Family Time!

A crazy busy week that was well worth it

I don’t think I’ve had a week quite like this one in a long time, if ever. And I mean that in a good way. It’s been very eventful, family-wise, also in a good way.

Now, before I get into what happened, I want to say that while I do get pretty in depth about my family and daily life, a lot gets left out for personal reasons. And that’s not going to change much. Occasionally things going on behind the scenes will get brought up just for clarity’s sake, and when that happens it will be just the same as with all of this—I intend to respect personal privacy of everyone involved, so I’ll be kinda vague about sensitive matters. I’m going to do my best not to share things that will hurt my family and friends. I talk a little more about this subject in this post:

Life has been pretty intense lately, just because so many major family events have been happening. Last month I wrote about how my aunt had passed away and I didn’t get to attend her funeral in West Tennessee (we live in North Georgia). About a week later, my daughter Miranda’s grandmother (aka my ex-mother-in-law) passed away, as well. My mom was able to take Miranda out to Arkansas for her funeral, and that means she got to spend some time with her dad and his brothers, whom she hadn’t seen in quite awhile. So even though it was a sad occasion, catching up with them was something I think they all needed. It sucks that loss sometimes has to be what brings people together.

Thankfully, a big group of us got to get together early this week for a celebration!

My sister and her family live in South Carolina, about three hours from us. Terra and her husband Jason have a thirteen-year-old son named Jonas and NOW they also have a ten-year-old son! They had been fostering Leeland for over a year, intending to adopt all along. Originally there was supposed to be an adoption hearing back in January, but with bad weather and a few other setbacks, it kept getting postponed. Well the big day finally came on Monday, and he is officially theirs. And ours, too!

Betsy has traveled to Terra’s before, back in December when Ian and I took her there around Christmas, but that’s the longest road trip she’s ever taken. For this particular trip, the girls and I rode with my parents and we left in the wee hours of Monday morning so Betsy (and everyone but my mom) could sleep through most of it. Mom and Dad had literally been back in town for like 12 hours when we left—Dad had been to his high school reunion in Tennessee that weekend. Besides the happy occasion, I was also excited because my Aunt Dee and Uncle John were coming from Tennessee, and I hadn’t seen them in forever. Betsy had yet to meet any extended family on my side beyond her grandparents, aunt, uncle and first cousins, so this was her first time to meet my aunt and uncle, as well as Jason’s mom and sister.

So we spent the day at my sister’s house and got prettied up for the court hearing. It was held in the afternoon, and that courtroom was packed with friends and family all there to cheer them on. (Betsy immediately took to a social worker who had been involved in their case, and reached out to her immediately to be held. She stayed in her lap almost the entire time!) It was a wonderful occasion, I definitely bawled a lot, and there were tons of hugs and photos taken. Then there was a giant party that evening at their church, with so many people that they had to pull out extra tables and chairs. The outpouring of love on Leeland and the family was incredibly moving, and I’m so glad we didn’t miss out on it!

But we kinda did miss out some. The whole situation—being in an unfamiliar place with lots of new people, coupled with travel stress and sleep schedule disruptions—was too much for Betsy to handle calmly. She got overstimulated and did a lot of fussing and crying. It took a long time to get her to sleep that night, and by that time, I was so worn out that I just went straight to bed, too.

Still, the next day we got to hang out with my nephews (so nice to say that in the plural!) for awhile before heading back to Georgia. Miranda and Jonas have always been close, and Leeland bonded with her rather quickly, too. And he also hit it off immediately with Betsy, he’s always been great at playing with her and making her laugh. I got the kids to all pile on the couch together so I could get a few photos. While Terra and Jason were fostering Leeland, no one was allowed to post any photos of him online (or mention his name either, I think), but now they finally can, and I know that is beyond exciting for them! Since it is all so new, they still asked us not to post any pictures of him on Facebook unless they were set so only our friends can see them. Because this will likely be seen by a lot of strangers, I’m hiding both boys’ faces here. But you can clearly see that they are having a great time together!

Even though there were some very stressful moments, I am super glad we were able to be there for this important event. We’ve missed some pretty serious things, and we had to make the choices we made at those times, but this was something so momentous it couldn’t be missed. It’s also been a big learning experience—I can be much better prepared next time we take a trip or go to an important event, knowing it will be a lot for Betsy to handle, so I can be ready for that. My sister and brother-in-law are excellent hosts, super helpful and understanding when Betsy was having a hard time, and just generally fun to be around. I am so grateful to them! It was absolutely wonderful getting to spend time with family that we don’t see often, and officially welcome a new member. So while it wasn’t easy, it was still the right thing to do and very much worth it!

Well that was just Monday and Tuesday! Geez. Wednesday was Betsy’s speech therapy in the morning and then Miranda had an appointment in the late afternoon, so that day was all go go go, too. Then Thursday evening was karaoke as usual (Ian and I host a karaoke show every week at a local pizza place), but this time we were joined by Betsy’s Grandma Carol! We hadn’t gotten to see her in a long time, and it was such a nice surprise. Betsy snuggled up to her pretty much immediately and it was absolutely precious. It was so wonderful to see her!

So this has been an action-packed week, all centered around family. I am so grateful for the chances we’ve had to spend time with people we love. Life is crazy—I want to be surrounded by folks who make it the best kind of crazy. And trust me, these guys do.

Funnily enough, we were actually watching the show Family Matters at my sister’s house. I haven’t seen that show in well over twenty years, but the title alone is rather fitting for the week, am I right?

Thank you for reading! I hope you’ve had a wonderful week and that you’ll get a restful weekend. If you enjoyed this, please leave a like and subscribe if you haven’t already (and paid subscriptions are only $5 a month, if you wanna go there). Feel free to connect with me and show support in other ways—multiple methods are laid out neatly below. I’ll be back on Monday with the Momlife Memes. Much love to you, and don’t be afraid to be extra!