Sing it now: "Do You Want to Go.....o to San Fran cis co?"

Going into the city; we counted 18 toll lanes available on this bridge from Oakland into San Francisco.

Looking in the distance to Filbert's Street. The very top of the photo is where we will be to come down a few pictures below.

Homes built for the street.

At the top of the steepest street in America (39% grade); you cannot see the rest of the street when you start down.

Regular sidewalks need steps like these to get up and down such steep grades.

We are the vehicle at the top coming down.

A very curvy picturesque street with many crowded people at the bottom taking pictures of it.

Trolley car coming through

Golden Gate Bridge from Fort Point

This is before we got close enough to about get blown away; the wind is very strong near and on the bridge.

Getting ready to walk on the sidewalk on top of the bridge

Giant cables that are 34 inches wide in diameter and have 27,000 wires running through them.

View of the city looking back after crossing the bridge to the Sausilito side.

Driving on the bridge. There is not much median between the 2 sides of traffic.

Bunker on the other side of the bridge; one of many.

Down below the bridge at another fort location looking back at it.

Marina with the city in the background

Another bunker near another fort on this other side of the bridge

Jackson in a rare still moment on the bunker. He asked me to take his picture; he loves to pose for the camera.

The children liked playing on the bunkers the best of all we did until we got to the ocean that is.

Tunnel, one lane, one way at a time, going to the ocean area beyond the bay. Once you go through you have to come back through to get out of this beach area. The light stays red for 5 minutes while anyone from the other side comes through and then it stays green for 5 minutes for this side.

The Pacific Ocean; later we drove to the top of the cliff behind Sarah Kelly and saw the lighthouse and a great view of the bridge and the city beyond.

At the ocean; it was cold and windy but these children didn't seem to care; we had to call them to come back after awhile.

Sunset over the Pacific.

Remember the song? "Do you want to g...o... to San Francisco? Will you we..ar flowers in your hair?" Maybe I somewhat wrote the lyrics right and that is all I know of the song. We decided after church and lunch on Sunday to go to the city.
First I want to give you the link to this church: http://www.claytonvalleychurch.com/ The pastor was so awesome (again) this Sunday that I am going to go back and listen to some of his previous sermons. It was so refreshing to hear a pastor proclaim the literal creation of the earth in 6 days, a literal Adam and Eve, a literal flood and support sanctity of life in his sermon. Jeff was able to go with us this week as he has not had to work the last 4 days and he really enjoyed it too. He met all the people we met last week and thought as I did that this is a very friendly church; lots of fellowship happens here.
After lunch we headed out. It was a quick trip since it was Sunday and no rush hour traffic. We decided to drive and not take the BART (Bay Area Regional Transportation) from near here. It was a long bridge across from Oakland and then we went straight to the steepest street (39% grade) in America. At first we weren't going to drive down it but Jeff changed his mind. It was a little scary. You start down the hill and at one point you are on the brink of it; looking out the front window and there's no street to be seen; that's how severe the drop-off is. You start down the street and you feel like you are going to tip over. I cannot imagine how people parallel park on these types of streets. We also went down a very very curvy steep one; it must be very popular; lots of people were either driving down it or taking pictures of it.
We then went over to the Golden Gate (circa 1937). Suffice it to say, the children were impressed. We went underneath it to Fort Point which is a replica fort of Fort Sumter (same shape and design) and saw lots of batteries on both sides of the bridge from the post Civil War days that I don't remember seeing before. Of course we drove across it away from the city and walked along the walkway on top of it. Amazing to me on a Sunday was the amount of traffic inching along going the other way, into the city. Later on the other side of the bridge we still saw traffic slowly heading that way. At 9 pm when we were heading back, the traffic was backed up for miles and miles and miles. I have no idea where all those people had been or what they were doing. Earlier I thought they were probably headed into the city for dinner or to do something else. By evening though, I'm thinking they had gone out for the day and were headed back home into the city. There's no way to tell, but I do know when we finally saw the end of the line, it was in the downtown of Sausilito, a good good ways from the bridge.
After crossing the bridge, we went to several overlooks and explored an old battery near another Fort. Then we went through the neatest tunnel that goes under highway 101 and is one-way for 5 minutes at a time. On the other side, we were able to go straight to the ocean. Even though it was colder by sunset, most of them enjoyed the beach and seeing the Pacific Ocean. Elizabeth elected to stay with me while I fed the baby.
We were all tired when we arrived home but it was fun and we hope to go back once this week and then again this coming weekend for some particular things we want to do there. This is the largest city any of the children have ever been in and Jeff and I have not been there since 1995. One interesting occurence, interesting to me anyway, was the amount of tourists, like us. It seemed as if everybody we saw had a camera and was taking pictures everywhere. We also saw lots of families all over downtown and the parks and green spaces were full of people enjoying the Sunday afternoon sunshine. I'm sure we'll have more adventures when we go back. It was so fun to see the little ones' reactions to such largeness on such a grand scale. Sunday was about large bridges, large buildings, large hills, large crowds, and large hearts of those who have accepted us graciously into their congregation; a large day.

