A Few Fun Extras From Memoir

I’m still working on my memoir, believe it or not, and I wanted to share a few fun extras from 1997 that won’t make it into the book.

 

August 20, Sarah just asked me to get her the toy dishes to play with. As I walked with her to get them off the shelf, she said, "I'm smiling, because I'm a cute little girl."

 

August 29, Sarah had an ouchy which was irritating her, and she said in frustration, "I wish we were in Heaven!" Caleb agreed, "No crying, no sad, no mad, no dying."

 

September 9, Murray was looking at some mail at supper last night about his and Ping-Hwei's trip to Washington, D.C.for Promise Keepers. It said they would have to all take turns driving, so Murray told Ping-Hwei he would have to take a turn driving, too. Ping-Hwei said, "Uh-uh! Police take me to jail!"

 

September 11, Rebecca was complaining about her leg hurting tonight. I told her it was growing pains. Frustrated, she said, "Well, this is the one that always hurts. Is it going to be bigger than the other one?"

 

September 14, Last night Rebecca said, "When I grow up, I'm going to kill a big bug and cut off its face and save its eyes for a treasure."

 

October 10, While we were waiting for the bus this morning, Caleb said, "Sometimes I can feel myself grow if I stand really still."

 

October 17, This morning the three little rascals were playing while waiting for the bus. Caleb was Sarah's son, and she left him with Rebecca at church, because Rebecca was his Bible Schoolteacher. Later Rebecca was going to visit Sarah and Caleb in their home. She called them for directions. Sarah said, "Go straight on the street from the church and--" Rebecca said, "I'm not at the church; I'm at my house." Sarah didn't miss a beat. "Go to the church. Take the road straight, turn left, then right. . ."

 

October 23, Murray was cutting fingernails and toenails tonight. Caleb, when he was referring to getting his toenails cut, said, "Daddy, hang me upside down and do it."

 

Tonight we gave Ping-Hwei the car keys and asked him to put something in the car. He walked toward the door, jingling the keys and said, happily, "Good-bye!"

 

November 3: The other morning, Sarah told me, "I had a dream that Daddy bought a can of soup, but when he opened it, frogs jumped out instead."

 

November 5, At a party last week, Rebecca won for a prize a model of an eye, with wiggly parts inside. When she practices the piano, Murray usually sits with her and watches to help her. This afternoon, I asked Rebecca to practice her piano lessons. She said, "I need someone to watch me while I practice, so I'll get my eyeball."

 

November 24, At supper tonight, Caleb asked, "What if my school was built out of onions?"

 

December 1: Ping-Hwei's new nickname is Boss. The other day we were calling him Boss, and he said, "Benjamin, Little Boss."

 

December 22, 1997: The other day Sarah was noticing how many fingers and toes she had, five on each hand and foot. After she'd added them she said, "We have twenty things we can wiggle."

Sarah was playing with Benjamin's little musical bunny this morning, and noticing that its hands and feet and ears moved. She said, "He's moving his arms like he's praising the Lord."

 

December 25, The other night we had vegetable juice to drink for supper, but for simplicity sake, we told the kids it was tomato juice. Caleb picked up his glass and said, "I smell celery." Sure enough, when Murray checked out the ingredients, one of them was celery.

 

From memory-pictures I give to Murray at Valentine’s Day:

Whoa! What's going on here? You're at the library, and you've just slammed your finger in the car door and broken it. You grab Benjie and run in, handing him to a friend who works at the library. She shows you to a bathroom to run water over your finger. Soon another lady you know at the library comes in, acting very worried about what has happened. Then she calms down, says, "Oh, I thought it was the baby," and leaves you, although you're bleeding profusely. 

Sweet Memories, Made My Lips Twitch

January 19, 1999: Murray told the kids this morning that he has an interview this week, and Rebecca seemed concerned. She said, "Good." Then she said, "Maybe they'd like you better if you didn't tease so much." Then she thought some more and said, "What are you going to wear? I don't like when people wear a tie with a shirt that doesn't button."

 

January 22, 1999: I was writing on the braille writer the other day, and from upstairs I heard Caleb say excitedly, "Hey, Mom's writing on the braille writer almost as fast as Mrs. H.!" (She is his special teacher for visually impaired kids at school.)

 

The other night Rhoda got outside. Ping-Hwei told Murray, "Baba, Rhoda is in out."

 

February 2, 1999: This morning Sarah told Murray, "Every day I try -- I don't always remember -- but I try to have a long talk with Jesus."

 

Later Sarah was talking about giving prizes to kids in her class, talking in many fast sentences. Murray told her he hoped he got a prize, and in the middle of her explanation she stopped to say, "I'm your prize," then continued.

 

February 6, 1999: Rebecca was looking at her new spelling list last night, which were mostly with prefixes. "They're all perplexes," she told me.

 

February 9, 1999: Last week, Angel (the youngest cat) was licking Ping-Hwei, and he said, "That is tickle!"

 

February 11, 1999: A week or so ago the kids were talking about when Murray had an accident once in Alabama. Caleb told Rebecca that Daddy had accidently pulled out in front of another lady and she'd run into him. Rebecca asked, "Didn't the lady mind?" Caleb said thoughtfully, "Well, I don't think she liked it."

 

The other night Sarah told me and Caleb that there were some kids in her class at school who knew she had blind people in her family, and she said that they didn't think blind people could do anything. Indignantly Caleb asked, "Well, Sarah, did you tell them?"

 

Yesterday Sarah was taking a shower in the morning, and suddenly she called for Murray to come up to her. What did she need? "Daddy I hope you're not mad, but we had a wrapped sucker at school yesterday." (We have a rule that if the kids get wrapped candy at school, they're supposed to bring it home and we will dispense it or eat it ourselves, as we see fit.) Sarah went on: "I forgot the rule, and I ate it." "What color was it?" Murray asked. "Red," she answered. "Oooooh, I hope you enjoyed it!" Murray said, closed the door and left.

