Food and Family: My Two Great Loves

By: Elizabeth Redhead Kriston

Food and my family are two things that I love equally and fiercely. When my family was finally completed, I had time to reflect on how we came together. My passion for cooking and all things edible caused me to create our story with imagery from the kitchen.

When we decided to adopt, we knew that only fate and destiny would determine who our children would be. Their personalities, their temperaments, their innate talents, and their looks, we had no control over. The only thing we could control was our willingness to accept and love whomever we were sent.

We were truly blessed with two amazing girls who challenge and test us, who we love and cherish, who make us laugh and cry, who complete us. Please enjoy the story (or is it a poem) below which travels from infertility, to waiting, to getting to know our little girls inside and out.

The Recipe of You TwoBy:  Elizabeth Redhead Kriston

Cooking up the notion of having a family caused a great commotion in the kitchen of our lives. We mixed and stirred, baked and steamed; added a pinch of this and a cup of that. We waited and watched then tried another batch.

Waiting as our love rose and fell with each passing day. Waiting for the perfect recipe of you two to fill our hungry lives.

Then suddenly without much warning, to our great delight, one day and then another, the recipe came to life, twice. Ready-made and perfect the ingredients mixed and filled our lives just right.

One girl, milky white vanilla ice cream covered with chocolate sprinkled freckles.
One girl, coffee with cream smooth and silky as mousse.

The first with a head of soft golden corn silk filled with every kind of knowing and a fragile candy heart.The second, topped with soft and springy brown fusilli tossed with peppery fun and music into a chocolate fluff.

Two sets of eyes, one pair bright blueberries the other chocolate truffles. All watch, see, and learn.

Cheeks rosy as berries glow with life’s surprises. Mouthfuls of Chicklets commenting, laughing, singing, sighing.

Lips, licorice red, tell the truth unguarded with laughter, words, and cries.Two pots of jelly bellies, jiggly and giggly; full of life.

Four armfuls of hugs.  Four heaping handfuls of love.Two legs and pairs of feet dancing, stomping on the grapes of life.

Fold together all ingredients gently with a mother and a father.  Whisk in the spice of life to create two bubbly, delectable daughters both spicy and sweet.

Yummy, saucy, tasty; too good to ever eat.

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