No more eggs ~ Memorial Day 2011

This morning we got up and found that the nest on the end, the one I sent the picture of, is empty! No eggs, not anywhere. They were there yesterday and poof! Gone! The little ones are a little upset but unfortunately that is nature. I don't know what would get them so up high like that and they are enclosed among all those plants. An owl, a rat? We don't know but the other nest still has 4 eggs in it and hopefully will be okay. We'll keep watching. Scott is going to move his mirror contraption to the middle so he can view this one without bothering mama bird.
On another note, Jeff took the children minus the baby, to a Memorial Day celebration in town. It was the 20th celebration to take place here. Singing; speeches; color guard; helicopter fly-by; and more made up the program. There were people there wearing red poppies. A poppy is to remember. According to the program there were some Bataan March survivors there! Memorial Day actually started after the Civil War; it was Confederate Memorial Day; the people wanted to remember their fallen from the war. Later it was adopted as a national holiday by all the states to honor not just the fallen in battle but all veterans and service men and women who have died in the line of duty or passed away from other causes. Confederate Memorial Day is still celebrated. When we are in Charleston in May we usually go to a ceremony in Mt. Pleasant at a cemetery there where Civil War soldiers are buried. It typically is the 10th of May or whatever Saturday is closest to that. I'll leave you with a poem we did a study on and memorized last year when we were studying World War I using the Epikardia curriculum. http://www.epikardia.com/ During WWI is when the poppy became a prominent symbol for remembering those lost in battle.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

Lt. Col. John McCrae

Physician, Canadian Army 1915, France

Updates this Week

Folding Laundry - one of our never-ending tasks.

Holding the baby - everyone wants this job

Petting the sheep at the Borges Ranch

Taking Little Man out of the pasture for a couple of walks around the circular driveway. He only got ahold of one rose bush; he ate one flower and several leaves.

At the Jelly Belly Factory after going after Jackson who was following another family we met instead of going with us.

My favorite Baby Jelly Belly

Grooming Little Man

Oliver getting his hoofs trimmed via filing.

