There is Always a Reason

***
Yes, there's always a reason...


We came here for Joel. We came here knowing we would only see him for 2-3 hours on the days that he worked because 2-3 hours each day is much more than zero hours. We came here mostly for Gracie because as anyone knows two years is a great deal more unfathomable to a six year old than it is to a teenager or adult. And really, a six year old needs her dad just as much as a dad needs his six year old. (Think of all the changes and growth between five and seven years of age!)


As I've said, we are grateful for time spent with our significantly missed member of our family; but in an interesting twist of fate, it turns out that since Nate has been gone, Grace is not spending nearly as much time with Joel as we had planned. When Nathan left we were all initially devastated, and Gracie expressed it the most. Happily, she also bounced back the quickest because of her rapidly developing friendship with her newfound chums downstairs, nine year old, Domonic and his three year old sister, Kaydence. Nathan's departure was the catalyst for our six year old Gracie to plop herself comfortably right into their lives and they've been nearly inseparable ever since.


Accepting that Grace, being a mature child, loves Kaydence in more of a little-sisterly way, even though they are almost always, all three, together after school, it is Domonic who is truly Gracie's best bud here in Arizona. It is Dom whom she consideres her equal, and in most ways, I think he feels the same way about Grace.


Dom and Gracie. Gracie and Dom.


And here's the sweet irony:


On some nights that Joel works, Grace may only see her dad for maybe 20 minutes out of a whole day. On those days, she is with Dom and Kaydence either outside, or in their apartment, or frisbee golfing with their family down the road. On other days they are at our place, but do you think they're interested in playing with Joel when they're together? Nope. It's still Dom and Gracie/Gracie and Dom. (Kaydence tends to hang out with Joel and me when she's at our place; she cracks us up with the words that come out of her teeny-tiny mouth. {She is an itty-Bitty girl with an itty-Bitty voice!})

This is all good because besides the obvious similarities that Dom and Grace share: a love for learning but not of sitting still to learn, their love of talking, their love of talking and telling each other and everyone everything they know, and (unique from his sister, Kaydence) Dom and Gracie have loss in common. They've repeatedly had to deal with it at an early age; but whereas we know Grace's feelings of loss will mostly be temporary, Dom's have so far been more lasting. We hope to make our leaving less traumatic for him by exchanging full names and addresses so that they can continue their friendship as pen-pals, but until then, Joel and I are happy for this ironic twist in the tale of our Arizona adventure together. Our daughter's friendship is shining light through, and filling up some of the holes in Dom's young heart and he is doing the same for her. I'm so glad life doesn't always turn out as we'd planned.
***