Where did Summer go?

In some ways, I find it difficult to believe that I haven't blogged since Charlotte's birthday.

Looking back, it's not that difficult to fathom at all. Adding a new person to the mix makes for one busy life!

Our view at the lake on most days

Kiddo has had a pretty great summer, I think. She had quite a few weeks at YMCA Day Camp getting dirty in between swimming lessons. We also took a week to drive to Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri for a family vacation with Roger's relatives. Despite getting on each other's last nerves before the 1000 mile trip to the lake was over, it was a fairly smooth ride. We were pretty well crammed into the VW Bug but we made do and everyone was still relatively comfortable. The return trek was much more tolerable. Maybe we were all more relaxed by then! Kiddo swam a ton, I read lots of books, and Roger caught about a dozen fish! Also, the Frozen soundtrack was played about fifty times. Give or take.

Another view of the lake

Roger won the Family Fishing Derby
Prize for most fish caught (12)

We also ate lunch under the St. Louis Arch!

We continue to develop our relationship with Kiddo. There have been rocky patches and some really great days. We have seen her grow immensely in the 5 months that she has been a part of our family. We also see her struggle with many things. None of it is completely unexpected given her history but it's still a challenge. Fortunately, we have a great team supporting us and working with us every step of the way. I'm so grateful for all the friends and family who have been able to meet her so far. She has really enjoyed getting to know everyone. The biggest comment we hear is, "Wow! She's not shy at all!" She is a pretty friendly little kid and we love to see her socialize with everyone.

September will be a big month. School starts again. By the end of the month, we will have another team discussion. We will FINALLY hit that 6 month mark which means discussion about adoption. Everyone on the team expects that we will continue to move forward at this point but it's hard to say how long the timeline will be for the entire process.

So there's you're big summer update! I promise more tales of adventure will be forthcoming. I just need to find the time between adventures to write it all down!

To everything there is a season

It's been a while since I used the blog to share my thoughts. What started as some random musings turned into much more than a Facebook post. I started writing this over a week ago but it's taken a minute to actually hit the publish button. Thanks for your patience. Welcome back. It has been a week (or two) . One of those weeks where everything happens all at once. A week where things need to happen in a particular order or everything‘s going to go to shit. A week where you just seem to go from one thing to the next thing and you’ll figure out what’s going to happen next as it goes along. A week full of work and family and rest and sleeplessness and it never feels like there’s enough time for anything. But somehow it all works out. A plaque on the library walk in NYC My week started with a trip for work to NYC. It coincided with my birthday. Because of that, I had all kinds of feelings all week about life in general. The week ended with a trip to Florida that, unfortun...

The Edge of Seventeen

It's that time of year when the blog musings center on my grief journey. Every year, it seems like we are busy with end-of-the-year school activities and the start of summer, planning vacations, and then (kablam)...it's almost July 9. Grief is funny. Grief is weird. I remember very early after Charlotte died, I watched the movie Rabbit Hole. There's an amazingly poignant scene where Nicole Kidman's character is talking with another woman who lost a child over 10 years before (played by Dianne Wiest). She talks about grief being like a brick in your pocket. It never goes away. Sometimes you can even forget it's there. But it comes back and makes its presence known from time to time. And (she says) "it's what you have of them." I probably did not fully realize then what a powerful and true analogy that is. As time goes on, our grief changes. Yet, it is always there on the edge of things. It sits in that pocket and sometimes makes itself known. This...

The Stages of Grief: COVID Edition

It's 2020. It's almost Christmas. We're still in the middle of a pandemic. In fact, we are experiencing what appears to be an incredible surge that is exerting tremendous pressure on our healthcare and social service system. The headlines are clear: we're not done with this madness and December 31, 2020 will not magically be the "end of it". Earlier in the year, our family thought about whether we might be able to travel at this time. We thought that maybe the curve would be flat enough that we could take a few days away from home during the Christmas holidays. We realized that the pandemic would still be happening, but with the right protections and with prolific mask usage, we could get a much-needed change of scenery. During what is now (clearly) a delusional thought process, we booked a stay in Gatlinburg, Tennessee for the week of December 19th. Spoiler alert: we canceled the trip almost two weeks ago. Canceling this trip was not a tragedy. In fact, I ...

I See What You Meme

Search This Blog