Good things

Bear with me on this little anecdote...it's worth the wait;)

I love plants.  Ever since we first established our homestead, Diego has come to understand that in addition to my unfinished crafts, books, and kitchen hardware, our home would always be filled with plants.  My passion started young (and likely due to an all things botany-loving mother)...There was a time in my life when, as a child, every week's allowance went to a new plant from the nursery.  After church, we'd head over to Shonnard's in Corvallis.  Some weeks I would select a stock house plant.  Other times I would special-order something that they didn't have, begging my mom to front me next week's allowance to cover the exotic price.  My bedroom became filled... one week, a banana plant (Genus Musa); another, goldfish plant (Nematanthus wettsteinii) aptly named for its sweet little orange flowers; then came prayer plant (Maranta leucoreura) whose leaves unfold like praying hands; a lipstick plant my grandma once described to me but I had never seen (Aeschynathus radicans)... It's no wonder this passion still exists.

In this stage of my life, however, motherhood has taken a small toll on the flora in our home in favor of the fauna.  First to suffer were the orchids.  While I was sad to toss my collection one by one due to neglect, there was one orchid that just held on, despite infrequent watering (we're talking once every 2 weeks).  Apparently, though, this loose routine has worked for it.  I have had this orchid for 4 years now.  It was given to me by a co-worker as a little shoot off of another mama orchid that I initially stuck in water for a year, where it grew roots.  I had it potted during an orchid class (I know, right?  Who has time for that these days!) and they were amazed at how strong it was, considering it was not potted already.  Since then, it hasn't done much, but grow.  It has never flowered.  It just sits in a petite little terra cotta pot near my kitchen sink.  As it turns out, however, just yesterday I noticed a new development in my sweet little orchid... it was growing a bud.  A beautiful bud, huge in relation to the petite stature of this gorgeous little life.  I can't wait to watch it blossom!  What color and shape will it be?  All I know is that it's a dendrobium.

And so, on such a momentous day for this little orchid, it's only fitting that our sweet and beautiful petunia of a daughter would make us proud with her very own steps.  Real steps.  Ones I got to record, and now share on this digital forum!  Watch out world, here comes our little biped sprout!