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birthday, divorce, estranged, grandparent, grandparents day, great grandparents, motherhood, nature, travel, vacation
Sometimes I wonder if there is a God in Heaven, and other times, like today, I am sure there is a God in Heaven.
No doubt.
Back up for a moment to yesterday … when I was given the opportunity to see a friend in a play … and stay over at her house last night.
So technically my Happy Holly item for the day started at 12:00 AM this morning. When Jeanne and I sat down in her beautiful new house, in her beautiful new sunroom … and talked about our beautiful new lives.
And we stayed up till after 2AM having a short chat.
After a pleasant nights sleep, I showered in a real shower with real water having real water pressure. This is also a luxury since my house is not only under renovation, it also has well water with dubious mineral properties and failing water pressure.
After a pleasant breakfast with real waffles and real maple syrup … and real strawberries … we adjourned to various parts of the house with real brewed tea to catch up on house things not discussed the night before.
At this point I thought it might degenerate into a typical Happy Holly day … full of ironies, both subtle and not so.
My daughter, who has moved to my old hometown had freed up some time to have lunch … after her church activities of the morning. And to celebrate the first birthday of her young son … handsome little man that he is … with me at a local restaurant.
Then we planned to go see my parents nearby.
Waiting for my daughters call I finished getting ready, checked my emails, and gathered my belongings. Normal enough for a Sunday …
Then the phone rang. And the chaos began. Starting with the lateness of the call … proceeding to the confusion over where to have the lunch … continuing on to the frustration of my parents at the relative lateness of it all … and finishing with the fact that the route I had chosen ran me right into heavy traffic for a Sunday afternoon ball game in town.
You know … typical Holly stuff.
But then, like a ray of sunshine that chaos went away.
The traffic cleared, the restaurant cleared, the booth was available, the food was excellent and …
I got to see my daughter and grandson.
Now this might not seem like a lot to some of you out there … but to me it is a miracle each time.
To say I went through a difficult divorce many years ago would be the understatement of the century. And I still have a daughter who refuses to speak to me. Or let me see her two daughters.
So the opportunity to see my youngest daughter … and her handsome year-old son … is a real blessing.
Lunch was delicious and so was my grandson … as he munched down crackers and a french fry or two … and charmed the socks off the wait staff with his large hazel eyes and dark curly hair … and eight-toothed smile.
It’s enough to melt a grandmothers heart.
And on that subject … we briefly mentioned the fact that I do not have an “official” grandmother type name. I suppose it will come in time … nothing in particular jumps out at me right now.
So finishing up lunch … we prepared to go see my parents … my daughters grandparents … my grandsons great-grandparents.
Why was this so important?
Well, yesterday my 86-year-old parents celebrated their 61st wedding anniversary.
And they had not seen this granddaughter for over twenty years.
And they had never seen their great-grandson … ever.
So with not a little fear and trepidation, we caravaned down the short drive to my parents family home. And were met by my father who came outside in the rain to bring a large golf umbrella to protect us all.
Once inside, my daughter sprang into super-woman action. She went up and hugged and kissed both her grandparents … introduced her young son … and proceeded to settle in and start a lively conversation with my parents.
Sometimes that woman just makes me so proud of her.
As I saw the wonder and amazement in my parents face my heart twisted … that she had grown to be such a capable and poised young lady … and that her son … their great-grandson … was so adorable.
And he was.
In true little boy style, he smiled and crawled and reached and explored … and was the most pleasant young child since … well, since my children were that age.
Four generation pictures were taken … mother daughter pictures were taken … little man pictures were taken … and each time the camera flash went off, everyone was rewarded with a dazzling smile from our youngest participant.
But the best … the absolute best … was when it was time for my daughter and grandson to leave … naps are still a needed thing in his young life.
And as I carried him over to my Dad … he reached out and hugged us both and I could hear my Dad’s voice catch in his throat.
Then I carried him over to my Mom … and he reached out his chubby little arms to be held by her … and leaned up … and gave her a big kiss.
Now all this might seem normal to you … but trust me … it doesn’t happen every day in my family. Nothing like this has happened in over twenty years.
As my Dad said, they made this a real red-letter day … a real special day for them.
After we all left, I began my long journey back home here.
No sooner had I pulled out onto the main highway I looked up into the sky.
The beautiful dark clouds … the distant blue sky.
Stunning.
And there in front of me … bigger than all the promises of Heaven was a giant rainbow.
A beautiful rainbow … and for all the world it almost looked like a double rainbow.
So I pulled off and took pictures. And said a quick prayer of thanks and smiled a deep smile.
Then I drove home and checked my emails and whatnot on my PC before writing this. And I saw the headline …
“Today is Grandparents Day.”
Of course it is.
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I was trying to check out the video about Adhering Small Embellishments – Buttons, Jewels & Pearls’, but it comes up as the Making Tape Flags and Tissue Tape’ one again.Some cute ideas in the ones I waehctd.
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