 

February 17, 1999: The other night Sarah was waiting in the hall for Murray to carry her to bed. Ping-Hwei went upstairs and said to her, "Sarah, tell me good-night."

 

The other day Rebecca was getting ready to take a shower. She asked me to get her a new towel. "Get me a big furry one," she said. 

Sweet Memories, They Do Make Me Smile

These are memories from when my children were very young. Now that they are all adults, let me tell you a little about them:

 

Benjamin helps me, with much patience, with my computer problems.

Sarah shares books and movies with me.

Rebecca sent me flowers when my kitty died.

Caleb got me dark chocolate for Mother’s Day.

And any time Ping-Hwei says, “Open your mouth,” I do not hesitate. I trust him to give me something good.

 

June 8, 1998: Sarah told Kathy today, "I know I'm supposed to love Jesus most of all, but sometimes I love the cats a little more."

 

June 9, 1998: At the optician's today, Sarah asked Murray what 700 plus 700 was. Well, what's 7 plus 7? "14," she answered. So 700 plus 700 is 1400. Sarah smiled. "There's no such thing as 1400. Hundreds stop at 900."

 

June 13, 1998: This morning, little Benjie, 18 months old, pinched Kathy. It hurt, and made her mad: "Benjamin, don't pinch me!" He chortled, "No, no, no."

 

June 16, 1998: The back yard grass got really long, so that after Murray cut it, it needed to be raked. Ping-Hwei raked it, and Sarah helped Murray put the grass in garbage bags. She came in the house and told me, "I helped Daddy clean up the hay."

 

June 18, 1998: Benjamin cried for hours this evening, and little Sarah came upstairs from the basement and rocked him to sleep. Kathy said she was a good sister, and Sarah said, "I was downstairs looking around, and I thought about how Mary took care of Jesus, and she didn't look around, so I came up to take care of Benjie."

 

A few days ago, Rebecca noticed the cat box and said, "Somebody needs to clean this cat box. Angel won't even go in it."

 

June 22, 1998: The other day Murray was out with Rebecca, and she saw a horse at a store, the kind kids ride for a quarter. In the car, she said she wanted to ride next time she was there, and told him, "It said, 'Warning, ride may start with a jolt'. I hope my ride starts with a jolt. What does that mean?"

 

June 27, 1998: Rebecca is weaving pot holders, some with cotton loops and some with nylon loops. She asked me if when I made pot holders as a kid, if I had cotton loops. I said I didn't remember, and she said, "Maybe they didn't have cotton way back then."

 

Murray used some tools, and asked Rebecca to put the hammer away. She said, "I'll put away the nose head, too." (needle nose pliers)

 

July 9, 1998: It's been raining a lot lately. Yesterday Ping-Hwei said he didn't like the rain because he didn't want his feet to get muddy. He asked if it was okay if he asked God not to let it rain any more.

 

July 19, 1998: At church Doug always says, "God is good" and all the people say, "All the time." Then Doug says, "All the time" and the people say "God is good." Yesterday Murray was telling me about a new book he got for Sarah, and he read from it that it said, "God is good," and quickly, Ping-Hwei said, "All the time."

 

July 27, 1998: Last night was YMCA night with the church. After swimming, Caleb reached into his locker to get his shoes out. He jumped up with surprise and said, "The bottom of the locker is dusty!" (He must not have been used to dust at home, right?) 

Sweet Memories, Fun Times

March 19, 1998: It's snowing today, and this morning, Sarah said, "I know why it's snowing. Tomorrow's spring, and so the snow wants to say, 'Good-by!'"

 

Later, we were joking around at breakfast, and Sarah said, "I was so happy, my shoe fell off."

 

March 22, 1998: Sarah asked Murray, "When we're not at Grandma Brinkmann's house, does she speak English?"

 

Sarah wanted some of Murray's drink, and when he said no, she said, "Please -- I won't say ‘Ew’ for your germs."

 

Murray told Sarah that Rebecca had had tubes in her ears when she was a baby and, no, they weren't still in her ears. Sarah asked, "What part of her body did they come out?" Murray said her ears, of course. "What part of her body did they put them in?"

 

April 1, 1998: We recently got some new pillows. Sarah went to bed with one of them, but she thought it smelled unfamiliar. "When will it start to smell like us?"

 

This weekend, the kids asked Murray if they could get a toy from a vending machine in a grocery store. Murray helped Sarah buy her toy; she may never have used a vending machine before. He showed her the hole where to put the money, and the handle. She put the money in, and he said, "Now, turn." Obediently, she stood and spun herself around in a circle.

 

April 3, 1998: Yesterday Rebecca informed us, "I know exactly what I'm going to do when I grow up, and I'm not going to change my mind this time." She is going to work with snow leopards, either in a zoo, or hiking to find them in Asia.

 

Last night Sarah was trying to get me to put something away for her, and I was trying to get her to do it herself. She said pleadingly, "That's what Mommies are made for, to help people."

 

Murray has taught the kids that April fool's jokes are for all of April, not just April 1. This afternoon, I told Ping-Hwei to do his Chinese school homework. A few minutes later he told me, "I can't find my Chinese homework." I said he needed to keep looking for it. He said, "April fool!" He was so proud of himself, he kept saying, "April fool; I tease you."

 

April 9, 1998: The other day I was singing "A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down." Sarah started singing, "A spoon full of mud helps the sugar go down," and I said, "Oh, Sarah, stop that silliness." She protested, "It's just silliness, not meanness."

 

April 30, 1998: A while after telling them that they could play out for 15 more minutes, Murray went outside to tell the kids to come inside, and Sarah was angry that the time was already up. She said, "It was her that wasted all our timeout here!" Pointing at Rebecca, she shouted, "Her!"

 

May 2, 1998: Yesterday, Caleb went horseback riding with the kids from the Visual Impaired room at school, and, of course, he's been talking about it for weeks. Yesterday morning, I was singing with Benjamin's toy radio, "Zippity do-dah, zippity day!" and Caleb said, "I think today's going to be a zippity do-dah day."

