Meeting Bella

I got to meet little Isabella yesterday. She is my co-worker's (Nicole) daughter, and she was recently adopted from Colombia. Nicole stopped by the office on her day off to pick up stuff for the conference's annual meeting (so actually she'll be working part of the day).

It was fun to see Max (Bella's brother) with his new sister. Max was adopted from Colombia, too, and he is now 3 years old. He loves his little sister and touches her face often and kisses her hands. Bella loves to smile and kick her legs.

This was a reminder to me of how fast our kids grow up. Yesterday Mark brought home the graduation card announcements from school--the big day is May 27. Mark your calendars also for Saturday, June 3--though this will not be Lorelei and Luke's wedding day (Gilmore Girls fans) it will instead by the day we are planning for Mark's graduation open house. For those who know Mark, watch your mail for invitations.

Yikes, this means I have only a little over a month to clean and plan for food! And this means I have only a little over a month before my baby boy will be finishing high school! High school! He is 18 years old and already making plans to get an apartment with friends. Well, at least we'll have Christina for a couple more years. And maybe more than that.

We'll just have to treasure the days they are home. Even though I sometimes wanted to sock people who told me when the kids were in their terrible twos, "Oh, enjoy these days--they grow up so fast!" I now realize they were right. So I'll try to treasure the "terrible" teens now. It's not always easy, but ya gotta hug 'em while you can.

And my kids are pretty huggable and really are pretty great. I'm thankful I learned the great art of hugging from my very huggable dad. There's nothin' like a good, well-timed, comfortable and meaningful hug. I have a feeling there will be a lot of hugging on May 27 and June 3.

Till next time,


Suzi