Chapter 16 - The Blueprint of a HomeWith the legal battles finally behind us, the house on Chestnut Street underwent a quiet transformation.
Marisol helped us finalize the permanent adoption paperwork, legally transferring Diego’s guardianship entirely to my name, with the newly established Miller Trust ensuring his education and future were completely secured.
One Saturday afternoon, Diego and I cleared off the living room floor and laid out a massive, unrolled map of the United States—the one he had carried with him to Alaska.
"Grandpa?" Diego asked, carefully holding a box of colored markers.
"Yeah, buddy?"
"Can we color Montana first?"
"Montana is already colored, buddy."
"No," he smiled, looking up at me with bright, steady eyes. "We need to color it twice. So it stays."
May you like
I laughed, sitting down cross-legged on the floor beside him and handing him a bright blue marker. "Twice it is."
We spent the entire afternoon coloring every single state we planned to visit over the next ten years, filling the paper with bright yellows, greens, and blues.
