CHANGES

There are always going to be changes in our lives. Some changes are rather traumatic, such as the death of a loved one. That one is always permanent. Then there are other changes -- a child's move further away. Although I wasn't thrilled with this one, now that the plans are on track for them to move closer to home (about an hour away)I am sooooooo looking forward to it. There are some stumbling blocks here -- the sale of a house, finding an acceptable place to live, getting everything moved--but once those are past them I am hoping to be able to spend more time with them. I want to take the grandchildren to different places, have them spend time with us at our cabin on the lake, perhaps fish with their paw paw when they get a little older, be able to attend their birthday parties, have them come to celebrate our birthdays with us, and maybe even attend some of their school events when they get a little older. Family has always been important to me and it's been rather ironic that, for the most part, my family has lived quite a distance from me. As a child my dad's job kept us about 6-7 hours away from my grandparents and then when I was in college, his job moved him again. This time it was only 2 hours away, but then before I had kids, he was transferred again and they were about 6-7 hours away while I was raising small children. Finally my dad retired and they moved back to within a few miles of us. Unfortunately, my dad passed away at the young age of 69. I wish we had had more time to be close. We've tried to stay close to our grandchildren even though they've been living 9 hours away. We talk on the phone and try to visit as often as we can. Things are different from when I was young and phone calls were just too expensive -- if you called, you stated your business and got off the phone. You wrote letters instead of having conversations on the phone. Now we have Skype where we can talk to the grandkids and they can actually see us and it's free. They get to see the dog and know where we are in the house.
Since we've had to be apart for a few years, I'm hoping we will appreciate being closer together again and enjoy being able to get together more often.