May 3

I spent some time this evening opening Safeway Monopoly tickets. (I really just want free donuts.) At some point, Brady bounced over and asked if I'd won yet. I said no, and that I didn't really expect to win much of anything. He touched my hand and bent over to make deliberate eye contact, and then said something that stuck with me: Anything can happen, mom! You never know!

I stopped, smiled at him, and told him that he was right. Then he bounced off and I went back to opening tickets and thinking about my baby's wise words.

Our exchange may have, on the surface, been about Monopoly, but there's more to it than that. It's not really about winning and losing. It's about having hope and faith and living an expectant life in spite of one's immediate circumstances and feelings. And that's what I'm trying to do.