Lisa and Clara left tonight after staying with us for six days. I’m not sure who’s more exhausted, the girls or the moms. We started our time together with a trip to Colorado Springs to visit Lisa and Clara’s aunt and cousins. After spending some time with their family, Ava and I headed to our motel in Manitou Springs where we ate a sushi and ice cream dinner from Safeway. Ava declared it was her lucky night- staying in a cheap motel eating bad sushi and more ice cream than we usually allow is apparently all it takes to make her feel lucky.
The next day we came back to Boulder and prepared the girls for two days of Chinese Camp. They went for 6 hours on Sunday and 8 hours on Monday. Monday evening they performed for the parents demonstrating their Kung Fu skills and doing a Chinese hat dance. Lisa and I were pleasantly surprised that we didn’t receive a phone call telling us to come pick up our tired girls from camp. While they were at camp, we took our time shopping on the Pearl St. mall, went for a hike, drank coffee, and bought the girls surprises. We were so proud of our little campers.
On Tuesday, we took Lisa and Clara to our secret mountain stream where we like to wade in the cold, cold water, sail twig boats, and collect rocks. The place has a magical calming effect on me and by the time we got home, we were all ready for happy hour and a movie.
Mixed in between these big events we had plenty of great food, played hard, and thoroughly enjoyed each others’ company. Ava and Clara are a lot like sisters who get along well about 85-90% of the time. There are brief moments of competition for attention from the mommies and an occasional “accident” where one of them ends up with a small owie. Overall, they can’t get enough of each other and they are very sad when it comes time to say good-bye.
Lisa and I could talk for hours (and did) about parenting, spirituality, taking pictures, husbands (how wonderful they are, of course), pets, daily life, food, and the list goes on. Our time together is precious and I am so grateful to have them in our lives. Lisa and I often say that we had no idea adopting a child would include the blessing of such a beautiful friendship. Hopefully Clara and Ava will feel the same as they grow older.
