The Heymann Family Journal

Swine flu is in Spain and maybe even in France. Juergen told me to go buy a few weeks worth of food...we may need to stay at home. I'm also going to buy some masks for us to wear. I wonder how the Swine flu will effect my brothers trip to Europe. We plan to go to Paris and Cyprus. I hope this will still be possible? This could get pretty bad!

I was up at 4:30am to take Mom and Dad to the airport in Frankfurt. They are on their way home. I'm so grateful we had this time together...and so sad we live so far apart. I'm very sad!

Juergen took Mom and Dad on a river cruise. They will be gone most of the day. They already have their bags packed. I take them to the airport at 5am tomorrow. I'm trying to clean and cook and not think. If I think I would get sad. We have had a good time, and I thank God for this gift. I'm not going to think about tomorrow.

Mom and Dad are still here. We had a good time in Holland. Today we are going to have breakfast in Heidelberg. Busy, busy!!! I'll post photos maybe by next week. I had like 2 minutes to read the news. You all have probably already seen this video but... http://talent.itv.com/videos/video/item_200081.htm This is Susan Boyle, a 47 year old who amazed everyone. You should never judge anyone so quickly! I just love her story! Embedded video from CNN Video

Nicole the last time we were in Holland. God willing we go again tomorrow to see the flowers.

Nicole just started to learn fencing. I said "why don't you look at US schools that have fencing teams, maybe you can get a scholarship"? She found Stanford, and now she thinks maybe she would like to go there! She doesn't graduate for two more years, but I must say she has pretty good taste! I can not afford the tuition (non international tuition was $37,000 per year with another $12,000 for living costs/ and for international students it's so much more). She would need some kind of scholarship. They say she was born to fence. She is left handed and almost 6 feet tall. Of course the good fencing teams are not West. I think Harvard has the best fencing team in America. I don't even want to know what Harvard cost! I just read Harvard does not give athletic scholarships! Dreams are free…she has two years to dream! Why dream small?

It's been busy with my parents here, and the kids home on vacation. I'm pretty tired but also very happy! We are having a great time! I spent way too much time on line trying to find a vacation house in Holland for next weekend. I want to take my parents to see the tulips. I finally found a great vacation house on the coast only about 15 minutes from Keukenhof Gardens. I can not believe I could get such a good price on this vacation house! It took me hours to find it, but it is booked!!! We leave (God willing) on Friday and return late on Sunday. I am taking Jessica and Nicole and Mom and Dad. Juergen stays home with the other 3. So hopefully we will all be well, and the weather will be as nice as it was today!

I love this video! What love! What courage! And Jesus carries us! He lives!!!

Sunday is my sister Shelley's birthday. I should have gotten my parents airline tickets for Monday. Shelley I'm so sorry!!! I'm going to send you a nice gift : ( Really, I was just so excited that Mom and Dad could come I lost my head!

The airline prices are so low...guess who is coming for dinner (Easter dinner)? My mom and dad are going to come this weekend for two week. I'm so excited they are coming!!! I just didn't think I could make the trip to the USA this year. That is sad, but now my parents will come...and then my brother comes too. I'm going to try to take my parents to see the tulips in Holland.

The day was beautiful. Juergen took Philip, Thomas and Sarah to the park. Jessica doesn't like the park, so Nicole and I took her into Heidelberg to window shop. It is not easy to get Jessica to stand still for a picture. This was the best I could do.

I never posted it but some of you know that Philip has some health issues. We discovered he has a brain tumor. It is not what they call a "bad tumor". They did additional tests on Philip. They discovered the tumor is not doing anything. Right now they will just watch it. If it grows in the next 5 or 6 months they will remove it. They did find out Philip has a very low level of a stress hormone called Cortisol. I read the following about this problem... problems for the low reactors. They have more trouble paying attention and their low cortisol levels seem to be associated with a failure of behavioral inhibitions. Many attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder children (ADHD) have unusually low cortisol levels. 15,16 and I also read this... Consistently low salivary levels of the stress hormone cortisol in boys aged 7 to 12 are associated with early onset and persistence of extremely aggressive behavior report researchers from the University of Chicago in the Archives ...

Every day is autism day for us. I forgot that today was International autism day. I wish there was no need for such a day. I wish the kids were all healthy. But today I kissed my girl, and I loved her just as much as I always do. She reminds me life is a gift. Her smile is a gift. Her laugh is a gift. I may never have a conversation with Jessica this side of heaven, but I'm willing to wait. I can not imagine any sound in heaven being half as sweet as the voices of the children who spent their days in silence. It will be a time for me to be silent...I wouldn't want to miss a single word. The photo is Jessica in China

Home schooling is so important to Uwe Romeike, a classically trained pianist, that he sold his grand pianos for money to move his family to the US so he could home school his kids. He refused to comply with the government's repeated orders to put his kids in public school, until finally the police came, demanded that his children attend public school and fined the father. He has now fled the country. I wish I could home school Philip but I can not. Juergen isn't ready to flee the country. Oh well!