Bright Flames

So, a week ago last Sunday night after dinner we packed our clan into the van. Our van is a '94 GMC Starcraft with a thick rug and track lighting on the ceiling. The back bench seat folds out into a bed(!). We took the kids camping in it a year ago. For last Sunday's expedition we gathered our family and two of our college student boarders, Megan and Catherine. After a 15 minute drive we parked in the lot at Lake Padden and then led our tribe on a clockwise walk 2.6 miles around the lake. As I huffed up a tiny hill on the south shore I thought of Kamil. I thought of how we could do this with him next summer. Maybe modify one of those jogging baby stroller trikes - but with a seat that could fit an eight year old boy? I'd talked with my friend Bruce Freisen about helping me design and weld a gizmo like this out of aluminum tubing. He and I spend quite a bit of time discussing the design of contraptions. Bruce turned his canoe into a sail boat a while back! For me, pushing Kamil in the trike around the lake would not only be a cardio but an upper body workout as well.... As if I know anything about working out...
  
I wonder whether Kamil has traveled a walking trail through an old, tall forest, or been to the shore of a beautiful, tree ringed lake. I wonder if he's ever tried floating in a warm pool, or fishing next to a cold river and then sitting around a campfire after sunset throwing Cheetos onto the embers and watching the orange grease curls flame up. SamSam and I burned Doritos in the campfire a few weekends ago. Such bright flames.

I wonder what questions Aneta will ask. In her photos and the video she seems so bright-eyed. SamSam is full of questions all the time. Or maybe she is a "watcher" like Lidia. I expect that Aneta will spend quite a bit of time running around the yard with SamSam and Lidia. SamSam will have another partner for T-ball, soccer and badmitton. Will Aneta enjoy playing with tiny Polly Pocket dolls as much a Lidia does? Will she become a bookworm like Lidia? Will she want to learn to play the now silent, century-old piano that stands in our living room?

Tomorrow I start my second week teaching two nights a week during summer term at the college. So far I've spent some of my summer days partitioning our large upstairs bedroom into two 100 square foot rooms. I took out a large interior window, built two closet nooks and a wall - and modified and installed an old reclaimed door (with a transom window on top!). The electrician has finished the rough-in wiring. On Tuesday I hope to start mudding the wallboard, and then we can paint by the weekend. We're doing this to make room for Kamil and Aneta. We plan to put a bunkbed into the third bedroom downstairs where our student boarders have stayed. That room is where we hope to have SamSam and Kamil share a room. Lidia and Aneta will share the downstairs room next to ours that SamSam has shared with Lidia. The large upstairs room, after partitioning, will house two of our student boarders. 

A family in the middle of the adoption process shares  many things with one that is expecting a baby to be born. We ponder and we nest. That's what been going on lately. 

-Victor
PS: In the past week, Carina has been filling out multiple long applications for grants to fund our adotion. She still has several more to complete....