AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Thank you all for sharing in Harry and Dan's lives - it's been wonderful chronicling them. For those of you who want to know how the story goes from here on in, the rest of their tale can be found underneath the lj-cut below...

For those of you who might be interested in following the tale of another version of Draco Malfoy, and an entirely different Harry - there's a new roleplay project just beginning; information on that, and the names of the journals involved, can be found here.

And now, I present the rest of The Story of Dan Madison:

( the happily-ever-after is here )


Thank you all, again, for your attention and your support.

ms_semicolon and nessime_lisen

Well, we had a blissful, if exhausting, couple of days at Disneyworld. The girls were enthralled! And Hermione came away understanding, I think, how much of a family we are already. All around, a good time. Now we're busy-busy, shopping for things for the new house, getting everything ready...

I've been doing some thinking, and looking back over old journal entries, and I realize that there seems to be less and less for me to say every day, even as my life gets busier and busier. Life with my beloved and our girls (and Scotchy) is wonderful and fulfilling, but when it comes down to journaling, there's little left for me to say - and less time left to say it in. So I think... god, it's become such a habit these past months, it's hard to say it... but I think my journaling is coming to an end.

It's been wonderful sharing my world with all of you - thank you all for taking such an interest - and to everyone who's commented at various times, thank you for being a friend. Harry and I will always think of you fondly. Wish us luck! 'cause it's going to be one hell of a trip. :)

The sleepover at the house was a grand success. We ordered pizza, toasted marshmallows and had S'Mores for dessert, made popcorn, all the while talking about the house and what we'd do with it, how it was going to be once we were all moved in and settled. Woke up and went to IHOP for a hearty breakfast, then spent the day splashing around in the pool and the jacuzzi and soaking up the sunshine. Wonderful!

Now we're all back at the apartment, the girls and Hermione and Harry and me - and we've had the idea, as yet hidden from the girls, that tomorrow we're going to do something special for the holiday weekend. Namely, Floo down to Orlando and spend Sunday and Monday at Disneyworld. Sure, it'll be a madhouse, packed with vacationers, but so what? None of us have ever been there and it'll be a blast, I'm sure. And SOME hotel somewhere has to have a room we can rent for Sunday night. And spur-of-the-moment is sometimes the best type of fun there is.

By common agreement, we're going to watch Shrek again. Kim's putting it on the DVD player now. Harry's putting together a plate of snacks for us - though we're mostly still full from dinner - and it'll be a happy night of family togetherness. Feels good. :)

Shrek 3 was good, not as first as the first two though. Same for Pirates of the Caribbean 3. Had two lovely nights out with the various segments of my family - if I never eat "buttered" popcorn again, though, it'll be too soon!

The house is OURS. We signed the papers this morning and got the keys, went immediately to Walmart to buy the air mattresses and pool toys, marshmallows and Jiffy Pop which we'll be using for tonight's living-room sleepover. We'll have to go back, though, because guess who showed up without warning to pay us a visit? Hermione! So there'll be five of us sleeping on the floor instead of four. It's nice to have her here to share this with us - should be fun!

Gotta run - gotta finish packing the car for tonight. I just know we're gonna forget something we need. Strange how one simple night away can become so complicated, but there ya go! I'll tell you tomorrow how it all went.

Therapy today went well, I think. I went over some of the things on my mind, my concerns about raising two girls, stuff like that, and the doc was very receptive and helped me work a few things through. As for Kim, when I asked her how it went, she shrugged and said, "It was okay," which beats the hell out of It sucked or any such thing... so I count that as a resounding success.

Dinner shortly, and then to a showing of Shrek 3, all four of us. It'll make for a late night on a schoolnight - but tomorrow is the penultimate day of school anyway, so I think some leniency is in order. Anyway, it'll be a ton of fun. Lisha's all excited, bouncing in her seat; Kim, more relaxed, is still all smiles. And it makes me happy to see them so happy.

And there's Harry, putting dinner on the table. Time to go!

We have now all seen both Shrek movies. Good stuff! I'm looking forward to going to see the third one, now...

