Road trip

The boys and I just got back from a six-day road trip to Virginia and North Carolina. Highlights from the trip (I only have time for bullet points these days):

• Friday night dinner with a group of parent friends, who reassured me that I'm normal. Thank you!
• Seeing Buki again. It tears me up that she's not with us, but she's very happy and well taken care of where she is.
• Seeing the old house, the old park and the old neighbors again, all these images and experiences from our boys' first ten days in the U.S. now put into a proper mental space, aligned, connected. Closing that circle was good for all of us.
• The remarkable changes from then to now.
• Playing with our old across-the-street neighbors' kids. They would have been best buds if we'd stayed.
• Playing with a friend from Gondar, Ethiopia.
• Fish and frog and snake and turtle and deer with grandparents. Sigh... wish we could live in the country.
• Riding the bus and the elevators with Keith ("Keith silly! Keith scared!").
• Playing with friends from our old street in Virginia. They would have been best buds too, if we'd stayed.
• A last-minute visit to our friends from Burji in Washington DC.

It was a great trip!