Mother’s Day, these past few years, has been bittersweet for me. I’ll celebrate the day by honoring my mother, Big Papa’s mother, my sister and close friends who are moms, yet mourn that I am not amongst them. This year the sting is especially keen because I was absolutely certain I would finally be a […]
Marriage
Gold, Frankinscence and Myrrh
Big Papa and I decided to turn the volume down on Christmas 2010. It’s the first year since we’ve been together that we’re not putting up a Christmas tree and the second time we’ve put the kibosh on presents to each other, save a few small treats in each other’s stockings. Two years ago we […]
The light of friendship
The light of friendship is like the light of phosphorus, seen plainest when all around is dark. ~Robert Crowell I was wracking my brain for something to write about when I read that Elizabeth Edwards had just died. It was only a few days ago that announcements of her “gravely ill” status began circulating in […]
Happy things
Eleven months ago, Big Papa and I started a new habit. Every night, before we go to sleep, we take turns and share a few “happy things” from our day. Then we offer an “appreciation,” something about each other that we are grateful for. I came up with this idea to counterbalance the frustration, fears […]
Memories of Thanksgiving feasts gone by
This past weekend, I made a recipe that got me to reminiscing about Thanksgiving dinners from years gone by. As a single gal for many years who lived 3,000 miles from her family, I got invited to a number of (as I liked to call them) “orphan feasts.” These were dinners where a family took […]
Hillsides covered in color
Growing up in central New York State, I got to experience fall at its finest. Come late September, first one tree and then another would start a spectacular transformation and put aside its summer dress for a fall cloak of color. Hues of yellow and gold, red and burgundy slowly appeared on trees up and […]
Pampers and Pakhlava interview featured in SixSeeds
Pampers and Pakhlava is one of a number of blogs featured in the November SixSeeds.tv in celebration of National Adoption Month, which takes place each November. National Adoption Month started in 1976, when Gov. Michael Dukakis announced an Adoption Week for Massachusetts, and President Gerald Ford proclaimed a national celebration of Adoption Week. In 1984, […]
Adopting ain’t what it used to be
Big Papa and I come from an extraordinarily adoption-friendly family. His mother adopted both of his siblings back in the 1950s. Big Papa’s sister, the oldest, was adopted internationally from Germany. I am still amazed that his mother got on a plane by herself and flew to a country we’d just gotten over a war […]
Home sweet home
This fall marks twenty-five years of Seattle living for Big Papa and I. I moved here after a three-year stint in the San Francisco Bay area, hitting the dusty trail to head north for a Ph.D. program at the University of Washington. Big Papa, a few years younger than me, was heading across country, from […]
As long as we both shall live
Weddings are momentous occasions. Two people begin their lives together. Sacred vows are shared before a community of loved ones and friends. A commitment is made to honor and care for one another for a lifetime: through sickness or health, for richer or poorer. Big Papa and I said our vows to each other merely […]