicy Hunan girls.

3 months total separate them in age

 Sunday morning more fun swimming before going.

Now we are standing on shoulders

(Jenny and Katie)

 They had a ping pong ball and were throwing it behind them

These 3 and their families stayed for a while and played in the waterpark.

I am so grateful for this wonderful bunch.  

We went thru a lot to bring our girls (and boy)

home with SARS and shutting down adoptions temp due to it

barely getting them home before that happen.

Monika (and the other girls) look forward to this all weekend as us parents do too.

I often wish the other girls groups were this close.

Soon, I will be planning the 11 years of these girls being our daughters.

Praise the Lord.