A great day!

The plum tree in their own back yard is laden with sweet, juicy plums. All Bella needs to do is shake a limb and plums fall into waiting hands.

Today they moved into a house their parents are buying. It is thrilling to all us adults, but even the children are tingling with excitement. All their lives, their parents have been renting. They've had to move every year or so, as the houses they lived in were being sold. 

I've never owned a house, nor my other children, and most of us are at the mercy of landlords who can toss us out on a whim. But Seth and Cristina have managed to make a down payment and pass the labyrinthine credit checks necessary to get a mortgage, and now the family can hope to remain in this one house for a good long while.

It makes me want to sing. ("There is so little in life you can be sure of, except the rain comes from the clouds, sunlight from the sky, hummingbirds do fly.")