9.27.2009

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Sorry for all the fall festivity pictures these last few posts...it's an illness and we know. We are the Buchanans, and we love fall. *say, "hello Buchanans."* Sadly, there was also Christmas music played today on our way to the pumpkin patch. Sick.
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Peck's Farmer's Market
Spring Green, Wisconsin
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mmm...
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Found this handy little contraption and wondering how I can get it relocated to my house.
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Hay maze...love this pic.
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Love this one too...she got some major air!
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Last year at this very same bridge, I was dreaming of this girl and had court to pass and an ocean to cross before she would finally be in her mama's arms.
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Old married couple.
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My little horse lover.
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We have a picture of our kids in this pumpkin from every year since Brenin was about 5 months old. Each year, it seems we add a new kid...wonder what next year's picture will look like!
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Happy Fall everyone!
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9.26.2009

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Thursday Field Trip to the Apple Orchard

While waking through the orchard, my friend Tracy happened upon THIS apple hanging in a tree...what are the odds that she would spot it?!?
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My little apple dumplin'
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some of the gang
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Eli, Luca, Brenin, Liv & Naomi
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Apple sorting and a captivated audience!
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Don't you just wonder what they're planning...total world domination?!?
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Friday Trip to Illinois for a Wake (Danny's aunt died Wednesday)
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Danny's dad & the girls (cowboy grandpa)
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sweet potatoes
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About 7 hours in the car yesterday in total...got to bed at 2 a.m.!
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Tonight's our Celebrate Adoption group...a bonfire!
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Hope everyone's enjoying the weekend!

9.24.2009

Joe Nichols

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Here's a post for Buffy... :-)
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My sister won Joe Nichols tickets this week for 4 with backstage passes, and tonight was the AMAZING concert! It was the most intimate concert I've ever been to, only about 100 people in a small room. It was all acoustic (and did I say AMAZING?!?)...it was sooooooooo good.
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...and of course, where these girls are, there are lots and
lots of laughs, so it all made for an awesome night.
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Kristin "accidentally" took this shot of Joe's boots.
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So sweet...
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Lisa, Tiernee & Me
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Lisa, Me, my new boyfriend Joe, Kristin & Tiernee
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*Photos by Kristin*

9.22.2009

Blog Salad (Mixed & Tossed)

This blog post is all over the place, so hold on...
bunch of little updates with no rhyme or reason.
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First off, Brenin participated in a cheerleading clinic last Thursday and Friday and then got to cheer with the high-school cheerleaders for the football game Friday night! The clinic was for kids K-8th grade, and she got to make a t-shirt to wear in the game and have a pizza dinner the first night. I was surprised she didn't love to cheer more, being the (ahem) exuberant one that she is, but all in all she had a good time and it was a great experience.
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Here are a couple pics of the cutie pie at the game.
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The next day we attended a princess birthday party for our good friends' twin girls, and we all had a blast (how can you not have a blast when there's body glitter involved?!?)
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After the party, I decided to take the girls to "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" in 3D, and my friend Shannon and her boys also joined us! It was popcorn for supper and a great night with my girls.
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On Sunday I had an opportunity to have lunch alone with Luca. I think I forget sometimes that I had all this alone time with Brenin for 5 years, and Luca never got a chance for that, so it was nice to have a moment with her.
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I decided to pick her brain a little while we ate and found out some interesting ideas that are floating around in her head, like she's planning on sitting at her desk and coloring for an occupation but also plans to adopt 3 girls and name them Ella, Shannon and Baby Bunny. (wink)
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There you have it...4 years old and all planned out!

