She's Home

This home functions best when all four of us are here. Today our fourth member, Sherry, came home.

Her homecoming was somewhat strange in how normal it felt. She was away for more than two weeks, and I thought that her arrival home would feel weird (but in a great way) as we reunited. Her arrival was good, but it seemed much more natural than it did weird. The evening had the feel of an evening in which a puzzle was just completed after several weeks of work toward its completion. Perhaps that's not the most eloquent simile, but it'll do for now.

Caroline has adorned two of the animals Sherry brought home for her with fabric her grandmother gave.

A random picture of Ernie. He looks sad, but I think he's really just bored. 

Altogether, the two and a half weeks without Sherry moved by more quickly and with less trouble than I expected. I relied on the help of many good friends and a great babysitter. Family, of course, helped too. The kids and I only ate at home on two or three occasions for dinner, and for that I'm grateful for friends' and family's help. Breakfast without Mom and lunch without Mom are okay: in the summer we're used to that. But dinner with her seat empty is terribly lonely. It's funny, though, that now with her home the memories of what we did the first few days after her departure are rather distant and foggy.

We're very glad she's back.

Postscript: I took no photos of Sherry's reunion with us. After all, she was in transit for 28 hours when we picked her up. Oh, and the kids haven't bathed since Wednesday. None of us were fit for photography.