Harry and Lisha's therapy appointment was today. Neither said much about it, but I gather it went all right. Harry left me with potpies ready to be popped in the oven for dinner, so I had that ready when they got back. Spent the rest of the evening just relaxing with the family. Good stuff.

Got a call from the realtor today. The title search came back clean - so the paperwork's being prepared, and it's looking pretty definite that we'll be closing on Friday. I've already taken care of the financial end of things, so it's just a matter of formalities, now. Whee!

Spent the day mostly pensieve-shopping with Harry for furnishings for the new place. We're coming to a common accord on things remarkably quickly - we've picked out a suite for the master bedroom, and settled on most of the stuff for the formal living room, and have at least an idea what we want for the family room. Hopefully, getting the place ready for move-in will be a quicker task than we think!

Strange, that we're so busy now all day, yet I find I have hardly anything to write. I guess that's how it works sometimes...

So this weekend we've played in the park together, watched Shrek together, had swimming lessons with Harry, eaten his fresh baked bread, and gone to Ted's Montana Grill for yummy bison burgers and meatloaf and filet. Overall, a good family weekend, and relaxing. And a good thing, too: next week will be hectic. Monday after school is Harry and Lisha's first therapy appointment; Tuesday, Harry goes to coach Quidditch and I have to make dinner; Wednesday is me and Kim's first therapy appointment, and in the evening, Shrek 3; Thursday, see Tuesday, with Pirates of the Caribbean 3 afterwards; and Friday, if all goes as planned and we sign the papers to close on the house that day, we're planning to have a sleepover in the empty house - air mattresses in the living room, roast Jiffy Pop popcorn in the fireplace, and thus christen our new home. Busy busy busy.

But there are still a few precious hours left in the weekend, and I've got my family gathered around me, and all is well. I'm happy.

Well, it's official - Pirates of the Caribbean is too intense for our little one. We got as far as Elizabeth's scene on the pirate ship (with Barbossa and his apple) and the moonlight transformation of the Black Pearl's cursed crew, and she jumped and hid her face against Harry's shirt, saying, tell me when they're gone. So I shut off the DVD and we talked with her about how it's okay if something's too grown up for her right now, that she can always see it later, and that the four of us can always go see Shrek instead... and come Thursday night, Lisha can stay here with Beth (she already offered) while the rest of us go off to see PotC3.

And Lisha's fine with that. But it makes me realize how much I have to rethink things I've always taken for granted: what I read, what I watch on TV, the movies I see. That I have to be aware of what is and isn't appropriate for Lisha, of what I might not blink at but that might give her nightmares. I guess it's easier when you have them from infancy onward - you get accustomed very early to the idea of age-appropriate and what is not - whereas I have to struggle to remind myself that no, Lisha is not Kim's age, and is not going to react well to animate corpses and the like.

I guess this means Lord of the Rings is out for at least the next couple years - the orcs and ringwraiths and such. Damn.

Kim's just popped out of the pensieve and dragged me in with her to look at her choice. It's an entire showroom selection, already done up with curtains and linens and wallpaper to match the furniture. The basic look is ruffly and romantic and very feminine, creamy off-white base color with florals and stripes done in dusty roses and light minty-greens. There's a canopy bed, nightstands, a dresser, a vanity with three-way mirror, a writing desk, an armoire that can house a TV or stereo system (stereo it will be - we've decided that there will be no TVs in bedrooms, not even our own), a desk lamp and floor lamp with petal-like, fringed shades. All the furniture is delicately hand-painted with floral designs and accent stripes. The whole thing looks like something out of a romance novel - I can see why Kim fell in love with it. She tugged at my arm and begged me, pleeease can I have this? and I said, Of course you can, and she hugged me, elated and forgetting all about her earlier upset at the repeating-tenth-grade thing. Gotta love teenagers. :) And we can do her bathroom to match, wallpapering the upper un-tiled portion of the walls and magically changing the tile and fixture colors to coordinate with the overall look. It'll be a lovely suite, I'm certain.

