Deja vu

Much has happened since my last “what’s going on with me” entry. I can definitely see how an old person like me can forget the events of the recent past unless it is written down immediately. Now, ask me about say the hubbub that surrounded the release of the original Star Wars movies and I can relate every detail, but ask me what happened seven days ago and I draw a blank.

But let’s see what I can dig up. Oh yeah … we picked up Josh at the airport close to midnight last Monday. Now there was a senior moment. Josh’s dad and I were walking through the airport after just having checked on the TV screen to see when his flight would arrive. We still had ten minutes until his plane was supposed to land. We were hungry so we were walking along greedily eyeing all the closed airport restaurants not paying a bit of attention to the stream of passengers who were filing by us on the way to baggage claim when suddenly, I heard a voice say, “Robert and Suzanne?” I turned and saw our own son grinning behind us. We had walked right by him without seeing him standing there waving at us. It seems we had momentarily forgotten why we were at the airport. Silly us. I smiled a ridiculous smile and hugged him.

Since then, all six of us have eaten meals together (even this is a big event when one member of a family has been gone), we’ve gone to our co-op school banquet together, we’ve watched PTO together, and we’ve gone to our first Sunday service together. Ah! It doesn’t get any better than this. All six of us together again! (Remember about that, those of you who miss your friends back at school, your mom, dad, and siblings like to see your shining face, too!)

This week has had a familiar feel to it as though they were all children and we were living together again. But it’s just for the summer. In reality, there aren’t any guarantees that all of us will live in the same house for other summers to come. And so one of my main goals for this summer is to work on my relationships with my "adult children" (now that sounds like a paradox). I want to relate with them differently than a mother to a child and I want them to relate differently with me than a child to a parent. I mean, I’m still a handy advice-giver, but our relationships must change and adapt to this new adult/adult situation. I’m shooting for mutual respect and freedom of expression. Please pray for both the parents and the young adults as we are in this transition. :-)

Thank goodness we have this summer. I’m going to enjoy every minute of it!