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hug - [pronounciation: hugh]

verb; used with object

1. To clasp tightly in the arms, especially with affection; embrace.

2. To cling firmly or fondly to; cherish.

 

Synonyms:

verb : embrace - clasp - cuddle - enfold - inarm

noun : embrace - cuddle - clasp - squeeze - grip

 

And there ends the English lesson on parts of speech and definitions.  It was really just a refresher course...  :)

 

I'm writing about hugs because they are an everyday occurence for me and have been since I arrived August 2011.  They were an unanticipated perk of the job and are a daily blessing!  How love and care is communicated through their hugs is so touching to me for many reasons.  Firstly, I am away from the friends and family who would normally hug me.  It is honestly hard to feel lonely when you have 5 children waiting in line for a hug from you!  :)  Secondly, they mean it.  We have some of the sweetest kids here.  Despite the things they have seen or the things that have been done to them, they have learned to trust and love others.  That is the third reason.  And they want it too--the fourth reason.  When I am able to comfort a hurting or sad child by my presence or with a hug, I am so humbled.  I am so grateful that God has allowed me to serve in this way, to love on these kids, and for some it is the first time they have been treated this way.  Check out the pictures below of some of our most stellar huggers!  :)

 

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 This lil' dear hugs me whenever she sees me and rubs my back---can you say heart-melter?

 

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 One of our newest tikes---he is a cuddler!  And I am just fine with that...

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 This sweet girl, everyday, yells out a greeting to me from wherever she may be and then runs with arms open wide!!!

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If I am sitting anywhere, this one is likely to be in my lap!  :)

 

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 Legs count, don't they?!  :)

 

 "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love." 

1 Corinthians 13:13

 

 

 

 

J-O-Y!

Mar. 13, 2013By: Lindsay Hoeft

Loving life....and more specifically....hackysacks!  :)

Thank you to our visitors for giving every kid their very own hackysack---as you can see, they were eagerly received!

SRA Day!

Mar. 10, 2013By: Tammy Vosika

Last Friday was SRA Day at school!  SRA is our reading curriculum so it includes reading, writing, and spelling!  We spent the morning having some fun reviewing things the kids had learned in SRA throughout the year.  It started off with one student from each level sharing why they like SRA.  Then we had a cheer competition.  The children were divided into four groups and each group had 10 minutes to create their own cheer about SRA or reading.  It was cool to see what they came up with!  

After the cheering competition was the spelling contest!  The kids took turns writing letters or words on the white board as a review of things they had learned.  They also drew pictures that related to some of the themes our classes had studied.  Some of the older kids went up and explained how their pictures related to the theme.  

DSC01818The final part of the program involved several presentations by our kids.  The Level A students performed sang "The Alphabet Song".  Jaime and Pretchy each did a beautiful job sharing poems about reading!  Shiela & Rowena sang a duet of "America the Beautiful", a song they learned in one of their reading units.  Then three of our Level C students shared stories they had written during class.   

Here are some more pictures from our exciting day!

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Friends

Mar. 9, 2013By: Paul Healy

Friendships are an important part of life at CSC. Although most of our children have siblings at CSC (about two thirds), they all seek out friends in their age group and enjoy hanging out, playing, making music and talking about life. Our kids can easily find friends who have similar backgrounds and can understand and accept what they have gone through in life. Some friendships can go on for several years, depending on how long the children stay at CSC. When a child leaves for adoption there are often sad friends left behind who wonder if they'll ever see them again. In some cases, friendships that began at CSC can pick up later on when children are placed in the same geographical area. Check out a few pictures of friends at CSC:

 

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Movie Night

Mar. 8, 2013By: Bjork Ostrom

One of the things we often hear at CSC is laughter, and one of the best places to hear it is during a movie night.

It's hard to organize a trip to the movie theater, so often times staff will gather up a group of kids and setup the projector in the library at the school. The movie night below was a "girl's night out" that Teacher Lindsay organized. However, being the IT guy, I was allowed to attend because I had to setup the screen and projector. :)

The movie was Mr. Popper's Penguins.

It's hard to see much in the video below, but it's really fun to listen to the laughter of the kids.

The Littlest Waveboarder

Mar. 7, 2013By: Lindsay Ostrom

Waveboarding is the cool thing to do during playtime here at CSC. Lots of the older kids got waveboards for Christmas, but recently more and more of the little kids want to try the waveboards as well. The other day I noticed this little lady trying out her older sister's waveboard in the driveway and I couldn't stop laughing - it was so cute! And she's so good at it!