 

May 4, 1998: After going to their room for bed, Rebecca read to Sarah, both sitting on Rebecca's bed. There were some loud words after a while, and Murray looked in. Rebecca was kind of mad: "She promised me she would stay awake, and she keeps falling asleep." "But there's no way people can keep from falling asleep when they're that tired," Murray explained. "But she could sit up, and she won't." When Murray next looked, Sarah had her hands on her cheeks, holding her eyes open.

 

May 8, 1998: Rebecca was doing her spelling words tonight, and spelled, "constellation." “What does it mean?” I asked. "When you constellute someone," she responded.

 

May 28, 1998: Rebecca had a question about her shoes today: “Can we throw these away? They're broken (cracked) and have spider blood on them. “I don't see any spider blood on them, Rebecca,” Murray said. “Well, I know they do, because I stepped on a lot of spiders."

 

June 5, 1998: Tonight Caleb told us that he had heard once of a man who had been building a cage for alligators and one of the alligators had bit his hand off. Sarah asked, "So was he able to build the cage?" 

Sweet Memories, Some Thoughtful Words

February 3, 1998: Sarah fell at school last week and banged up her mouth and loosened a couple teeth. This morning, her mouth started bleeding again, and it didn't stop for a long time. She asked worriedly, "Do I have enough blood?" A little later she said, "It's never going to stop!" I was holding her later when she was sad, and I reminded her of a book we have called, "It's No Fun to Be Sick." I said, "It's no fun to be hurt either, is it?" She said, "Right now, I think hurt's worser than sick."

 

February 5, 1998: At lunch yesterday, Sarah went into the kitchen to get something. While she was in there, she said, "When I walk around in the kitchen, I feel proud, like I'm a lady."

 

February 10, 1998: The kids are going to a participatory theater this weekend, and Murray was showing them what it might be like, kind of growling at each of them. Sarah asked, "Do it again, use that stern voice."

 

February 16, 1998: This evening Murray and the three middle kids were coming home from the store. Rebecca said something mean to Murray, and then said in a mean way, "Oh, please forgive me." Murray said that he would if Rebecca really meant it, but she was just being mean. Sarah exclaimed, "Oh, Daddy, you're disforgiving."

 

February 16, 1998: Last night we were having hotdogs for supper. I was sitting in my rocking chair, Benjamin was at my feet, and Ping-Hwei was in the kitchen. I told Ping-Hwei to call Benjamin to come to him. He said, "Benjie, come here. Benjie, come here, I give you hotdog, eat."

 

This morning, Ping-Hwei was trying to scare me with the toy animals, like he always does. He showed me a turtle, and I pushed it away, like I was scared, like I always do. He said, "You love turtles. God made turtles."

 

This afternoon, when Murray got home, Sarah said, "Daddy, admire the house! We vacuumed it!"

 

March 2, 1998: We stayed at Jimmy's house this weekend, and all four big kids were sleeping in his living room. After everyone but Caleb was asleep, he said, "The girls are snoring." "I know honey," I said. "Like pigs," he finished matter-of-factly.

 

March 7, 1998: Last night the kids were talking about the circus, and what elephants do in the circus, and Rebecca talked about some tricks she saw at the circus, and then she asked, "Do you know what the tiger did?" "Eat people," Ping-Hwei suggested.

 

This morning Sarah was running between rooms talking, and she said, "I like to gallop when I'm happy, when I talk excitedly."

 

March 15, 1998: Rebecca and Sarah went for a little walk today. When they got back they were telling us all about it, and about how somehow Rebecca's shoe fell off, and Sarah said, "And it made me burst out laughing!"

 

One day last week Ping-Hwei was telling me how his computer wasn't working at school, and he said, "The computer no go to work."

 

Sarah had a substitute teacher one day last week, and when she came home, she said, "It was a much unnormal day." 

My Birthday Gift

Last week, I turned 60. First gift, my new book, Gifts of Grace, was released:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Gifts-Grace-Kathy-McKinsey-ebook/dp/B08T7ZHLMZ

 

But that was hardly the end.

 

My middle kids—Caleb, Rebecca, and Sarah—planned and prepared a great surprise for me. An “Author’s Treasure Box.”

 

They collected quotes by writers, for writers, prompts to jump-start your writing on a dry day. They brailled them and cut them in strips, then stuffed them in a pretty little box.

 

I was delighted, sitting at the dinner table, reading through all of them.

 

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at the typewriter and bleed.” Ernest Hemingway

 

“Good fiction’s job is to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” David Foster Wallace

 

“I can shake off everything as I write. My sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.” Anne Frank

 

“Write a story from an inanimate object’s perspective.”

 

Write about your favorite daughter.” (Wonder who came up with that one?)

 

“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.” Richard Bach

 

“A shoe falls out of the sky. Why?”

 

“Write about your favorite son.” Hmmm.

 

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” Zora Neale Hurston

 

Fifty treasures.

 

I kept looking up at Sarah saying, “You guys, you guys.”

 

She said they wanted to do something special for my 60^th.

 

Ping-Hwei and Murray listened as I read. Murray grabbed onto the prompts and took off to make up stories.

 

What a special time. Such a lovely reminder of what a precious gift my family is to me. 

Sweet Memories, With All Five Kids Now

November 8, 1997: Murray was getting ready to go somewhere with Caleb and Rebecca, who were playing with Legos on the dining room table. When Murray said, "Okay, let's go," Caleb looked reluctant to leave his building. Sarah tried to be helpful, and told Caleb, "I'll play with that for you."

 

November 19, 1997: Kathy was cooing and gooing to little Benjamin. Caleb told her, "Other moms don't talk like that to their babies."

 

November 21, 1997: While searching for a space in the parking lot at the grocery store, Sarah unbuckled her seatbelt and stood up. "Go slow, because you don't want me to get killed."

