Hope called me on Saturday night. Have I mentioned that I adore this kid?  She told me that she was creating some artwork for me.  My creative, right-brained girl said she wanted to make me something, and in that moment I learned another life lesson about generosity and grace.   During our conversation on Saturday I started to get a better sense of how few/little material things she’s had over her young life, how financial instability has followed her and yet Hope still has this spirit of heartfelt giving.  I’m so honored that she wants to create something just for me.

We are both counting the days until we meet in person.  We are now down until 10 days, and it seems like an eternity.

In the meantime, I’m nearly done with the analysis from the first phase of my dissertation, and phase two is coming together surprisingly well.  Writing…there’s lots of interviewing and writing these days.

And there’s decorating!!  Hope gave me a list of her favorite colors and asked if she could have a pink room with purple polka dots.  Sure, that sounds fun!  Team ABM is on it!  My girl likes blue, pink, purple, and florescent yellow. So, this weekend my mom (Grammy), my aunt and I trucked up to the local Ikea to look around, get some ideas and purchase a desk for Hope’s room.  The desk is such a fantastic find and will be a lovely pop of yellow in a corner of her room; let us not forget a matching chair!

I’m making her a “look book” to flip through during my visit.  She can pick out things for her room so I can get a better sense of what she likes and give her some say in what the final product will be.

My Amazon delivery of the Inkheart trilogy arrived today.  I love that the teen set loves to read all this great literature, but seriously when did teen books regularly get to be more than 500 pages?  As a fairly concise writer, I’m convinced that there must be unnecessary detail, dialogue and just…words…in these books to drag them out that long!  I am hoping to get the first book read by next week and to study the online synopsis for book two before I see Hope next week.  I’m traveling for work this week, so I’m hoping to get some reading done on all the planes, trains and automobiles!

Just 10 more days!