Last weekend I scooted up to Maine to join Dad and Mary for a couple days of their camping trip at Scott's Cove. Their site overlooked a lovely small lake.
I arrived on Friday night and enjoyed a great dinner and campfire with them and our family friends Roy and Claire. The next morning, the sunrise awoke me and the lake was completely still and grinning (lakes grin) like we shared a secret. There wasn't a human sound in the campground. Only birdsong, including the calls of the loon echoing from the part of the lake that wasn't visible due to a stretch of land blocking it. I untied the canoe and went out along the fringes of the lake, exploring the pseudo-mucky shallow edges until I reached about halfway across the lake, eyes peeled for turtles. I never saw a turtle, but many dragonflies settled on the sides of the canoe to hitchhike and rest a bit. Can you get any cooler than a dragonfly? A barely perceptible breeze had begun to ripple the water and I decided to lift the paddle out of the water and see what the boat decided to do. Sure enough, it had its own slow but perfect agenda. It turned toward the center of the lake and and just drifted and I closed my eyes to that perfect-summer-morning sun, feeling like a stretching Buddha-cat. Complete smiling contentment. THAT is what vacation is all about.
~Katrina
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
Fast forward
Boy! We've been quiet, eh?
Once we got on the waiting list, we turned our attention back on our the rest of our lives, which were admittedly very neglected! I rode the wave that is called the End of the School Year, and came out tired but satisfied with the progress my kids made. (The single non-reader in my room FINALLY, last week of school, discovered a series he loved and could not put down. THAT is success, my friends. This was the first year that every one of my kids got, at least one point in the year, addicted to at least one book. Woo-hoo!) Ryan's music has taken off and he is a gig-machine. He's been writing and performing his own stuff with a group called Field Trip, in addition to performing with his groups The Two-Timers and Innervisions. (Did I miss any, Ry?) I'm so flippin' proud of him. He's really cute when he plays too. As my brother Josh once noted upon seeing Ryan play in Salem, "Ryan's never gonna make it as a rock star. He's too happy!" Seriously, you should go hear him play sometime, if only to see him bounce around with that fun grin.
On the adoption front, the estimated wait time for getting our child/ren has increased from 12-18 months to 16-22 months. We need to take two trips now. And, partially as a result of the additional trip, our program fees increased rather substantially. Oy! Our quest for children is now three years in the making, and it admittedly gets very tiresome to get more roadblocks put in our way. Personally, I find that my heart is shutting down a bit and little on the family-building journey affects me now. I don't know if this is a self-protective thing or a good/bad thing ... I barely understand it myself. But I feel kind of numb to it all, which, odd as it sounds, is kind of a welcome change. That's probably not an inspiring thing to hear on a adoption blog, but this path always has unexpected surprises.
All that said, we're having a great summer and grow happier and more fulfilled with each passing month. We were reflecting the other day on our upcoming third anniversary and how hard we were hit after returning from our incredible wedding and honeymoon. The horrible losses and sicknesses of family members and friends, the immediate loss of our first child and the ensuing medical complications, procedures, and surgeries I had as a result of that first loss. All those vows we took were immediately tested and we both agreed that we came out pretty damned good. Not everyone could have survived that and had their relationship grow even stronger. The relative ease of this summer -- knock on wood -- has been an incredible boost. Drinking a cold gin and tonic while weeding the garden with my cat Kaci -- heaven! I'm officially patting ourselves on the back. (Me and Ryan, not me and Kaci...though she's done her part making us smile each day with her cute little vocalizations, so I guess I'll pat her back too. And of course Sergio's back, as he LOVES anyone patting his back.)
Here's to the simple pleasures of summer! May your heart skip a beat when you hear the ice cream truck come 'round...
~Katrina
Once we got on the waiting list, we turned our attention back on our the rest of our lives, which were admittedly very neglected! I rode the wave that is called the End of the School Year, and came out tired but satisfied with the progress my kids made. (The single non-reader in my room FINALLY, last week of school, discovered a series he loved and could not put down. THAT is success, my friends. This was the first year that every one of my kids got, at least one point in the year, addicted to at least one book. Woo-hoo!) Ryan's music has taken off and he is a gig-machine. He's been writing and performing his own stuff with a group called Field Trip, in addition to performing with his groups The Two-Timers and Innervisions. (Did I miss any, Ry?) I'm so flippin' proud of him. He's really cute when he plays too. As my brother Josh once noted upon seeing Ryan play in Salem, "Ryan's never gonna make it as a rock star. He's too happy!" Seriously, you should go hear him play sometime, if only to see him bounce around with that fun grin.
On the adoption front, the estimated wait time for getting our child/ren has increased from 12-18 months to 16-22 months. We need to take two trips now. And, partially as a result of the additional trip, our program fees increased rather substantially. Oy! Our quest for children is now three years in the making, and it admittedly gets very tiresome to get more roadblocks put in our way. Personally, I find that my heart is shutting down a bit and little on the family-building journey affects me now. I don't know if this is a self-protective thing or a good/bad thing ... I barely understand it myself. But I feel kind of numb to it all, which, odd as it sounds, is kind of a welcome change. That's probably not an inspiring thing to hear on a adoption blog, but this path always has unexpected surprises.
All that said, we're having a great summer and grow happier and more fulfilled with each passing month. We were reflecting the other day on our upcoming third anniversary and how hard we were hit after returning from our incredible wedding and honeymoon. The horrible losses and sicknesses of family members and friends, the immediate loss of our first child and the ensuing medical complications, procedures, and surgeries I had as a result of that first loss. All those vows we took were immediately tested and we both agreed that we came out pretty damned good. Not everyone could have survived that and had their relationship grow even stronger. The relative ease of this summer -- knock on wood -- has been an incredible boost. Drinking a cold gin and tonic while weeding the garden with my cat Kaci -- heaven! I'm officially patting ourselves on the back. (Me and Ryan, not me and Kaci...though she's done her part making us smile each day with her cute little vocalizations, so I guess I'll pat her back too. And of course Sergio's back, as he LOVES anyone patting his back.)
Here's to the simple pleasures of summer! May your heart skip a beat when you hear the ice cream truck come 'round...
~Katrina
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