The many faces…

of a child named:

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I posted some photos of my youngest grandson for Wordless Wednesday last night and it has triggered images and memories of him all day. Both of my grandsons were adopted at birth from Guatemalan families. However, they were different families and so they are not biological brothers. Because of the red tape that goes with international adoptions, it was 6 months before Alex. the oldest, could be brought home, and 8 months before my daughter and son-in-law could fly to Guatemala to bring Joe home. Joseph was born with pneumonia because of the poor health of his birth mother. His first days were spent in a hospital while they administered medicines that saved his life, medicines which would not have been possible for the birth mother to procure or afford. After he came here it became evident before long that he had Aspergers. Although he is very low on the autism scale, he and his parents have faced challenges as he has grown. Joseph has many sides to his personality and it has rendered him a man of many faces, all of which tell you exactly what he’s feeling at the time and all of which can happen on the same day at the same event as you can see. I absolutely adore this child because he has such a loving personality, he’s incredibly funny which gets us both in trouble at times, he’s smart, he’s creative, and on and on the litany of his virtues goes. To know Joseph is to love him even when his bouts with his autism make it exacting to do so. Happy, sad, defiant, arrogant, impish or whatever, this is the Joseph that I adore.

**All photos taken by Natalie, AKA Mompie, at one of Joseph’s graduations.

Wordless Wednesday…

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**Some days more than others one just needs something special to warm his/her heart and make him/her smile. Today was one of those days for me. So tonight and for the next few Wordless Wednesdays I’m gonna share facess of my family for they always do those things for me. These are photos I took of my youngest grandson Joseph. He’s 15 now and no longer lives near enough for us to spend time with him every week like we once did, but whether near or far  the Joe Man can always make me smile.

You left a trace….

Ally Stardust's avatarAllysoAlly

“All you can depend on now is that
Sorrow will remain faithful to itself.
More than you, it knows its way
And will find the right time
To pull and pull the rope of grief
Until that coiled hill of tears
Has reduced to its last drop.”
― John O’DonohueTo Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

lapp around my feet

Even though I can’t see you,
you whisper in the trees.
The waves of longing lap my feet,
your laugh lingers on the breeze.
I won’t let days fly past,
that I don’t memorize your face,
from earthen wounds
beloved,
you left a trace…

For you are the wind
on the loveliest of days,
and you are the flowers
fluttering along the way….

You send the birds
and I sit a while;
you walk beside me on the longest mile….

And when tears flow,
you’re sorry for my loss,

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