A Little Envious

Suzuki Mom – I understand what you are saying. I married my husband when I was 37 and had the kids at 38 – 3 months preemie, so now I am in my 50s and the girls are finishing high school. We will not have the traditional retirement either, but I guess with the economy there will be many people unable to have the retirement they wanted. With the losses of our savings through the hurricane and a moldy house that we purchased unwittingly, hubby will have to keep working and saving – we only have 4 years mortgage payments on our home now, and I am sure it is not worth what it was – so all in all if I thought about it much it would be grim. I try not to dwell on that and try to live in the now – it is hard sometimes and I too get the green eye every so often – especially when I hear of people going to England and Germany – we would love to visit but cannot afford it and so have no choice but to accept it. I miss my home very much, but alas it is not possible right now. I just try hard to accept that I am where I am for a reason and just try and get on with it. I was lucky to have traveled before I married, but would love to show the girls the places I have seen – but it is more important to be happy where we are and hard as it is sometimes I try and do that. I would like to say there are times I get quite frustrated and upset – I suppose having only lived in the US since 04, most of my memories are all still in Europe – my last living relative of my mother died a couple of days ago, and I am sad I will be unable to go to the funeral – but the girls future is moer important than my wants – I think learning to be truly grateful is sometimes really hard and I am sure we all struggle from time to time. You are not alone and I share your feelings at times. Things always buck up though and don’t seem so bad in a day or so.

Where is your mum from in England? See I am now a bit green eyed about your brother and your mum – wish I could have gone – but I had many years there and need to be happy with that. Praying for your peace and my own – it is not always easy, but I would not trade my girls like you would not trade your children. We are blessed. Hugs and prayers – Linda

I read Elisabeth Elliot’s book called A Chance To Die about missionary Amy Carmichael. She quoted Amy saying, “Make your vocation your vacation.” This really struck a chord with me, and I have since tried to really enjoy relaxing at home. I love to travel too, but taking young kids is too hard and stressful of course. I have learned to do what I can to create “stay-vacations” where we relax and plan for fun stuff at home. 🙂

Hope you feel better soon! Grab some dark chocolate and a nice cup of coffee. 🙂

I understand…dh is 50 and I’m not far behind.  We have an almost 21yo and two younger boys, 8yo today and a 7yo that we adopted from China last year.  Plus we milk cows which is a twice a day job…period.  We used to travel a decent amount.  Now we go nowhere.  But ya know…I wouldn’t trade it for the world.  Just think of the legacy we’re leaving.  Whether we ever travel the world or not, our kids may very well change the world.  And I’d trade that for the fancy trips we used to take any day.