Family is to be cherished....

Today was a long day, entailed a lot of driving and I need to be in bed as tomorrow is also going to be busy....

Today, ironically was also a nice day, a family day because we gathered to remember John, who sadly lost his short battle for life one year ago today... While we will gather with family and friends on Sunday to celebrate his 1st Anniversary Mass today we, John's four siblings decided to drive to Dublin to attend a Mass for John, organised by our aunt....

The motley crew!!! Maureen, Brendan, Moi, Aunt Mary, Elena, Alfred, Moya, Lauren...

This was lovely on many levels... not least of which was the pleasure it brought to our aunt as she had not expected us to travel....She insisted on buying us lunch and enjoyed meeting with her three grandnieces, Lauren (16), Elena (7) and cute little Moya(almost 2)....

Cute little Moya with her Daddy

The hurt at John's loss goes deep for us all... is constant while life still functions as normal for us also....Today we, as siblings took pleasure in each other's company.. we laughed, shared stories, memories and made new ones...

Elena making Thank You cards for anyone who did something nice for her today!!

On the way back home tonight I started to explain to Elena our plans for tomorrow.....In the evening we would again travel back, all of us to go 'trick or treating' with her cousins but first I would be attending a  talk by a lady from America.... Tomorrow.. (actually am so long writing this that it is now today!!) I am attending a seminar entitled 'Building Healthy Families through Adoption' and the speaker is Holly Van Gulden ~ Adoption counsellor & Author... I am quite looking forward to it as I have heard only good things about Holly Van Gulden and if she is anything like Nancy Thomas it will be well worth giving up time on Hallowe'en to attend... Elena, however,begged to differ and, on hearing that I would be 'in absentia' for most of the day quite petulantly asked 'Why do you have to go?... I don't want you to...'   So I said 'I want to go to learn how to be a better Mommy', to which my sweet little girl answered 'But you know that already'!!!

Oh, those of you with 6 and 7 year olds, cherish the years when you are up there on a very high pedestal because at 13 they discover you have feet of clay and you are decidedly unpopular when you won't let them go to the disco and you won't buy them contact lenses instead of glasses before they have to get braces and then it is your fault that they are going to end up looking ike 'Ugly Betty'!!!  Maybe this age gap is not such a bad thing after all... In my small girl's eyes I cannot do any wrong while to my teenager I at times 'cannot do anything right' ... Now by the time Elena gets to that stage my lovely older daughter will be an adult and will once again embrace the motto' Mother Knows Best'!!!!  

As for Alex he continues to give his Daddy his number one vote ... all the way... 'Daddy ~ Aren't you and I the boss... the boys are the boss, not the girls'!!!Sleeping Girl...Yes, I am asleep...Really I am....Ok, was just kidding...Just teasing my godfather... he has jet-lag....