Adopting Fatherhood

A year ago, we received a call that my mother-in-law was taken to the hospital. This time was different from the other phone calls we had received notifying us of another trip to the hospital for Rosa. The tone of voice my sister-in-law had was different. The circumstances were different too, she had stopped breathing for an undetermined amount of time and had not regained consciousness since being revived. We called our employers, threw a few days worth of clothes in the the car, begged a friend to watch our dog Barney and hit the road for Tampa. The drive itself was unusual too, terrible weather had us crawling through Tennessee and caused us to spend an extra night in a hotel. Although we made it to Tampa safely, we know when we arrived that Rosa would not recover. It was the start of an incredible year for my little family. I made a point to see my grandmother when we were in Florida because she spent her winters in Port Charlotte, a little over an hour drive south of where...

Forget the fact that this August in Michigan's Upper Peninsula was colder than usual, or that we ended up spending way too much time in the car on our UP adventure. The Kid loves camping, and most importantly, loves Tahquamenon Falls. Gladys and I bought a book for her on the trip called Get the Moose Out Of Life  from a cute little bakery with great pasties called the Berry Patch . The Kid and I were reading the book a few weeks later, and she grabbed the book out of my hands so she could turn the pages. Her reasoning? The book was older than "Khamenon Falls" and she was the only person who would treat it with sufficient care. Since that day, if she really wants something, she'll declare it's older than Khamenon Falls as her justification. Just a few days ago, as we were moving our camping gear into the basement of our new house, she asked what we were moving. When she found out it was our camping gear, she declared she loved camping and wanted to go back...