Grand Parents

I don't remember my father's parents. At least I don't remember them well.  By the time I had my first loose tooth, my grandmother had already died, and my grandfather wasn't far behind her.  We didn't actually bury him until I had started to save babysitting money for $50 jeans, but after Grandma died, his mind just climbed into a hole and never came back out again.

My mother's parents, on the other hand, were young when I was little, and they were busy starting over without each other.  My sweet grandma loved me very much, but she had a new husband and years of her life to make up for.  Grandpa loved me too, but he had a lot of grandsons to take hunting and fishing and hamburger-eating, and he didn't know what he was supposed to do with me.

That was alright, as far as I was concerned.  I was too busy skipping rope and selling lemonade to notice the absence of any of them.

Years later, though, when my own kids started coming along, I did notice.  I noticed when my dad stopped using his vacation time for tee-offs and fishing trips, and started driving my mom to births across the country in the middle of the night.  I noticed when my mother-in-law took us in, when Bright was a baby and we had no place else to go.  I noticed when their screensavers became pictures of toddlers with mixing bowls on their heads. I noticed beloved children's books from 20 years ago reappearing in baskets beside the couch.  I noticed Daniel's mom collecting baby clothes in her closet, for grandchildren born and unborn.  I noticed my mom collecting charms, each carefully chosen to represent the grandkids she treasured.

When we moved to East Asia and my parents switched all their buying to a mileage plus card, I noticed.  When they started turning off 20/20 to sit in front of the webcam and give puppet shows on Skype, I noticed.  When my mom read "Grandparenting With Love and Logic," I noticed.

When my mother-in-law gave up her way of living to make her granddaughter's short life as sweet as possible, everybody noticed.

And this winter, we get the pleasure of welcoming all three of the kids' grandparents to the Far East, for a total of 5 weeks of grandfathery, grandmothery, grandsmothery fun!  United Airlines will be making four kids (and two grown-up kids) very, very happy.

Thank you, Grandpa, Grandma, and MoMo, for who and what you are.  It means the world.

Grandpa and Grandma with our nephew, Jack.

MoMo with Kerry, Eliana, and Glory

See you soon!!!!!!!!!!