A Winter's Tale

I changed my banner several weeks ago, before we actually had any snow. I took the photo a couple of years ago: I had my camera with me while I was driving around and saw this woman in a red coat taking her dog for a walk. I couldn't have composed it better.

This photo I took today—a neighbor's house , taken through our car window. Somewhere in the midst of all that snow, armed with a shovel, is the young man who lives next door. Jared had started by clearing our driveway, front path and porch and had moved on to this house. I wrote about Jared in an earlier post. He was much younger then, and he has grown into a charming high school senior, still delighting his parents who attend the hockey tournaments in which he is playing and impressing his father with his golf score.

Shortly before I left the house this morning I was reading an article on Putin's proposed ban on Russian children being adopted by Americans. How sad that under this policy not only would Jared's parents and sister, all his family, friends and neighbors have been deprived of this outstanding young man, but he himself would have been deprived of a comfortable, meaningful life—and maybe even life itself. My daughter's fiancé has a brother who together with his wife brought not one, but four, children home from a Russian orphanage.

Mr. Putin, please change your mind.