Lisha, having already decided on her bedroom suite (white furniture, purple and lavender everything-else) is watching PotC 1 at Harry's side. She seems to be enjoying it so far. But then, the scariest stuff comes later in the movie, when the corpses start swordfighting. We've told her that if she finds anything scary, she's to tell us and we'll stop the movie, for a little while or for good. So we'll see how she does with it.

PS: I have also fallen in love with these floor lamps: Lamp 1 and Lamp 2. More updates as I keep browsing this pensieve...

"Saucer-eyed" would be a good word to describe the girls as they looked at the floor plans and artist's conception (sadly, no photographs) of the house that will become ours. Kim summed it up nicely: "That room you're giving me looks to be the size of our old apartment!" Well, not quite that big, but certainly luxurious in comparison. Both girls seemed pleased by the connecting door between their suites - they've slept in the same bed all their lives, and I'm sure it'll be reassuring for both of them to know the other isn't more than a closed door away. As for their reactions to the pool and so forth... well. You can imagine.

Harry's designers have sent over some pensieves for our initial perusal, one with bedroom sets for the girls to look at, and one with office furniture for me. The girls are still whittling down their choices - aside from ducking in with them to make sure they both knew how to get into and out of a pensieve by themselves, we've left them to it. Meanwhile, I've settled on an office suite of furniture - the DMI Rue de Lyon collection, only with a more ergonomic leather desk chair in place of the one that comes with the set, with the Diamond Sky Berber rug over the hardwood floors and, possibly, this wallpaper. And a couple of leather rocker-recliners, like this only in a darker color, for reading or conversations. I haven't seen all three of these together yet, but the designers will put together a "sample room" in a pensieve for me, so I can see how it all looks together. I think it'll work, but not sure yet. Especially not sure of the wallpaper - I'd like something a bit more interesting, even though (or perhaps because) most of the walls will be covered by hutch, bookcases and art. But we shall see.

"Shrek 3" is out, and as there are so few age-appropriate movies out for girls her age, we shall certainly take Lisha (and Kim) to see it - but it might be wise to rent the first two first, so they can see them. So we'll do that this weekend. Also on the agenda is showing the girls the first two Pirates of the Caribbean movies - I'm anxious to see the first showing of the third movie when it opens next week! But we're a little concerned that the movies might be too intense for our littlest angel. Viewed in a well-lit room with her daddies and her sister close at hand, we think it'll probably be okay. The third one, in the theater, though... well. We shall see.

Kim's been redoing her web page on my desktop PC in her spare time, and I think it looks pretty amazing... almost all of the coding is her work, stuff found on the net and adapted for her page. Go have a look, and leave her some love in the guestbook if you feel so inclined - the URL is http://portal.7-d.org/~kimberleigh/.

Only one week left before school's out; our girls are both psyched about that. The week after Memorial Day, I've made appointments to visit some of the other schools we might be sending the girls to next year: Alpharetta Wizarding Academy, which is very exclusive and expensive (and Kim is completely against the idea of going there - says she'll never fit in - but I figured we might as well check it out), Norcross School of Wizardry (the #2 ranked wizarding school, academically - noted for having a diverse student body and encouraging extra-curricular activity among its student body), and Vinings School of Magic (the #3 rated school in the Atlanta area). I think it'll end up being Norcross - but we've nothing to lose but a little time by scoping them all out to see what they offer. Meanwhile, I've had to broach with Kim the matter of her possibly repeating the 10th grade, to make up for her scholastic deficiencies and the differential between public-school curriculum and the higher standards of private schools. Needless to say, she was NOT pleased. I think she'll get used to the idea, though. Put it this way: she'd better, because she won't get a choice in the matter - we're not about to leave her in her current substandard, unsafe school just so she can graduate with her class "on time".

Lisha will probably be okay - her grades so far are excellent, and at her age she won't be expected to know any magic yet. Still, we'll be having both girls tutored through the summer. Blake and I are thinking, maybe Tuesday afternoons, an hour with each girl to go over the basics (with Kim) and learn new things (with Lisha). Maybe even an hour with me after that - I'm still gaining confidence, after five years of no magic, and now using a wand-ring instead of a wand. I've been lax with my tutoring of late, but I should change that - set a good example for the girls, for one thing.

