my beautiful children

i sat back and enjoyed my 18, 19 and a half, and 21 year old "children" the other day. they have started to develop an adult relationship with each other, while carrying the childhood one along with it. it is truly one of the most wondrous things to witness. recently, my son, as you may have seen in an earlier post, was involved in a serious car accident. he suffered an injury to his brain. our family dynamic is, for the time being, different. he, who is my oldest, is more like my youngest. my two daughters, whom have always been his little sisters, have taken over the big sister roles. i am such a fortunate woman for my daughters to have stepped into shoes that noone would ever want to have to walk in and have done so without ever skipping a beat or giving it a second thought. to be a part of this healing process for our entire family, and to be a part of their brothers care in such a loving, concerned, and unselfish way makes me so proud of them. i have told my girls these same thoughts. i wanted to share them here as well.

I am so grateful that you have been able to see the beauty that has evolved as a result of such a tragedy. What a blessing to be able to reflect, and share those reflections with your children and the people on this board. I can't help but think that the love you have shown your children through the years is a reflection of what you are seeing in them right now. You reap what you sow and you have sown many loving seeds! Because of your spirit and how you find the good in spite of the bad...I feel like I have no room for pity parties in my life! Thanks for being such an inspiration!

You are all so very lucky to have children to bask over!

We were never able to have kids of our own, but we ended up "helping" with myriad nieces and nephews, great nieces and nephews, and friends' children.

I am still in touch with most of them, and right now they range from 19 to 3. I have them here at the house in summer and for school holidays, and we have a blast. I am so proud of all of them...not a bad student in the bunch and all are really nice people in their own right.

I too sit and watch the dynamics when they are all together. Reminds me of my own childhood, when we all (cousins, close friends, etc,) were together at the shore in summer, at the house for the holidays, etc. We all got along like a house afire, and these kids do too.

Anyway, the crux of the issue is that your kids reflect your upbringing, nillawafer. Remember how we all were, and now you are seeing it in your progeny (except it is MUCH less crowded than we were...remember???)

Micki,

I'm not so sure that nillawafer's house is less crowded than the shore. You would have to see her house to believe it. I have fond memories of my visits to your shore house. There was no limit to the love there and there certainly is no limit to the love in nillawafer's home.