Dealing

 April to June have lots of family activity and time for reflection, pondering, and just dealing with life and all its consequences. Sorrow, joy, happiness, grief, and pain have all been mixed up in one of life's many stews. I try to stay on the updrafts. There are equal mixes of angst, sorrow, and great joy, comfort, and love.

In October, all my siblings are going to go on a long dreamed of vacation. It has turned into a cruise starting in London and going up through Scotland and Ireland and back to England. The girls have dreamed for years of going on a Jane Auston tour. Then early June it turned into a goal and now the boys are joining us on a family cruise with a few stops that include ancestral homes. How awesome is that?! 

Today I am taking care of my grandchildren for the second or third day in a row because my daughter-in-law has a threat to her pregnancy.  She has been in great pain and of course angst. All of us are sad anxious and praying. 

The phone is dinging, dinging -  with news on ideas where we are going to stop and explore on the cruise and at the same time texts that describe pain and bleeding with the knowledge they are headed to the ER. A sudden funeral in May for a cousin younger than I, and then a wonderful family reunion the first of June. The next week we had our own Adams reunion that only three families attended - and it was so fun! We missed the others and had fun with those that came. My greater family have health situations that are terrible with long term consequences and yet we are all planning to get together in October. I can be laughing and crying in the same hour and definitely in the same day.

It has been so fun to take care of Amber and get to know her better - Andrew and Briona are selling their condo and have plans to move to North Carolina in September. In fact, they are leaving September 9th. Joy and sadness, grief and love, hello and goodbye. Balancing on a rolling log and looking for a good landing.