When I reflect back over the past year, I prefer to focus on the positive. Despite the craziness and the sea change that has been everyone’s life, there were still good things that happened. I’ve been able to keep up running on a regular basis. Josh and I are working on our overall adoption strategy and have chosen an agency, Open Adoption and Family Services. We’ve also been doing quite a bit of home projects to prepare to sell our house in January. But Connor is still the star and one of the strongest positives has been getting to spend more time with him.
In March, before COVID really heated up, we spent a long weekend at the coast with our knitter friends. I’m so grateful we went, especially considering how isolated our lives became for the rest of the year. Nothing eventful happened, but it was wonderful to take walks, let Connor explore the ocean, play some games and puzzles, and knit.
We managed to do some camping, three and a half times over the summer. The ‘half’ time was during a particularly rainy weekend when we decided tent camping would not work for Connor. Instead we rented a studio airbnb in the woods that had no kitchen. Since we were able to cook outside on our camp stove despite the weather, it worked out pretty well.
Camping with Connor has been a learning experience to say the least. The first trip was simply awful; I won’t linger on it. After the third time we had gotten the hang of most things, so I’m hopeful for next year. He loves the hammock; he loves going down to look at the stream to search for frogs and try and touch the flowing water. The crackling fire scared him at first, but it didn’t take long for his excited, drawn-out “ooooh’s” to start every time the fire popped. After a few pops, he was constantly asking for “more”.
We also made the trip to Indianapolis to see my sisters and my dad. It was stressful and hectic corralling a toddler on an airplane during COVID. But I still think it was worth it, and no one ended up getting sick. So maybe next summer things will be calmed down enough to go again.
Happy holidays to you all, and best wishes for the new year! It’s got to be a better one, right?
Water Ouzel 
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