 

November 22, 1997: Last night Sarah hugged me tight and said, "I heart you so much!"

 

On the way home from the public library today, Sarah repeatedly yelled out the car window, "Hello, partner!"

 

November 24, 1997: At supper tonight, Caleb asked, "What if my school was built out of onions?"

 

November 29, 1997: Murray and the kids were getting ready to go out this evening, and Rebecca had put on shoes but no socks. Murray yelled in her direction as he went up the stairs, "You, if you wanna go, socks." While he took off his work shirt in his room, Rebecca looked in and said, "You, if you wanna go, shirt." A few minutes later, as he prepared to put on his shoes, Rebecca said, "You, if you wanna go, shoes.”

 

Ping-Hwei's new nickname is Boss. The other day we were calling him Boss, and he said, "Benjamin, Little Boss."

 

December 13, 1997: Yesterday I couldn't find my hair brush, and I asked Sarah if she knew where it was. She asked if I'd asked Daddy. I asked why he should know. She said, "He could know. Daddy knows everything."

 

December 22, 1997: The other day Sarah was noticing how many fingers and toes she had, five on each hand and foot. After she'd added them she said, "We have twenty things we can wiggle."

 

Sarah was playing with Benjamin's little musical bunny this morning, and noticing that its hands and feet and ears moved, She said, "He's moving his arms like he's praising the Lord."

 

Last week, Murray took the kids to see a Christmas musical. As soon as they came in the door afterwards, Sarah said, "It was fun! It was about Jesus!"

 

December 25, 1997: The other night we had vegetable juice to drink for supper, but for simplicity sake, we told the kids it was tomato juice. Caleb picked up his glass and said, "I smell celery." Sure enough, when Murray checked out the ingredients, one of them was celery.

 

Last night we went to Shoney's, and Rebecca said, looking at the sign, "In the daytime, it says Shoney's, and it's for people. At night, it says Honey's, (she had seen the "S" burned out several days before) and it's for bears."

 

I gave Murray a giant chocolate kiss for Christmas this morning, and Sarah said, "That's a nice gift to give your husband."

 

Sarah didn't give us anything for Christmas, and she was a little sorry about that. So she said, "I'll give you your present right now. Are you ready?" And she gave us a big hug.

 

December 29, 1997: We were marking the kids’ growths on the wall in the laundry room tonight. We showed each of them how tall they were one year ago, and two years ago. Caleb said, "Now I'm taller than myself." 

Sweet Memories, I Needed These Smiles

September 11, 1997: Rebecca was complaining about her leg hurting tonight. I told her it was growing pains. Frustrated, she said, "Well, this is the one that always hurts. Is it going to be bigger than the other one?"

 

September 14, 1997: Last night Rebecca said, "When I grow up, I'm going to kill a big bug and cut off its face and save its eyes for a treasure."

 

September 18, 1997: Rebecca said that Sarah wanted to sit with her friends on the bus instead of with Rebecca. She said, "Sarah never sits with me. It breaks my heart when she won't sit with me."

 

September 19, 1997: As usual, the girls were fighting tonight after they went to bed. Sarah came and told me something Rebecca did to her, and then Rebecca came and told me something Sarah did to her. I told Rebecca to be quiet and go to bed, and as she went she said unhappily, "She got to tell on me, and I don't get to tell on her -- that's not fair!"

 

September 30, 1997: When Murray and the kids are driving, sometimes they see and count horses. Murray likes to tease them by pointing to any other object -- a cow, a house, a hay bale, etc. -- and say, "Let's count that as a horse, too." The other day the kids were getting ready for school. I told Sarah something to do that she didn't want to do, and I had to keep telling her, so she was upset with me. Finally she said, "Mom, I'm going to count you as a horse."

 

October 6, 1997: Whenever I ask Rebecca if she doesn't think Benjamin is the cutest baby in the world, she replies, "The baby across the street is cuter."

 

Murray told the kids all about the Promise Keepers assembly in Washington, D.C., from the meals to the music to the subway ride. He asked, "Does anyone have any questions?" Caleb said, "I have a question. How fast do the trains go?"

 

October 10, 1997: While we were waiting for the bus this morning, Caleb said, "Sometimes I can feel myself grow if I stand really still."

 

This morning the three little rascals were playing while waiting for the bus. Caleb was Sarah's son, and she left him with Rebecca at church, because Rebecca was his Bible Schoolteacher. Later Rebecca was going to visit Sarah and Caleb in their home. She called them for directions. Sarah said, "Go straight on the street from the church and--" Rebecca said, "I'm not at the church; I'm at my house." Sarah didn't miss a beat. "Go to the church. Take the road straight, turn left, then right..."

 

October 23, 1997: Murray was cutting fingernails and toenails tonight. Caleb, when he was referring to getting his toenails cut, said, "Daddy, hang me upside down and do it."

 

Tonight we gave Ping-Hwei the car keys, and asked him to put something in the car. He walked toward the door, jingling the keys and said, happily, "Good-bye!"

 

October 25, 1997: Tonight at supper, I asked Ping-Hwei to help me carry the plates to the table. For some reason, I had it in my mind that he should only carry one at a time. I noticed that he had two, and I asked, "Ping-Hwei! Do you have two plates?" "I have two," he replied reasonably, "I have two hands."

 

Later at supper, Caleb said, out of the blue, "What?" I asked what he was talking about, and he answered, "I'm not talking to you; I'm talking to somebody in my head."

 

November 3, 1997: The other night, we stopped by the grocery store, and Sarah asked, "Do the people who work here at night get to sleep?"

 

The other morning, Sarah told me, "I had a dream that Daddy bought a can of soup, but when he opened it, frogs jumped out instead."