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My final random story happened last night when I and the girls returned home about 7:30 from my parents' house. We were exhausted from the day, and I was eager to give them a nice hot soak in the tub and tuck them in their beds before finishing up my leftover work I didn't finish earlier in the chaotic day. Danny's in Madison Monday nights for school now, so he wasn't expected home until about 11 p.m. The girls had fallen asleep in the car and were stumbling toward the door, myself reaching for my keys. That's when it hit me...my house key is locked in the real estate lock box INSIDE the house!!!!!!!! Okay...it's dark...we're exhausted...we're locked out...of course now everyone has to pee. ugh!!! I removed every screen on the lower level to see if by chance a window had been left unlocked...no luck. We had no choice but to wait it out.
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Long story short (LOOOOOONG story short), if you ever find yourself locked in a car at night with 2 children for 3 hours, here are some things you might like to do to occupy the time (there are 10 like David Letterman's Top 10 list because by the time I got around to writing the list, I was pretty much delusional and wishing for a volleyball to talk to like on that Tom Hanks movie, Castaway):
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1. Clean out your purse. (well that one's a given if you happen to carry a purse).
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2. Organize all the coupons floating around at the bottom of your purse and throw away the ones that expired months ago because you always clip coupons with the best of intentions and then forget to use them.
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3. Chew 63 pieces of Orbit gum.
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4. Kleenex origami.
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5. Text everyone you know even if they don't have texting service (desperate times call for desperate measures).
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6. Apply lip gloss to every set of lips in the car.
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7. Detail your car with wet wipes intended for sticky fingers and quick spills (so glad I put those in there!).
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8. Try to name all 7 dwarves (Happy, Dopey, Bashful, Sneezy, Doc, Sleepy...and who was that last one...oh yeah...GRUMPY!)
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9. Sing 400 bottles of beer on the wall 6 times.
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10. Apply more lip gloss. Can you ever really have too much lip gloss?
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Thanks for stopping by!

9.20.2009

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, VIC!!!!!!!
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We love you and miss you!
Hope your day is super special!
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p.s. Be sure to keep the celebration going for 2 days
because it's still 09/21 at your other home!
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9.17.2009

10 Months Ago Today...

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...this little punky showed up...
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...and she resolved in me a bitter battle of what
I was and what I knew I was meant to be...
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...and she expanded my definition, understanding
and overall capacity to give and receive love...
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...and she stole my heart for all time.
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And then she took 200 pictures of herself. (wink)
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*(most) Photography by Luca*

9.14.2009

Happy New Year!

