I’m here in gorgeous Flagstaff, AZ now. I’m up at a ludicrous hour, so maybe I’ll see the sunrise over the moutains. My luggage came to Lisa’s house on Wednesday night and on Thursday afternoon I flew down here. Eric headed home. So, I got to wear jammies the last two nights and wear mascara; and best of all, I’ve been distributing the treasured books to all my siblings. So, all’s well that ends well.

Wednesday was a great day. I don’t have a card reader here, so I’ll have to put up pictures later, but suffice it to say that there are events which focus all the effort of mothering into a single moment, like light through a prism, and you are blessed to see that it was all worth it-what seems sometimes like just plain, colorless, hard work is revealed instead to have yielded a full-spectrumed, miraculous, separate, beautiful human being. You have the knowledge confirmed in your mind that your efforts, while imperfect, were enough. I like the word enough. We all need to remember to feel that when it happens, and I’m grateful for this moment to remind me. While I’ve had many tender emotions this week, and certainly I’ll miss having Johnathan around, I’m not pining for him. It is a good tenderness-sort of like being sore after a good workout. After we focused on Johnathan in the morning, we got to spend the afternoon and evening with Jeff. That was great-he is becoming a good man. We had such fun. He is thriving in the school environment. Watch for photos of his fabulous college abode. Fun times…

Yesterday, we were going to take our photo safari through the mountains, but Eric got sick. He spent the morning in bed and I hung out with Lisa’s 4-year old, took a few photos from their yard, then we took off for the airport. The schedule got us there about 2.5 hours early, so our big romantic moment of the trip was sitting next to each other in the airport for that time and chatting. We got on different planes at the same time and off we went-me south and him east. Luckily, by the time he got to Chicago, he was feeling better. He’s home now and all seems to be well there. Thanks go out from deep in my heart to all the angels that watched over my kids.

Today we’re on to wedding festivities. Ryan and his lovely bride have planned a fun, casual celebration, with a family picnic this afternoon, a reception tonight (yes, before the wedding-apparently that is a new trend), then down to the valley tomorrow for the wedding. After the ceremony there will be another casual family gathering at a restaurant, then R & M are off on their new life together. I like that it is a low-stress operation for all involved. No bridezillas, groomzillas or parentzillas here, so it should be really enjoyable.