 

November 5, 1997: At a party last week, Rebecca won for a prize a model of an eye, with wiggly parts inside. She asked Murray what the parts were, including the iris, retina, etc. Last, she asked, "What are these veiny things?” When she practices the piano, Murray usually sits with her and watches to help her. This afternoon, I asked Rebecca to practice her piano lessons. She said, "I need someone to watch me while I practice, so I'll get my eyeball."     

Sweet Memories, Something Delightful to Think About

May 5, 1997: We were singing about throwing the kids “out the window, the window, the second story window," and this made Sarah upset. She said to Murray, "You love us so much, you don't want to hurt us bad boy! You know!"

May 8, 1997: The other day Sarah showed me how the cats sneeze, and did a very good job of imitating a cat, making a little snuffing snorting sound with her nose. Then she came to me and pressed my shoulder, and said, "I push the button on them right here, and they sneeze."

Murray was pulling the van into a parking space, and he had to make 3 or 4 back and forth adjustments to center the van in the space. Rebecca didn't like all this, and said, "Daddy, you're frustrating me."

May 11, 1997: Today Sarah told us that she wants to be baptized next Sunday. We said that she loves Jesus, and she said, "I love Him with all my heart. I'll love Him more when I have a bigger heart."

May 16, 1997: Yesterday Kathy was reading to Sarah about how farmers were needing rain. She read that every morning the farmer looked anxiously for signs of rain, and Sarah asked, "Who put up the signs?"

May 18, 1997: The kids stayed with friends from Friday evening until Sunday morning. This morning, Kathy asked Sarah, "Did you miss me?" Sarah replied, "I didn't think about missing you because it was so fun there.”

May 21, 1997: Sarah was reading to me this morning from the zoo book. At one point she stopped and said, "I stopped because a bubble came through my mouth; a mouth bubble, and it tasted good."

After Sarah came out of the water from being baptized last week, she said, "God's in my heart now too."

On the kids' trip to Colorado with Murray, Sarah had a story to tell. She was talking quickly, breathlessly, and Murray tried to help her, saying, "You mean you..." Sarah said, "Please be quiet," and continued her story.

May 27, 1997: After coming home from their weekend trip, Caleb told Kathy, "I wish you could see. Then, when we go to Colorado, you could get the lawn mower out and cut the grass."

June 1, 1997: The other day, Sarah was helping clear the table, and said, "I'm being a servant." Kathy told her, "You learned that from Jesus." Sarah replied, "I learned it from watching you."

June 3, 1997: Today was the last day of school. At suppertime Ping-Hwei said, "I'm so happy! Tomorrow, home."

At supper we were talking about how God can do or change anything He wants. Rebecca said, "He can delete anything He wants. He can cancel anything He wants. Those words are on the computer."

Yesterday while I was vacuuming, Sarah kept interrupting me to ask many things. Finally I told her not to interrupt me anymore unless the phone rang or she had an emergency. Then I went on vacuuming, and she went on coloring. A few minutes later I heard her calling to me. I turned off the vacuum to see what the problem was. "I can't find a color," Sarah told me, "Isn't that a little emergency?"

June 4, 1997: We must have told the kids sometime about people getting skin cancer if they get sunburned too much. Today Sarah asked me about it while I was putting suntan lotion on the girls. They seemed a little nervous about it, so I said people had to get sunburned a lot to get cancer, but the best thing was just to use suntan lotion, to be safe. Rebecca said, "The best thing is to not tell us about it so we don't get scared."

June 5, 1997: The kids fight a lot. This afternoon, however, Caleb came to me and said proudly, "We're all being really nice to each other."

June 9, 1997: Yesterday we were driving to Tulsa to get Benjamin. (This is when Benjamin, not quite six months old, first came home to live with us.) We were driving on a bridge over a river, and it made Sarah a little nervous, and she said, "Something has to save us."

When we drove into the airport at Tulsa, Rebecca asked, "Is this where we are?"

Sometimes when Ping-Hwei asks if he can open his window, he asks if he can "Open door, window." I always thought he was just looking for the right word. Last night he asked, "Why Benjamin no open door eyes?" So I guess open door just means open.

June 11, 1997: Sarah had her kindergarten physical exam today, and has been worried for the last several weeks that she might have to take her clothes off for the doctor. Rebecca has fanned the flames by telling her that she WOULD have to take them off. We didn't want to tell her that she absolutely wouldn't, in case she did, but we told her that she didn't have to take her clothes off unless Daddy was there. She practiced, saying, "I want to wait until my Daddy is here." She even practiced on the way to the doctor's. In the office, Murray was on the phone when Marlene, the nurse, came. She picked up Benjamin's carrier, took Sarah's hand, and walked off. When Murray caught up with them, Marlene said that Sarah had greeted her with, "Hi, Marlene. I don't have to take off my clothes until my Daddy gets here."

Thirteen-Year-Old Memories

We are one of those families who generously share our year’s happenings with acquaintances in a Christmas letter each year. Here’s one I found recently.

December, 2006

John 10:  10:  I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.

Dear Family and Friends,

What’s new with the McKinseys?  We have three kids in high school this year.  We love saying that, and we are still amazed by it.  We remember when those same three kids were in three baby seats in the back of our little white car.  Now they’re all nearly as tall as we are.

Other than that, we are basically healthy and marginally sane.  We put one foot in front of the other, each day, longing for our promised reward.

Ping-Hwei has been working at the Metal Fabricating company now for over two years, doing general factory work, packing, loading, and the like.  He seems very happy to be there.  He has a good sense of humor, and helps keep our household organized.  Ping-Hwei loves to take himself places.   He goes to the local library 3 or 4 times a week to use the computers, and takes a train to down town Cleveland several times a month to watch a movie and play the arcade games.  Our church has begun a young adult service on Tuesday evenings, and Ping-Hwei enjoys attending.

Caleb is a junior in high school.  He is a serious student of the Bible, is thinking about college in less than two years, and he’s hoping to get a guide dog next summer.  He’s still in marching band, and loves it, in spite of the football team’s record.  Caleb seems to enjoy his classes, especially psychology.  He often has psychological things to talk about, including body parts, processes, and theories.

