Finally a Family of Four Forever

My Road to the Derby 1/2 Marathon

03/22/10
Been at 10 miles for a few weeks now. This is the longest run I will do before my 1/2 marathon at the end of April. This week we are doing a hard 10 through Iroquois Park and then the following week I run the Papa John's 10 miler.

02/21/10
Up to 9 miles now. Training still going well. I am enjoying my long runs with my training partner now which I wasn't sure would ever happen.

01/31/10
Ran 8 miles for my long run last week. At this point I think I could finish the 13.1 if I needed to run it today. Thank goodness I still have 84 days to go. I am confindent that if I stay injury free this will be a great experience. I am certainly ready for the Papa John's 10 miler at this point too. Love running once a week with my friend and running partner April and am remembering once again what it was about running I used to love so much.

01/19/10
Up to 7 miles now. Only 3 more miles to add before the 13.1 mile race. I don't actually run the full 13.1 before race day a little scary, but it will be OK. I also signed up for the Papa John's 10 miler on April 3rd. It will be a good race before the half.

01/03/10
Up to 6 mile on long runs. Over half way to the end of my training program before the race. WooHoo!

12/15/09
Back running on the road today. Up at 6am and ran in the dark and cold.

12/14/09
Running mostly pain free now. Went 5 miles on Friday and 4 miles today. Hopefully I will be back to running on the road soon.

12/08/09
Been training for the Derby half for about 8 weeks now. Training has been going slowly, but reasonably well. About 3 weeks ago I got injured and haven't run consistently for that time, but today I was able to get out on the road again bright (or should I say dark) and early. I run once a week with a friend which is making my long runs a little easier. Looking forward to being pain free and running consistently again.

Orphan Book Distribution in South Africa

I would like to share with you part of an e-mail I received from my mother who lives in the province of Mapumalanga South Africa. In this area there is a very large population of children orphaned by HIV/AIDs.

“Two weeks ago this though came to me...

I would like to distribute books to the orphan children that are not yet going to school and hopefully they will get a thirst to read and in so doing become more interested in learning. I have found that during my work with our local youth and also seeing what Carol & Gerhardus have to put up (in the schools) with the young people of our country - they do not have a yearning to learn. They think education is a right (which it is) but as far as they are concerned teachers and parents have to give them what they want - working for something is simply not an option to them…
I have made contact with Val (a retired teacher) and she has a passion to educate children especially those who have nothing. She has developed teaching aids for children from pre-school to Grade 3 and also some storybooks. The books are available in English and the local African language. The cost of a book is R5 at today’s rate of exchange R6.88 = USD 1, therefore one book in dollar terms will be about 72 US Cents.

My vision is to appeal to the local church's for donations and work via word of mouth at this stage”

My mother’s vision and goal is to provide each child with one book written in their native language. She estimates there are about 3000 orphans that are not yet plugged into the school/feeding scheme system already in place.

If you would be interested in contributing any amount of money to providing an orphan with a book in the hopes of encouraging a desire to learn please contact me through comments

Our Timeline

March 10, 2008 - Naomi - Forever Family Day
March 4 - March 11 - Travel
Feb 26 - Travel Call
Feb 6, 2008 - logged in at National Visa Center
Jan 30, 2008 - I-600 approval
Jan 11, 2008 - sent I-600
Jan 11, 2008 - received legal documents
Dec 4, 2007 - acceptance paperwork sent to Korea
Nov 29, 2007 sign acceptance paperwork
Nov 17, 2007 - verbally accept referral
Nov 14, 2007 - preliminary referral - in review
Sept 13, 2007 - Homestudy to Korea
Sept 5, 2007 - corrected I-171H received - date issued Aug 23, 2007
August 23, 2007 - I-171H approved - incorrect and had to be sent back
August 20, 2007 - officially off hold and formal application in process
July 9, 2007 - completed homestudy
June 22, 2007 - filed orphan petition (I-600A)
May 2007 - placed on hold by AIAA
May 17, 2007 - sent in formal application
January 2007 - received formal application and went on hold
November 2006 - sent in pre-application

Finally a Family of Four Forever

Sunday, April 12, 2009

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