unexpected gifts
christmas morning with my daughter and the baby was sweet. we piled all the presents up and around the baby for pictures before we began opening. it was cute to see just her little face peeking out of the presents. my daughter opened the things i bought for theia, and i opened the things that my daughter bought for theia…this way we got to surprised a little bit, since theia doesn’t know what’s happening, lol.
once we’d cleaned up the wrapping and were putting things away, i got a text message. it was my middle daughter, sending me a video. it was my two youngest grandchildren, lucy (6) and bee (5)…opening the cards i sent them, with the gift cards inside. at the end of the video, my daughter prompts them with “what do you say?”, and they look at the camera and say “thank you grandma”. just to see them and hear their voices was a gift. i texted my daughter back saying thank you, telling her that i love them all and merry christmas.
i went about getting things organized to go to my brothers house. and off we went. there was absolutely no traffic which surprised us, so we made it there in record time. it was a nice day spent playing cards at the table, football on the tv, wonderful smells thru out the house as things cooked, and everyone passing sweet little theia around…as she was the main attraction, lol. and she was a perfect little angel with everyone, even tho she’s approaching that age, where she now looks at people for a long time before smiling at them, if they aren’t people she sees everyday. stranger syndrome i called it with my kids. they get used to their regular faces, and other faces give them pause. and then at one point my brother sneezed, and it scared her so bad that she scream cried…tears and everything! poor punkin. lets face it, some men sneeze really loud, and my brother is one of the, lol.
anyway, just moments before sitting down to dinner, my daughter said from across the room, “mom eduard is trying to video chat…should i answer?” eduard is my ex son in law who was married to my oldest daughter. something in me just told me that he had the kids with him and we were going to get to see the kids and talk to them for a moment. and sure enough…eduard gifted me a few precious moments of live time and voices with my two oldest grands, bug (11-1/2) and bear (8). i was able to hold back my tears until the video chat was over, but i was overwhelmed with joy to have that time with them, after a year of not seeing them. they have grown so much!!! as children do of course. the best part of the chat i think, was that eduard asked if they could see the baby. this has been a big issue. my daughter didn’t approve of her younger sister getting pregnant and during this horrible separation, i’ve not been allowed to share the baby with them. they’ve never seen her. didn’t even know her name. theia was sleeping at the time, but we turned the camera so that they could see her, and i listened to them both say sweet little “awww’s”.
after the video chat was over, i cried of course. tears of joy, with so many other things mixed in too. i texted eduard and thanked him…told him that i couldn’t thank him enough for giving me a little bit of them after a whole year of nothing. i also sent him a few pictures of theia awake, so the kids could see her better. eduard texted me that the kids are with him every wednesday nite and saturday nite, and that i’m welcome to contact him to speak with them any time he has them. i asked him if that would cause trouble between he and my daughter, and he said he’d deal with it. i get the distinct feeling that he hasn’t/doesn’t agree with what my daughter has done this past year. i am worried that when the kids go home and mention they spoke to us and saw the baby, that she will be angry.
anyway….i do not know where this will go, and honestly, after feeling such incredible loss this past year, i’m afraid to hope too much that this mite be the beggining of having my grand children back in my life…at least somehow. i’m afraid to hope. yet i hope. but so afraid to be let down. how can one NOT hope tho? and worry….i’m so worried about how my daughter is going to react to knowing we spoke to the kids. will she work even harder to keep them away now?
but anyway, as i sat down to dinner with my family after this video chat, my heart felt joy. i’d gotten to see the video of lucy of bee, and i’d gotten to chat with bug and bear and introduce them to theia. a little bit, precious peices. of ALL my grands…after so long of nothing of them. very unexpected, very wonderful gifts.