After a wonderful 10-day visit from our oldest daughter, her husband, and their two young sons, ages 7 and almost 2, I sat around for two days, feeling sad and nostalgic. Then I remembered this post from dianestortz.com, written two summers ago near the end of a visit to them.

So I decided to stop moping and just be thankful for the times we are together.

* * * * *

When I was four, my parents decided to move from Detroit, where we lived with my grandmother, to Southern California. I have a brief memory of the day the adults discussed and decided this. Grandma would go with us–my Aunt Beth, her only daughter, was there.

Soon, with my baby brother and all our earthly goods, we piled into the family’s olive green Kaiser and headed off for the land of opportunity.

The car must not have been in very good shape. Afraid it wouldn’t make the trip, my dad insisted on making as few stops as possible–no sightseeing. I rode in the back looking out the inch or two of window at my eye level–and spent much of the trip throwing up. Grandma kept feeding me Ritz crackers, thinking it would help.

It did not.

But we were together. The car kept running. We arrived in California and stayed several months with two sets of relatives. Then my parents bought a house in Anaheim, in one of the first orange- grove-turned-subdivisions. And there my brother and I grew up and our sister was born.

Eventually my dad’s two brothers and their families moved to California too. We didn’t get together often–usually just Thanksgiving and Christmas and an occasional summer barbeque. But, if you count Southern California as one locale, the family was together.

Together–there’s something good about that.

The past two weeks, my husband and I have been in Savannah, staying with our oldest daughter and her family. Our younger daughter and her husband, in nearby Hilton Head for four days, joined us part of that time, and when Jason had to return to work, our daughter stayed here with the rest of us. We’ve spent hours on the beach and celebrated two birthdays. We’ve done lots of cooking and cleaning up. We’ve watched movies and played games. We’ve laughed a lot. We’ve enjoyed our daughters sharing the experience of being pregnant at the same time.

We’ve shared one bathroom.

Normal things.

Yes, there’s something good about together. Even if nothing extraordinary happens.

Sometimes just being together is extraordinary enough.

Our family’s grown a lot since this was taken!

Are you a grandparent too?
Don’t forget the Grandparents Day of Prayer, coming up on September 7, 2014.
Learn more here.

DIANE