Aside from the movies, we have no concrete plans so far for the weekend. Family time, and playtime for the girls - and I have vague thoughts of drifting past a Toyota dealership and investigating that new-car idea of mine. We shall see. In the meantime, we're having a quiet night at home, following a special Friday night dinner of waffles with whipped cream and strawberries and bacon and sausage... maybe I'll put on the first Pirates DVD in a bit and we'll watch it together. We'll see.

So this morning after the girls had left for school, Harry and I filled travel mugs with coffee and set off to look at yet another house. We traveled up local roads toward the northeast, then turned off Lavista Road and made four turns through a peaceful, quiet little neighborhood into a cul-de-sac, where we beheld...

Our house.

It's big, but not fancy - it looks like just a "regular" house, and homey. Big lot, trees on both sides to provide privacy from the neighbors. Nice front lawn, flowering trees and bushes, flowerbeds; massive backyard, privacy-fenced, with a huge pool, jacuzzi and sauna, and green space down past the pool providing room for a swing set, a hammock, a playhouse for Lisha, with climbable trees and blackberry bushes. The lot slopes, so while the main floor is level with the street, at the back of the house the lower floor is level with the backyard. Three cars' worth of garage, one double and one single - the single garage might make a good workshop space, or perhaps rehearsal room for Lisha once she starts the ballet lessons we've been talking about. The whole place looks friendly, welcoming.

On the inside, the house is perfect:


(click through for larger floor plan)

There's a formal dining room and a family room, informal dining nook off the huge kitchen as well as a proper dining room. Two pantries, one big enough for a second fridge and chest freezer, and a wine cellar. There's an office for me, with a fireplace, and a room we can use as a library. Decks off the kitchen and the dining room - the deck off the dining room sports a gorgeous grill that I know Harry will adore using. And that's just the main floor. On the second floor is a master bedroom with a fireplace and the most luxurious bathroom I've ever seen: two-person whirlpool tub, massive multi-headed shower, two separate toilet stalls, even a tiny two-man sauna! There are two bedroom suites, each with its own bath; the larger suite features a little sitting room and a massive closet that'll be perfect for our teenager. Besides that, there are two more bedrooms, perfect for guest rooms, and a long, low-ceilinged room with eaved windows that will make a perfect playroom for Lisha. On the lower floor is a rec room that'll be just right for a teenaged girl's "hang-out" space, with two adjoining rooms, one of which can be her jewelry workshop. It's everything we wanted and needed, it's perfect...

And it feels right. It felt right the moment we drove up and stood there, side by side, gazing at it - and with every room we toured, it felt more and more right, so that by the time we were finished, we were both sure we'd found our home. I asked the realtor what the asking price was. He said, $875K, but he thought the owner could be talked down to $825K. I said, tell the owner we'll pay $925K if we can close on the property on or before Memorial Day weekend. So he talked to the owner, who accepted the offer verbally on the spot. Now, there's a title search in process (with a hefty fee to expedite matters) and papers are being drawn up; assuming the title search comes back clean, the realtor tells me we could be closing as early as Tuesday morning. The sooner, the better, as far as I'm concerned!

Harry's called his designers, the ones with the pensieve catalogue, and arranged for our first appointment tomorrow, so we can start shopping for things. I'm so excited by this! It's not ours quite yet, but... it will be. It will be. I can't wait for the girls to come home so that we can tell them, and show them the floor plans so they can "see" what their new rooms will be like...

We've found our home. Our home! We have, we have, we have!

Harry's at the Portal, doing Quidditch. I've given the girls some cut-up veggies and ranch dip as an afterschool snack, and am now working on defrosting pasta and sauce for dinner. We looked at two houses today - one was in Buckhead and was TOO big and fancy, TOO mansion-like, with an elevator and a gated entrance - the other is a possibility, but we didn't instantly fall in love with it or anything. Still more on the list for tomorrow. The girls are doing homework, and I'm chatting online with Brian and being thankful that I quit my job when I did so I could go have a life - I don't have TIME for work now, being a full-time daddy and all. And that's about it for now, I guess.

