Joy of Joys! Happiness Overflowing!

My beloved daughter left Ravenhurst in September 2008 to teach English in South Korea (and spend Christmas in Thailand on the beach!) I have missed her a great deal.

She just called! She is in Seattle Washington and will be at the Sacramento airport at 2:50 PM tomorrow! My heart is leaping in utter happiness. Unimaginable joy after so many days of sadness.

I feel your joy Richard! There is nothing like having your kids come home. Enjoy her visit. I hope it is a long stay. I look forward to hearing all about her time away.

kimsmom

Oh, I'm so happy for you, Richard!!! What a blessing.

My two sons both live quite a distance away from us (but in the US). The time we get with them now is so precious.

I hope you will have pain-free days and are able to enjoy every minute with your daughter.

Hugs...

Becky

Richard,

How great! I'm so happy for you and her. She fortunate to have you as a Dad. Here's to many days of laughter, joy, travel stories, food, and whatever other fun activities you two come up with.

Chris

Woo hoo!

Charlotte

Good news, Richard! I'm very glad for you. Enjoy your visit with your daughter

Have fun xx

I was just looking at the time and thought for a minute how exciting, you'll be on your way. Whoops, it's still morning for you. I hope you have a wonderful time together

Liz

Enjoy your visit. Hope you are able to fully enjoy having her with you.

Thank you my friends for sharing my utter joy ... 5 hours until I leave for the airport.

My daughter does not like to sit around and loves it when I give her things to do. She has done amazing things for me during past visits - remember she stayed a month after Steve died and returned for the entire summer to take care of me. What a great kid.

My roomie Otis is expecting a grandchild in May - Evan is his name - and what a difference it makes these days with sonograms! The baby is named and thus becomes an actual PERSON before birth. We love it! Anyway, there is a baby shower in early April so I got Otis to give me three of his shirts. I cut them into 4 inch squares.

Carey will pull out the old sewing machine - she is a whiz and I am definitely NOT. I am asking her to piece and quilt the squares into a baby quilt as a gift from Ravenhurst to the lovely new mother. Who knows, it may even give Carey ideas! LOL though with her man still in South Korea, babies are not in the mix right now ... that is how you hetero's do it isn't it? It still takes two? ROTFLKMAO

I am so flat out happy I canot stand it. It has been literally years since I have felt this way.

Thank you all so much again and again

Have a great visit. My son was just down for a brief visit after being up in Canada for months. I had such a great time seeing him and his fiance and planning the wedding. It is fabulous to see your child after a long absence.

I know your heart is full and you will both have a wonderful visit.

Alli

alli wrote:It is fabulous to see your child after a long absence.

Both my sons live quite a distance away. Getting to see them in person is so wonderful. I absolutely understand the joy you're feeling.

Enjoy your time with Carey, Richard, and make some memories to hold you over til the next visit.

Becky

I love "hearing" the happiness in your posts, Richard. It is so great to know how thrilled you are! I'm looking forward to hearing all about your visit with Carey when you get the chance.

Love and joy bursts like happiest fireworks from you Richard, I am so happy for you!

Have terrific activity fun with Carey, and those quiet Daddy - Daddy's girl times together, too !

Risa

Richard,

Enjoy your time with your daughter.

What a blessing that you have each other.

My daughter would kill to have a Dad like you.

Her Dad was never interested in having a REAL relationship with her.

The Father/Daughter dynamic is so important no matter what age you are.

He will call a couple of times a year (maybe) and expect her to feel something for him.

I've tried to tell him that to have a REAL relationship you have to do the work and put out the effort all the time. Not just when it is convenient.

Have a wonderful time with your daughter.

Cindy

Cindy*W wrote: The Father/Daughter dynamic is so important no matter what age you are.

Absolutely!!

Becky

Have a wonderful time with Carey, Richard. How long does she get to stay? I'm sure you'll have an amazing time with her.

thanks all

Having fun ... more later ... I have BETTER things to do than hang out on the computer - and you don't hear me say THAT often! Joy of joys!

We are having such a loving and joyous time together. I respect and love my amazing daughter so much.

this weekend we had a dinner party on Saturday that was fun then on Sunday a potluck for all Carey's local friends to visit with her. I got ill ... well I have been ill a lot this week. But all went well without me

Monday Care and Otis and I went to San Francsico for my doctor visit and to have a fun ... and we did have a grand time doing nothing special - just being together,

Today we are going to have a friend take our photographs - he is real good. then home to finish the quilt for Otis's grandson and just be together.

It is funny how love and joy make all my pain and episodes not only bearable but no big deal. My only moment of real sadness was that we could nto arrange for Carey to go round trip with me to visit my Mom - we really want to be in the same place for a few days. But maybe I will get better soon and can fly by myself. Still my Mom was real disappoiinted as was I

Thanks for the update, Richard.

Yes, it is easier to deal with the pain when our babies come home. My eldest came home this weekend with his fiance to play in a alumni basketball game. Somehow I managed to sit on the wood bleachers for three hours and enjoy every minute of it, even though my backside was complaining like mad!

Well, I am back. Carey left at 3:30 AM to catch a plane to Delaware for 2 days with my Mom then off to SC for a week with Mom and other Grandmom. she and I had so much fun together - drove each other bonkers when we fell into parent-child mode then pulled ourselves out! LOL I am so very proud of her as an independent and creative and wonderful woman. Such a joy to know her at all much less be her Dad.

Glad you had such a great time

She is now flying to phoenix and then Philadelphia. My baby is gone from me. It brings up lots of thoughts and feelings for my Steve ... he has always been here for me when she left before .... many times at least. He was a real comfort, a real support, to help me deal with the feelings of loneliness and sadness when she has left me before. I miss him so much.

Thom and this visit with Carey have taught me loud and clear that I am no where near over grieving for my Steve. I really do not understand why he left me. I am guessing I have lessons to learn that he had mastered. But I miss him with every breath I take.

Funny how saying goodbye to my Carey brought up so much about Steve - but there it is.

We all have so much to deal with ... this is my task today - to feel and remember.

I believe that Carey and Steve reside in your heart right next to one another. This is why your feelings of sadness when Carey leaves, triggers the feelings you have about Steve leaving. They reside in that sweet spot where you place your most treasured loved ones.

While this may not feel like it is a good idea, please try to see that you are never without either one of them. They live inside of you because you love them. Your love has grown around them, surrounded them and buried their love deep inside your being.

You are who you are only because you have a part of Carey and of Steve inside your being. Sure, before Carey was born and before you ever met Steve, there was a Richard. But that Richard was not the whole man you are now.

I guess you can think of yourself as a being incorporated. You operated as a sole proprietor before Steve and Carey. Now you have incorporated both of them and you are bigger and better because of them.

I am grateful that you have had the love of a good man. I wish he could've been with you longer but I would never have wished that you had never met him just to spare you this grief you suffer now. I just wish for you a kind of peace that allows you to be happy in your sadness. Do you know what I mean? Happy to have loved so strongly and so thoroughly that this sadness is evidence of that love.

Leslie

You are incredibly brilliant in the things of life that REALLY matter.

Thank you