You gals are so wonderful. Thank you for receiving my tale of woe and CARING. I feel more positive this morning, probably in part because of the wonderful gift of being able to share here.

Orchid, thank you for your insights. I hope you will be able to get home to see your family. Our DIL is from Beijing and was planning to go home for a visit this summer. They should have booked their flights a year ago when they first decided to go, because now the fares have more than doubled. They decided to wait. But when she called her parents to tell them, they surprised her by telling her that they were going to try to fly over here to visit her here. She's delighted, as are we (we love her parents so much, they're both shining spirits who radiate peace and positive energy.)

I like the idea of putting family stories together in some sort of format. It will have to wait until the crisis that has pulled our family apart is over and we can begin to heal and reconnect...perhaps this idea of story-gathering will help pull us back together...but at this time, and for some time to come, getting together is not possible.

Edelweiss, you do understand! I've tried so hard to master the French language...it's frustrating that I was able to do so much better in Spanish. I took it all through school, I've taken courses, I'm married to a French husband, and I speak enough to participate to a point, but then I seem to hit a block and just can't absorb anymore. But I have never given up - I keep trying, and keep learning.

Ladyjane, your husband is so blessed to have such an understanding, caring, supportive companion-along-the-way through these years. My hubby cares, but is just not able to sit still long enough to listen to my family stories - he's heard them all before, and he's not capable of "just listening" - he always has to counter them with how much luckier/richer/well-fed and better off we were then his family - which is true - and then I feel guilty (even though it wasn't my fault that his family was so poor). It effectively silences me from ever wanting to share my precious memories, because I cringe at the inevitable critical commentaries.

So he has no end of interested listeners to his stories (including me) and revels in the joy of having a captive audience almost everywhere we go - and I have nobody, and he doesn't "get" that difference at all.

But there's a way to rise above this, there always is and I'll find it. For now, being able to come here and warm my cold lonely toes against the warm hearth of my BWS sisters is more of a joy and blessing than ever.