PS: That Mother's Day card Lisha had made? Harry found it in the kitchen trash this morning, all crumpled up. I don't know if it's a good sign or a bad sign - if Lisha's getting past her hurt feelings, or nurturing resentment, or maybe a little of both. But it made me sad. The card had been glued and drawn and decorated with such care. All for a mother who rejected its maker utterly. How could she? How could anyone be so cruel to such wonderful girls as ours?

Well, the girls will have therapy, and hopefully that will help them put things in perspective and go on with their lives and be healthy and happy. And we will love them and love them and love them and give them all the safety and security we can, and hopefully that will do the same. And that's really all we can do.

Speaking of safety and security. When the girls came home from school today, before homework commenced, we performed tracking charms on them. We've all talked about this in the past; it's a standard precaution for parents to take with children, both during the War and in today's modern (dangerous) society. Basically, it works from both directions, sort of. If we need to, either Harry or myself can do a spell that will enable us to tell where either or both of the girls are, and be able to Apparate to them. And they can signal us in times of need, either verbally (by saying our name three times followed by the words "I need you") or with a hand gesture - touching the thumb to the tip of each of the first three fingers, three times in succession - and if either girl is rendered unconscious by ANY means other than natural sleep, the charm triggers automatically. Not only will the charms signal us, they'll raise a sort of magical flag that any wizarding law enforcement officer will be able to detect and track. That way, if anything ever happens - if they're ever, God forbid, in danger or have been abducted or any such thing, they can alert us and the authorities and get help.

Lisha was anxious and eager for the charms to be placed on her. Kim seemed a little less certain - well, she's a teenager, after all, and she's used to doing what she wants, without any rules or restrictions - and how easy it would be, after all, for us to track her and "spy on her" with charms like that? But I reassured her that if the charms were activated from our side, she'd know it - no way for us to keep tabs on her without her knowledge - and that we WOULDN'T do that, that the charms were for emergencies only. And she relented, in the end, without ever really protesting - I think it comforts her too, as well as Lisha, to know that in this uncertain world, she's just a little bit safer from some of the big bad dangers out there.

We can't protect them from everything. We can't wrap them in magical bubble-wrap wards to keep them safe from ALL the dangers they could encounter. If it were possible to do that for a person, there never would have been a War. But we can protect them from some of the dangers, and breathe just a tiny bit easier for it. And that will have to be enough.

We looked at two houses today. One was over on the west side of Atlanta, instead of being northeastern where I want to be - nice enough neighborhood, but I'm totally unfamiliar with that part of Atlanta, my travels have always taken me north and northeast - and even if I got over the region issue, it was that bit too small, and on a lot that wasn't conducive to expansion. The other was in the right area, and would've been close to perfect... but it was right off a busy street, another definite no-no. So, tomorrow's another day, we'll see what the next set of houses look like.

Ate a late lunch of funky sandwiches (turkey artichoke panini) and chai at Panera, then did some grocery shopping at the farmer's market out Clarkston-way and came home, where I made appointments for all of us at the North Atlanta Wizarding Psychiatric Center. Me and Kim will be seeing therapists on Wednesdays at 3:45, starting a week from this Wednesday; Harry and Lisha will be going at 4 pm Mondays, starting next week. Dr. Caren Reynolds for the girls - Daniela specially mentioned her as having a reputation for being excellent - and I'm seeing a Dr. Melissa Cortez, and Harry is seeing a Dr. Nicholas Park. It'll make for busy weekdays, as Harry's going to be doing Quidditch at the Portal on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the next couple weeks. But once school is out and Quidditch season over, things should calm down... Of course, we'll hopefully be furnishing a new house and moving by then. So "calm down" is a relative term.

I've been thinking

ACK! Kitty paws. Resting on my leg, claws just barely out. Soft little kitty paws and a Scotchy nose. Way to derail a train of thought!

