Spain Dad, a baby blog

Dad and I climbed into his truck, rolled down the windows, and pulled out onto the highway headed towards town. Dad had invited me to ride along with him while he ran errands, which was something the two of us had been doing together since I was a kid. “How do you feel about turning [...]

Join Alleke on the farm as Grandpa shows her how to pick sweet corn.

“What’s this?” I asked, taking a letter out of Alleke’s backpack. I opened it and read the first few lines. “Alleke,” I said, looking up from the letter, “your class is taking a field trip to the farm.” Alleke clapped her hands and started her victory lap around the living room until Grandma caught her [...]

“Do you think she knows?” Grandma asked. All four of us sat at the table watching Alleke eat her cereal. “Should I tell her?” April asked. We all looked at each other. April cleared her throat. “Sweetie,” she said, “Grandma and Papa are going to get on an airplane tomorrow.” April paused. “We won’t get [...]

Cemetery where my grandpa was buried on Wednesday I walked down the steps of the church and across the lawn, passing through the scattered headstones to the plot of black dirt. My grandpa was buried here on Wednesday. The wind beat against me as I shivered and crossed my arms, marveling at how everything, including [...]

St Mary’s Church by roytsaplinjr. I spent Saturday afternoon in a tank top weed eating around tombstones in the cemetery where my grandmother is buried. The stones are scattered around a rural church, which sits like a schoolhouse on the corner where two highways cross, giving a handful of folks a reason to pull into [...]

April and I have always said the most difficult part about living abroad is being away from our families. Now that we have Alleke, even more so. It’s not just a matter of April and I maintaining our family relationships, it’s a matter of giving Alleke the opportunity to begin and grow them. Alleke helped [...]

I leaned forward and adjusted the camera so my parents could see Alleke playing with dominoes on the floor behind me. “Can you see her?” I asked, glancing at Alleke over my shoulder, then back at my parents sitting in their living room, across the ocean, framed by the small computer screen. “It looks like [...]

I pulled on some jeans and a t-shirt and left the bedroom. The light was on in the bathroom. My mother-in-law was brushing her teeth. I could hear my father-in-law rolling their last suitcase through the hallway to the front door. I helped them carry their bags down the flights of stairs to the front [...]