The DMV Date

 Today, I had a billion things to do, and somehow Gigs talked me into

 going to the DMV—the DMV—out of all the places in the world. 

Could there be any place worse?
And I actually went.
He is fixing up cool vintage motorcycle (s) to restore 

and sell for mission money. 
He's really good at it, too!
He finished his last semester of High School last week. 

He's taking a community college class, but other than that, 

he's done with school (for now). I'm really proud of him.
He’s trying to get his motorcycle license and asked if I would go with him to take the test. 

I had a million things on my to-do list, but when he

 looked at me with those big brown eyes and put his arm around me, 

I couldn’t resist. He promised to take me to lunch afterward. 

Then I remembered that he’s leaving soon, and I won’t have these experiences 

with him anymore. He also pointed that out, 

and I think he’ll use that to his advantage until he leaves.

I sat in the truck while he loaded the motorcycle into the back, 

and then we drove to the DMV. While he went inside to take the test, 

I took a really nice nap in the car. As promised, he took me to lunch afterward. 

I paid for lunch, of course, but he drove, 

opened all the doors for me, got me napkins,

 filled up my drink, and even went back to get us a cookie.

I'll take it.

Claire's adorable boyfriend, N, is flying to Stillestead

 as the two of them embark

 on a cross-country road trip and drive her car back to Arizona, 

where they first met. 

Claire will be working at the burn center and resuming her life there. 

So our house is in boxes and chaos. 

Lottie is happy; she's getting Claire's leftovers that she's not taking

on the journey back.

But I can tell Lottie is also really heartbroken.

For a while there, she had all her sisters back under one roof,

and then, just like that, they were gone again.

I admit I'm feeling sad, too, but I'm also really excited. 

I haven't seen Claire this happy and confident in her life 

in a really long time.

We love N. He's pretty special, and more than anything, we love and see that

he brings something out of Claire that I think she was reserving for

her special someone.  For him.