I haven't blogged in a couple of days; we have been very busy with plain life and extra activities. Thursday was one of those days when we thought things would be calm but ended up being very active. We had visitors expected and unexpected. Jeff was coming in from work and couldn't even get in the gate for the back-up; UPS was trying to deliver a package, a lady was blocking the driveway, and another car was behind him who just followed him in asking for someone who doesn't even live here. He came inside and aksed if I would please go shut the gate and find out who this woman was. Turns out she was a trimmer, a horse foot trimmer that is coming to trim the horses hoofs. That was educational. We learned a lot about that and the whole idea of horses not wearing shoes at all. I liken it to either you vaccinate or you don't. Horseshoes are based on tradition? I haven't learned too much about it yet but it will definitely be something I'll investigate when we get a horse. Sarah Kelly especially asked a lot of questions and took pictures. We also found out that Oliver has foundered before and what they had to do to save him. He seems a little overweight now and the exercise we are giving him is very good for him and we like it too. We are cutting back on the carrots he gets as well.
After all the excitement I was tired; we'd been to the library that day and walked on a mile trail across 4 bridges to get to a park. This is just the best little town nestled around larger towns which means we get to live in a small town but have access to everything; the best of both worlds.
Friday, Jeff was off and we trekked to the Jelly Belly Factory not too far away. There are only 2 factories in the country and one is near here. The free tour was an hour long and fascinating for us. Thank goodness only Jeff really likes jelly beans since they cost $9 a pound! They gave each of us a small pack on the way out which amounted to about 200 jellies which the children enjoyed trading in the car all the way home. We had little papers with pictures and labels of all 50 flavors. He was the "dispenser" and gave out what everyone called for. They had much fun with this.
Before heading home, we drove through the Napa Valley area. What a beautiful country with all those grape vines of all ages and sizes. We were a little too late in the afternoon to take any tours but we can easily go back and do so. There were so many places to choose from we'll do some research about that first. The highlight of my trip, since I'm not a wine drinker that is, was a visit to Dean and Deluca. If you've never been to that store, check out, http://www.deandeluca.com/ There was a new store that had just opened when we moved from Kansas years ago and I haven't seen one since. I took Sarah Kelly in and she was mesmerized by it all. They have some of the neatest speciality items I've ever seen. I really liked a large composting container I saw in there. We bought some fresh bread to munch on for the ride back. We also drove by a house we had looked into possibly renting in one of the towns up there and I am so glad we didn't. It looked somewhat delapidated and the yard was not a yard but a field of grasses almost 2 feet high. And, yes, we know the rattlesnakes are prolific out here. That house has a pool but who wants to swim when the high is only in the 70s?
Saturday we spent time around our area. We visited the local farmers' market and found some interesting items. Spinach bolani topped with sweet jalapeno sauce anyone? I found it delicious and I don't even like jalapenoes. The children played on the playground in town which had enough green space for football throwing too. That afternoon after lunch (and of course picking roses in the garden), we went to the Borges Ranch, an old dairy and cattle ranch which had the original house and farm buildings from 1901. We took a ranger-led tour which happens the 4th Sat. of every month. It was casual and informative. We learned a lot about the history of this area and especially ranching in this part of the country. There were animals milling about for the children to pet, goats, sheep, chickens, rabbits, pigs, etc... The funniest part was the lambs who are 4-H "projects". They have cut back on their food for the upcoming fair and the noise they made was unbelievable. I've seen a lot of lambs but not any making this noise; it sounded like a man moaning extremely loud and and adamantly. We laughed uproariously about this and since yesterday someone will repeat the sound and we'll all laugh again.

Thank you for your comments and emails; we have read them all. And prayers for my friend Donna; I'm wondering if your baby came today? You've been on my mind a lot the last couple of days but especially today! And to all a good night....

Cultural Awareness

Tio and Christian live on the back part of the property that we are renting. Their country of origin is Guatemala. About 12 -15 years ago, Patty was caring for her aging mother, aunt, and uncle. She needed more help and found Jacob, more affectionately called Tio (the Spanish word for uncle) who helped her care for her family. Tio has stayed on through the years and is very much responsible for a lot of the yard and garden work that goes on here as well as caring for the horses. From our conversations with him, he speaks very good English, has a big heart and is willing to do anything, carry in groceries, wash the car, and always stops what he's doing to see if we need something, etc... Instinctively from day one I knew he was okay. Some of you know that I easily "read" people and have a realistic feel immediately for a person. Tio is a good man.

From what I could gather from a conversation with him last week, he left home about 18 years ago. In their culture they live in extended family groups, all together under one roof or a series of homes. His brother tried to kill him, he showed me scars, so he left and came to the states. He may have also left to find work. He came legally and received his green card and has worked for a living all these years. He faithfully sends money home every week. If you're following this, you've already figured out he has not seen his family all these years. They want him to come there and he wants them to come here. It is evident that he still has close relations as they talk by phone every day. Patty provides him a place to live, cable, cell phone, electricity, water, and buys all his food. She provides medical care if needed. He doesn't drive so he leaves the property when she takes him somewhere, usually they are working together on the grounds at another house she is fixing up. I'm sure that the money he earns here would not seem like a lot to us, but is a considerable amount in their country.

He asked me exactly how many children we had the first day we were here and I discovered through that converstation that he has 8, six sons and two daughters. Two of his children live here, one in San Francisco and a son, Christian who appeared here about a year ago. Christian is willing to work for Patty, though he doesn't seem as happy about it as his dad and he goes each Sunday to visit his brother in the city. This is where the immigration issue gets so complicated.

