Epiphany House Family Journal April-May 2007

Suky with the first fish she ever caught.

An Epiphany House family who's who:
Kathie and Dexter Lanctot, co-founders of Epiphany House Inc., are adoptive parents to Sonty Lanctot, age 13, Suky Lanctot, age 11, Ebony Lanctot, age 8, and Salinna Lanctot, age 7. Foster children include twin boys Lyle and Kyle, age 9. Daniel, 14 (to comply with confidentiality requirements the names of some DHS foster children are changed in this publication). In addition, Kathie's six birth children: Dennis, Courtney, Kelly, Patrick, Danny and Kevin McCunney. Dennis' spouse Kathy and their daughters' Nora Catherine McCunney, age 3 and Anna Claire McCunney, 7 months. Also, there is Lauren Derrington, fiancée to Courtney; Rachel Barrett, girlfriend of Patrick; Jim Pio, boyfriend to Kelly. Miss Marie, Salinna's home nurse. Our pets include puppy, Nellie; cat, Oliver; New Bunny,"Trixie" aka Bun-bun"; Cockatiel; Olive, a Turtle, Speedy, fish. We do occasional respite care for Kelly’s pooch, Molly.

April 2007

2nd – Ebony asks to go to Granite Run Mall to get a pair of earrings there that she says are, Perfect for a Diva." Suky catches her first fish at Darby Creek and skeeves the worms.

3rd – Ebony thinks it is funny to put on Daniel's shirts. To add to the humor Daniel and Sonty put on Ebony's shirts. Ebony demonstrates how Salinna lies in her bed.

4th – Dexter takes Suky, Daniel and a friend of theirs to John Heinz wildlife preserve. Sonty and Daniel set up elaborate lines of dominos.

5th – Nellie drinks bad water from a muddy puddle and barfs all night.

6th – Good Friday. Kids and Dexter attend stations of cross at Brandywine Peace Community. Suky's silver capped molar falls out. She writes a note to the tooth fairy requesting $6.00 because it was silver capped. With many more baby teeth remaining in this family, Dexter suggests a tooth fairy fundraiser for Epiphany House.

7th – Holy Saturday (Easter vigil). Very late in the night a mysterious bunny was reported roaming the neighborhood and placing clues to Easter baskets as far as three blocks away.

8th – Easter. Daniel is baptized at Christ Church. After church and back at home the kids track down the clues in their basket hunts.

9th – Kevin drives over Ebony's bicycle. Thankfully, Ebony was not on it. Salinna's goes on outing to Springfield Mall with her class.

12th – Suky drinks one of Danny's WaWa lemonade and then calls him after the fact to ask if she may have it. He said no.

13th – Suky is admitted to Children's Hospital for cellulitis infection. We do not think it is related to the WaWa lemonade. If it were we could happily give up fund raising. She spends the weekend.

14th – Sonty and Daniel send Suky home made get well cards.

15th – Suky writes thank you note to Sonty and Daniel and makes it a point to tell them the baby back ribs from the cafateria are not made with patient babies. See note below.

17th – Philadelphia's Family Court Daniel's goal changed to adoption. We hope to finalize before Winter.

18th – Suky's sings at her school's Spring Concert. "Everything's Coming Up Roses." is the theme.

19th – Suky teaches nellie to jump through ring of fire. How about a hoola hoop with streamers?

22nd – Earth day. We all go to Christ church in morning. In afternoon Sonty goes to local corner store to sell raffle tickets for his summer boys' choir trip to Greece and Turkey. Daniel goes on a mission to put up posters for our upcoming pancake breakfast.

23rd – Kelly's offer on a house in Drexel Hill is accepted. Soon she will be living .6 of a mile from us and we will be living .6 of a mile from her.

24th – While at her horseback riding lesson with Suky and Kathie, Ebony sees the sun shining from behind a cloud and asks, "Is that God?"

25th – Salinna makes Curious George bread.

26th – Ebony's class goes to Elmwood Park Zoo. After school Ebony and Kathie walk in the mile a day club as they have been doing most every school day during the year. Sonty earns distinguished honors at school with a 4.0. Daniel and Sonty argue about which of them is smarter.

27th – We host a Russian family, from Valam, overnight. They are accomplished musicians and singers. When Dexter offers to take them to tour Philadelphia, Helena's (the mom) first interest is to see the sculpture of the clothespin.

30th – Salinna's feeding tube leaks all over her just before her school bus is to arrive. Ebony announces out of the blue that,"Catfish are stupid." She then informs us that the girl with the tweety-bird school bag was mean to her on the bus.

May

1st – Daniel tells us that he heard an asteroid the size of Texas is aiming to hit the earth in 22 years.  Ebony lost play time at school be cause she told her classmates to 'Kiss my fat A_ _." Where in the world did she ever hear that, Kevin? Perhaps she meant to say asteroid.         

3rd – Salinna plays pass the peppers and pin the tail on the donkey at an early Cinco de Mayo celebration.

5th – Pancake breakfast. Great turn out. Daniel does origami with kids and busses tables. Sonty blows up balloons, Suky provides music on recorder playing Amazing Grace, Salinna works the ticket table, Ebony eats the ice cream.

6th – Ebony spills bottle of ink. She says she did it "on purpose." She means by accident...we think. Don't cry over spilled ink.

9th – Sonty leaves for 3-day school class trip to camp Speers-Aljabar in the Pocono Mountains. Preparations for exterior painting of our continue. Patrick and Rachel take Suky to see "Spider Man 3."

10th – Salinna participates in her school-bowling tournament.

11th – Daniel goes to Washington D.C. on class trip. He brings home 'crystal' paperweight the size of an asteroid. The photos he and his friends take of the Washington Monument are X rated. Sonty comes home from Speers-Aljabar complaining about the food. He says, "It was like a fat camp diet. He wrote the following Haiku:
Camp food          
Whole wheat
No meat.
Tofu goo
YUK!

12th – A family member of ours, whose name we will not reveal, shaves his/her eyebrows.

13th – Mother's Day. Kathie gets an Ipod from older kids and a Blessed Virgin Mary garden statue from younger kids. On a family walk to a local playground Salinna has a seizure set off by a loud car w/ damaged muffler. Big mishap for Kevin at his job at Beer Guys in Havertown. A "leaning tower" of Amstel light fell and crashed to the floor leaving quite a big mess."

19th – We provide respite care for 4-year-old boy and 9-year-old girl over the weekend. Sonty is in Philadelphia Boys' Choir Spring Concert this weekend.

21st – Sonty diagnosed with Osgood Slatters disease at Children's Hospital ER. It's a common knee ailment for active growing kids. He is in a knee immobilizer for one week.

22nd – Suky, Ebony, Dad and Mom attend magic show at Beverly Hills Middle School. Ebony loves the dancing poodle acts.

26th – Donated Yamaha electric organ arrives at Epiphany House. The kids are quick to try it out and play their favorite songs. Thanks to Mark DeCheser for the gift. www.decheser.org

28th – Epiphany House is a sponsor for and kids participate in the Lansdowne Memorial Day 5K run/walk race. Daniel wears his rollerblades during the route. Sonty because of his knee immobilizer volunteers slicing oranges.

30th – Family attends Devon Horse Show.

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