Longings

Trinity Sierra and Brooklyn Malena celebrate birthdays this week. I so long to see them. On Friday night I had a vivid dream of a visit. I was at home and I heard a commotion outside the door. As I approached the door I heard "I'm first, I'm first!" along with a chorus of giggles, screams and footfalls. The door burst open and I was virtually tackled by Brooklyn. We just sat down in the floor and laughed and cried. Sadly, the dream ended with my waking in tears. I didn't want to wake, I wanted to see everyone.

Such is the nature of long distance grandmothering. It consists of Skype calls, packages sent and viewing their mom's blog once or several times daily to catch or review pictures of life in Portugal and the beautiful faces of 5 of my precious grandchildren. Nina is also excellent at sending me frequent "Smileboxes" which contain pictures of daily happenings and an occasional video clip. Thank you, Nina. I love these special glimpses of their every day lives.

The last time I saw Trinity and Brooklyn, February 2008, they were 3 and 8 respectively. They have grown so much (I can tell from pictures). They are now 5 and 10.

Trinity is Miss Verbose. She can talk, seemingly without breathing, for minutes on end. She is into everyone's business and knows all that is going on (at least her version) in the family. She is very bright and expressive. It is a joy to listen to her and I am lucky if I can insert a comment into our conversation along the way. Happy Birthday to my favorite 5 year old!!! I love you bunches.

Brooklyn is more reserved, a reader by practice and self-declaration. She devours books and has since she could get anyone to read to her. She would always approach me with a book before she began to read herself. When I had the joy of having her spend the night in my home, she would cry if she had to go to bed with the light turned out because she wanted to read herself to sleep which might take hours if uncurtailed. Happy Birthday to my first Andrzejewski grandchild. I love you bushels.

Having a large number of grandchildren (18) gives me a wonderful view of God's amazing love for us. Not a single one is like the other. They are so unique and special that you get to see the handiwork of a loving Lord and share the joys of His creation in a very profound way. I have often pondered the individuality of each child, how some resemble their mother, some their father and each resemble both. Viewing them via Skype strangely allows me to see them differently than in person. Their facial expressions and body language remind me of their parents or often other family members.

This morning I was on Skype with them. It just so happens that 6am at my home is school lunch break at theirs. Trinity struggled for her solo dialogue, Justice pushed and shoved her out of the way to take over the full view of the camera and interject an occasional unintelligible word while flashing a 24 carat smile. Liberty sat very demurely and conversed like a 12 year old of what is going on at school. Faith told me how she missed everyone and wanted pictures and knee pads for bicycle riding, and Brooklyn talked of reading a book about dogs.

I sent a couple of boxes and they received them today. One mistake I made was sending one water pistol. Duh, Nanny, don't you know you can't have a water battle with one water pistol. Well, I will remedy that shortly. I also have a surprise coming in that same box. I plan to send it later this week. Watch for it kids. Nanny loves you, write me a comment.