Move over Dad!

I snapped this photo this morning....Javan comes into our room usually between 6:45-7:30am and he loves to snuggle with us - but I doubt he was trying to snuggle here!

~Veryll

What a weekend!

If there was ever a time when i wanted to clone my family three times over, this weekend I would have done it! Three huge events were all happening around the same time and we had to juggle our time to get to them.

First of our friend Donna's wedding was at 2pm. Donna went to Lee with Veryll and I and has been at seminary with me as well. She married Justin who attended Seminary too.
Donna looked beautiful


My Bride with The Bride!


have no idea what they are thinking about but its a sweet photo (I didnt take it!)

Javan enjoying the reception

In the middle of the festivities we tip-toed out and raced across town to attend Ramon's b-day party. His party started at 4pm and we got there at 5pm. They were on Latino time so we were actually early - hahahaha.

We stayed for a short time, rushed home, got changed and headed over to Noah's pool party that had started at 3pm.

By the time we got there i was ready to just sit down and relax. Most of the activities were over but Javan had a blast getting soaked from splashing his hands in the pool.

What a weekend.

Jermaine

Visiting Chilahowee

We went up to Chilahowee and had a wonderful relaxing time. Chilahowee is about 30-40 minutes from Cleveland and on top of a mountain.

I like this photo




Here's Serge firing up the grill - good times!

We had a little birthday celebration for Noah

Javan had a blast crawling around and we all had a good time


Jermaine

Dinner with the Swarts

Last night Nicole and her parents (Susan and Danny) who are visiting from Ireland came over for supper. We had a great time chatting and enjoyed watching the babies play.
The Swarts Family

















~Veryll

Sunny Saturday Wedding

On Saturday afternoon we went to Meredith Roberson and Craig Mosgrove's wedding - they are friends from church. It was such a pretty day and the reception was held outside in a tent. Sadly we have NO pictures of the beautiful bride or the groom....the camera batteries died. But, Jermaine did snap a pic of the groom's cake which was definitely very unique.

and here's Javan and I .... the last photo snapped before the battery died:(

note to self...keep extra battery in the diaper bag!
~Veryll

CPE Graduation

This past Wednesday I graduated from the Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) program at Erlanger hospital in Chattanooga, TN where I served as a chaplain providing care to family members and patients in crisis situations.

This experience was eye-opening for me because I got to experience a wide range of crisis moments in people's lives. From infant death to people coming in with gunshot wounds to the chest; from motor vehicle rollovers to people involved in car crashes on the highway - i've seen it all. The program went from Jan 8 - May 16. I would not trade it for the world. I feel that I am a better person and hope to use my experience to help more people outside of a hospital setting.

Here are a few snapshots
With my supervisor

my group

Chaplain Daniel and I became great friends

Chaplain Lisa and I

And someone who couldnt be happier this is done!


Jermaine

My First Mother's Day

We had a nice, quiet celebration for my First Mother's Day. I thought alot about what a gift it is to be a mum to Javan and I am very thankful for this. Javan is without a doubt our treasure and he brings us so much joy and nurturing him is something I (we) don't take for granted. I am thankful for my mum and for all she means to me. I am also thankful for the influence of other motherly figures in my life (my aunts, my grandmothers and Aunty Flora). It's amazing what a power force God created when He made woman (and mothers!)Here's a pic of Mum and I...

I also thought alot about my aunt Jessie. It's just been 10mths since my cousin Jimmy passed away and as easy as time fades, the pain doesn't. This beautiful photo was snapped on their last mother's day together (2006)...

My heart ached for my aunt and I know the day wasnt easy.

I thought about Jermaine's mother and how bittersweet Mothers Day was for her. She had just lost her son to a cruel and senseless incident but she still had 3 other children to celebrate.

More than anything else though, I was very touched by my husband. He was determined to make this Mother's Day memorable for me - 'Life goes on and I want you to be celebrated' is how he looked at it. Since he was on call this past weekend, Jermaine decided to give me my gift early. I was excited - I had seen the box when I got back from Colorado and I knew it was coming so I couldnt wait to get it out. Here's my new (well Javan's!)ride:


As if that wasnt enough, he got me with this little number:


I'm not a gadget type of person but I love it!

On Sunday we went out to eat yummy Thai food after church, enjoyed time with friends and most importantly spent time together....just the 3 of us, something we haven't had much chance to do with Jermaine being so busy with his last semester.

Yep...he loves me!


Testing out the new jogger






~Veryll

My brother was martyred

On Saturday 5/12/07 at about 11am my brother Lambert Bowe was murdered. Veryll found out while i was doing my internship at Erlanger (i am a chaplain there). she came and informed me about it and i cried terribly.

at that moment my trauma pager went off and i had to go and comfort a family whose relative was in a terrible shooting. the ironic thing for me was this. as a chaplain it is my job to comfort families who are experiencing crisis in their life, but who comforts the chaplain when he is in crisis?

needless to say this was a senseless act of violence and my brother did not deserve it. he was the dreamer (like Joseph in the Bible) in our family. He was wise (like King Solomon) and i will miss him dearly.

the two men that stabbed my brother to death were caught and are now in prison awaiting trial and i know that justice will be served. my brother was a good Christian businessman who was very sucessful and loved his two boys.

here is a newspaper article about him

http://freeport.nassauguardian.net/national_local/288893064577414.php

Jermaine

Serge Graduates!

Our friend Serge graduated from Lee on the 5th and we got to celebrate with him. His graduation was very interesting....it rained miserably so everything had to be held indoors and during the commencement, the power went out! YIKES! here's a few pics from Saturday, incl a photo of just J and I - very rare to find these days!!!






~ veryll

Colorado Trip

I had the opportunity to spend last Wednesday-Friday (2-4 May) in Colorado Springs, Colorado for EPA (work related conference). What a beautiful place to visit! The view out my room was of snow covered mountain tops - amazing! The conference itself was busy with barely room to breathe but we did get a free night which we used to visit Garden of the Gods, Manitou Springs and Downtown Colorado Springs.






~ veryll

Took the Bait!

Well we've been wanting to start a blog for a while but just never got around to it. Reading other blogs seemed more exciting so we just stuck to that instead...until now! So now here's our corner of the web which will probably be random musings...nothing too intense or intellectual but just fun stuff and what we're up to!