We are home again with passports and visas in hand. Wow! Somehow this trip just wasn't going to feel right if we didn't have a little drama to it! It was hard at times to go through the same actions I did almost 4 years ago to adopt Grace. Only that time I had Jana, Gillian, and Darcey with me. Grace is good company on a trip and enjoys all of it, except waiting at government offices. On our way home, caught in Houston traffice at 3:00 (how do people put up with it?) anyway I glanced over and saw a sign for JT's Autos or some like that. My older sister, Lisa, is forever seeing things that she feels are Jana. That was mine. Jana always signed her name JT! I felt like she was there in spirit at least.
We made it home just in time for dinner out for mom's birthday. I was sorry to be gone for most of the day, but as always Mom is ok with it. Just glad we made it safe.
Mom is not too thrilled any time I go on one of these adventures.
I don't remember whether she was that way when we were younger, but rarely did we head off to the unknown. Although at 18 I took my college money I had earned and went to work with our church in Scotland instead.
But after I had brain surgery when I was 23, I think the mortality and fragility of life hit.
We had a discussion this week on us leaving for China. I know having lost one daughter makes things even more difficult, but believe all of us have quite a bit of Mom in us.
When she and Dad decided to get married, my grandmother (her mom) cried and begged and pleaded for her not to go. Grandmother refused to attend the wedding and instead stayed in the bedroom crying as Mom and Dad left.
But Mom was determined!
Thank goodness or else there would be no story!
They celebrated 58 years on June 29. I know my grandmother is somewhere saying she still doesn't think it will work! I am sure they seemed like an odd couple at the time with Dad being 6'5" and Mom 5'2". She took him from her good friend! She needed someone to make sure her children would not be short! I'm guessing there was a lot more to it than that. But Mom was from the big city of Paris, had a good job, nice things, etc. Dad was from the country. I'm not sure if he even had a job when they married, but had 30 some odd their first year of marriage. Just couldn't quite get the hang of it I guess, working for "the man"!
Speas Vinegar factory was right at the edge of Paris and I used to love the smell of it when we drove by. Dad had a very short work stint there. When the supervisor came out and told him he had done the work wrong, trimming the hedges, cutting the grass, can't remember the details now, Dad told him if he could do it better then why didn't he? You know, that was the end of that job!
I think I will end this here and add a different post about Houston.
No comments:
Post a Comment