NOT WITHOUT YOUR BROTHER

The girls walked to my place after school, bursting in through the garage door as usual. 'Where is Sage?' I asked.

'I don't know', Saffron shrugged her shoulders matter-of-factly.

'What does that mean?' I continued my interrogation. Before I called their father to ask whether Sage got on the bus to his place, I had a stern talk with the girls about not leaving school without their brother.

At the same time I called their father the school called to let me know my son was still at school. Though I told them it was fine that he walked the two blocks to my place alone, I should have had his sisters go get him.

After all of the excitement of another almost-lost incident, the three sat outside and enjoyed a rare treat of Haagen-Dazs ice cream. Vanilla bean and mint chip in a cone. I opted for a blended berry banana smoothie.

Their excess energy they burned afterwards by running on the freshly cut backyard lawn. In the meantime, I put on a pot of water on the stove for rice with beans as the three informed me they were 'starving'. They played tag and ran around until it was time for dinner.

Once dinner was finished, the children went their separate ways. Sage sat downstairs and worked on math again, Cinnamon worked on her spelling homework, and Saffron worked on a drawing.

Somewhere in the midst of the activities of the evening, my boyfriend and I managed to find time to see each other on Skype and catch up on the happenings of the day. We both agreed that the coming months will hold both great change and challenge for us as we make plans for our future together.

Though the light at the end of the tunnel is at times difficult for us to see, the wait is worth the time spent in order to reap the rewards of a brighter future.