Tio came here legally and is "naturalized" whatever that means. He is a hard-working man who likes what he's doing and would do anything anyone asks of him. He is teaching the children many Spanish words and is very much enjoying them. I have become very fond of him and when we talk I try to say as much as I am able in Spanish out of respect for his culture. He has definitely become part of the Stice Family. Any evening you can find John and Patty with Tio and Christian watching TV together in the back in one of the "barns" (also from the old property the house came from) which has been fixed up as a living area. John and Patty are staying here now, temporarily, in the back in a motor home while they are waiting for the house they were in to be worked on. We have been invited several times "behind the fence" of the garden to their private areas there and now feel quite comfortable opening one of the many gates and calling "Tio, there's a package here for Patty" or as the little ones did today running at top speed, "Tio the pond's overflowing and the fish are getting out." I found out about this later of course after they went screaming for him. (This is another story for another post.)

So what do you do about immigration in this country? If immigrants were all like Tio and wanted to work and wanted to do their share, I wouldn't have an issue with it. If they don't and want us to pay for their every need, I do. But not everyone can make it in this country on a small salary unless they have an arrangement like Tio does. What then? And where do you draw the line? Tio probably can't go home because he probably couldn't get back in, at least not easily. But what about his family? Wouldn't it be nice for him to be able to visit? or for them to come here? But who comes to stay? Do you let someone in because their husband and father is here? Do you let them in because this husband and father works but not this other one because theirs doesn't? And how do immigration officials know? We sit in our homes and have such drastic opinions about all of this but we don't really know anything. Now that I see not just faces on the news or in the paper, but know them and see the pain on their face when they mention their family, both the good family and the bad, I have more compassion for this issue. There is no way to regulate without mandates. Mandates help and hurt. Laws help and hurt. There is no way with this large of an issue to look at each case individually to make decisions. This is why this will probably never be fully resolved in our country. It is not as simple as it seems.

For now, we stay shut away from the "real world" behind our closed gate of a life, literally. Today I sat in the yard and listened as Tio educated the children on the dangers of rattlesnakes. He taught them the Spanish word for it and didn't quit until he was satisfied they knew it. He explained how he wants them to immediately come get him if they see any snakes. Then he turned to me and explained how he will let nothing and no one hurt my babies. You don't get much closer to me than that. I am wondering if there are any more Tios out there, I will be glad to take one home with me.

Scott finally figured out how to ask Christian in Spanish if he wanted to play soccer with him.

Earthquake

Apparently we had an earthquake this past Saturday night. We, however, did not feel it. We read about it in Sunday's paper, a 3 -inch thick paper for $3.oo, the San Francisco Chronicle. It registered on the Richter Scale as a 3.6 earthquake west of Richmond. Now we are about 30-40 minutes east of there hence maybe the difference. The guys that were out here working for Infrastructure were at their hotel in Richmond. One said his glass "danced" across the table. The other said the whole room shook and the windows rattled. We didn't even know about it. I wonder if it's such a common occurence to feel such tremors out here. Where Clayton, CA is, there are numerous mountains that pop up out of the flat plain, one Mt. Diablo, the highest around here is literally down at the end of our street. There is a state park there with trails which is something we checked out the other day and we want to go back and walk on some trails. We'd like to take the horses which Patti suggested, but I'm not sure, other than walk them down the street, how we'd get them there. They would actually fit in the big black bus but something tells me my husband would not be real happy with that idea. I would probably try that though. By the way, we have 4 eggs in the middle nest and still 5 in the other. These birds are laying one a day. We got a bird book today and still cannot identify her. Hopefully I can get a picture of the mama and you all can help us.

Sunday afternoon Fun

Our first grill-out of the season.

Patti brought me a balloon and a bouquet for our anniversary. She said a little bird told her about it. I have a bunch of verbal little birds around here. She adores Katharine Ellis and I let her hold her everytime we see her. I know she misses her little grandson in NC.

Jackson playing with his baby sister. I so enjoyed watching this. I thought to myself, this is what I want to do on my anniversary, be with all my people!

