Happy birthday Jael Shamar!

Life should look like fun. This was life!

My youngest bio-babe will officially be 16 years old tonight at 9:30 tonight! Born at home in our newly re-built house, weighing in at a tiny 6# 10 ounces she was our smallest baby by 1/2 ounce! Not our earliest although she was 5 weeks early, but tiny!! Esther at 35 weeks was a healthy 7# 7 oz!! Like most of my birthing experiences, the labor was fast and hard, and compared to passing a gall stone or needing a root canal, EASY!!!!!!!!!!!! Contractions last about a minute, they go away. One can handle pretty much anything for a minute. Unlike headaches which serve no purpose but still cause pain, the laboring to birth a baby is hard, at some points: painful, work. When you have finished laboring, YOU HAVE A BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have had headaches last much longer than any of my labors. I'll take labor any day, thank you!!
The fast and so-characteristic -of-me labor is the variety I would wish for every woman. This spunky baby was a seasoned traveler to births with her Midwife Mamma from very early on, experienced airline passenger by age 2, a star ballerina at age 3, raiser of chickens, gerbils, and kittens by age 5, by age 6 she was the darling of the Homeless Shelter where we served on the board, and a world traveler at age 8 . (She and I went to Cambodia to get her new brother Noah) Throughout school she has excelled, and has dazzled and frustrated masses with her exuberance (she LOVES to talk!) That vivacious personality has served her well as a DECA (national marketing organization) officer, active member of Spanish, Young Republicans, and Literature Clubs as school. Her incredible talent in gymnastics earned her the State Championship in her division very early on. She works in a gymnastics studio now and the children she works with adore her. A future Veterinarian, she has been my faithful Vet-Tech when any animal situation needed my help. She's up for whatever adventure presents, but usually carefully examines the merits before undertaking any adventure. She appreciates that I don't have hard,rigid/inflexible curfews with tight boundaries. She says this reminds her that my trust in her is earned because she has chosen to obey the stated or implied guidelines on her own. That cell phone is always right nearby in case I do need to remind, but that is pretty rare. She chooses her friends carefully, and lets go of associations which are not good for her. Peer pressure is what SHE sets, not what she falls into. EXCEPT for her aversion to doing the laundry, which IS her chore, and for which she does loose phone privileges and does get grounded, this is a pretty-much all- around awesome young woman-child.
I love you dear Jael Shamar. You are one of my very precious treasures, "Little lamb of God, you are a masterpiece!"


HOW MANY PEOPLE DO YOU KNOW WHO CAN DO THIS?

FIRST PLACE WINNER!


READING CHARLOTTE'S WEB to our pig at the Guiness World Book of Records Simlutaneous READ ALOUD whre we gathered other home schoolers at our pig pen to do our part to earn this record.


Before BRACES and after

JAEL and NOAH at WAT PHNOM PARK CAMBODIA