Bella's birthday

Today Bella is ten. I set my alarm so I could call her at 7 a.m., before she began online school. Her parents had dressed the house with banners and balloons and had hidden a few presents here and there. Evan was feeling a little left out but coping. Bella was happy and excited. Her class is going to sing Happy Birthday to her on zoom. 

I'll see her tomorrow at the Drive-by, but my heart is full of her today, so I spent time with the St. Francis statue where I made a photograph of her when she was three. She felt apprehensive about those giant birds, rain dripping off their beaks.

These children grab our hearts and squeeze. It has been a revelation to document her childhood on Blip. Now she's into two digits. How quickly that came.