The children were all saying, "Daddy, kiss Mommy, it's your anniwersawey"(their pronunciation). While we didn't have millions watching us and we weren't at Buckingham Palace, we did have a fan club right out in the yard with us, my favorite fan club. I picked these blue girl roses, my all-time favorite rose and this one delightful smelling white one, to go beside my bed. I smell them constantly; it's a good thing I'm not allergy prone with all the flower immersion I'm into these days.

On Saturday when I found Whole Foods, I had gotten something I don't think I've done before. I got some flavored (blue cheese, bacon cheddar, and steakhouse) hamburgers already pre-made; yes, they were on sale. Ever since we came here and I saw what a great place this was for outdoor cooking and eating I've been wanting to grill something and eat outside. So, that's what we did in place of our normal popcorn and ice cream Sunday night dinner. Sarah Kelly and I enjoyed cutting flowers in the afternoon and then Jeff grilled the hot dogs and hamburgers. We had discovered a projector and screen in the hall closet last week. Patty encouraged us to take it outside (?) and watch a movie. I must have seemed daft; I've never heard of such a thing. Apparently they really like to watch movies and do this a lot. She mentioned they just pick a pergola and set it up. So, we thought we'd do this for fun as well on Sunday, being our anniversary and watch a movie with the whole family. We were going to set up on the pergola where we ate but picked one near the yard as the sun was not as direct there. That's the only caviat; it has to be dark or close to dark. Being further north than we're used to, it's not totally dark until 9:20 pm or so and it is totally bright at 5:30 am. It was getting chilly too so we brought blankets and wrapped up sitting in outdoor chairs we'd gathered. We started the movie around 8:30; we could see it okay even with it still being daylight and were enjoying it just fine until out of nowhere the wind started to blow. Now the screen was swaying ever so slightly which isn't such a big deal unless you're the kind of person who gets car sick. The characters on the screen looked like they were getting sick. This wasn't so bad either. The biggest challenge was that every time the wind blew all we could hear was the wind and not the movie. The DVD would only go up to a certain volume which without the wind blowing the neighbors would have been able to listen. So, after all that, we moved inside. Then to further complicate it all, the movie, Alice in Wonderland (not ours, but a DVD in the projector that we thought would be ok), was not ok for our little ones; a little too realistic and too scary. So we took that out and pulled another movie that we knew was ok from our personal stash. All in all, it was still fun, we still wrapped in blankets inside to be cozy but it was a late night for everyone.

Nestes

Tonight Drew told Jeff, "Daddy, we have 3 nestes!" Almost always when my children say, "Mommy, come and look at...." I go and look. It may only sometimes be interesting to me but it is always important to them. Yesterday when Scott said the above, I went and looked and there was the most well-made round little nest with 5 pale blue eggs in it nestled among cacti in the end of the window box off of his second story bedroom. Then we discovered another beautiful little nest in the same box in the middle. This nest was empty. We admired and looked and let everyone else look as well. The only problem was that the bird is scared away if we look out the window at the nest. It's literally right there and you could touch it (though we wouldn't) if you opened the window. So we came up with the idea that we'd only look a couple of times a day. Last week the children discovered a nest above one of the porches outside as well. So we have 3 "nestes" that we know of that we are watching. Today I went in Scott's room and discovered he had rigged up a plan. He does most of his school work in his room as well as reading books. Spending a lot of time at the desk or in a comfy chair afforded him the opportunity to watch the mama bird come and go and he has observed the daddy as well. It is a small brownish bird with black speckles and a white body. The Daddy has a red head. We are going to get a bird book from the library to see if we can identify it. Scott's plan was the rearrange his furniture and move a stack of large boxes that look like books atop a table near the window. He put a moveable mirror on top suspended by a piece of twine tied to the curtain rod. He tied it at just the right angle so that now you can stand in the room and look into the mirror to see the nest without scaring the mama bird away. (Now I know why he asked me for string for a "project".) The empty nest all of a sudden had 2 eggs in it yesterday afternoon then today it has 3. We are watching that nest closely too. We're so hoping we get to watch them hatch. We'll keep you posted.

The nest is in the bottom middle of this picture. It was hard to get a good picture because of the reflection of the glass.

Scott's rigged up system. The string goes from the top of the mirror to the curtain rod. You stand against the other wall and look in the mirror, a great view of the nest.

