Epiphany House Family Journal February 2007

Our newest family member, Nellie.

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, 4 months. Also, there is Lauren Derrington, fiancée to Courtney; Rachel Barrett, girlfriend of Patrick; Jim Pio, boyfriend to Kelly. Miss Marie and Miss Laura, Salinna's home nurses. Our pets include puppy, Nellie; cat, Oliver; Bunny, Milkshake; Parakeet; Repete, Cockatiel; Olive, a Turtle, Speedy, fish. We do occasional respit e care for Kelly’s pooch, Molly.

February 2007

In February, there were some interesting ways in which our kids expressed anger. We learned why Ebony likes snow and Ebony found an interesting use for the Anna Nicole Smith memorial candle. We also celebrated  Valentine's Day, Suky's 11th birthday and snowfalls. We developed some very good outreach connections with other community organizations who, like us, want to to see kids find homes. We had a visit from Joshua who had been with us for 9 months. We extended a week of respite care to a four year old boy and an evening of childcare to a family from Springfield. Our board met with enthusiasm about upcoming plans for Epiphany House. As usual it was a lively month here and we think you'll enjoy some of the excerpts (fit for print) from the Epiphany House journal. 

1st –  Suky becomes angry with her brother Danny. She posts note on her bedroom door. It reads, "You really hurt my feelings Danny. I hate Danny McCunney-I'm not going to change my mind." About 1/2 hour later they make up.

3rd –  Dexter goes to YMCA pool with kids where he is used as a floating ball in a game of water soccer

4th – Suky sews a heart pillow. Daniel reads book Eldest

5th – Suky's hair freezes on the way to the school bus stop. Later in the day a badly leaking radiator requires emergency plumbing

7th – Snow and cold. The kids have a 2 hour late opening. Sonty and Daniel clear the cars. At night, the kids watch TV game show "Deal or No Deal" with Kathie and Uncle Mike. 

8th – Sonty goes to local store for Kevin who asked Sonty to buy sour cream. Sonty comes home with Raman soup and tells Kevin there's no sour cream flavored Raman and that he lost Kevin's money.  Ebony gets angry with Suky, In her anger, Ebony imitates a scene from some movie she watched with her cousin, Megan and cuts the neck of Suky's Barbie doll with a butter knife. If only Ebony were as skillful with the written word as is Suky.

9th – Anna Nicole Smith dies. Ebony cooks  marshmallows on the memorial candle.  Kevin claims to be Anna Nicole Smith's daughter's dad. Suky passes karate test.

10th – Daniel passes his karate test and earns yellow belt. Kathie, Suky and Ebony go to Baltimore to babysit our grandkids.

11th – Grandmom calls Kathie's cell phone. Suky answers. Grandmom asks, "Where are you? Suky answers, "Next to my mom." 

14th – Valentine's Day. School's closed because of winter storm. Suky and her mom cook pancakes for everyone. After shovelling out we go sledding. Kathie bakes fabulous Valentine cookies. Ebony goes to an overnight at her sister Kelly's.

16th – Daniel goes on school bowling outing with his class. Ebony says she likes snow "because it has water in it." Daniel very excited about set books he received today as a gift. They demonstrate pop up art engineering and were from a friend we met on train, after last month's peace rally in Washington D.C.

17th – Our cat, Oliver, hanging around Suky's room staring at the gold fish. 

Ebony writes a note that says, "I Want go WaWa milkshake." So, Ebony's writing skills have improved. Our puppy, Nellie goes on the WaWa outing. Nellie doesn't get a milkshake and thinks the notion of "hot dog" is abominable. Be thankful you were not born in North Korea, Nellie.

18th – Corky and Lauren visit us for the weekend.

19th – Salinna plays hide and seek with friends at school.

20th – Suky's 11th birthday. Suky becomes a Club Penguin member, gets moonshoes and the CD of "Wicked." soundtrack.

21st – Ash Wednesday. Dexter preaches the reflection at evening service at The Garden Church in Lansdowne. The ants for Daniel's ant farm arrive in mail.

22nd – Danny puts Suky's moonshoes together for her. Aren't you glad you made up with him Suky? Now there's added bounce to your life.

23rd – Salinna makes chocolate covered pretzels and takes part in lighted volley ball tournament.

24th – Sonty hooked on the game Animal Crossing. Trash bag bursts in kitchen; contents that spill out include remains from recently cleaned bunny cage.

25th – Joshua visited and spent the night. He Daniel and Sonty make little animated cartoons using post note pads. Later they all go to Christ Church Youth group. Daniel expresses desire to be baptized.

26th – Danny to hospital ER because of scratched cornea. He fell asleep wearing contact lenses.

27th – We begin respite care for a 4 year old boy who will spend week with us. Epiphany House board meets.

28th – Kelly places a bid on house in Lansdowne. Deal or no? Find out in March journal.

JOURNAL ARCHIVES:
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2008
JANUARY 2008
FALL 2007
SUMMER 2007
JUNE 2007
APRIL/MAY 2007
MARCH 2007
FEBRUARY 2007
JANUARY 2007
DECEMBER 2006
NOVEMBER 2006