Four sons arrived on the fifteenth of August, and charcoal came with them.
That sentence took years to earn. Charcoal has sat in our plans as a someday since long before Terra ever boarded a plane, written down and waited on and pushed to next season one more time, because a breeding plan is worth nothing at all until both halves of it are standing in the same house. Terra carries it. Avalanche carries it. On the fifteenth of August the waiting ended.
Terra went to work that day the way she does everything, without drama and without asking anyone for help. Four boys. Four broad, solid, insistent little boys, already loud about the fact of themselves, and you can see Avalanche in the frame of them from the first look.
We bred the earth to a snowstorm, and the sky went dark over it. That is the part we have been chasing.
Terra has been magnificent. She stepped off a flight from Russia and decided within a day that this was home, and she has handed that same easy trust straight down to her sons. She lets us near them. She does not fuss when we count toes. She lifts her head, confirms we are who she thought we were, and goes back to work.
Their eyes are just starting to open now, getting glimpses of their mother and siblings. Names come around weeks three and four, once there is something to name. Until then we have four sons, a color we have chased for years finally asleep in our own house, and the very best kind of waiting.
