Bittersweet

Yesterday was a tremendously bittersweet day for me.

I know that I have mentioned before that my family of origin is not speaking to me because they became frustrated and overwhelmed last year when I was going through my deepest bouts of depression.  Well, the only person who has attempted to keep contact is my sister-in-law, my older brother's wife.  We have been trying for months to get together, but with 5 active kids between us nailing down a date was difficult!

We were finally able to plan a swim date at their community pool yesterday, and it was wonderful!  Her two kids, E (who is now 9) and W (who is 5) have grown so much!  And they were overjoyed to have three hours to play with their cousins.  We exchanged presents for missed birthdays, had lunch, and swam until my kids were ready to pass out.  We did have to end it a bit early because Big A had a stomach ache and couldn't swim anymore (something that's still going on).

It was wonderful to reconnect.  We never talked about the family and what's going on, but talked a lot about the kids and what they have been up to, plans for the remainder of summer, and worked on finding a date to meet up again.

Then, later last night, she sent me a message thanking me for coming.  Even better then that was she said that it was important to her that the cousins keep getting together no matter who is talking to who.  I must admit, it choked me up a little.  My family was so close; we did everything together.  having that missing for the past year has been horrible.  On some level there has been benefits, it has allowed J and I to start building our own family traditions for holidays and birthdays, but it kills me that the kids have gone for so long without seeing my parents.

Today is Saturday and we are laying low as a family.  The kids helped J wash both cars and I have been concentrating on getting this week's laundry done.  Makes me shake my head with how quick clothes add up to large piles when there 5 people in a house!  I am still having problems eating, I have been getting terrible stomach aches about 20 minutes after consuming anything, which makes me not want to eat anything.  But today I have a little hope, thanks to yesterday's trip, that eventually everything will work out the way it's supposed to.