While all the controversy was swirling around Sandra these past few weeks, I have been spotty in my blogging and certainly not controversial. Not that I can’t be … it’s just that most of my energy has gone towards getting through the day. I’m still not 100% well. I called the doc today about my productive cough and general inability to completely shake this whatever-it-is. Hopefully I’ll be operating at full throttle here shortly—thanks for your patience!

We did manage... more

Stephanie is a waitress this summer, at the same restaurant she has worked at in Illinois and even Minnesota, where she is in college. It’s a chain, if you haven’t figured that out …

Kyle also waited tables, as did my husband (in college) and I, in high school and college. In fact, I worked at … are you ready? … Farrell’s fantastic fabulous fountain of fun! Just for jollies, I Googled it tonight, and was surprised to find it is making a comeback. I guess some old things still... more

Beth has swim practice three to four nights a week. The location of her practices just changed for the summer … they are at a high school further north. As we were driving there tonight, I wondered out loud about whether there were some other families we could carpool with …

Beth informed me she isn’t comfortable in other people’s cars. “I guess I still have some trust issues!” she said.

When she first brought this up early in the conversation, I said she would probably be fine if she rode a few times with the... more

I have been sick since returning from Colorado. I don’t do sick well … I have way too much to do. But I spent all day yesterday in bed reading a book that was recommended to me by a family I met at Memorial Day weekend Family camp. The book was a NY best seller titled The Memory Keeper’s Daughter. Seems I’m reading lots about other peoples’ daughters these days, having just read ... more

A couple of weeks ago I submitted a story for inclusion in a Chicken Soup book. The book is Chicken Soup for the Adopted Soul and I suggested to Beth that she submit something as well.

Just as we were leaving for our vacation last week (while I was frantically packing and making arrangements for a boatload of pets) Beth sat down at the computer and cranked out an “article”. Here are excerpts from what she wrote:

Adoption can be easy to understand or... more

I mentioned in this post about meeting "Mary", a most delightful adult adoptee, on my cowgirl weekend in April. As we were riding our horses past the mare and foal pasture, the conversation turned to adoption. Turns out she was adopted as an infant. And it also turns out she has attachment and/or trust issues that are impacting her ability to form healthy attachments as an adult.

I was pleased to be able to see her again on our most recent trip to Colorado.... more

After driving all day, we returned Thursday evening from Colorado. It was 34 degrees, windy and very winter-like when we left in the morning. It was 88 degrees driving across the prairie.

I just had to share these chipmunk pictures with you. This is a tradition in my family. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say this is a tradition for me … I have loved photography for years and I always take the kids to ride a tram to the top of this mountain in Estes and feed the chipmunks. If you go in July, the critters are so fat... more

I had another post nearly written for tonight. But I have to switch gears. My head is spinning and I have to share this with you.

While we were in Colorado last week, I heard on Colorado news, way up in Estes Park, something about a Kansas girl that was abducted from a Target store in broad daylight last Saturday night. She had graduated from high school two weeks ago. The Target store is in a very nice part of town in this very nice community.... more

In this post I mentioned the fact that Deb Hannah’s daughter framed her time in college by the events surrounding her troubled adoptive siblings. She started college at the peak of a family crisis, and graduated the day after the last of five troubled children left the family. The fact that Deb’s healthy children’s lives were so affected by the unhealthy children is one of... more

Last October I received a book in the mail, and because I had just moved for the second time that year, and because my life was upside down, I put the book on a shelf and forgot about it. That is, until Cindy Bodie blogged about it and I just had to read it. So I did, and then I blogged about it.

The book is An Unlit Path by Deborah Hannah. Those of you interested... more