Papa and Grandma Judy Time

Well, it appears as though I have been on a sort of blogging hiatus.

It hasn't been intentional, I've just been a wee bit swamped and overwhelmed with life, and three little energetic boys. It's been been the kind of season where I feel like I will NEVER ever know the experience of "leisure" time again.

And meanwhile, life has been so rudely whizzing by me! Important events and special moments that I've really wanted to write about and hold on to have flown by, giving no thought to the fact that I have zero time right now to capture them!

So I'm deciding to get back in the game. There are some big things coming up this week that I want to share, as well as a few flashbacks of summer that I really need to document, for my own sake.

So I begin tonight.
Yeah...at 1am.
I guess this is the "leisure" time I have, in lieu of sleeping. :)

* * * * *

This past weekend, Dad and Judy were here to help us celebrate Oliver's baby dedication.

It was especially meaningful to me, because for Elliot's baby dedication, Mom was alive, and flew to Chicago for the dedication with my dad only 2 months before she died. For Isaiah's baby dedication, Insoo's parents were here--even his dad was visiting from Vietnam! So it seemed perfect, for Oliver's dedication, to have their brand new "Grandma" here to celebrate with us, and for all grandparents to be accounted for in the dedications of our 3 sons.

So they flew in and blessed us with their presence.
The weekend was absolutely chock-full of all the fun things that grandparents bring. Namely: candy, attention, toys, donuts, love and affection, more candy, more attention, more toys, playing games, special treatment, and a few more pieces of candy. Needless to say, we had some happy little boys on our hands for the past few days.

It really warmed my heart to see the boys bond so beautifully with Dad and Judy. Our family is the only one that lives far away...so I often feel like our kids miss out on almost everything. So to have this special time with them, this undivided attention, this great opportunity to share life, and to be known and to re-connect was absolutely priceless. I know they all felt SO loved and cared for this weekend.

This morning Elliot forgot that they had left and asked eagerly when Papa and Judy were going to wake up. And today both older boys have had a bit of an adjustment, not having someone listening to them and playing with them and entertaining them every moment of the day. They can't quite understand that Mommy wants to play but has to do some work too. And poor Oliver has missed having two people fighting for his hugs and cuddles all day long. So he busied himself by trying to walk some more, and making it about 6 or 7 steps one time today!What melted me most during this visit, though, was to hear Elliot call out, "Grandma Judy?" all weekend long.

Even though we knew early on that Dad and Judy were going to get married, we wanted to wait until that special day to call her "Grandma". So on June 24th of this year, they tied the knot, and our boys once again had a "Grandma". (Insoo's mom is "Halmonee", not "Grandma".)

I thought it would be hard to hear my boys calling someone else "grandma", because even after almost 5 years, the most painful part of losing mom is that deep and desperate longing for my children to know her, and for her to know them.

But I have felt such a sweetness and such a peace in hearing the boys call Judy "Grandma". It seems so right. Just hearing that word feels like such a good gift to us.

Because while there will forever be an ache in my heart in the absence of Mom in my boys' life, I believe this "Grandma" is a replacement sent from heaven. I think she would have been hand-picked by my mom to give her grandkids the love and affection that Mom would have given.

Judy is a tremendous gift to Dad, to our family, and especially to these kids who now have a grandma again.

So Thank you, Judy, for joining our family. And thank you for embracing our kids as your own grandchildren, and loving them so well.

We love you.