 |
| My favorite picture of Asher and Mario |
Over Easter vacation I learned how to make Pokémon card booster
packs, simple packages of paper-wrapped Pokémon cards, decorated with pictures
of the magical creatures that populate the Pokémon world. My teacher was my grandson, Asher, the step-son of my own step-son, Joe. Asher taught
me how to fold the white sheets of paper around the cards he would give me, and
then glue them together. I also learned
to draw Asher’s favorites to scale, but not without some helpful advice from my
grandson who watched me.
“It’s important that you show his webbed feet,” he told me
as I drew. “Do you see that color? That’s a mutation that is important. It makes him powerful.” Asher is an expert on the assembly of these
packs, he knows which ones to put in a single 10-card pack. He also is an expert on how they should be
drawn—which made me nervous as I was trying my hardest to draw the strange
little creatures.
“How’s this, Asher?” I asked him, holding forth my pencil drawing.
Asher examined it carefully.
Then he pronounced his verdict: “I’ll take it.”
“I’ll take it” became my favorite catch-phrase of our Easter
vacation. Asher’s life is pretty sweet because he is
grateful for the simple things that come his way. “I’ll take it” meant that he was happy with my
effort, even if the finished product was not perfect. He thinks like this about most things, and I marvel at this part of his personality. Asher is happy enough to hold the paper packs for a
while –and then open it. This starts
the whole process over again.
Today Asher is six years old. For some reason, he seems older to me. Ever since he was a toddler, I called Asher
the “little man” –a nickname I gave him because of his serious persona.
 |
| Asher last Christmas--right before bed |
When I met Asher, he was eighteen months old. He was already speaking in complete sentences,
although he did not speak them to me. He
was wary of strangers because his whole world seemed to be wrapped up in his
mother, Ariel, my daughter-in-law Lennae’s sister. Ariel and Asher occupied one room of David
and Lennae’s house, so when we would visit our kids and grandchildren, we would
see Ariel and Asher.
The same was true with everyone who visited, including our
son, Joe. Joe visited David and Lennae enough
times to become rather close with Ariel.
It wasn’t long before I noticed the attraction between them. When Joe and Ariel started dating, I wondered
about how it would go over with the small, territorial little man in Ariel’s
life. After a brief warming up period,
Joe and Asher got used to one another and began a relationship that looked like father and son. A little while later, Harvey was born and the
family blended quite nicely.
When you see Joe and Asher together, you see a unique closeness in their
relationship, one that reminds me of how things are between Mario and Vince. WhenMario and I started dating, Vince was 18
months old; when we married, Vince
was two and a half.
The blessing of a blended family is that everyone in it has
a heart that makes room for each other.
While not always ideal, the children learn that they have parents on all
sides. When it’s working properly, the
child feels loved on all sides. While
not ideal, the blended family has a special beauty, with members that can adapt to newcomers easier. Ours is such a family, where we are scattered
and different, but we all love each other.
Asher helps me remember that life is pretty sweet –if we make it that
way.
Happy Birthday, Asher!!
You are truly a beautiful little man and I am so grateful that I am part
of your family!! Blessings and love
today and always! Abuela.
 |
| Learning to draw Pokemon --Spring 2017 |