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We had a great time at the Ethiopian New Year celebration in Madison Saturday. We showed up like the new kids in class but quickly found a place at a table with an Ethiopian family from where else but Shashemene (where Luca's original orphanage is!)
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They were asking about her, and I mentioned she is Wolaitta (a people group). They said, "oh, that fella over there is Wolaitta" and called him over to talk to us.
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During our conversation, he mentioned he is from Soddo, south of Shashemene, and I asked him if he knew anything about a town that is listed as Luca's birth place on her paperwork. The town's name is scratched on the paperwork with messy handwriting, and I've been analyzing it for 10 months trying to figure out what it says. I did my best to write it out on paper to see if he recognized any part of it, and guess what...HE DID! Some of the letters were different than what I thought they were, and he confirmed that the town Kuto Serfela is 2-3 km from Soddo!
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I was THRILLED!!!!!
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He was also able to tell me that the town is about 100 km from Shashemene (which is another 5 hours or so from Addis where we picked her up), so it's interesting to be able to trace the path she traveled on her way to us, a perspective we simply could not have gotten from where we sit.
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The most exciting part of the conversation came when I asked him if he knew of a healthcare facility in the area, and he said, "yes...it's a missionary hospital in Soddo!" This is important to us because on Luca's intake paperwork, there are 2 immunizations which state "was took at birth," indicating she either was born at a medical facility or visited one shortly after birth, possibly leading us to at least a closer birth date than the great unknown that we have!
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The gentleman then went on to say that his cousin is a doctor in Addis, and his cousin knows the doctor at the Soddo hospital and could put us in touch with his cousin!!
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As soon as I got home, I looked up the hospital online and got goosebumps when I saw it from just the mere possibility that she MAY have been there at some point in her life. I emailed the address listed regarding our case and received an email back this morning stating he had forwarded our request on to the staff in ET but not to get our hopes up because they often have to turn these requests down in favor of patient privacy. I emailed again stating we could provide proof of adoption and a release of records request, but I figure I'll save the real graveling for if they do end up giving us a definite "no." :-)
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Regardless of the hospital outcome, we're excited to have met our new friends in Madison and also to have a few more tiny pieces of the "puzzle"...every one as precious and valuable as the last and every one a journey to an unknown time and place in our child's life.
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NOW FOR SOME PICTURES!
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Brenin came running in the room the other day yelling, "Luca can braid! Luca can braid!" She was waving a Barbie horse in my face with a braided tail. I thought, "oh, I must have done that the other day when I was playing with the girls...something to pass the "Barbie time." I undid the braid and handed the horse to Luca to see what she would do with it. Do you know what....SHE BRAIDED it again with perfect form!!!!!! She said the "lady" at the foster center showed her how to do it. Today she told me they only had toys for babies there, so I guess if you have no toys and 50 kids with a ton of hair, you braid! Brenin quickly arranged the chairs in the toy room face to face and sat Luca down to give her a braiding lesson...she was really proud of her sister.
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This is SO Luca...using her injera not to pick up the traditional, meat-filled dishes, but spaghetti! The girl can down some injera though...she ate 3 1/2 rolls of it!!! Ethiopian food is quickly becomming a fave for us...SO yummy!
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After dinner, the girls hit the dance floor. Here's a rather artistic shot taken by Brenin. As you can see, Luca was feelin' the Ethiopian music!
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...and then there's Brenin. I like to blame her Daddy for this move.
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Happy New Year to everyone!

9.10.2009

Playdate & Pizza...Perfecto!

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The girls had a playdate today with their friends, Liv & Eli. It was an action-packed afternoon from painting to window colors to dress-uptea party (see photo below), to nail painting to just plain play, play, play! Livis a fellow first grade homeschooler, so the girls have lots to talk about. After a whole afternoon of playing, I still had to tear Brenin away!
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Thanks for the great day Ginger, Liv & Eli!
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When we got home, I put the girls to work making supper!



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Now off to taste the fruits of their labor!



9.09.2009

Finally, A Weekend Update

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I've been meaning to blog all week about our Labor Day weekend activities but am just now catching up with myself enough to download the pictures onto the computer! When the job AND the homeschooling are rolling in unison, I'm left with little time for the details of life such as blogging and sleeping and eating sitting down. ;-)
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It was a crazy busy weekend, but we got LOTS of quality time in with our good friends, Rachel & Eric and their 3 girls as well as my sister & her family. Pretty much all that we did was with these guys this weekend, so there was lots of laughter.
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Here's the rundown:
Friday after school we had a surprise park/zoo date with Kristin & the boys.
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Saturday we went to the Baraboo Rendezvous Days ...an entire pioneer village set up down by the river with everyone living in tepees in full pioneer dress...very cool. The kids got to crush corn with a mortar and pestle and check out a tepee and a working blacksmith. Brenin was in her glory. She told one of the pioneers that if they only have girls, the girls will have to learn to do the boys' work (as she learned in her pioneer studies last year), and the fella (dressed in animal skin head to toe) told her she was pretty young to be having such deep thoughts. *sigh*...welcome to my world, buddy...welcome to my world.
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We then headed for Viroqua where Danny's grandpa is staying in a nursing home after a fall/broken hip. It was his birthday, and we got to visit with him as well as some of Danny's family. It was the first time any of them had met Luca!
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From there we met up with the Labor Day crew again and headed to the car races!!! Yep...I'm admitting it...we spent Saturday night at the races!!! Actually, it was my redneck sister's redneck idea, but we really did have a redneck good time anyways. It was redneck "bike night," and they were giving away a ton of redneck bikes. Between our redneck families, we have 7 redneck kids, and THREE of them left with a brand new redneck bike! That was pretty thrilling, redneck or not! All the redneck kids of our redneck bunch who were in need of a redneck bike were actually the redneck ones to get one! :0
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Garret & the Girls
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My sister & her hubby actually caught this action for me and reminded me to grab my camera. It's my sweet girl standing on the edge of the fence, waving her checkered flag for the cars. My sister pointed out, and I have to agree, that it's so like Brenin to take something she's never done before and throw herself heart and soul into it. It's one of my favorite things about her.
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The night ended in fireworks...a perfect end to summer!
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Sunday we headed to LaCrosse with the same crew and drove to the top of Grandad's Bluff for a lookout, then to Chuck E. Cheese (God help us all), and then the daddies took the babies off to a park while the mommies had a little retail therapy. Good daddies.
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I had to work Monday, but after work we headed to my Aunt & Uncle's for a lovely BBQ (and they even had a bounce house!!!). The girls both passed out cold on the couch when we got home in complete and utter exhaustion from the full weekend. It was "goodnight girls" and "goodbye summer."
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We're really looking forward to Fall, as it's our favorite time of year and last year we were reeling from our failed court date for Luca, impatiently waiting through court closure, and trying not to pout at all the orchards and pumpkin patches because our sweet girl was missing out on all the fun. I've said this a million times this year, but "my what a difference a year makes!"

