These last few weeks have been crazy. So much has happened, and my energy and time left to write disappeared. Still, these past few weeks have had many highlights.

For starters, O ran the 5k cross country race at my high school with me. He finished in 36 minutes which I thought was remarkable for an 8 year old. He was saddened though when the youngest age group for the awards was expanded from 0-10 to 0-13. He lost out to three 13 year old boys. I told him not to worry because if he can finish the race at 8, just think how easy it will be for him after 5 more years. The accomplishment was finishing, something I struggled with after pulling my hamstring when I tripped on a tree root. Still, I pushed him to finish hard running right beside him. The injury just made running for the rest of the week out of the question.

Without running, I find my ability to focus goes to pot. I find it much harder to get the clarity I need to step back and look at how things work and how I work. My mind depends a lot on exercise.

So maybe it is no surprise that as I have resumed my normal routine of running, I come back to writing, if only to summarize the last few weeks. Of possible interest to some, I wrote the letter to Senator Ben Cardin on the impact of pharmaceutical spending and a suggestion to alleviate some of the problem.
A copy of the letter is here.

The best news came this past week as we were finally cleared to adopt K. She has been with us for most of her life, and soon she will share our name and be assured a place with our family. The lady interviewing me asked if she would be our last adoption. I told her we said yes to that question the last two times. So, no, we don’t intend to adopt again…at this time. However our control of future situations is as imperfect as our ability to see them clearly. This illusion of control of the future is still what allows us needed peace to enjoy the prospect of making K an official permanent member of the family.