Yo~Yo Land.

It is being one of those years ~ you know the ones: too much happening; too many changes; up & down, round & round like a yo~yo.

Raising 5 kids was chaotic.  I must have been mad a lot of the time.  Having 5 adults is insane.  They are multiplying like rabbits.

We did our first wedding a couple of years ago & our first grandchild shortly after ~ & we are sort of managing that.  Sort of.  We live where we do & have the lives that we have so grandparenting is not always easy, though I am lucky.  My son wishes I could be round more, which is heaps better than being the unwanted meddling grandparent.

Now baby number 2 is on its way & should be here come October. They may even land on my birthday.  What am I supposed to think about that?

My lot are not only late bloomers; none of them were ever all that interested in the whole marriage, kids, family thing & they all have occupations the Lord has called them into that have taken priority.  Now, suddenly, OT has announced his engagement & a wedding date & Chile Girl is agitating to be home for it only she is on the mission field & had her long furlough last year.  Her time in Chile may be drawing to an end.  She has found the last year really, really hard ~ not because the work has grown more difficult or burnout but quite simply because much has happened in the family in the interim & she has not been here for it.  Skyping with mummy or getting the FB message update is not the same as being here, being involved, being able to help.

I call CG my B&W child.  There are no shades of grey, no nuances.  A thing is, or it isn't. And so not being able to say goodbye to her grandfather, not being here for the funeral, not being around for her Gran, Ma's reiterated wish for her to come home, new babies arriving that it will be months [or even years] before she meets, have taken their toll & no reminders that she spent quality time with all her grandparents while she was here makes up for that.

And so we are planning for CG's return [temporary, or otherwise]. A new baby.  A new DIL. A house upgrade. New neighbours ~ because Gran's house is now on the Market. The cats are in meltdown.  They do not like change either.