Friday Friend or Family Feature...

will return next week.

I'd like to re post something my Mother-in-law wrote when we first told her about our adoption plans. The 'ranch' that she is speaking of, is the land that Steven and Mark are gazing upon in Tuesday's picture. Here is what she wrote this past winter...


I have told only a few real close friends, and they are happy along
with us. But mostly I was happy past weekend up on the ranch. Sitting
under a starry sky, with coyotes singing in the distance, and the wind
moaning in the Junipers, and a myriad of stars blanketing my most
favorite place on earth, I thought of my grandchildren. Are they born
yet? Who are they? - I sent good thoughts along the Milky Way to
Ethiopia. I hope they are ok. Will it be important someday that I love
this lonely place because one or both of the children have known a
place like this? Or are they city dwellers, and I will have to wait to
give them a taste of this until they are older? No matter. Whatever
their needs - you (we?) will be able to provide for them. I feel
enormously strong, wide-shouldered, tough, and capable suddenly.



Did I mention that Chris got a boxcar and plunked it down out there? This has become her weekend getaway. Talk about extreme camping. The boxcar has no electricity and no running water.

When I asked her about a particularly cold weekend up there she said, "Well, my eyelids were frozen shut but it wasn't too bad."

Did I mention that this woman is tough?!