Nika stayed the night, and was available to drive Char to pick the kids up from school; it gave me the entire day to deal with sorting through my dad's things and deciding what to keep for the kids for later, what to donate, and what will wind up in the eventual estate sale (though I don't know if it's technically an estate sale, but it's close enough that's what it feels like.) After six hours of dealing with it I went to the dojang and taught two classes and then headed home; I opened the door and Rachel was curled up on the sofa doing homework, and Alex was on the floor playing with Kevin, snapping Lego blocks together. I could hear Char and Nika in the kitchen and the smell of what they were cooking hit me at the same time all the laughter did.

That sound held me in place until Stoner and Tank ran at me and the kids noticed I was home. I don't think in all the years Char and I have been married that I've done the stereotypical Dad coming home after work thing, with Mom in the kitchen cooking dinner for everyone (it counts even if she had considerable help from her sister) and the kids sprawled out in the living room. It's always been picking the kids up from school, taking them to the dojang, then scrounging dinner for them while they try to cram homework in before bed. What was playing out in front of me was what Char and I wanted all those years ago when we realized we were going to become parents and we had everything we wanted at our fingertips. I'm not sure how we wandered away from that, but we've got it back and we don't have enough years left to give that to our kids. But at least we have it for now, and I'll be damned if I'll let go of it now.