These Summer Days...

I got to spend some time ALONE this week after Danny returned from a few days in Minnesota for work.  If only for a few hours, I let the stress and the pressures of life fall to my rear view and spent some time with my thoughts, my camera and of course some good music.  It's AMAZING what this kind of quiet can do for a person...it's realization that the world is so much bigger than the things that fill your day, a reminder that you're still "you," and a golden opportunity to hear God whisper through His creation. 

I breathed deeply.  Because I could. 

Here are a few shots from my wanderings...

Later we headed to Madison to watch Kofi play some soccer...it was Ghana vs. Liberia, and I think they brought the hot African sun to the game too because it was H-O-T!!!  It's exciting to watch them play with such skill and also exciting to be deeply engulfed in another culture right here in our own back yard.  To say we were the minority would be a major under-statement... a perspective I don't get to embrace enough in our little Midwestern town and one which brings understanding to my own child's experience...what a gift! 

We're so blessed to have Kofi in our family and in our home! 

Finally, we got to spend some time with my dad on the bike trail that runs through our state!  It's an old railway transformed into recreational trails and includes a long tunnel that the train used to run through!  The whole trip is like riding through a calendar because it's so beautiful.  You can really imagine those old trains chugging along the path and through the tunnel as you ride. 

The tunnel is so long, you can't even see the light on the other side when you first start in.  As you set in a ways, you start to see a hazy little opening which gradually grows and guides you through to the other side. 

Luca's still using training wheels, so we use this tag-along bike attachment for longer trips like this.  She later admitted that she was doing all the pedaling and Daddy was just relaxing in the front.  ;-)

Don't you just wonder what they talk about?? 

Of course our favorite part of the trip was spending the day with Dad.  He has plenty of things on his own plate and still takes the time to know and care for each one of us.  He's wisdom and humor in perfect harmony and probably hates that I'm gushing about how wonderful he is...but I can't help it.  I want to be him when (if) I grow up.  

:-) 

Multitude Monday!  I'm SO thankful for...

21.  summer prairie peppered with color and sounds I used to know. 

22.  finding rest where no one will find me.
23.  deep breaths. 

24.  my dad. 

25.  air conditioning! 

26.  days with no plans. 
27.  the understanding and beautiful heart of a 7 year old who never seems to notice her needs are less and often met later.   
28.  my baby snuggled in close, breathing deep to gather her mother's scent and resting deeper in comfort of it...the biology of adoption. 

29.  warmth of one stranger melting away the uncertainty of another.

30.  steadfast quest for light...in dark tunnels, by prairie flowers, and in quiet moments.