Rebecca is a sophomore, and she has a whole new look this year—contacts, longer hair (remember that her head was shaved for a fund raiser, less than 3 years ago?), and no more braces.  She and Murray have been having a delightful(?) time this year as Rebecca learns to drive.  Kathy is thrilled because Rebecca will be able to take her places.  She is still playing the violin, and this year even practices often.  She is also thinking a lot about college.  Rebecca is very studious, stays up late, gets up early, always a textbook open.

Sarah is a freshman in high school.  She is more sweet and unpredictable than ever.  She is adapting to High School better than we might have hoped – seamlessly going from studying when she had to in middle school to studying all the time -- with all her teachers saying that she is a great student.  She sings in the choir at school and in the shower at home.  Sarah has a weekly paper route now, so she enjoys having a little money of her own.  When she is lucky, Murray even bags the papers before she gets home from school.  Sarah enjoys going for walks in this city, and has been involved with the high school youth group at church.

Benjamin is in fourth grade, and has almost hit double digits.  He’s a great math student, according to his teacher.  He is getting better about doing school work without prompting.  We can only prompt so much.  He loves reading magazines including SMART COMPUTING and PC WORLD, and has his own subscription to both of those.  For a week after he gets SMART COMPUTING, he tells Murray about the many different programs he thinks should be purchased for the household computer.  He’s still taking piano lessons, spends a lot of time using his own personal computer, and tolerates school.  For reasons unknown, Benjamin enjoys rap.  We are trying, a little, to steer him toward Christian rap. 

Murray keeps busy with helping kids with their math homework, and operating the McKinsey Family Taxi Service, math homework, teaching Sunday school, math homework, delivering food to those hungry people with Meals on Wheels, math homework, helping out with the Ohio gubernatorial and senatorial  elections (he’s never been on the winning side before), math homework.  He is thinking about getting a doctorate. In anything – sociology, theater, special education, history – he would just really love to be addressed as Doctor McKinsey.

Kathy has been working at the Cleveland Sight Center for six years now, and she enjoys the many interesting people she gets to work with.  Because of changes in the supervisory chain, she has assumed a few of the administrative duties in the department.  When she is not too tired, Kathy asks Murray to put in a West Wing CD – they are on the third year.  Kathy is having a good time watching the kids grow, develop, and mature.

Murray and Kathy will reach 20 years of marriage during this next year.  Held together by the bond of the Spirit.

We praise God for His goodness and faithfulness to us.  We pray that you know how much Jesus loves you, 

If you get emails about Nigerian money laundering schemes, stock tips, or foreign lotteries, please forward them to us.  We could always use the money.

Merry Christmas!

Murray, Kathy, Ping-Hwei, Caleb, Rebecca, Sarah, Benjamin

Sweet Memories; Sometimes I'm embarrassed to Remember My Part But...

January 2, 1997: This afternoon Rebecca asked me, "Mommy, were you born in 1927?" I said no, and she asked, "Before that?"

Sarah got some more birthday money today, and excitedly she said that it could be for Ping-Hwei.

January 4, 1997: Yesterday Rebecca told me, "Today is a yesterday and a tomorrow and today."

January 5, 1997: Caleb came in to my room to comb his hair tonight, and he said, "Feel my furry feathers."

The kids wanted to try to brush their teeth with baking soda tonight. Rebecca hated it, and Sarah wouldn't even try. She said, "I don't like it." Murray asked her, "Have you ever tried it?" To which Sarah said, "Well, I just believe I won't like it." Caleb liked it; he said, "It tastes like fried rice."

January 7, 1997: Sarah was playing very nicely with her doll house yesterday, making up little stories about the people. I pointed it out to Murray and he asked her if she was having fun playing by herself. She said, "I'm playing by myself, but I'm not lonely."

I gave Sarah a chocolate cinnamon roll for lunch, and as soon as she knew what it was, she said, "I don't want all this other food on my plate."

A little later Sarah said, "Mommy, I love you." "Because I gave you cinnamon rolls?" I asked. "Well, I can't just love you because you gave me cinnamon rolls," she said, and thought a minute. Then she said, "I love you all the time, and because you gave me cinnamon rolls."

January 12, 1997: We have a little musical button we give the kids to play with on their birthdays that plays the tune to happy birthday. Both Caleb and Sarah asked this time when they had it and listened to it, "How does the button know my name?"

January 14, 1997: When we told Caleb tonight that Daddy really had broken his right foot last night (after he broke his left ankle last August), he said, "He broke two feet! That's kind of silly."

January 15, 1997: This morning Sarah told me, "Once in awhile, I wonder how God made us, so I look at my body to see."

Yesterday Sarah went with Murray to the doctor. One of the young ladies who helped with his foot told them she had a three-year-old and a baby ten weeks old. Sarah asked if she had a husband. The lady said no, and Sarah asked why not. The lady said she hadn't found anyone she wanted to spend her life with yet. Sarah asked Murray if he'd ask the lady a question, and he said not a chance, worried she was going to say something more about the husband situation. So Sarah asked the lady herself, "Do you love Jesus?" The lady said sure she did; didn't everybody? Sarah shook her head negatively and said, "No. Some people don't."

January 17, 1997: Someone called yesterday while I was vacuuming, and Sarah answered the phone, then accidentally hung it up. She said she didn't know who it was and didn't understand everything he said. I asked, "Did you hear anything he said?" She said, "I heard it all; I just didn't understand everything."

Last night we found bumps on Caleb and thought he might have chicken pox. Murray was talking with Rebecca about it in the car later, just the two of them. Rebecca said he shouldn't talk to Caleb about it, because it made him nervous. Then she said, "And you're still talking about it!" Murray said that Caleb wasn't there, so he couldn't hear. She said, "I could tell him."

