Grandma and Grandpa's visit

I got the impression that my parents did not really want to come to Barbados for Lily's birthday party.  I do not think it had to do with how much they love Lily, because they really do love Lily, but the trip here can really be a trek and a pain in the ass on both sides of the journey.  They have a busy travel schedule as they are retired and world travelers, but also, they have lots of friends whom they love to visit in the States and abroad.  This would be just one more trip jammed in at the last moment.  I cannot imagine that my depression made Barbados an optimal choice on top of everything else, but I begged them to come.  And they obliged.

I am not sure if it is that I am still high from my visit to New York or that planning Lily's birthday made me feel so good, but I have been in better spirits of late.  Perhaps the post partum is beginning to subside or my three sessions of therapy in New York did the trick to jumpstart my usually positive disposition.  Who knows?  But right now, I feel good and am trying to make the best of my sojourn to Barbados. 

Dare I say it, we all had a wonderful time together.  The girls were pleased as punch to share their home, their pool, and their garden with my mom and dad.  They were precocious and flirtatious and delicious.  My parents were eating them up.  My relationship with my parents has had its ups and downs more than likely due to our different perspectives on many things and my heart being on the outside causing me bouts of severe sensitivity and melancholy, but I still wish for them to have a loving, open relationship with the girls.  Family is important to Didier and me, so whenever the girls can be close to their roots, especially when we have none here, I want them to have that opportunity.  We are still trying to figure out how to have them visit with their French grandparents who are much older than my parents and less able to travel such long distances to a hostile climate.  (I am talking about the temperature here.)

My parents were here for five days, give or take an hour or two, and it was just the perfect amount of time.  There were no fights or disagreements.  No hostile remarks or petty annoyances.  Lily and Virginie saw us all at our best, loving one another and gathering together to celebrate one of our own.  This is one of  the lessons I hope to instill in our little girls.  The importance of family and a willingness to travel far and wide to be together.  I am so glad my mom and dad came.  It was good for me too.


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