Backing Up To Thursday

I think I left off with Elcie's Middle School Open House. All three girls will be there next year so Rochelle and Rebecca tagged along for hamburgers and hotdogs, games, and visits to the classrooms.

This is Elcie and me admiring the castle she helped build in Social Studies class. I have several other good photos with her teachers but I'm one of those people concerned with the privacy of others and I forgot to ask. If I can figure out a way to add little masks, I'll post them at some point. We ran into her favorite teacher from elementary school who has a child attending Rivera and took his picture with all three girls. Then we did the same thing with her 6th and 7th grade teachers.

I think they all had a good time.

Friday was a little crazy with errands but finally settled down. I spent much of the morning dropping Elcie at school, heading for another school at the other end of town, picking up her partly repaired wheelchair, taking it back to school #1, and then heading to the super for milk and cereal. Then over to the girls' elementary school to drop off money as our contribution to their walk-a-thon. Then home, I think.

A friend of mine from the church called Friday evening to tell me she had unused tickets to the United Methodist Women Spring Festival Salad Luncheon and Art Exhibit (pause for breath) on Saturday. The girls' drawings would be on display. Would I like to go? Sure. I used to be a member in Arkansas but hadn't done much with it here. It's another one of those things I never seem to remember. The meeting date would go by and I'd say "maybe next month". I've been a church member here since Rebecca was tiny so I've been doing "maybe next month" for a while.

Lunch was delicious, everyone (except me) had displayed examples of their crafts, and the speaker was an artist from Ghana , Nana-dictta Graves, who has lived here for a couple of years. She works in various mediums, using non-traditional materials such as candy bar wrappers, seeds, and almost anything others might throw away. She also teaches dance. She's well enough known that a well known actor is purchasing one of her works. Fascinating woman. She talked about growing up in Ghana and her almost accidental discovery of her artistic talent. The link is to our local paper with her photo and an example of her work.

Maybe I will tat something for next year. Not much tatting around these days.

The other photos at the top are the girls' drawings for Easter. If you look closely, you will see Rochelle's "signature" (the little sketch of a bird) in the center.

Elcie didn't want to go (what else is new) so she missed that and our visit to Jim to see the baby. Oh well. Jonathan is looking more human by the day. He's no longer purple at all and I got to see his hair (what there is of it) and his eyes. He's a cutie.

I still haven't decided how much to write about our Elcie. Much of it, but not all, is typical teenage stuff. That's the easy part. The rest involves her sudden sense of non belonging and I haven't put it together well enough to say much. She gets angry and wishes her life was different. Elcie, I wish so too but we love you. She has just now realized that she spent most of her first year in foster care (she always knew that but somehow had forgotten). She's angry about that. Why her and not her sisters? Because they're younger and were born here. She's angry that she's not with her parents. She's angry she's not still in her first foster home (which she doesn't remember but idealizes). And nothing I do can heal that empty feeling. No matter what, it's not enough. Sometimes I run out of patience and good will and get into feeling a little sorry for myself. Never for long, but it does surface from time to time.

I said more than I thought I would. I'll see how the summer goes - part of it may be fatigue and probably most kids wish from time to time they had any parents/caretakers other than the ones they're stuck with.

So enough whining for one night. Today wasn't bad. Rochelle took her to the park and the school playground. Rebecca joined them and they walked around downtown and then to the store. I could drive them but they enjoy the walking and Rochelle loves taking care of people. Rebecca's good about it too.

Giants 4 Oakland 2. Barry finally caught the Babe at 714. I watched the tape because the game and my luncheon conflicted.

Take care everyone.