Anyway, I've been thinking of getting a new car. Not just a different one, but a new one, factory-showroom type. Something sensible and fairly gas-efficient - I'm thinking a Toyota Camry or Corolla, or maybe an Avalon; just a four-seater to transport the family around town in. The Camry Solara comes in a convertible model, which sounds tempting... except thinking about it gives me visions of a crash, and one of my "precious cargo" flying out. Yeah, there's wards to prevent that, but STILL... I'm paranoid about my family, that's all there is to it. Besides, convertibles just muss up your hair anyway. So, a Camry - I could get it in "sky blue pearl" which is similar to my car color now, or maybe "titanium metallic" which is fancy talk for silver. I'd want a light color, for maximum visibility at night... but not white, which never ever looks quite clean. Fabric interiors, I think, because leather gets too hot in the summertime and sticks to skin - and all the safety-making options, on top of the fifty wards I'd have Blake and Harry help me put on the car as soon as I got it home, to cushion against collision and such. I'm still a skittish driver, and though I can get on a highway and drive now, I'm loath to, especially with my beloved or my angels in the car with me... but it seems sensible to start our new life in our new (as yet un-found) house with a new car as well. I mean, my old one's a piece of junk. Mechanically sound, but... it won't last another twenty years, whereas a new Toyota, given proper maintenance and light use (we're wizards, we Floo and Apparate half the time anyway!) very well could. Of course I won't get RID of the old car... Kim is, after all, sixteen, and once she's been in school long enough next year to get a certificate of attendance, she can get her learner's permit, and lessons at a proper driving school, and the old car will be a perfect "starter car" for her to use as she finds her feet. (She doesn't know this yet, of course. But eventually she'll ask about driving lessons, and apparation lessons... and when she does, I'll be ready!)

Lisha has finished Harry's friendship bracelet, and is working diligently on mine. Such concentration as she narrows her eyes and sticks out her lower lip and struggles to get every knot just so. I picked out the colors I liked, and she's done a lovely job of combining them - a wide stripe of blue, a narrower stripe of beige, and a thin accent stripe of dark brown. I'm looking forward to wearing it - permanently, until it falls off; they get knotted to the wrist, after all - and knowing, every time I feel it there, that it's from my littlest angel. As for my big-girl angel, she's still struggling with homework... I spent hours with her, helping her get the fundamentals of the math down, and now she's working her way through the problems. When she's done, I'll check them and point out any errors, help her figure out how she made them. For someone who hasn't bothered with homework and barely paid attention in school up till now, she's making GREAT progress in her studies just in these last few days. Partly because she cares about it now - even if only to please me - partly because, I think, she's just naturally much brighter than she's given herself credit for. Once I show her the underlying principles, how the arithmancy works, she understands it; she doesn't have to struggle with the concepts. Memorization, on the other hand, is not her strong suit - possibly because it just bores her, I dunno. But she's not even got her times tables down yet, though she can come up with "seven times eight" if she thinks it through for a few moments. My next order of business, once school is out, will be to arrange tutoring for her. I've already spoken to Blake, and he's saving a block of time on Tuesday nights for me (once school is out - he's always less busy during the summers) and he's tutored kids from all the private wizarding schools; he knows the curriculum, what's expected of them, he'll know how to evaluate Kim's weaknesses and blind spots and help her fill them in. We'll have Lisha evaluated, too - make sure her Muggle scholastics are up to where they need to be to enter the dual wizarding/Muggle curriculum of her new school next year. Not that I want my girls to spend their summer vacations studying like fools, but I do want them to be prepared, so they can enter school with confidence and live up to their potential.

And my biggest angel? Why, he's right here on the couch with me, casting fond glances at Lisha as she knots her thread and at Kim as she scribbles in her new school notebook, and otherwise being lazy with his head resting against my side so that I have to curve my arm into unnatural positions just to type. Not that I'm complaining, of course. A cozy Harry is nothing I'll ever turn away.

