I’m so thankful for God for blessing us with her.  She is amazing and a perfect fit for our family.  And I today, like so many other days, I think about her parents and tell them that we are taking good care of her and that we hope one day she will get to meet them face to face.  And today, I am thankful for her.

We just love her to pieces!

Chinese New Year is only two weeks away and somehow, someway we have a CNY event to go to nearly every weekend until the end of February.  Our Families with Children From China group has an amazing group of families on the north side of Houston.  The group is so big that they have broken into smaller groups for smaller events.  Because we are friends with several families on that side of town, we have participated with them more this year.  Today the festivities were kicked off with a late lunch at a Chinese restaurant (had some awesome chow fun) and then some shopping at a local Chinese store.

It really makes my heart happy to see Catherine hang out with the other girls by her own choosing.  She really, really loves the older girls and wants to be a part of what they are doing.  Over the last couple of months she has even shown favor over certain kids.  She really does not like kids that are ‘in your face’ hyper.  She likes the kids that are more gentle with her and engage her in a more toned down sense of play.  There are three kids that I can think of off of the top of my head that always try to chase her or drag her around and she has now gotten to the point where she will run away from them or tell them ‘no!’  She has even told me on a few occasions that she does not like them.  I’m trying to figure out how to deal with that situation.  Anyway, I love seeing her make friends!  I can’t wait to see what this year’s CNY activities have in store for us! It’s one of my favorite holidays!

Sorry for the junky quality of the photos.  I can’t shoot a photo indoors to save my life and I didn’t bring my good camera with me.

Today we decided to get out of the house and meet up with our church’s children’s group at NASA Johnson Space Center.  They have a wonderful kids area and a lot of super cool displays.  I thought it would be good to be around some adults that I didn’t feel the blatant desire to spill my guts about how I have no clue on barbecue cook-off rules or that I got burned on a motorcycle at burn camp and therefore I am expert at putting together a ride and big cooking shindig.  So for the most part I spent a few hours talking about other things like: how raising toddlers can tough yet they can be tremendously funny, whether mission control was ‘the mission control, the species of birds that our children were chasing around, church stuff, weather stuff, and recent foreign affairs.  I’m pretty sure all of my friends and family members that just read that last sentence are a bit jealous right now.  Anyway, it was nice to get out of house for a bit and to focus on something else.  We both had major colds, so that put a bit of a damper on us…well, on me.  Catherine can still go 200 miles an hour with a cold.  Me, not so much.  She had lots of fun playing with all of her friends.  I had fun talking to all of the parents that were talking about their jobs at NASA.  Hey…it wasn’t fire related issues.

As far as the Haiti disaster.  I have had a post or two swirling around my head about what it’s like to live and work at a disaster scene.  I will try to pound out one tomorrow.

Here are some pictures from today.

Seven years ago we were talking about a full honors firefighter funeral with the flags, and the honor guard, and the last alarm, and helicopter fly-overs.  Seven years later we talk about a response trailer that will bear his name to honor the sacrifice that he made for his community.  Seven years ago, Charles Lance Mathew became a memory when he was taken from this life too soon.  Seven years later, we are carrying his memory on in the work that we will do in the future.  God, we pray there is never another firefighter to fall but if there is, we go in his name.

Seven years ago I learned more from this one family and fire department than I did from any of the previous firefighters that had gone before him.  His story affected me deeply.  His family was burned into my heart.  The lessons that I learned from them, I have used on almost every fatality case I have worked since his death.  They profoundly changed the way I work and care for the new families that have come under my watch.

On March 20, 2010, two days to the day of Lance Mathew’s death, we will be honoring him and his family at the Texas Fallen Heroes Memorial Ride & Cook-Off.  His family are the honorary chairmen of the event.  They will be doing a wreath laying ceremony to not only honor their son but all of our Texas fallen firefighters and EMS workers.  And then the trailer that is dedicated to his memory will be unveiled and put into commission.    In my wildest dreams I never would have thought I would have seen a day like this come.

There has been a lot of sweat, tears, and stress with putting this event together.  Many days I begin to wonder what I have done.  But tonight, as we discussed the event and the trailer with them.  I was reminded once again that this isn’t about me.  This isn’t even about the TX LODD Task Force.  This is about the families and the departments that have lost so much.  This is about giving them something back.  And while I know that I will continue to stress over trying to find sponsorships, and auction items, and vendors, and cook-off teams…what it really comes down to is the family.  Seven years ago they were devastated.  Seven years later they are elated that Lance is being honored in such a way.  That makes me want to keep pushing through and to not give up, even though there are days that I feel like I should.

Never more honored, never more blessed do I feel than when I am sitting with the family of a fallen firefighter, whether it be in the throes of grief or many years later when we can laugh openly about a memory.

It has been freezing or near freezing temperatures in Houston for over a week now.  My birdbath is frozen solid.  We have a bucket on the back porch that is frozen.  This is just not right!  We live on the Gulf of Mexico where it’s warm most of the time and dang near too hot all of the other time.  It’s too cold to go outside to play, so Cat and I both have cabin fever.  Luckily school started back up for her, so at least she has something to do for those two days of the week.  Me?  I am staying busy trying not to shiver to death.  I have thin skin from living down here for so long that I can’t take this weather too much longer.  I love a good cold night to get some good sleep in but this is just getting ridiculous!

Here is John putting up all of our tackiest old sheets and blankets that we could find so that we could cover our plants.  They also have thin skin and can’t take this arctic air.  I feel their pain.  But I am a little bit luckier…my blanket has a heater!

Catherine turned 32 months today.  Will she really be 3 in 4 months??  When I was putting together the photo montage for last year, I could really see that Catherine made the big leap from babyhood to a full blown toddler.  She grew by leaps and bounds and her development has astounded me.  I wish more than anything I had taken a child development class while we were waiting for Catherine.  I felt like I would have been better prepared to handle the roller coaster ride of changes she went through.  Watching a baby grow into a toddler is both amazing, exciting and exasperating.  I felt like I was really feeling my way around the dark about how to handle certain behaviors and what to expect for the age.

Catherine’s temperament has really evened out over the last few months.  She is a happy girl that has a real zest for life.  She is still quite exhausting as she never quits moving (unless she is watching Wonder Pets).  She has been called a pistol and busy-body.  I really wish I could bottle the energy she has!

Here are some other things about her:

• I would consider her potty-trained.  She hasn’t had an accident in months and has been dry through the night for months.
• She says she likes to do art.
• She talks non-stop.  When she can’t figure out what to say in regular speak, she starts talking in garble gibberish talk.  For example she will say, ‘boy-ya, waala, boy-ya, gah-ya-ya-ya.’  What????  I think she does this just to hear herself talk.
• She is still obsessed with Chinese lion dancing.
• She wants to ride on planes all of the time.
• Her imaginative play is really coming out.  She likes to have conversations and feed her stuffed animals and dolls.
• She talks about having friends.
• She loves the mall.
• She is a shoe girl.  She has a sparkly, red pair of shoes that she loves.  I will be sad when she can’t fit into them anymore.  She will be devastated.
• She doesn’t really play with toys right now.  She mostly just put things in and out of boxes or bags.  And she likes books.
• She loves Disney’s Silly Symphonies.  She watches them on You-Tube at restaurants.
• She is finally starting to get those two year molars in.
• We have decided to keep her in her crib until she is three.  She can climb in and out but she doesn’t do it unless we are sitting right there and gets the inclination.

I can’t wait to see how she grows over this next year!