Friday, March 18, 2011

Catching up with myself

I have thought about doing this blog for a long time, and then at least put in a title.  However, it appears that our household make up might soon change and the title may not be as appropriate.  I will start from the beginning though:

In November 2010, my daughter, Whitney, returned home after more than a year on her own.  It is truly a sign of the times, because it was financial issues that brought her home, just like so many people in her generation.  I have heard this generation referred to as the "Boomerang" generation.  It is really tough out there on young people just now.  But we were happy that she was able to come home, and that she brought a delightful addtition to our household by the name of Corbyn.  He was born on January 23, 2009. 

Prior to Whitney moving in, my mother was living in Alabama on her own in a beautiful, but too large house.  It is in the middle of the country, 1/4 driveway to the street and 5 miles out of town.  Leaving Mom dependent on her car.  In July, 2007, Mom had a bad spell and realized she was probably on very limited time to remain living on her own. From then on, until November, we all worked steadily to get Home Office approval for her to come to Scotland to live with us.  This was not as easy as just moving home.  Not only is there loads and loads of paperwork invovled in emigrating to a different country, she also had more than one lifetime's worth of belongings and paperwork to sort out, in addition to selling her beautiful home.  In September, Alan flew a week before I did, to join my cousin, Mary, who was helping Mom sort and pack.  Once I got there, we worked constantly in the week we had to try to get as much as possible sorted, given away, packed or whatever was needed. We spent many hours merely shredding documents.  Mom even had income tax forms from the 1950's when she was married to my Dad!  That is what I meant by more than one lifetime worth of memories and things to deal with.  This was a very stressful time for Mom and all of us, but had to be done. 

In addition to all the packing and selling of her home, Alan and I had to find an architect and builder to put an extension on our house so that Mom had her own territory.  While waiting for this to be built, Mom lived in a little house owned by a friend of a friend.  The building process was so long and so busy, but in the end, she got a cute little living room, with French doors and a tiny bedroom.  The bathroom is in the middle and it all white with a bit of silver trim on the tiles, very pretty.  Living with this, I realized I should have asked for doors that slide open as she cannot use the French doors:  they open in and she has too much furniture blocking them.  Mom moved into the house about July 2008.

The above describes people who have recently moved into our family home, but not the ones who have been in the house all along:  Alan, Pat and their son, Martin.  Martin is the oldest of our two children but has been too busy with studies to have the time or money to also leave home.  It  is a joy to have him in the house, partly because we almost never see him!  No that is not true!  He is very nice and also very quiet. Being very busy, you almost have to make an appointment to speak to him and it is always a treat when he has time to eat a meal with us.  Unfortunately, Martin is almost done with his studies and there is a real chance he could find a job and leave at any time. 

All in all, it is quite an honor to have 4 generations in one household, with grown children still comfortable enough to stay at home.  I don't think there are many families in the world who can consider themselves this lucky, even though there are times I have to remind myself through gritted teeth just how very lucky we are!

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