Sweet Memories, Something Delightful to Think About

May 5, 1997: We were singing about throwing the kids “out the window, the window, the second story window," and this made Sarah upset. She said to Murray, "You love us so much, you don't want to hurt us bad boy! You know!"

May 8, 1997: The other day Sarah showed me how the cats sneeze, and did a very good job of imitating a cat, making a little snuffing snorting sound with her nose. Then she came to me and pressed my shoulder, and said, "I push the button on them right here, and they sneeze."

Murray was pulling the van into a parking space, and he had to make 3 or 4 back and forth adjustments to center the van in the space. Rebecca didn't like all this, and said, "Daddy, you're frustrating me."

May 11, 1997: Today Sarah told us that she wants to be baptized next Sunday. We said that she loves Jesus, and she said, "I love Him with all my heart. I'll love Him more when I have a bigger heart."

May 16, 1997: Yesterday Kathy was reading to Sarah about how farmers were needing rain. She read that every morning the farmer looked anxiously for signs of rain, and Sarah asked, "Who put up the signs?"

May 18, 1997: The kids stayed with friends from Friday evening until Sunday morning. This morning, Kathy asked Sarah, "Did you miss me?" Sarah replied, "I didn't think about missing you because it was so fun there.”

May 21, 1997: Sarah was reading to me this morning from the zoo book. At one point she stopped and said, "I stopped because a bubble came through my mouth; a mouth bubble, and it tasted good."

After Sarah came out of the water from being baptized last week, she said, "God's in my heart now too."

On the kids' trip to Colorado with Murray, Sarah had a story to tell. She was talking quickly, breathlessly, and Murray tried to help her, saying, "You mean you..." Sarah said, "Please be quiet," and continued her story.

May 27, 1997: After coming home from their weekend trip, Caleb told Kathy, "I wish you could see. Then, when we go to Colorado, you could get the lawn mower out and cut the grass."

June 1, 1997: The other day, Sarah was helping clear the table, and said, "I'm being a servant." Kathy told her, "You learned that from Jesus." Sarah replied, "I learned it from watching you."

June 3, 1997: Today was the last day of school. At suppertime Ping-Hwei said, "I'm so happy! Tomorrow, home."

At supper we were talking about how God can do or change anything He wants. Rebecca said, "He can delete anything He wants. He can cancel anything He wants. Those words are on the computer."

Yesterday while I was vacuuming, Sarah kept interrupting me to ask many things. Finally I told her not to interrupt me anymore unless the phone rang or she had an emergency. Then I went on vacuuming, and she went on coloring. A few minutes later I heard her calling to me. I turned off the vacuum to see what the problem was. "I can't find a color," Sarah told me, "Isn't that a little emergency?"

June 4, 1997: We must have told the kids sometime about people getting skin cancer if they get sunburned too much. Today Sarah asked me about it while I was putting suntan lotion on the girls. They seemed a little nervous about it, so I said people had to get sunburned a lot to get cancer, but the best thing was just to use suntan lotion, to be safe. Rebecca said, "The best thing is to not tell us about it so we don't get scared."

June 5, 1997: The kids fight a lot. This afternoon, however, Caleb came to me and said proudly, "We're all being really nice to each other."

June 9, 1997: Yesterday we were driving to Tulsa to get Benjamin. (This is when Benjamin, not quite six months old, first came home to live with us.) We were driving on a bridge over a river, and it made Sarah a little nervous, and she said, "Something has to save us."

When we drove into the airport at Tulsa, Rebecca asked, "Is this where we are?"

Sometimes when Ping-Hwei asks if he can open his window, he asks if he can "Open door, window." I always thought he was just looking for the right word. Last night he asked, "Why Benjamin no open door eyes?" So I guess open door just means open.

June 11, 1997: Sarah had her kindergarten physical exam today, and has been worried for the last several weeks that she might have to take her clothes off for the doctor. Rebecca has fanned the flames by telling her that she WOULD have to take them off. We didn't want to tell her that she absolutely wouldn't, in case she did, but we told her that she didn't have to take her clothes off unless Daddy was there. She practiced, saying, "I want to wait until my Daddy is here." She even practiced on the way to the doctor's. In the office, Murray was on the phone when Marlene, the nurse, came. She picked up Benjamin's carrier, took Sarah's hand, and walked off. When Murray caught up with them, Marlene said that Sarah had greeted her with, "Hi, Marlene. I don't have to take off my clothes until my Daddy gets here."