As days rolled into weeks and then months since the last time I posted, I kept trying to sum up this crazy summer I was having but I could never manage to sit down long enough to post about it. I had initially set lofty goals of trying to keep things simple and easy-going but when I look back on the calendar, I now see how insane it all was.June 22: Jack gets out of school.
June 26 - July 3: Oldest friend arrives with husband and two sons for week-long visit.
July 5: Pick up nephews from airport for two-week visit and stop thinking about blogging.
July 12 - 16: Celebrate Jack's birthday in Big Bear with five of his friends + moms + cousins. (Yeah, that's keeping things simple.)
(The gang on our walk to breakfast.)
(With Makena after breakfast.)
(Jumping in the lake.)July 17: Put Jack on plane to Montreal with his cousins.
July 18: Put myself on plane to Montreal with Makena. Why? because number one son refuses to fly on same aircraft as his sister. (Refer to "re-entry" blog for explanation.)
July 19: Stay in hotel with Makena to avoid bickering with my sister.
July 20: Drive Jack from Montreal to Vermont (with Makena) and park him at Teela Wooket camp for 2 weeks (cold-turkey, first time at camp, with no friends going with him,) certain that he will have a blast.
(Roxbury, Vermont.)
(Saying goodbye to Jack at camp.)
July 21: Hang around Roxbury for 24 hours to make sure Jack is okay. Leave, after I realize that I have no way of really knowing.July 22-24: Visit Makena's friend, Pip, and mom in Wilmington Vermont and get to play Scrabble.
(Makena learns how to hold frogs and to screech spontaneously at the top of her lungs.)July 25: Drive back to Montreal to catch flight home. The plan is to have my sister pick Jack up at the end of camp, keep him for a couple of days and put him on a flight home.
July 26: Have anxiety attack. Can't leave Canada without Jack. I make a couple of calls and decide to ride it out at Mont Tremblant at Anouk's lake house until Jack's stint at camp is over. Reschedule flights and send word to Jack to let him know that I'm staying around to bring him home.
(Anouk, Makena and mom in lake Tremblant.)August 3: Pick up Jack from camp with Makena. Boy is he mad. He feels short-changed an adventure with his aunt and is really angry that he has to fly home with his sister. Desperate, I promise him another trip to Montreal without me + $20 for having to put up with Makena on plane ride. (Dr. Phil, where are you when I need you?)
(Mak and Jack, reunited.)
(More appeasing of Jack with a pilgrimage to Ben & Jerry's on the way back to Montreal.)
(Saying goodbye to cousins before heading to the airport.)August 6: Realize that I am hosting 14 families from our China adoption group at our house (in less than a week) and shift into panic mode.
I fire the caterer after I finally receive her bid for feeding everyone and I hire Taco stand and Frozen Margarita machine, instead. August 8: Meet with Social worker for one-year home visit, thus completing paperwork obligations to China.
August 10 - 12: Makena's first year anniversary of adoption. Party at the house for two days without running out of margaritas. Have a blast and only cry twice.
August 13: Collapse.August 14: Put Jack in art camp and alternate days in surf camp.
August 15: One year anniversary of our adoption of Makena
August 16: California re-adoption of Makena. Makena will now have a one-page California birth certificat and no longer have to present the Chinese documents. 
(In the judge's chambers, having signed the paperwork.)August 22: Pack for Fiji trip
August 23: Travel to Fiji with three other families. Makena sleeps through the night on the flight to Nadi and connecting flight to Savusavu. Consider having Jack pay me $20.
(Makena and mom on tiny airplane.)
(The airplane we flew in on!)August 25: Hand Makena to hotel nanny, grab a deck chair by the pool with "A Thousand Splendid Suns" and start reading while EM sleeps and Jack learns how to spear fish.
August 26: Hotel nanny lets me know that Makena is "active" and enlists help of second nanny.August 27: Finish (excellent) first book and begin reading "Interpreter of Maladies." Go scuba diving to Nameina with EM.
August 28: Really starting to relax. Jack is catching fish, Makena enjoys company of other babies and new nannies.
August 30: Get woken up by phone call that a truck has crashed into our house and destroyed our kitchen and Makena's play yard. Huh?
(The truck stops here.)September 1: EM and Jack make flight arrangements and leave vacation early, while it is decided that Makena and I will stay in Fiji until house is taken off the red-tag list.
September 5: Makena and I are still in Fiji. We miss Jack's first day of fourth grade and the truck being cut into four pieces and craned off the property. The street is closed for 8 hours, in both directions, with 2 fire crews standing by in case of emergencies. The event turns into a neighborhood block party.
(Jack, heading off to school.)
(The last of the truck before it is craned away.)September7: Makena and I fly back to Los Angeles.
September 10: We pick out cabinets for the new kitchen and await the structural engineer's report.
September 11: Thankful we weren't home at the time and grateful to be alive.
September 12: Rent house for 4 to 6 months. Start Makena in preschool/day-care 2 mornings a week.
(Makena on her first day of preschool.)September 13: Start packing.
September 14: Get called into office at preschool to discuss Makena's biting and hitting. Explain that the baby has grown up having to fend off her nine-year old brother and his gang of friends and that she doesn't know how to act around small children. Beg for mercy. Tell them about the truck.
September 16: Everyone is home sick from catching colds. Start purging garage clutter to make room for furniture and continue packing.
September 26: Start blogging again as a way of regaining control of my life...
That sums up my summer.
Is-xhausted.
