Life changes have been made...

...my son became a husband to a most beautiful wife on October 29. Sweet Adie is the partner Cory had been waiting for.

We got to meet Adie in June. She had gone to Washington, DC to visit a friend from college. On the way back to Portland, she stopped in Columbus to meet us and stayed overnight. At the time, I was so nervous about wanting her to like us that I didn't realize what courage and openness it took to make that stop in Columbus.

On the drive from the airport to home, I asked Adie if there was anything she wanted to while visiting and she said "Can we look at photos of Cory growing up?"...so we did. The next day we had the Cory "This Was His Life" Tour of Grandview...showed her all of the places we lived...were he went to elementary, middle and high school...where he had the after school jobs. It was fluffing the quilt to what she had already known about him and the stories she had heard.

I gave her to take home one of my treasured things. It was the Ernie doll that Cory has has had since he was a baby. When I gave it to her, she got it. She knew it was special.

It was hard to give up Ernie. His nose had been sucked and pulled out shape when Cory was a baby. His original google eyes had been replaced at least three times with felt eyes glued on and drawn.

I miss Ernie. He has been to OCTA and Hilton Head and New Orleans (Bob doesn't know that)...just always made me feel better to have him with me...the tucking of the Ernie nose in the crook of my neck...was like a hugging Cory.

The best thing about being in Portland for the wedding...and it was a wondrous wedding...was getting to hold hands with my son...to just touch him.

Brilliant.