Ukraine Adoption

At the lake

Her little purses are filled with the things that she can gather: keys, a doll brush, tiny plastic fruit. A yellow Matchbox car, some pink lipstick, a tiny green ball. A small stuffed tiger, Dora band-aids, one piece of Trident orange gum from her brother's dresser.

So when I asked Tara to help me pack her suitcase for a weekend at a house on the lake, I should have known better. Before I knew it, her suitcase was filled. (She couldn't quite say it right, she kept calling it a "gooshcase" which made us laugh and beg her to say it again. She obliged, for a while,then she was on to us.) So in her suitcase: two blown up balloons, three stuffed animals...

OK on to the weekend. I took the kids and my niece and we drove three hours and stayed at my brother-in-law's family house on a lake. It amazes me how an internationally adopted child like Tara can adjust so easily to traveling and staying at unknown places. She acted right at home. What a great get-away for us! (Thanks Mike) We had lots of sun and a gigantic raft that held all four of us. Talk about bonding.

We laughed a lot, we slept a lot, we ate a lot, we played a lot. A great escape: We did a lot, and we did nothing.