A Cord of Three Strands

We have occasionally shared that one of the deepest pains of Katherine's stroke has been wondering how all of it would affect James. For the record, James seems to be doing wonderfully well. He has some areas of immaturity (ie. picky eating and bathroom fears) but so do all 4 year olds, I guess. More than just his personal development, we have also been hopeful that our ability to bond as a nuclear family of three would not be forever impeded by the months and years of "enlisting the village" to help raise our child.

Blessedly, a new era seems to be on the horizon. We've actually been living life more or less without a lot of extra help for the past few months, and it's been working. We've even tried to squeeze in a few mini-road trips with just the three of us, which have been the most lovely times we've had in quite a while. More than anything these little trips have been important times of bonding and real pictures of hope in our minds and our son's that we can be a family again.

Thanks to Groupon's wonderful deals, we have found our way back to James' favorite spot, the beach, which is where our version of the Wolf family began in Malibu, I guess. These little jaunts always seem to be coupled with the requisite bed bouncing, pillow fighting, dance partying, movie sleeping, breakfasting in bed, and dying laughing. Simple fun is surprisingly the most entertaining, for four year olds and thirty year olds alike.

We went down to San Diego for Father's Day and bravely rented a surrey for the three of us to ride around Balboa Park (think a golf cart made of two conjoined bicycles). It was actually Katherine's first time being on some semblance of a bike since her stroke (more shots from Instagram here and here). We covered some ground in that thing! What a true picture of family, and our particular family, where some of us can pedal harder than others and where some legs are barely long enough to reach the pedals (though their presence is still much appreciated), nonetheless we move forward based on our collective efforts and we experience this precious life together. Who knows if our three will ever be more than that in number, but for now, we are in awe of the gift of the interweaving of our three lives together.