9.05.2009

First Week of School

Our first week of school was a smashing success!

I feel a lot more prepared this year, knowing what to expect

and also have planned better out of sheer anxiety about having TWO "pupils."

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Our curriculum is separated into character traits (i.e. courage, responsibility, love & generosity, etc.), and the character trait you choose is incorporated heavily into the educational material. I love this idea, because instead of me telling her to "be kind," she sees how kindness works and looks and feels INSTANTLY in the world she lives in and begins to incorporate it into everything that she does.

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Our first unit is on inquisitiveness...not really a part of Brenin's character which is lacking (hehe), but I did want to supply her with better tools to be inquisitive (i.e. research materials and formats including library, internet, encyclopedias, dictionaries, research papers and the like).

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On Thursday the girls had dentists appointments in Madison, so we packed our bags and made a day of it. We picked up some lunch and had a picnic at the park and also completed our "group work" lesson there. Afterwards the girls did some book work. Here's Brenin turning sentences into questions (with a question mark at the end...the perfect symbol for an "inquisitive" unit!) and Luca in deep concentration about the color yellow.


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It's fun having an "older" and a "younger" this year. Brenin delights in teaching her sister the things she learned "when she was little," and it gives mommy a little break too! Here's Brenin reading Curious George (boy is he inquisitive!) to her cutie pie schoolmate. :-)

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It was a big day for Luca, as it was her FIRST EVER trip to the dentist! She was excited to go and got through x-rays just fine.

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...but got a little nervous in watching her sister's teeth get cleaned...

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...but decided to give it a try anyway! (You can see she's hating it too!)

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Luca's first dentist!

Her visit started out with a tickle and was downhill from there!

This was our first visit to a CHILDRENS dentist,

and it was FABULOUS!!!!

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Report: Very healthy teeth, no cavities,
front tooth was chipped in ET as we suspected.

Toothpaste Flavor Choice: BUBBLE GUM!

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Report: Still NO cavities!!!! Will need braces (no surprises there),
will be losing some teeth before her next visit
as new ones are popping up behind them.

Toothpaste Flavor Choice: GRAPE!

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After the dentist, we headed to the zoo. Brenin's math book has a zoo theme for the first quarter, so I made up a math scavenger hunt book for them where they had to add, subtract, measure, count, compare, etc. (And of course we had to stop for ice cream at the concession as a reward for the completed book!) :-)

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I'm encouraged by our first week and so grateful for the

opportunity to educate these amazing girls.

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