Better than Paris

Danya took this photo of Daniel and I. She said it looked like one of those "Paris photos" where a couple is sitting next to a window with the city of Paris outside. Daniel and I used to talk and make "someday" plans about taking a trip to Europe, maybe for our 15th or 20th anniversary. I've always wanted to see Ireland and Italy. We even planned online how we'd travel by train from Paris to Rome. But the money always seems to be needed elsewhere.

The vehicles break down, plumbing or electrical problems spring up, the kids have endless needs, the schools come up with new things the kids MUST have, or we get new foster kids who arrive with so little and need so much. We realized that it just isn't important enough to us to live on nothing so that we can save every penny to take a one week trip. So in the mean time I'll remember this poem that I read in 2000, the year Danya was born, and has meant so much to me over the years:

"You are the trip I did not take; You are the pearls I cannot buy; You are my blue Italian lake; You are my piece of foreign sky."
-Anne Campbell

My children let me see the world around me with new eyes. They reawaken me to the wonder and possibilities in every day. Why marvel at what others have done long ago when I can be excited by what my children are doing each day?