I've never been to the wedding of "completed Jews" as it's put, but this afternoon that's what it was.  The bride's family are all Christian Jews or Jewish Christians, whichever way you like to put it, and the ceremony was performed by a pastor who is himself a completed Jew.  It was the whole thing...the huppah, the talit, the bride walking seven times around the groom, the signing of the ketubah, and the groom stomping on a glass.  Beautiful, beautiful wedding!

One of the things I love best to do is carefully lift and arrange the bride's train, and the one today was gorgeous....it was first worn by a member of her family in 1948, and she's the fourth bride to wear it.  She said as soon as her grandmother (the last bride to wear it) saw her in it, she (the grandmother) began to cry. 

This is a photo of a copy of the ketubah, which is a marriage covenant, signed by the bride and groom, their parents, and the attendents.  It was hand-painted and hand-lettered in Israel (from where the bride's father flew back home yesterday):

Here the couple is, wrapped in the talit:

Here's the pastor displaying the original ketubah, prior to its being signed:

Just a pretty photo of them listening to a groomsmen reading from the book of Mark:

And when the groom stomped on the glass, we all cried "Mazel tov!"

It was fun. 

Case in point:  Hulu.com, where one can watch some movies and a whole bunch of television episodes whenever one wants, such as my favorite "Dick Van Dyke" show:

On July 7th Dmitry begins his driving classes.  

Last week was VBS, and on Thursday it rained. That was also my day to have Kirstin's kiddos, so I picked them up in Keller, and she thoughtfully provided them with umbrellas, as it was rainy:

Brollies on parade!  ;^)

This morning I fetched Margaret from her sewing class; here she is with the doll upon which she's been working:

And what a treat!  Sveta kindly scanned in and sent a class photo from when Dmitry was five or six:

Can you spot him?  He's the glumster on the left, standing in front of a girl with a huge bow (Russians do love bows on their little girls) and a boy in a coat and tie.  Being Dmitry, his first comment upon seeing the picture was to darkly mutter about "There's the bully!"

Um, that would be the little girl standing next to him.  When I pointed out she's smaller than he was, he defensively said "Yeah, but she'd pull my hair!" 

The tall boy next to her was one of Dmitry's particular friends, Sacha, and the boy on the other end of the line....looking to the left....was his other good friend, Anton.

Not only does it allow us to see videos of precious Faith and Hannah in Japan (can you believe Faith is starting to walk already?), but it helps me save on overdue fines at the library.

I'd signed up for Library Elf (see if your library's linked to it, if you've not done so already), and I'd received an email from it a few days ago to remind me of four books due today.  Put it on my iGoogle to-do list, thought of it this morning, then promptly forgot it.

This evening I got another email from it, and was distressed to realize the libraries are closed, and the books due are still here.

So I went to the Fort Worth Public Library website, logged in, went to my account, and was pleased to see that even though the brick-and-mortar libraries are closed, it's still 6/21 on the website.  Clicked on the four books due today, hit the "Renew" button, and zha-ZAM!...no more overdue books. 

I love the internet. 

Well, and movies, too, only that's never happened to me.

But the TV thing has....we watch Wheel of Fortune, and while I don't often pay any particular attention to the credits of a show, a few weeks ago I noticed the name of a childhood friend - okay, more of an acquaintance - listed as the producer:  Harry Friedman. 

That reminded me that he works in television, which I'd not thought of in ages.  Hadn't realized he'd moved up to the level of producing a staple such as WoF, however! 

Tonight Pat Sajak actually mentioned Harry by name, as he pointed out that the show had given away over $300K this past week.  I guess that sort of thing comes to the attention of a show's producer.

Who do y'all know who has made it (comparatively) big? 

To celebrate Father's Day (neither Kirstin nor Jessica could be there last Sunday) and my birthday.  We met to munch on fried green beans and the dessert item of our choice (thanks, Matt!).

Waiting for dessert:

Carolyn was kind enough to join us; here she's looking at Dmitry with a rather bemused expression:

Outside, prior to leaving for home, were Kirstin and Jessica, chatting:

And look....!  Bridgette's walking (with a little help from Daddy):

It was a nice birthday. 

The plan had been for Bethany, Brianna, and Benjamin to attend, with me picking them up (most of the time) and returning them to their respective places.

That was our plan.

Unfortunately, we hadn't checked with Benjamin to see if he had any interest in it and I think it's safe to say, he hadn't.    So he's skipping it. 

Bethany wasn't eager, herself, but she managed to plod out to the van, climb in, then sit in pensive  -  actually, "glum" is probably a more accurate description  -  silence as we drove from her paternal grandparents' home to my house, where we were to meet up with Jessica and Brianna.  Blessedly, Bethany's morose demeanor disappeared as soon as she caught sight of Brianna, and within a minute or two they were giggling and capering about. 

When we arrived at the church, a few minutes early, we located one of the helpers who were telling kids which group they were in.  Skimming the list, Bethany was told she's in Blue 5, with a "B 5" lightly penned onto the back of her hand.  Then Brianna was told she was in Blue 1.  I protested a bit, saying they were supposed to be in the same group, to which the young lady said, "She's in the first grade group.  If you want her moved, just go to the registration booth" and pointed into the Garden Room.

Sent the girls to sit at a table and took my place in line, prepared to wait.  And wait I did....a good ten minutes, minimum.  What really hacked me was when it was finally my turn, it transpired that the young lady we'd spoken to had misread the list, and both girls were in Blue 1.  Also turns out the "1" had nothing to do with grade.  So now we were running late, after having been early.  Grrrrr....

However, we located their group and I headed home.

After today's VBS session were the auditions for those children hoping to snag either a solo song or a speaking part.  Brianna had been practicing like crazy, so away we went to the choir room to wait.  And wait.  Idle children are usually silly children, and Bethany and Brianna are the living embodiment of this truth:

(BTW, all photos were taken with my cell phone's camera, which doesn't handle movement well.  So long as something'll sit like it's been stuffed, it does a decent job, but not otherwise.)

After a few minutes Bethany and I left, as parents weren't supposed to be in the audition room.  At 1:30 Jessica showed up with Bridgette, and while waiting, they went into a small play area outside:

Eventually she took Bridgette and Bethany and went to my house, leaving me to wait for Brianna, who turned out to be in the next-to-last group to audition.  She sat in there for close to two hours, waiting her turn:

At last it was her turn!  She was paired with a little girl named Caroline, whom she'd gotten to know in the past couple of MusiCamps:

She's hopeful that she has a viable shot at the part she wanted.  We'll see! 

Praise God!!!

Who remembers Maxim, the little Russian boy who stayed with us during the last Bright Futures Camp, almost three years ago?

I just got a phone call telling me the news I'd been praying for.....he's been adopted!     And not only that, but by a Texas family, who lives down around Houston.  They were in town this morning, it turns out, for an official Texas re-adoption (why it had to be done here in Fort Worth, I'm not sure).  It's terribly disappointing not to have been able to see him, but that's life.  The important thing is the LORD has placed him with a loving family.  

And here he is, three years late; doesn't he look great? 

It's definitely him.  To be honest, if I didn't know he was in the photo I probably wouldn't have spontaneously yelped, "HEY!  It's Maxim!", but it's clearly him.  Isn't he handsome?