A New Baby in the Family

Day 92 - My Niece gave birth to her second child last week and we went today to visit her and see the little baby. He was born a month early so he is tiny, but big enough to be released from the hospital. He is so cute, and his older sister is so wonderful with him. When she was born, almost three years ago, we extended our visit by a few days in the hope that we'll be lucky to still be here when she was born - which actually worked according to plan. But the next time we saw her was for her 1st birthday party. we missed all this wonderful miracle year in which a tiny totally dependant baby turn into a wonderful toddler. next time we came it was her second birthday, and again missed all the in between. But now we get to see her more often and she recognizes us, and like us, a very happy feeling indeed. With her little brother it will be even better, we are here from now on and every few weeks we can drop by and see them both going through all the stages of their young lives, see them grow up. It makes me very happy to think about that.

This of course means that I will miss so many of the same stages in the life of my first granddaughter who is due in about a month and being across the wide ocean, I will not be part of her life as much as I would like to be and I will be a stranger to her for a very long time. It's sad and not something I would choose, but the fact that I chose to live here, so far away, mandates this kind of things. I will try to travel every few months but it's not really the same. I am so far from two of my children and the contact is getting loose. I never thought of all that when we first set our mind on moving from here, so many years ago. That my children will become the citizens of that country, not only on paper, but also by identity. That they might want to live their lives there and I may want to come back here. But now this is the reality of our lives. Two children there, one here and one parent on each continent so at least neither one of them is totaly alone.

I am thankful today for this little miracle I got to see and enjoy, this little baby. I am thankful to see my sister's family getting bigger and so very sweet. I am thankful to be here this time and not miss this joyous event. And I am thankful that I have three very wonderful children, even if I don't get to see them enough and I am coming to visit in two weeks, so I am very thankful for that.