Dad's new chair

Check out Dad's new canopy chair!  As you can see, Dad goes nowhere without his trusted sudoku in hand. Cousin Mitch (Elgarico) came out from CA to support for a week, and we took Mom & Dad to do some crabbing at the pier in Keyport -- just 15 minutes from our Parlin home.  My brother- and sister-in-law, Ed & Wendy, joined us along with their kids, Ashley & Max. We didn't have much luck catching anything, but it made for a most relaxing Sunday morning at the bay.  No matter, we later headed to the local Vietnamese restaurant for a taste of sauteed soft shell crab. Yum!

The Embrace by Kathleen McElroy

(Cousin Kathleen and her son, Malachi, came up to support for a week in July. Pictured right:  Malachi hanging with Lelong Amante at Bayonne Park)

Embrace

Embrace

Blood vessels in his fingertips willed into magnets

Gravitate toward this child

His arms capture

A warm and soft nest of air

Fragile lap and chest

Dangle from the strongest arms in the world

Embrace

Embrace

waiting

waiting
at the airport
a scene from love actually
flashes across the terminal floor

i watch
my husband and i
walk out of the doors
exhausted from our adoptive journey of pregnant love

and in our arms
sleeps a year-old bundle

our family
waiting enthusiastically
to greet a new member of the tribe

overwhelmed
i long for
a child in waiting