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Changes

Posted on August 13, 2008 by Val Frania

Isn’t it often hard when family changes? How do you let go of a person who’s been in your life for 18 years and watch them make a life parallel to yours? To a mom, this change doesn’t seem right and your first and last desire is to prevent it. But that’s what it means to deny yourself. You go against the natural inclinations of protection and holding close. You choose outside of yourself and push them away from you – AWAY. I suppose some mom’s continue to hold on tightly, but that’s not what keeps them close. Actually pushing them away brings them back. Encouraging them to develop themselves apart from us is what will maintain the tie that was tightly knotted throughout their lives. But then, the knot had to have been tied by the both of you early on. Children who never tied the knot will drift away and maybe never come back. With some of our kids, the knot was tied very tight. Yet with others we just couldn’t seem get the second part tied. Oh, we tried, but “it takes two to tango” or in this case, “tangle.” All that said, here’s my first step in pushing away. Above is our family as we embark on Jillian’s journey – her journey that will hopefully bring her back home. You can see more pictures on her blog luv4him.

After a couple of hours on the road we stopped to Devin’s, then about an hour later met April and Adam on the road and visited for about 15 minutes.

They were on their way home from Austin’s wedding. Seven hours later we were standing in Katie’s apartment, dropping Jillian off for a day of shopping. The rest of us settled in at the timeshare. That night, to our surprise, Katie called and told us she got Tuesday off and would spend the day with us. We spent the day watching the Olympics and then went to Crossville shopping. Adam, I took the picture of Katie eating just for you – but then, I couldn’t have gotten a different one if I wanted to since she’s always eating! Today the boys played in the gym while Jillian and I worked on our laptops, checking our mail and loading our new Adobe software. Tonight we’re checking out a new church in the Glade, Fellowship Baptist.

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