This post is for those who have asked for pictures from Lydia’s graduation. It will be mostly pictures, but I’ll tell you a little about what we did. “We” means Ted, Beth, and Serena; Ben Allen and Emily; and Sarah, Rainey, and William. We all drove up together in 3 vehicles. I had the 2 back seats out in my van so I could 1) bring 2 rented wheelchairs for Ted’s parents’ use, and 2) have room for all Lydia’s stuff to vacate her apartment and bring her back home. Continue reading “Lydia’s Graduation Weekend”
Ohio State University NROTC 45th annual Color Parade
So Lydia says, “The ROTC Color Parade in the OSU stadium is no big deal.” (We had gotten an invitation as her parents.) “Maybe you should come next year when I have been in the NROTC program for awhile…” This was about a week before May 15th, the day of the parade. By Tues. we heard from somewhere that she might be getting a few awards; by Thur. Lydia called again, sort of wistfully, and announced that she would be getting more than two awards, and could we think about coming??
Bragging Alert! You might have guessed it was coming; in a mostly vain effort at discretion, the major part of our wanton bragging is below the fold… you’ve been warned!!
Fortunately, we did go, it was a beautiful day, and we sat at the end of the HUGE stadium, 
where we watched what seemed like fifty ROTC students raise and lower a 50 lb, enormous American flag. Continue reading “Ohio State University NROTC 45th annual Color Parade”
Catholic Rebellion
We are not Catholics. Although I have been to Roman Catholic services, I (and my family) find their fundamental doctrines flawed and in some ways containing serious error. Nevertheless, on May 17th, we will stand with, and pray for, this Catholic rebellion.
The video is short, to the point and very well done. I urge you to watch it. It lays out Continue reading “Catholic Rebellion”
Vanessa- an update
Vanessa Liu, our Chinese guest for Christmas, left yesterday, and we miss her so much! As planned, we took her to the Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY last Wed. The exhibits are both comprehensive and impressive, and Vanessa mostly listened, kept her Chinese dictionary at the ready, and seemed to enjoy herself. She saw and heard many things that were new to her. At supper the next day, we had a long discussion about “faith in evolution” vs. faith in Christ, and she restated her commitment to evolutionary beliefs. Those are, we believe, the major impediment to her conversion, since she has been taught them constantly since childhood. The good news is that she now has the other side, presented thoughtfully and respectfully. In addition, she participated in giving and receiving gifts (I got a quill and ink set, for instance), attended many church services, went dancing with us on New Year’s Eve, spent several hours discussing his trip to China with our cousin, John Graham and even did some target practice. As we parted, and some of us were close to tears, she stressed that she wanted us to visit her in China. I hope we can! 🙂
Here are some pictures of our adventures together: Continue reading “Vanessa- an update”
Weirder education
Some of our friends send their children to the University of Louisville. You may have heard of it; they won the Orange Bowl recently. It seems that the students there can also get top scholarship input on black drag queens… courtesy of my tax dollars.
SO here’s my problem with this. Although I find gay drag disgusting, and wonder why it needs to be studied at U of L, I also have to wonder where all this is going:
- Will there eventually be a School of Drag funded by taxpayers, where students learn to be drag queens (AIDs and STDs included)?
- How does promoting the gay lifestyle, which this definitely does, fit with the overall mandate of a publicly supported university?
- Is it my imagination, or is there a double standard here? No doubt riots would ensure should the KY Senate propose taxpayer funding of research on using 4D ultrasound machines to reduce abortions. After all, this could be easily justified as a means of increasing the native-born proportion of KY citizens, with all the benefits of lower education costs (no English as a 2nd language), increased tax base (gays can’t help us there) and a reduction of mental health issues among women.
- Finally, is it really true that a majority of KY taxpayers wish to spend their tax dollars this way? If so, why is there a KY constitutional provision which clearly limits the benefits and privileges of marriage to one actual man + one actual woman?
I am the father of a teenager
Lydia in China
Over the summer Lydia will be updating her own blog; you can read about all her adventures at Lydia-China.10thGen.org. If and when we get photos and news, we will do some cross-posting here as well. For those of you who might be wondering, she will actually be in China for the start of the Olympic Games, but will not see them herself.
We miss you already, Lydia! 🙂
My Last Week of School
Dear Friends and Family,
NOTICE: This is the last weekly e-mail you will get from me until I get back from China (I think) because I am going to get my own blog page where I can easily upload pictures, so you get to visit that once a week and read my post. However, I know that the internet is a little weird in China because the government messes with it, so if for some reason I can not access my blog in China, or you can not access it or something, I will go back to weekly e-mails. We will figure all that out when the time comes, but just don’t be alarmed if you don’t get anymore e-mails from me. I will let everyone know the web address of my blog once I get it (probably sometime this week).
Back to the main message. Yeah! Continue reading “My Last Week of School”
Your daugher might be an accountant or a nurse…
Our’s drives a backhoe. We’re so proud of her!
In the fall she begins a new career teaching at a private school, so this is a woman of diverse skills. Wait till the little boys in her class find out what she used to do! 🙂
Ticking on towards summer
Ok, here’s me catching up on posting my updates, this is last week, so you’ve probably already read it in an e-mail
Dear Friends and Family,
Yes, I believe I got a little more sleep this week, thank you very much. I had a Chinese oral presentation Monday and an Arabic quiz Friday, but that was the extent of my difficulties this week. Next week I have another psych midterm, but it shouldn’t be too hard. I’m also busy with the never ending task of applying for scholarships, which even though I don’t get most of them, it is good writing experience.
Really the only exciting thing that happened this week Continue reading “Ticking on towards summer”
Renaissance Fair
Lydia has had a very busy week (as you will see), so she asked me to post this for her:
Dear Friends and Family,
Wow, sooo, I have two weeks to catch up on don’t I? We’ll I’ll try to hit the highlights. So two weeks ago, I was formally initiated into the Mirrors Sophomore Class Honorary, an honorary that I had applied for in February and had done an interview for as well. Every year a group of 40 students are selected by the current Mirrors members to be the next ‘generation’ I specifically wanted to get into this honorary because their main service project is volunteering for the St. James Cancer Hospital. I want to get involved in service to cancer patients since my grandmother on my mother’s side died of cancer.
Last Wednesday I received a letter of congratulations from the East Asian Studies Center at OSU. I had won Continue reading “Renaissance Fair”