Missing Pieces

Running a lodge is sometimes filling in the gaps, cleaning up the details, getting done what needs to be done amid a large number of people having a vacation.  I frequently try to account for my time at the end of the day - I am not sure what I did, but I was busy.  After the 100th day without a day off, the glitter flakes away.


When I have had enough and I get up wondering why I am groundhogging another day, something touches my heart and helps me recall the reasons.  This was one of those times....







As I was having my morning tea, before I had a shower - at least I was properly dressed, a woman and her significant other, came into the game room.  Running through the mental catalog of current guests, I drew a blank.

"Can I help you?"  (translation - what are you doing here? (disturbing my tea time))
"Oh, Hi."  pause  "We stayed here a few years back.  There was a puzzle we put together.  The picture was of a boy and girl, there were a few pieces missing."
Oh, I hope we didn't pitch it.

"I have been looking for the picture everywhere.  I haven't been able to find it."

The significant other finished her explanation.  "Ten days after we were here, her father was killed in an accident."  "Outside the hospital room was this same picture.  We had never seen it before putting the puzzle together.  But there it was, hanging outside his room."

She continued, "I have been looking for picture ever since.  It was a comfort to me to see that memory of being together just a few days before..."

I began rummaging around the shelves where we keep games and puzzles.  They were a scrambled mess, precariously balanced on top of each other.  She reached below me and pulled it out.  It went to its new home.

That the lodge was part of some bigger picture, this memory was one of comfort at a time of loss - it touched my heart. 

From the Heart.......

They came to their families through Adoption

The theme last week seemed to be families who had added members of the family through adoption.  
   * Three children came to one family.  Two of the children, sisters aged 18 months and 5 years old,  were from a third-world country.  The third child came to the family as a healthy infant.
   * Two children, at infancy, blessed another family, who could not have biological children. 
   * One family took a call, while they were here, regarding the potential adoption of two siblings (ages 5 and 8, if I recall correctly).
   * I am from a family who added a four-year-old to our family back in 1966.  He is now in his 50s with a child of his own.
   * With her husband, a member of our cleaning staff, "E", have become legal guardians of a brother and sister who live in our area.  Their grandfather, who has been their parent and legal guardian for years is in hospice care and dying.  "E" and her husband and three children,  feel called upon to expand their family to include the two children (aged 13 and 9), so that they have continuity, stability and family in their lives.
   * This week, a family who adopted a sibling's son, when he was 14, are staying with us.  This child, in his 30s now, has become a successful professional, as well as a person of integrity.

One of the parents and I had a campfire talk, about adding older children (not babies) to families.  Adding a family member whom is not an infant, whom already has a history, is difficult for everyone - adoptive parents, adoptive siblings and the member who comes to the family through adoption.  The parent said to me "it must have been difficult for you" (I was six when my brother, age 4 and weight 24 lbs, came into our family).  "It was."  "But it shapes you.  It has made me a more understanding and compassionate person, I believe." "I can see that in my 17-year old son - he has come a long way.  Now he is protective of his sister, who is cognitively impaired."  "Nonetheless, it has been difficult for him."


image copied from:
http://skinnerlawfirmpa.com/adoption-lawyer/

My thoughts are with adoptive families, all the members, whether firmly rooted or in the entry process, or in the "in-between" sometimes long-distance gray area.  The stresses, strains and personal growth which comes through this process are not for the faint of heart. 

Adoption changes all members of the family. 

Kudos to all!

From the Heart...

One of the benefits of being the lady of the lodge, is that I experience heart-warming stories.  Sometimes these stories are experienced in the moment at Delta Lodge.  Sometimes these stories are shared by others with me.  I hope you find a story that reaches you.....