January 20, 1997: Last night Rebecca was getting ready for bed, and I said something to her, maybe grumpily, and she did the same thing, then said, "I'm going to be just like you when I grow up." I said, "You probably will." She went on, "Grouchy all day long."

January 22, 1997: A week or so ago, Murray and the kids were listening to a tape of music Ping-Hwei got at the library. A song played for only four or five seconds when Caleb said, "That's from the Nut Cracker." Murray took the tape out and read it, and it was from the Nut Cracker. Caleb went with his class from school to see the Nut Cracker before Christmas.

This morning, the girls were wanting to do something quickly, and kept saying, "Hurry! Hurry!" Caleb told them that if they kept being so excited, he'd have to use an exclamation point.

The other night we were struggling with Sarah at supper, trying to get her to eat some beans. Finally she got a spoonful into her mouth. In a second she said, "Daddy, I can't swallow this."

A few weeks ago the kids were in the car with Murray, and he said something about some kind of ceremony. Delightedly Rebecca said, "He said Sarah-moanee!" They have decided that a "moanee" was a person's tummy, and they often talk about their "Caleb-moanee" or "Rebecca-moanee." The other night a friend with a baby was over. Sarah said happily, "I see her moanee."

Sweet Memories, what I could Learn From these Kids

October 29, 1996: The other night, we were praying before we went to bed, and Caleb was making up a prayer song, and we were all repeating after him. He said, (about God) "We always take care of Him." I felt like I had to correct this impression, so I said that well, we don't really take care of Him; He takes care of us. Rebecca said, "But it says that when we help someone else, we help Him." I had to admit that she was right, and let her straighten out my faulty theology.

October 30, 1996: I was reading some Bible stories to Sarah at lunch. I read to her about how Solomon was building a temple for God. She said, "Then he's going to come in and praise the Lord!"When I told her I was going to read the story about the three men in the furnace, she said, "But then there was four, and one of them was God!" Then when I read about Daniel being thrown into the lions' den, she said, "But Jesus shut their mouths!"

October 31, 1996: Sarah was talking today about how Ping-Hwei is speaking English better and better every day. She said, "He's doing weller and weller."

November 13, 1996: I was trying to explain to Rebecca today a little about genetics, how she got her nose and ears and hair from Mommy and Daddy. She asked, "So when you picked me up, did I get hands?"

November 16, 1996: We're having a wind-rain-thunder storm right now, so I was listening to the weather radio. The kids asked if the man and lady talking on the radio were real. I think sometimes they have the idea that the people are right inside our radio. So little as I know about radio waves and so-forth, I tried to explain it to them, how there are tiny waves in the air that we can't see, and our radio antenna picks them up, etc.  After I was finished explaining, Rebecca asked, "Are that man and lady married?" "Do they love Jesus?"Caleb wanted to know. I guess I wasn't explaining exactly what they were looking for.

December 2, 1996: Sarah and Murray left the orthopedic doctor, on Wichita Clinic's ground floor. Sarah said, "Aren't we going on the alligators?" pointing to 3 metal doors. "Oh, I mean elevators."

December 3, 1996: The other day Caleb asked Murray, "What would happen if you cut off your knees?"

December 5, 1996: We asked our friends John and Stacy to take the kids to the swimming party at the Y the other night, because Murray was afraid he might fall on his crutches around the pool. The kids were talking about that to Stacy, and she, teasing, said she thought it would be funny if Murray fell into the pool. The kids got indignant with her and rebuked her. Sarah said, "You have to understand, Daddy has a broken foot. It wouldn't be funny if he fell in the pool."

Sweet Memories, I Got Some good Laughs Today

June 24, 1996: In Sunday school yesterday, the kids made little scrolls. When Sarah came to sit by me in the auditorium, she showed it to me and said, "Look, I have a squirrel!"

June 27, 1996: Yesterday Sarah told me that she was drying off in the bathroom after her shower, and Daddy turned off the light on her. And she told me, "But I wasn't mad, because it was a sorry mistake."

July 3, 1996: This morning, Caleb did something I'd told him not to do, and I said if he did it again, I'd spank him and send him to bed. Rebecca asked, "How can you spank him and send him to bed when he looks so sad?"

July 4, 1996: At supper, Caleb asked, "Mommy, what would happen if we went into our tummies?" I said I didn't even know how to go about doing that. He said, "Just put our feet up into our mouths," and Murray said then we could swallow ourselves whole.

Murray and the kids were watching fireworks tonight, and Murray said Rebecca said, "If one of them went way up into the sky, God could make it into a star if He wanted to."

Sarah came in before the others did from watching and said, "The neighbors had firecrackers, and they were real loud, and I was scared one would bonk down on my head."

July 8, 1996: This morning, I heard Rebecca say to Sarah, "If your eyelid comes off, you won't be able to sleep."

At breakfast Sarah started crying, and told me sadly, "I put some biscuit in my mouth, and I bit the tall finger on my right hand."

The other day Sarah took my hand and put it on the front part of her neck and said, "Feel the sound coming out of my throat when I talk."She's been thrilled with that whole concept ever since.

July 11, 1996: I was hugging Sarah yesterday and said she was my girl. She asked if I would keep her forever, and I said I'd keep her as long as she wanted me to. She said, "That will be a long time, because I'm just four years old."(She didn’t know how quick that time would go by. Neither did I.)

July 15, 1996: The other day Rebecca was taking Caleb's picture with the toy camera, and she said, "Smile wide, and stick out your tongue."

July 18, 1996: Sarah's lip was bleeding today, where it had been frozen to remove warts. Murray was hugging her this evening, and said, "What is the name of your lip?" She said, "Mean Boy, because it was bleeding all over."

July 19, 1996: Sarah came in while I was taking a nap this afternoon, and said, "What if when I get married, my husband doesn't love Jesus?" I said it would probably be better if she made sure to marry someone who loves Jesus. She said, "I hope Jesus gives me a good husband."

