in a weekend bout of exasperation that she was losing the reins on her home's space, marty emptied two crammed basement bins of stuffed animals on the living room floor. she called her three children and explained that all of these forgotten toys were about to be donated. the only way one could stay in the house is if you, the child, wanted to keep it AND could say (a) where it came from, and (b) what its name was.

this is how, orangeatang, pronounced orange-uh-tang, one of only two plushies to be saved that day, came to be part of our family. a few times every year marty and i share our collective surprise at our youngest son's commitment to this long-limbed primate. i personally marvel that it hasn't lost an arm or its stuffing. granted, the sink-baths orangeatang gets a few times a year have had to become progressively more gentle.

but speaking of lost, in our recent cross-country trip, orangeatang did have a moment. we had just driven a full day and checked into our hotel. given the number of road-miles we have logged over the years, our family is a polished traveling machine packing bags specifically for hotel stays (e.g. toiletries backpack, workout bag). this practice makes us quick and lean about what to grab before heading up to the room (as to prevent repeated trips to the car to collect missed items). after settling into the room this night anthony looked around and asked where orangeatang was. orangeatang is one of anthony's first grabs so this was a rather unusual oversight. but assuming he left him in the car marty offered to walk him down to get him. as they passed through the lobby they found orangeatang sitting on the vacant lobby desk with a small white note sitting in his lap. it read, "I'm lost. If I belong to you please take me."

upon returning to the room marty and anthony shared the story of orangeatang's adventure and we laughed along and welcomed him back to our fold. we also thank all the parties involved in helping get him back to us for their kind and thoughtful acts.