And KITTY PAWS! on my leg again, as she rears up to gaze up at me and mew? mew? for a scritch on the head. Soon enough she'll go back to her rounds, sniffing daintily at Kim's polished toenails scrunched into the carpet, munching delicately on the dangling ends of Lisha's thread (and receiving a gentle "No no, kitty! Not for you," for her efforts) and eventually leap up onto the couch beside us, curling into a little furry ball beside Harry and making a giant purrrrrrrrrr. Scotchy, like the rest of us, is settling into the new family routine, and becoming content.

Well, we've had a lovely dinner, and we're all very stuffed and lounging around in the living room like stuffed things. The girls tried many new things alongside us, for which I am very proud of them. Elk and antelope - both very heavy, gamy flavors; the girls tried each and left the rest uneaten, and none of us asked for seconds. Venison and buffalo - interesting flavors, not too gamy, definitely not like beef. The duck was very tender and delicious, and the kangaroo was - surprisingly - also tasty and tender; I think we all had seconds of both the duck and the kangaroo. And then there was the alligator, which tasted like chicken that had had marital relations with a fish. On top of those "exotic meats" there was the usual filet mignon, flank steak, beef ribs, pork ribs, ham, chicken, sausage, sirloin, pork tenderloin with parmesan, lamb chops, smoked turkey... plus a salad bar filled with interesting salads and hot offerings, plus cheesey rolls and fried yucca and breaded fried bananas, and it's no wonder we're all feeling rather laden and roly-poly at the moment!

Lisha seems to have perked up greatly. She smiled her angel smile a couple of times during dinner when one of us made a silly face at a new flavor, and eagerly tasted all the new things. I'm so proud of her. Kim tried things more dutifully than eagerly, but she stuck it out like a real trouper and seemed, in the end, to enjoy the experience. Such good girls we've got.

Now to spend the next few hours digesting and enjoying each other. Weekend's almost over, and they always go by too fast...

So this morning, after breakfast, Lisha asked if she could call her mother for Mother's Day. Kim tried to dissuade her, saying, what do you want to call for? she don't want us, she threw us away. But Lisha was insistent: it's Mother's Day, I want to call Momma and wish her a Happy Mother's Day. So Harry and I... well, we didn't want to tell her she couldn't call her mother, but we could sense disaster looming, so we stayed close by the phone, just in case.

So Lisha dialed her old home. We heard her say, tentatively, "Momma?" And then, clear as day, the CLICK through the phone as the bitch hung up on her. Lisha hung up the phone - and then burst into inconsolable, heartbroken tears.

We hugged her and hugged her and kissed her and told her, over and over, that she's a good girl, a special girl, a smart, pretty, wonderful girl, that she is wanted and cherished and loved, and she clung to us and cried and cried. We held her and comforted her until her tears stopped, then rinsed her face with cool water and hugged her lots more. Harry's got her in his arms in the easy chair now, watching cartoons on TV together while she hugs her doll Amy. Trying to ease her hurt. Meanwhile, here's Kim, with her arms folded and looking angry, muttering, I told her, I told her so -- and I gave her a big hug and told her the same things we told Lisha, that she's beautiful and special and wanted and loved. Where Lisha cries, Kim gets angry, but the underlying feeling is, I think, the same.

We're still planning on going out to an early dinner at 4 - not to celebrate Mother's Day per se, but to celebrate our girls, "because you two may grow up to be mothers someday," as I explained to them yesterday, and because exploring new things like "exotic meats" is a worthy goal under any circumstances. Lisha seems calm now - though there's no telling what's going on inside her head - that sweet little smile of hers is far from view, but she's at least stopped crying. I've made us all a little plate of nibblies - some cheese and leftover kebabs from last night, finger foods we can munch so as not to be overhungry for dinner. Kim's painting her nails again, working on placing little jewels and designs atop the champagne-gold color that matches her evening dress, using a pin to poke the jewels and strands of metallic thread into place atop their bed of clear polish - she's got steady hands, but I can see her growing frustration at the fiddly task. And Lisha's in Harry's lap, with her doll cradled in her arms, half-watching the cartoons and working on knotting a friendship bracelet - I think this one's for Harry, it seems to be the colors he picked out. Like Kim, I think the repetitive activity helps calm her and distance her from emotion. Which is maybe just what she needs right now.

