These Are My People

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 Every year in honor of the memory of my brother, Mike, we take a trip to the Cameron Park Zoo to celebrate his birthday. It is a great way for us to enjoy life like he did and focus on loving each other. It is also neat to watch my girls grow up in these butterfly photo ops. 
 Denbigh Cherry is a fun dad. He will don a bow, pink superhero cape, and matching pony tails with his girls. He won't even really mind that I am telling you that. He will wear Barbie bandaids and pose in butterflies when his girls ask him to.
 Here's my mama and my stepdad. Sorry for the solar flare in your photo, mom. Your hair looks real nice. My mama always says, "the bigger the hair, the closer to Jesus.
 Here's my Yaya!
 Miss Chayah wasn't totally sold on this slide, but she pulled up her figurative boot straps and slid on down.
 This is one of our favorite places at the zoo.
 Dori lives here.
 This has nothing to do with anything, but I stared at this for several minutes. I thought the patina on this log was gorgeous. Art people problems and such.
 We conclude our lovely day by eating a whole mess of shrimp and releasing some balloons and saying a little prayer of thanks to God.
 These tiny people have brought a whole lot of healing to me and my mama. I am very thankful for them. Each day I calculate in at least three hours for serious snuggles. Reading books and jumping on the trampoline. It is wonderful. Of course, having a two-year-old can make you develop an eye twitch, but they more than make up for it with the grace and love that they show to me. My brother was only able to meet Lulu and he loved her. I am thankful that through all of the pain and grief of loss that we have been gifted these girls. Keep celebrating life, dear friends.

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