It takes a village

While I was on family leave my top priority was to find quality child care for Ivy.  The thing is, though, that every time I tried calling child care agencies I started weeping and I rarely was able to actually finish dialing the phone number.   We thought that we had found excellent family care, but it fell through.  I was devastated and worried and lost sleep.  I remained calm by telling myself that my mother would help us care for Ivy during those early weeks when we were both at work, but I knew that it was unfair and unrealistic to ask her and Dad to disrupt their lives for too long.  Then I dreamed up a plan and released it to the cosmos, and, well, my dream came true.  When Kevin and I return to work our little girl is going to be spending her days with one of my dearest, best friends  - our honeybee-dancer, Markie.  Markie is the person who taught me how to be a children's librarian, how to listen to children and how to see the world through their eyes.  She was with me when I brought Edgar home to my tiny apartment above the Marilyn School of Dance in LaCrosse, where she helped me bathe him and give him medicine after he tore my arms to shreds.  Markie took care of me in college when I was too stubborn to realize that I needed someone to look after me and made sure that I ate well.  She magically appeared in Corning the day before Kevin and I got married and blessed our wedding day with her presence.  And now . . . she's moving to Madison and is going to help us care for our daughter.  Words cannot express how overjoyed I am to have Markie in our daily lives and how fortunate our little girl is to have this amazing woman care for her while we're at work.  Thanks to Markie's influence, I know that Ivy is going to develop into a child who respects the earth, loves music and who will learn how to charm honeybees from their hives.

There's no way I could make this dream happen all on my own.  My friends, Kimi & Marjorie, own a house just a few blocks from our home.  Their primary residence is in California and they only use their Madison home during the summer and few other times the year.  Because they love Ivy so much, they are providing their place for Markie to live and Ivy is going to grow up knowing that her Tantes Markie, Kimi and Marjorie live in this amazing house.  My sister suggested this arrangement and her dreams for her niece have helped us make this reality, too.  Kimi has been my rock for over 20 years and it feels like I've known Marjorie (aka, Tante Mimi) for that long, too.  Thanks to their influence, Ivy will develop into a child who cares for her friends & family, is fiercely protective of them and who goes the extra mile to help her loved ones realize their dreams.  

Despite my ramblings, I am speechless - I am touched by all the love that surrounds our little girl and I am honored to be a part of a community of family and friends that profoundly cares for one another.  We are here in Madison, spread out across the region and live throughout the country (and, depending on where Tia Lisa is currently based & saving the planet, around the world) and I know that my family is supported by a community that only grows stronger and more committed to each other with each passing year.  

Thank you, Dear Friends.  Ivy has already been touched by the hands of so many amazing people.