Busy Times

It has been a very busy couple of weeks at the Rogge house. As we near the end of the school year, I look at the kids and wonder how it is that they are almost finished with first grade and kindergarten respectively. WOW!! They grow up so fast!

Chase had the opportunity to be involved in the Missoula Children's Theater Production of The Pied Piper at the PAC in Chelan. He auditioned and wanted to be cast as I rat and indeed he was cast as a rat! He had practices after school every day and dress rehearsal on Saturday morning and then two performances on Saturday. He did a good job but was a very tired boy by the end of that week.

Next came a visit from Mamma and Papa for Mackenzie's birthday. They arrived with boat in tow on Thursday the 20th. Mackenzie's choice for her birthday "party" this year was to go fishing it Papa and one of her friends (Hannah) in Papa's boat. Don't know who was more excited - Papa or Mackenzie. The kids hadn't seen Mamma and Papa in 2 1/2 months which is longer than usual. They were so excited that we counted down days for over three weeks and counted hours for the last two of those days. Once we knew they had made it to Entiat (about 20 mintues away) Chase stood on the deck with binoculars in hand watching across the lake to see them come down into the Chelan valley. Alas, they arrived and the kids met them in the driveway!

Mackenzie turned 6 last week - how did that happen? I made ladybug cupcakes for her class and we took them in at the end of the day on Friday. She and Hannah went fishing with Papa and I on Friday afternoon - they caught 6 keeper size Blue Gill. Hannah had never been fishing and was tickled to catch them. We then had "rice & gravy" (stroganoff and rice) for dinner and then watched The Princess and The Frog before I took Hannah home - it was a fun day for Kenzie (and all of us).

Saturday brought with it dress rehearsal and recital for Mackenzie's ballet class. They did a dance to "Fireflies" by Owl City and it was very cute. It was a fun night of dance and music performances by several kids from the valley. All very well planned and executed by Mackenzie's 15 year old dance instructor (she is amazing). While Kenzie was at dress rehearsal the guys took Chase fishing and they caught 8 blue gill! He was excited to have Daddy & Papa time in the boat.

The guys took Monday and Tuesday to go fishing on the "big" lake. Well, fishing it what they did as "catching" evaded them. They spent several hours each day trolling around and trying different things. They reported seeing lots of fish on the fish finder but could catch nothing. I guess the guys are meant to catch only blue gill and only when they have the kids with them.

Alas, it was time for Mamma and Papa to head home so a teary family (the kids and I) stood on the porch this morning waving as they drove away headed back to their home!

Blog Post Makes it to Paper

I have been participating in a Layout A Day (LOAD) for the month of May. It has been fun and I can happily say the I have done well in getting my layouts done every day so far (12 down and 19 to go). Today our challenge was J is for journaling. As soon as I read the challenge I knew that my post from August "Long Time Dream Fullfilled" had to finally make it onto paper for Chase's scrapbook. I had to share the final product here as most of my friends don't see my LOAD layouts on Flickr. I cried lots of tears as I read this story again and scrapbooked it. I have been doing my layouts on the dining room table but this one I did in the solitude of my scrap room alone where I could enjoy the memories and tears again. I am happy with how the layout turned out.

Mother's Day

As mothers, we are the family nurse, personal shopper, taxi driver, tutor, seamstress, maid, chef, counselor, etc, etc, etc . . . what a nice honor to have a day dedicated to us. However, the powers that be in Chelan decided many moons ago that the kids fishing derby would be best held on none other than Mother's Day. It is a fun event mind you and the kids love it but really does a Mom want to spend the day at the edge of the pond at the golf course helping her kids become master fishermen? I realize the most Dads will take the kids but in this family, Dave is allergic to fish of all kinds and cannot even help remove them from hooks so this Mom spent yesterday helping her kids get 5 trout from the lake (and got a good sunburn too).


Alas, this Mother's Day was also the first Mother's Day without Dave's Mom so it carried with it some extra emotions. I did this scrapbook page as a tribute to her yesterday as she was heavy on our hearts in this house.

My sister, Dad and I went together this year and got my Mom a new set of pots and pans. The ones she had were the set they got as a wedding gift almost 44 years ago. She was tickled to death with them and is so happy to have pots that are flat (as opposed to warped) on the bottom. She called me the first time she used them to tell me how fast she could boil water in them! As my sister out it in a text message to me, "I think this was a slam dunk" for Mom this year!


My kids flooded me with little gifts from school including a trivet from Kenzie with her handprint on it, a marigold that Chase planted and a few little books they wrote for me. It was a lot of fun. Daddy also helped them to get Mommy a "Mom" bracelet and a pin with their birthstone "kid" charms on it. It was a lovely day and I am so lucky to be a Mom!!

A Long Time Dream Fulfilled

Many of you know of the time and trials of the adoption of Chase. Being an international adoption it came with ups and LOTS of downs through the paperwork process. Getting his referral 11 days after he was born and then it taking nearly 9 months more to get the travel OK to go get him was tough on the whole family.

I am the oldest child and my younger sister had no children at that point either so this was the first grandchild for my parents. My Dad was over-the-top excited about a grandson to taking fishing, hunting, camping, etc. Mom was excited as well but Dad had dreams of things he would do with Chase before he ever got to hold him.

We lived from one picture to the next for that nine months as that was our connection to this little boy we loved so dearly. We were trapped in the system and had to wait it out. It was stressful for us all and some of us (namely me) were more vocal about the stress we endured. Others (like Dad) kept dreaming of this baby in his arms in silence. Dad had a heart attack summer of 2003 while we were in this waiting period. He spent several days in the hospital getting stents placed and recovering. During this time, we all became more aware of his emotions related to Chase. He worked so hard to recover and get his health in shape to be able to go to Guatemala with us.

Finally in November 2003, we go the plane tickets and Dad told his boss he would be back when Chase was home from Guatemala as he and Mom went with us. We took a red-eye flight to Guatemala City. Upon arriving after a long night of flight, we got to our hotel (Hotel La Casa Grande) and checked in. The agency had told us to call the attorney when we arrived. I did just that. We were told to be prepared as with it being a Friday before the election weekend in Guatemala we may not get to even see him and likely wouldn't get to have him till Monday. I was shocked when Leticia (our attorney in Guatemala) asked me if we would like to "get" him that morning. I inquired for more info as to what she meant. She told us she could be there with him and we could HAVE him that morning. We all raced through the shower (as we were all in one suite so the one shower was busy).

FINALLY we got to have him (we ended up waiting in Guatemala enjoying him in our hotel for 3 weeks while final paperwork was completed for travel home)! After a short visit with the attorney and the foster mother, they left and we were on our own. The poor little guy had just been removed from all he knew and he started crying. We all took turns walking the floor with him trying to calm him. Mom and I took turns singing to him (she had learned to sing Jesus Loves Me in Spanish) and rocking him. Dave took his turn too and finally Papa got his turn. He walked out onto an open landing area and talked to Chase and finally got him settled and he fell asleep on Papa's chest. What a sight as you can see . . .

I NEVER knew until a couple of months ago what Dad had talked to him about while trying to comfort him that day nearly 6 years ago. I now know that he was talking to Chase about the things they would do together and how he looked forward to teaching him to fish!

Chase and Papa have gone fishing quite a few time together and really enjoy one another's company as you can see.

Yesterday (August 17, 2009), Chase (with the help of Papa) caught his first BIG fish. He has caught several blue gill and perch but yesterday was different. He caught a 15 lb, 32 inch KING SALMON on the Columbia River near Brewster, WA. Boy was he proud and so was Papa - I think the picture says it all . . .

A Long Time Dream Fulfilled