Outdoorsy

I did promise to devote a segment to my daughter, Ariel, as I did my son. My daughter, who just recently turned 8 yrs. old, has spent the entire summer in Florida. Though she was extremely ready to go when the time came she is now very ready to return home. I am very ready for her to return as well. She goes away every summer and has done so ever since she was about 3 yrs. old, and I still don't think I can say that I am completely at ease with it. I absolutely hate her to be away from me for so long. I miss her deeply and can't stand to hear her broken voice say, "Mama, I'm ready to come home." It has been the arrangement of I and her father that she will spend her summers with him since she doesn't have much time during the school year to spend significant time with him. However, my heart gets in the way of the logic of the situation. I have often wondered do fathers harbor the same attachment to their children as women do? Perhaps I am wrong to assume that all women feel "attached." I can, thus, only speak for myself. I am very attached to my children and feel that they are the best thing that ever happened to me. They each have the ability to elicit a genuine happiness from me somewhere deep down within. Though my daughter, at times, is disobedient, very talkative, and acts like me, to my dismay, she by far has to be one of the sweetest children I have met. Perhaps all mothers say that about their children, but that makes it just as important for me to say it as well. My children are the candy of my life. Just having them in my life, makes it the sweetest thing. I will be going to get my daughter from Florida this weekend and when I finally see her, I will run up and hug her and kiss her. Perhaps that will give her just a tiny glimpse of what she means to me.



Here are my two children, Ariel and Ayden.