Isabella is Here!

  
  In the middle of the night I got to welcome my newest granddaughter, Isabella Ann, into the world.  Kelly made childbirth look amazingly easy and Eugene is already the perfect daddy! 
  She is beautiful and sweet and I love her completely.  

Beaten Path

  I'm trying not to get discouraged but I've been down this path before.  Adopting kids from hard places means that they sometimes bring the bangs and bruises from those places with them.  And you can't see the hurts - just the outward anger and sadness that they cause.  Most of the kids let you love them and they heal little by little.  
  But not all.  And here I am again feeling hopeless and tired.  Maybe this time when I look down the path there will be a glimpse of sunlight.  Maybe this time we won't get lost in the woods.

Time Off

  Back at home and the boys are doing what boys do when time is endless....lazy days at the river, not catching any fish, but then again, who cares?  It's all about what you don't have to do.  I like to watch them and let the calendar in my head float away with extravagance of summer.

One More Sand Castle

  Just another day or two at the beach and then we all head home.  Cousins growing up with the same memories of our time together


.....a  tiny perfect place in the middle of regular life.

Bat'er Up

  
  The kids have been anxiously waiting for Stephen to organize their favorite beach game - softball.  Everyone can play - no matter that you're only 2- but Stephen doesn't bend the rules for any one.  If you strike three times you're out, even if you're cute and you cry.  The sand was super hot, which kept everyone moving around the bases and everyone cooled their feet in the ocean when the game ended.

"We're Here!"

  
  The beach scene has taken a serious commotion up- surge and I couldn't be happier.  The adult kids - the good ones that have reproduced - have all arrived and brought with them some of my favorite people in the world...grandkids.  The kids got busy digging holes, jumping waves and being cute.

A Girl Needs a Hat

  Yesterday afternoon we visited Roanoke Island, famous as the birthplace of the first English child born in America - little Miss Virginia Dare.  The history was almost as interesting as the window shopping where Grace, AnnaClaire and Emma found some big hats to try on.  I bought a new book for beach reading and the boys were excited to find some "real shark fossils inside a mud egg and the teeth glow in the dark!"   History at it's finest.