Privilege

If you ever get the chance to spend two months living under the same roof as your parents again, as an adult, consider it a rare privilege and honor, and snap at the chance to do so.  My parents are convinced that they've been a burden, and interrupting our lifestyle, or something like that.  I don't know how else I could convince them that it is quite the opposite.  There is nothing like the comfort of family.  Even if we get on each others' nerves from time to time, the security of knowing that these people will always love me and want me around, and keep tolerating me quirk after quirk, failure after failure...it makes me want to love and honor them so much better than I do.  Owen pretty much never understands how much I love him, and how everything I do all day is with love (albeit sometimes in a pretty twisted way when I lose my patience).  I'm pretty sure I live in a lot of ignorance of what my parents have done for me too.  They are my first and probably biggest gift from God.  I am really going to miss them.  I'm so glad we're going to Texas tomorrow morning and saying goodbye first because watching them pull away from our house would be a lot harder :{  It's been so fun to enjoy/tolerate/be-completely-exhausted-by the kids together, share meals, sit and chat, and carry on the daily grind.  What a blessing to have company in this mothering journey for a too-brief while.  I think my Dad has gotten a new appreciation for what goes on in the homefront, and is probably really extra glad he's not a woman.  I would gladly give up this 2-month gift if it meant my Dad wouldn't have had to go through the yuck of cancer treatment.  But given the circumstances, I'm so grateful he has been here.

Now.  On the other hand, my Dad says that he is going to be leaving Boston so fast, a vacuum will form in his wake.  Can you blame a guy for being a little antsy for home??  I think they'll leave from his last radiation appointment and hit the road.  It will be a well-deserved homecoming!!

Mom, thanks for working like a SLAVE around here.  I feel like I've been on vacation and I probably used you sorely and you just kept giving.  Mother love is like that, I guess.  I hope you get to sleep for a week when you get home!

Dad, thanks for sharing life with us.  It has meant a lot, and I feel like we got more great time together than we probably ever have before.  Thank you for your company, for loving the kids (even when unlovable at times), for dollops of wisdom that often hit the spot, and for putting up so completely unselfishly with a lifestyle much more chaotic and poorly-groomed than you and Mom so excellently preserve on your own homefront!  Next time, we're coming to you ;)  We're praying for you and love you.

Miss you guys already.