The last stop is home

Visiting my sister in law for two evenings after two years of being a part was like a day not missed. We have so much in common and it's a breath of fresh air knowing she'll always be in my life. We met in Edmonton and we went out for dinner to my favorite place, Red Lobster. It was minus 23-ish with a slight wind-chill of something when we decided to walk to the restaurant. I think we were the only ones out there. The walk turned into running most of the way! I'm guessing 4-5 km! After dinner we walked/ran all the way back too! I know somewhat foolish but life is always an adventure when I'm around. We shopped at the West Edmonton Mall for some clothes for our children. (It was a short visit) Saturday we separated because of different flight times and for me it consisted of waiting for air shuttles and delayed air flights. From 11am until the first flight 6:40pm was a long wait! I people watched, read the Oprah magazine and listened to music. These couple of days was planned awhile ago and ironically our run-away teen called me the day before I was leaving. Unaware to her I was headed to where she was. In a previous post I was explaining on how teenagers need to find themselves, make their mistakes and come to their own conclusions on what will be. For our teens, sooner or later they want to come home. So I bought another flight ticket while in Edmonton, a birth Aunt dropped her off just before my shuttle was leaving and we came home. During the flight we didn't exchange many words although I studied her physical appearance like the first day we met at age nine. She's such a beautiful girl with so much potential and I only hope that relationships are rekindled and trust can be restored. Now the healing begins and all fourteen of our children are back in the same basket! It was a productive two days. Mostly it's great to be home. My favorite place is home........and I'm starting to realize that my husband and I can deal with almost anything! Because at times when situations feel unbearable, there is that brighter light eventually. And usually the unbearable situations is only teaching us and making us that much stronger as parents. Even our teens that will go through possible life changing events through their own soul searching, is learning. So today, regardless of the past......I feel grateful.

Experience is how life catches up with us and teaches us to love and forgive each other - Judy Collins