But I think we'll need to fast-track getting the girls (and ourselves) into therapy. Lisha especially has had more ups and downs in her life than anyone so young should have to bear. It'll be good for her to have some help coping with that, I think. And Kim, too. And us.

Today is our Kim's birthday, and so far I think she's had a good day. We started it out with a good breakfast, and her presents waiting for her - she's never really gotten presents, so she was delighted by that. Harry got her a big huggable Steiff teddy bear, and I got her a set of young-lady pearls, necklace and earrings, and Lisha got her (with Harry's assistance) a set of Bath & Body Works "exotic coconut" things, lotion and bubble bath and shower gel and perfume and a scented candle. Kim seemed delighted by all of it. Then, after breakfast, we took the girls to the wizarding underground for a day of shopping fun - yeah, getting groceries and other such necessities, but also browsing the shops filled with knick knacks and t-shirts and incense and magic books and toys and so on and so forth. I didn't track how much we spent, or how many goodies we all came home with, but it was lots, and much fun was had by all.

Dinner is kebabs, chicken and steak and salmon and halibut and shrimp with pearl onions and mushrooms and yellow squash and zucchini, plus little baby red potatoes, all roasted over the grill on the patio. Harry's put up a rain-warding spell as the clouds overhead have gotten thick and grey, and it looks like it's going to storm like nobody's business any minute now. There are definite perks to being a wizard, y'know? After dinner is birthday cake - I went and got party decorations and a pin the tail on the donkey game, and little silly party favors for the girls to enjoy. Then, Beth will come over to keep an eye on our Lisha, and Harry and Kim and I will get all dressed up in tuxedos and evening gown (terribly overdressed but who cares) and go to the jazz club down Peachtree to sip expensive champagne and listen to Kermit Walker, who, if his music is anything like the clips on the website, we should enjoy...

Maybe it's not quite the kind of sweet-sixteen that most girls have. But it's the best we could do for our girl, and as Kim said to me earlier, so much more than anything she'd ever expected. For which I'm so glad, to be able to catch this last little bit of her youth and make it better. With Lisha, we have more time to give her that childhood she'd never had the chance to have. With Kim, we have to snatch away every moment we can before adulthood wrests her away from us...

Tomorrow is Mother's Day. We're planning to take the girls back to the "meatsword" restaurant, the churrascaria; they're having a special dinner with "exotic meats", elk and venison and alligator and such, new things to try. So I'm looking forward to that. On the other hand... it's Mother's Day. And their mother just recently threw them out of the house, and ceded all parental rights to the courts. I don't know how well the girls will react to the holiday. To be specific, I'm worried about Lisha. The other day I caught a glimpse in her school notebook of a Mother's Day card she must've made at school... crafts project or something, I guess. Kim's told me about trying to make cards and presents for Momma for Mother's Day or her birthday or Christmas or things, and having them waved aside and ignored. And maybe Kim's inured to it. But I have the feeling Lisha isn't, quite, yet.

Well, we'll be ready with lots of hugs, I guess. Try to ease any hurt as best we can. In the meantime, today is Kim's day, and Kim's all abeam with excitement, and Lisha seems just as excited for her sister as Kim is that her day is turning out to be something special. Everyone is happy, and life is good. And we'll worry about tomorrow, tomorrow.

Dinner's still not ready, so I figured I'd post this: this is the dress I got for Kim, only hers is more of a champagne color. No, it didn't cost quite that much: it was on clearance. But still "up there". And yeah, the price made Kim's eyes bug out of her head. But I told her, she is a beautiful young lady, and she deserves a beautiful young lady dress. And so she does.

We're planning on going to the jazz club in tuxedos and evening dress. We'll be horribly overdressed for the occasion. We don't care. It'll be grand.

Beth is socializing with the girls. It's fun to watch her relating to each of them on their own level, almost more fun than talking with her myself. So I'll go back to that now, or maybe wander into the kitchen to hug Harry from behind and kiss him on the neck to show him just how happy I am at this moment.

(Edit: Oh yeah, and these shoes in gold. Trust me, they match better than the picture shows.)