Heading back

 We are leaving today--going as far as Starr Valley.  Mark is going to meet us there and we will celebrate the 4th of July with our family there.

Eventually we will return home to Utah and if I still have plants alive, I will consider it a big win.

It has been so great to spend so much time with our precious QE and her parents.  Adam said that we've had a chance to be participants instead of viewers of their lives and it is true.  Braeden got sick, which is exactly what they didn't need.  He got a stomach bug of some description and so Adam and I may get it as well.  (Which may curtail our plans.)

Yesterday I went to the store to get gatorade and applesauce and bananas and peanut butter crackers for my boy.  I thought, what if we all get sick?

Then I thought of the lyrics of the Billy Joel song, Goodnight Saigon:  We said we'd all go down together.

We hadn't come this far to only come this far.

Anna had felt well enough to take QE to story time at the library (and it effectively wiped her out for the rest of the day).  I took care of Braeden and then helped give QE lunch and read to her before her nap.

I went back to the hotel and worked a little on my master's degree.  Remember that?  So much for me thinking I was going to have a boring summer, only working on my degree....

After her nap, Adam called it quits for his work day and we went and got QE.

We went to Walmart to get something for her dinner.

She said, "I yuv Walmart!" and "I have never been to Walmart before!"  (She absolutely has been to Walmart before, including that very one.  With us.)

We drew pictures and read stories and then when the sun wasn't quite as intense (thought it was over 110 degrees), we hit the pool.  Late afternoon was our pool time.  She was completely her adventurous, charming, opinionated self.  She is getting better and better at swimming.  She will purposefully put her face in the water and she loves to grab onto one of us and kick her little legs, knowing that will propel her.  She definitely has a survivor mindset.  She lunges herself into the water, never doubting she will be fine.

And we are always there to make sure she is.

I hope we will be for a long time.

We fed her pasta and grapes and blueberries and choc-o-late.  She pronounces each syllable very distinctly and it is my legacy that I introduced her to chocolate and ice cream.  We shared a cone and then we snuggled under the covers and I read to her before it was time to return her to home.

After we read a scripture verse and prayed with their little family and a few more stories were read to QE, we said good-bye to her.  I didn't want to do the morning good-bye again.  It ripped my heart out to have her crying as we left.  Maybe that is selfish of me, but there it is.

We cried and hugged and said our good-byes to our beloved Braeden and Anna.  They are both doing a lot better and I am grateful we were able to step in and help them a little.

We are bound together by covenants and love and that is the entire point of everything.