Darla's Mom

There is a chunk of my childhood memories involving people I still communicate with today.

Those elementary school days were stressful, I had extra stress surrounding my adoption, but I remember the generic stress like it was yesterday.

The terror of losing a library book:flop sweat, prayers to God, wishing I had magic powers to make the item appear and wondering how I could be so stupid as to have completely forgotten the moments of my life when I had the book in hand.

3rd grade multiplication tests. Those buggers were timed. In my head a giant board lit with the number of seconds count get down and I could barely see my paper.

Trying to find  time to work on Brownie badges, practice the piano, remember to go to piano and not forget which days I had baseball or band practice. (I was/am/ever will be a horrid athlete).

But

In between the family and personal drama, the impossible schoolwork, social posturing, lost books and more…. there were my friends.

I had magic afternoons at Jennifer’s home in her play room or running through her sprinklers. Badminton in the street with the Quigley’s (who were also with me as I attended my first pro basketball game ) and watching their home-made films was better than pixie dust. Doug had a full blown race car set up – permanently set up! My friends and their folks would hike to Sturtevant Falls and go camping at the beach or just in my back yard. Every little adventure was magic.

And sometimes we would go to Disneyland.

I’ve spent the  last 2 days at Disneyland with my friends, adult and child. The best moments were watching Darla with these same friends. She is only 3 years old, but her memories are pretty crisp about events from 2013 – so maybe she will remember these trips or maybe she won’t be able to build long term memories until she is older.

I’m here to tell you that being older, and having these great memories, drives me to occasionally bump out of my rut and embark on a mini adventure for Darla -so she can have these kinds of life defining experiences to carry her through what is coming : more lost books, boyfriends, cliques, picking a major, finding a job, moving out and on her own.

I’m up and writing this because both of the girls are snoring on separate beds and there is no room for me to sleep!