Erica left this morning, heading back to her life in South Korea. It has been suggested that while it was nice, it is nice to have quiet again. My answer is, No. Let me explain.
Saturday night, January 29, she flew into Charlotte. Sarah and Keith along with their children met me and Mary at the airport to welcome her back home. After she arrived we all went to Azteca’s in Charlotte for a Mexican meal. The next Wednesday Mary met Mary K and Lucca in Columbia and brought them up here. On Thursday she went to pick up her Mom. That meant there was no bed left for me so I had to sleep at Sarah’s on Friday then a hotel for the next few days. Saturday morning Anne and Dave flew down. Daniel, Mary K’s husband, made it here the following Wednesday and Mark, Mary’s brother, joined us one night for supper. In case you are counting, that is 9 grandchildren, 4 daughters, 3 sons-in-law, 1 mother-in-law, 1 brother-in-law and 2 of us. I can’t count that high, but that is a lot of people!
Sure, it was loud and confusing and I didn’t get to sleep in my own bed for a week, but I loved it! What? Yep. And lots and lots of food!
Let me back up a bit further. At one point in my younger days (many, many, many moons ago!), I lived in a three bedroom house with 8 of us and 2 parents. We had to spend most of our time outside just to breathe! Then, Mary and I had 4 daughters and we home schooled. That meant they were with us all the time. We loved it. Ate all our meals together - what a blessing. We were never one of those parents that looked forward to school starting up again so we could get the kids out of the house. And, we never lived around family, so we didn’t have built in baby-sitters (a blessing, by the way).
When we moved to York, I encountered for the first time “family compounds.” That refers to parents who own a lot of land and give parcels of it to their grown children so they can build a house on it and everyone can all live on the same 5 acres. When I first learned about this, I laughed at this. After all, both of our parents were hours away, as were all our siblings. Our experience was, you grown up and move away. And here were people who grew up and moved closer to Mom and Dad!! But, as my girls got older I saw the benefit of that arrangement. Now, my dream is that we all lived on the same land, same street, or at least the same town. It would be so awesome to come home from work and have one of my grandchildren come over, “Can I eat breakfast with you, Granddaddy?”
That’s why we got such a big house - three bedrooms and a very large yard. When we’re here by ourselves we basically live in three rooms. We don’t need all this. We got it so our children and grandchildren could hang out with us. I admit, it is not big enough for us all to live here. And I do like sleeping in my own bed by day (remember, I work nights), and I like my own space. But I also really like having them around.
So, did I enjoy the brief visit but am now glad they are gone and it is quiet again? No. I mean, Yes, I enjoyed the visit, but it was all too brief and I am not glad they are all gone. I like having my girls around. I like having my grandchildren around. God has so richly blessed me and I enjoy the blessing!
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