Here’s another sketch dump from the St. Louis Zoo. One more of these before Chapter 3 of The Moose Riders starts up. I’m working on the cover AS WE SPEAK!

Continuing my adoption-reunion story from the last few weeks…Last weekend my twin sister Chris and I met our birth parents and then three of our five older siblings and their families. It was a wonderful, moving experience. The similarities, not only in appearance but also personality/interests, were kind of astounding. Given a variety of beer options, my bother Kurt and I both chose Sierra Nevada. My sister Karla (who looks more like a twin to Chris than I do) quoted songs that Chris and I grew up listening to. I looked at my sister Lisa and saw a feminine variation of my own eyes looking back at me. Hugging the people who gave you life for the very first time forty years after your birth…I don’t have the words to describe those feelings.

I have a tendency to be a bit cynical, but it feels like I’ve been floating on a cloud for days now. I feel so fortunate to have had this experience. To have grown up in a loving home, raised by parents that cared enough about us to take us both in rather than see us separated, parents who worked and sacrificed and raised us to ensure we had the best life possible; then to meet an entirely different loving, caring family who made entirely different sacrifices for the exact same reason, and then welcomed us back with open arms and open hearts…

I’ve been using the word “overwhelming” an awful lot lately, but it seems appropriate.