The Landlord--I love this. It gets funnier the more you watch

**In need of ADOPTIVE FAMILIES**

I am working on a great project. I need adoptive families, of all sizes, from any country. I am especially interested in meeting adult adoptees. This project entails photographs and sharing your personal experiences. I only need 12 adoptive families.

If you're interested, please send me an email at michellemsherwood@yahoo.com

adventure race

adventure race part deux

Pictures from the wedding!

Ozark Greenways Adventure Race

Boy, was I tired after the race!
...I mean, all that waiting around for the runners to come in...is exhausting!!

Craig and Alex Keeling watch and wait

Leah Cagle looks out for the color blue

The Ozark Greenways Adventure Race was Saturday at the Niangua River Oasis. Co-ed teams basically put their bodies through extreme physical challenges, located out in the woods. They run, canoe, mountain bike, orienteer, and do mystery tests. The challenge can take anywhere from 7 to 13 hours!

It's rough, and in some cases dangerous. Yesterday I heard that a woman appeared to have broken her pelvis after falling OVER her bike several times.

Jim the jock and Michelle the eh, support

I personally never want to do anything like this, but my boyfriend (Jim) and three more of my co-workers thought it sounded like "fun". I am so proud of them!

Team KY3: Travis Cagle, Sara Sheffield, Jim Van Dillen, Beth Keeling

Look Ma! I done good!

The Springfield Business Journal held its 40 Under 40 ceremony this week. And they actually picked me! What were they thinking?! Funny story, I tried to be one of the last ones on stage so I would be in the back...but then the photographer showed up at my left, and suddenly I was in front. Ha! Funny how that works.

I think I was selected as an honoree for my involvement with international adoption groups around the Ozarks. I really hope that being selected will bring more attention to the subject. There are so many wonderful adoptive families in the area, and I think they need to know each other exist!

Anyway, the event was wonderful. SBJ did a fabulous job, and it is really nice that the people over there help make others feel all warm and fuzzy inside...

Kevin and Liz of Alice 95.5 hosted the event. They are so funny, and I think they did a wonderful job...I just love them in the mornings! Check out their news hottie contest...which reminds me...I'm thinkin' Lisa Rose looks pretty hot these days, don't you?! She's always been beautiful to me, but I think her recent makeover puts her over the top...

Why knowing your biological family is cool, but hard

I have another biological sister who's getting married...this time it is my youngest sister--Yeon Jeong! She is so precious to me because she is very free-spirited. I think she's beautiful, inside and out. We spent a lot of time together during my last trip to Korea, and we couldn't stop crying when I left her at the train station. It was a very emotional goodbye.

Meeting birth family is a very difficult thing. I love mine very much, but adoptive families should know that meeting them never brings closure. If anything, it opens a whole new can of worms. I am so happy for my Korean family right now, but it is also painful to know that I cannot be there. Even though I wouldn't trade my life in the U.S. for anything, sometimes I have a hard time trying to understand why my sisters and I had to live a world apart.

Anyway, this is a happy time for our family, for both the Parks and the Sherwoods....

Plus, isn't it wild how Koreans get their wedding pictures done? Is this a hot new trend there or what? I don't know of very many men here who would dress up like this, but I love it!

The wedding is Saturday, May 19th.

BEHEADED VIRGIN MARY AND SAINT

Virgin Mary before desecration

St. Francis before being beheaded

Talk about bad karma.

Someone beheaded the Virgin Mary and Saint Francis marble statues at St. John's Episcopal Church in North Springfield. Not only that, but the vandals also cut off their thumbs--which is supposed to be a sign of power. (Does anyone know why? I mean, I get the whole Chinese handcuffs thing, but is that why?) Oh, and p.s., the vandals kept the heads.

Also, someone turned the church's cross upside down and used it to jam the front door.

Church leaders say they're confident this is the work of a cult. Police say they don't know of any specific satanic groups, but they say they probably exist.

Altogether, the church is out about $8,000.

So you've had a bad day...

Talk about a case of the Mondays. I was supposed to be in Bentonville, Arkansas, for a 10 am interview...

One wrong turn made us two hours late.

Then, to top things off, this had to happen...after we finished our interview.





At least Jim was there to change the tire!

UNDER THE LIGHT OF THE MOON--

If anyone watched KY3 News at 10 last night, they would've seen a full moon. A group of kids ran behind Melissa Yeager as she was doing her live shot...one boy pulled down his pants...and out came his bare naked bum!

The first reaction is to giggle!
The second reaction is to get mad!

Melissa was doing a serious story about reprimands concerning a nursing home. The mooning was indecent, and we should've been more prepared from our end (no pun intended.) We really do our best to prevent these things from happening, but sometimes they are just impossible to stop. Rarely do they happen, and for that we're grateful.

Melissa says there were six kids there, and she told them they could watch the news from the truck. She was trying to be polite because they kept asking if they could be on TV, and she said the story was inappropriate for them to be in the background...

Yikes!

To anyone who thinks this might be a good idea: Don't do it.

1) No one wants to see your hairy/white/pimpled/wrinkled/(name your feature) butt on TV. I'm really trying to do you a favor.

2) It's indecent. I'm pretty sure this could evoke an FCC fine or something.

May is National Asian American/Pacific Islander Month!

In celebration of Asian American/Pacific Islander Month, the AAPIO (Asian American Pacific Islander Organization) at Missouri State held its second-ever showcase Friday night. The audience enjoyed eight cultural performances, from hula dancing to a Jujiden martial arts demonstration. It was pretty impressive for the student association's second go at it. I was thrilled to be apart of the event!

Be on the lookout: the student association puts on an entire month of events, from henna tattoos to chopstick lessons. AAPIO celebrates during April--the month before the national observance--because of May finals.

Here are just a few pictures from Friday night:

Michelle as emcee

hula dancing

Korean dance

Jujiden Martial Arts

Polynesian dance

Sarab School of Dance

ADOPTEES TELL THEIR STORIES

Mark your calendars--

The International Adoptive Families of SWMO will host a documentary and discussion on the perceptives of adoption.

6:30 pm
Saturday May 19, 2007
Dale Street Methodist Church
1232 E Dale Street

The documentary is a thought-provoking one--featuring several adult adoptees from Korea and India--who talk about their experiences growing up in America. It addresses some key issues of transracial and transnational adoption. The group will view the documentary then discuss. Childcare and refreshments will be provided.