Minnesota days have been filled with rain or showers passing by, sometimes many times in one day with the sun shining the rest of the day. Sunday, June 5th, 2005 was no exception. Rain was forecast, though the sun shone brightly until four o’clock, the time of the SJA Adoption Ministries second annual picnic. The clouds moved in, the picnic started, and so did a deluge of rain, a very heavy deluge of rain.

Rain, rain, go away,
Come again some other day.
Little Johnny wants to play.

 About 35 people braved the weather and came to enjoy themselves, rain or shine. The Wabun area of Minnehaha Park has a covered section, so everyone was huddled there during the rain and managed to squeeze into the one table in the covered area to eat their dinner, instead of using the many tables out in the park where one normally eats. The picnic dinner consisted of grilled hamburgers, brats, hot dogs and a mixture of dishes representing the country of adoption origin. The heavy rains had stopped and the children wandered out to investigate all the puddles of water.

Children do not care if it is wet. There were puddles to check out, hula-hoops, balls, and jump ropes to use to splash water, drag water, and find some new adventure in every puddle. Amazing what you can do with a hula-hoop and a puddle. As the area dried out children jumped with the jump ropes, played with balls, played games of croquet, softball, four square, and in general found many exciting things to do.

As the evening progressed, water balloons made their debut, to everyone’s delight. Just think, suddenly we have more water! The piñata was the final game. Last year it took all the children several hits, and eventually adding the oldest children/adults to hit and finally break it open. This year it was easy and not everyone even received a turn for striking it. With all the other things to see and do, everyone took it in stride.

Overall, it was a fun, exciting evening; ask any of the little ones, as they slowly walked to their cars, quickly winding down to probably fall asleep as soon as the cars started. The older children were all aglow with having used up their energy with sporting activities.

Overall, it was a wet picnic, but nonetheless a fun filled picnic.

Hope to see you next year.


and
Nancy Lynch says, "Joy is being a wife, Mom of fourteen, eight with varying disabilities and living at home, Grandma of thirteen, and Great Grandma of three. Serenity is listening and watching the ocean, alone, at our home on Maui. Passion is friends, photography, reading, swimming and children." Nancy can be reached at nalynch@aol.com.


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