July 20, 1996: Sarah was teasing Murray, saying he didn't love Jesus. Murray said that, no, he didn't, and Sarah yelled, "Yes you do! And I love him. He's my Savior, and when I go to heaven he's going to pick me up."

July 21, 1996: At lunch Sarah said something to Caleb and he smiled at her. Before she went on talking, she laughed and said, "Big smile."

July 24, 1996: Yesterday Sarah asked why our grocery store has RamenNoodles, since they're Chinese food. Ping-Hwei loves them. She asked if Jesus put them there because He knew Ping-Hwei was going to be adopted by us. (Ping-Hwei had just joined our family that June.)

This morning Sarah asked me if she could do something, and I said no. She said, "I wish you were a nicer Mommy than this."

July 26, 1996: This morning Sarah told me indignantly, "Mommy, when I kicked Rebecca, she kicked me back."

July 30, 1996: Yesterday, our friend Bill captured a wasp nest in our yard, killed the little varmints, and put them all in a pickle jar. Then when he brought them inside, the kids were looking at them, and someone said something like that they were gross or scary or something, and Rebecca said, "But very interesting."

August 3, 1996: Caleb remains a mobility genius. We were on Pawnee Road, about two blocks from home. He said, "Oh, good, we're almost home!" Murray asked how he knew we were almost home. Caleb said,"We went over that bump in the road."

Christmas 1993

I found another treasure in my old computer files—our Christmas letter from 1993. Some fun memories, some I hardly remember at all.

Christmas 1993, Montgomery, Alabama

Dear Family and Friends,

What a joy it is to again celebrate the coming of our Lord Jesus to earth! And whether they know why or not, most people, at this time of year, feel a special sense of kindness and hope. We pray that those of us who know Jesus will use this opportunity to share withothers why they can have hope and joy.

It has been another fun year for us. Murray changed jobs. Again. He now works for a home health agency, providing Occupational Therapy services to people in their own homes. His favorite part of the job is teasing old people about how old they are.

The kids are growing up. Kathy's trying to figure out where all the rumors come from about stay-at-home moms being bored and having too much time on their hands. Kathy has been reading a lot, and spends time trying to teach children letters and numbers and adjectives and Bible stories and manners. It's very difficult.

As our babies grow into little people who do things, we can't put into words how overwhelmed we are at what a wonderful gift God gave us in our children. Sarah will be two in January, and she is growing up. We've always been convinced that she's probably the cutest baby ever born. Now that she's changing into a little girl, she's staying just as cute. She loves to give hugs and kisses and to pat and rub our backs. She's crazy about her brother and sister ("La-La and BEH- buh") and she's learning a lot from them. She sounds just like Rebecca when she says, "Don't!" and just like Caleb when she says, "No!"

Sarah had an appointment with a pediatric optometrist In November and, after apparently being able to see almost nothing except light 14 months ago, she now sees everything in front of her (maybe a little near-sighted). We give God and prayer all the creditfor this miraculous change.

Rebecca turned three this September, and she continues to amaze us with how grown up she seems. Recently she told us, "I want to go to Heaven now and see Jesus." We told her that would sure be good for her, but we would like her to wait and stay with us a while longer. We told her that when she's a little older, she can have Jesus come live in her heart, and that would be almost as good as going toHeaven. She said, "I can't see Him in my heart; I can feel Him."

Caleb, too, who will be four in January, is becoming quite a big boy. Unfortunately, he seems to have forgotten the Chinese he knew when he came here, but it is awfully cute to hear our little Chinese boy talking with a southern accent. For example, he loves to drink "MEE- ulk" for breakfast.

One of the cutest things he says is to tell us that he is some other person, usually someone he's just been with. When he's been in Diane's class at church, he comes home and says, "Mommy, I'm Diane." When he's been at his swimming lesson at the YMCA, where Amy is his teacher, he says, "I'm Amy." One morning Kathy read the kids a book about a moose. That afternoon someone asked Caleb what his name was, and he said, "I'm a moose." Caleb seems to have recently remembered, and talks about, his missionary parents in Taiwan, Ted and Bev. We are surprised but glad that he recalls thatimportant part of his life.

As required by immigration services, we re-adopted Caleb in Alabama this year. Then, we took him to the Immigration office in Atlanta and he received a certificate of citizenship. After that Caleb often told us, "I'm a citizen." He is now going, two mornings a week, to a preschool for hearing and visually impaired kids. He seems to like school, but about the only thing he'll tell Kathy about it when he gets home is, "Mommy, I ride the school bus!"

Rebecca goes two different mornings a week to a preschool at Dalraida (del RAY duh) Baptist Church near here and, after a rocky start ("It wasn't a goodday, but we have stickers") seems to be enjoying herself.

Murray was elected to be a deacon in our church this year. There was some question as to what his duties would be. Someone suggested that he be in charge of keeping rodents off the church property. Finally, though, he was put in charge of what is called the "Contact Care Ministry." This involves keeping in touch with members of the congregation who have spiritual, physical, financial or other needs and attempting to coordinate the services of the congregation to meet these needs.

Also, Murray has taken up a new hobby, collecting hats. If you come across a really unusual hat, please feel free to send it to us. He still feels the call to be a preacher, so please prayabout that. (For him, or for the unexpecting church?) We've joined the new choir at church, and the leader (called Adolph, for his hard-driving ways) is glad Kathy is there to "round off Murray's rough edges." Perhaps a family gospel album is in store. NOT!!

We are also teaching the junior high/high school Sunday school class, currently studying the book of Mark. We are a little sad when half way through a day's lesson kids ask, "Now what book are we reading?", but excited when they (each required at the end of class to ask one question about that day's Bible text) ask insightfulquestions. Our time is not wasted. We are not really sure where the Lord Jesus is taking us or how He plans to use us, but we're astonished at what's gone on to this point, so we know it's going to be good.

Murray and Kathy for all

"I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God." Job 19:25-26

"You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to givehim the name Jesus." Luke 1:31