Each year, we try to do something simple as a family. The first year, we took Ruby to a beautiful park in Santiago. The second year, we lit up the night.

 

 

This third year, it was Ryan’s idea. A trip to a nearby nursery to pick out a plant. I liked it instantly: retrieving something to care for, a little fresh air for our new home, and something we hadn’t done yet here. We chose Sunday so we could all go together to a place I’d found when H. and I had spent a cold morning amongst its many Christmas trees. Their lights had held her in such wonder.

This last day of May was warm, the sun on our shoulders and reflected in the pond.

 

 

Among hundreds of pots, we found a turquoise heart. This color always reminds me of Lorenzo.

 

Other hearts found us, too. Yellow also reminds me of him.

 

 

H. helped us pick out a plant.

 

 

It will bloom white and blue.

 

 

Here it is <3

 

 

How normal we must have looked, a young family perusing the grounds on a Sunday morning, stopping to consider this plant and then that. A dad strolling his daughter by a little waterfall she pointed to. A mom hoisting a ceramic pot onto her hip. We rarely see the real story. I suppose that’s why I keep telling ours to you.