An Ounce of Prevention

Jonathan was a good looking boy. He had curly blond hair, kind blue eyes and lips that smiled often. He had a sweet personality and a quick wit. Jonathan was interested in anything and everything, which probably explained why he learned so fast. If Carmen and Alex had one thing to be concerned about with Jonathan it was the fact that he was always surrounded by girls. So far that hadn't distracted him from his school work.

At almost seven years old, Destiny insisted on mothering Natalie and Matthew. Carmen often heard her words repeated when they were playing. Most of the time it was the kind of thing she was glad Destiny repeated, but all too often lately Destiny assumed the role of a working parent. Her large gray eyes were increasingly serious. Destiny's hair was red like her birth father's, but it was a darker color that would probably become auburn when she got older. She had a cute sprinkle of freckles over her nose that was often the target for teasing. Like Josh, she didn't respond well to teasing. Hopefully she would grow up less like her biological father and more like her adoptive father.

They had adopted Jonathan when he was Destiny's age, but Destiny had come to them shortly after birth, the year they lost their first little girl. Up to that point Alex had thought he was sterile. Now they had Natalie and Matthew. She was glad she let Alex talk her into surrogacy, but she wouldn't do it again. They had four beautiful children. That was enough.

Alex had been a wealthy man when she met him and nothing had changed in that area. Even so, they lived conservatively. The money was in the bank, not in fine things surrounding them. They had all the things they needed and lived in a spacious house with modern conveniences. Carmen had grown up in the old house they had converted to a guest house. Most of the time when she was young they had an outside toilet and a single wood stove to keep them warm in the winter. Carmen didn't want their children to live like that, but she didn't want everything given to them either. Jonathan and Destiny helped clean the house and do the chores. Even the twins had chores now.

This was the first year Carmen had hired a tutor for home schooling. It gave the children more individualized help in a controlled environment without distractions, but it also removed them from the contagions of public schools. It gave them a flexible schedule so that an early vacation was possible.