Lemons

Look what grows in the garden! We were walking the other day and found these lemons; they are called Myers (or Meyers) Lemons. They are huge and not as tart as regular lemons. There were 4 ripe ones but so huge we might not be able to use them all in a month. I had to put twice as many of these slices in my water as I normally do to get any flavor.

Here Sarah Kelly is cutting them up.

New Church and the Hitchhiker

Do you see 5 wild boys in this picture?

Those munchkins of mine.

I love this picture!

Scott with Little Man and Oliver.

Elizabeth Hart Rowe

Today is Sunday, May 22, 2011, our anniversary.

When Jeff is working with a team who has flown into town, they usually work for 9 days straight. It doesn't make much sense financially or otherwise to fly everyone in on Monday, work 3 days, and fly everyone home on Fri. and start over. This time the team flew in last Monday and flies home this coming Friday. This being the case, he worked today, albeit a shorter day than usual. He didn't leave until later this am, around 9 and we first discussed church. I had earlier looked for churches before leaving our SC home and was amazed at what I discovered. First I looked at Presbyterian ones. There was one in this general area whose slogan was "Open Doors, Open Hearts, Open Minds". That sounded a little different to me but I didn't think too much about it until I started browsing their website. On it I read about the a gay men's choir (their words exactly) from San Francisco coming to sing at their church, hence the "open minds" part. Okay, try again. Last night we looked and found a non-denominational church called Clayton Valley Church just around the corner from us. It seemed fine so I branched completely out of my comfort zone and dressed, fed, and drove myself and 7 of those forementioned munchkins to church this morning. For those of you who know us well, you know that Jeff feeds, clothes, ties, laces, irons, etc... on Sunday morning any munchkin who's needy in those areas. So, this job in itself was slightly daunting for me. Then we get there and Drew says, "I wish Daddy was here with us." So do I, so do I. I don't relish taking everyone to church and sitting alone with my children either, however, they did a wonderful job and were later complimented by several on their behavior. Jackson sat by me in the middle and Sarah Kelly and Scott each took up the ends. I held baby Ellis who slept through the entire service. What a doll! I just decided that I don't know anybody here and if they want to think I'm a single mother, so be it. Well that wasn't the case. This friendly church deservedly wins the award for being the most gregarious. We met so many people and all were thrilled we had visited and hoped we'd return, offered to contact us about things to do, and more, even though we will be their temporary family. Not only that, but the Spirit of God was in that building; I felt His presence when I walked in and throughout the service. The pastor had a burning heart for the Lord and the Word, and the Word was preached. He spoke with such fervor and was one of the best preachers I have ever heard. I have found our church.

Now to the hitchhiker part. On the way there as we were leaving the house, first we forgot to close the gate. We were too far away, 50 feet or so, for the opener to work, so I had to back up (fun in a bus). The children kept saying, we saw Christian walk out the gate, he's somewhere out here. Sure enough, down the road, there was Christian walking on the sidewalk. Now, I know I have not posted about Tio and Christian yet and I will do so. Suffice it to say for now that Tio a.k.a. Jacob is the caretaker for this property. Christian, his son from Guatemala just showed up, literally, about a year ago. Tio speaks very good English and Christian speaks none.

Back to the sidewalk. Here Christian was walking and I stopped the car and asked him in bad Spanish if he needed a ride. His answer? He hopped in the car. He stood up until I told him it was okay if he sat down. Jackson gave him a high five, which happens in the yard a lot; that is Jackson's way of communicating with the language barrier, so Christian sat next to him. Speaking a blend of 2 languages, we call it "Spanglish", I discovered he was walking to a certain grocery store, over a 2 miles away, to catch the bus to the city (San Francisco) to see his brother and he does this every Sunday. He was grateful for the ride. Before I knew this though, I told him we were going to church and invited him to come along. At first he seemed he might, then he politely declined. Later, after dropping him off, I thought, now wouldn't that have been a sight. "Single" mother with 7 children visits a church where we know no one, no one knows us, and brings a 20-something year old Hispanic man along? When I relayed all this to Jeff, he said, that sounds exactly like something you would do. Yes, he's right, if Christian had said yes, I wouldn't have hesitated for a second. Maybe next week we can invite Tio and Christian.

I'll post more about Tio and Christian's story in another post this week. It will give you an interesting glimpse into this country's immigration issue.