Snapshots

It's been a very busy couple of weeks. I started my new job and am very excited about a couple of the projects I'm gearing up to do. For the first time in a long time, I don't feel like I'm trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Stay tuned for details. Here are some other snapshots.

Sprinkled amongst the work have been some other efforts. I did go to visit my mother---making the 18-hour roundtrip one last time while she is still with us. She continues to decline (both physically and mentally), but is not in any pain. In fact, the fantasy world that she continues to build around herself is very much a happy place. When I left the rest home last Sunday, there was this beautiful (double) rainbow waiting for me.


My new job arrangement permits me to telecommute one - two days per week. Friday was the first day doing this. Below is a picture of my new co-worker.



She was quite happy to snuggle behind the laptop...then check now and then to see if I was ready for a coffee break.

And yesterday, my aunt (birthmother's youngest sister) married. It is the only big event with the family I've ever been to. I went primarily because my mother cannot. My aunt (who is only 5 years older than I) has been especially devastated by my mother's illness. So, I went to the wedding not so much for myself, but rather as proxy for my mother. It was a bittersweet day, to be sure. It was also a bit odd---a variation on P.D. Eastman's Are You My Mother? as I tried to determine who I was actually related to. I met two cousins, one of them a blonde version of me, for the very first time. To be an adult adoptee can make one a stranger in a strange land when birthfamily is involved. I get stared at a lot as relatives look to find traces of my mother and others in the family. This is not to say that I am unwelcome or excluded. All evidence to the contrary as I sit with the rest of the bride's family at dinner and am asked to be in family photos. Whether or not I had the benefit of growing up in that environment, the end result is the same: I belong.


Today, I plan to get out and enjoy some sunshine...catch up on my reading...and hopefully get a few new posts added to the blog queue. Perhaps the random snapshots that have been making up my days can be stitched together to make sense of a bigger picture.